The things we have had to go through just to get some hardwood floors in our kitchen. We've already discussed
the two heating/AC systems that had to be replaced, which delayed us by a couple of years. Well, thanks to the IRS this year we decided to go for it before something else broke and start exploring our options to finally get the floors. Last Thursday, I was all ready to do a blog post that started something like this:
See that? That's a contract for hardwood flooring for our kitchen. We intially decided to use Empire Today based on a recommendation from one of Ted's coworkers and the "helpful and knowledgeable" salesman that came to our house (or so we thought). Friday was the big installation day. This is what the installers showed up with:
As you can see, that isn't even close to matching our existing floors. In fact, the first words out of my mouth were "You're not going to install that floor are you?" Because it looked NOTHING like the samples that we saw when the salesman was at our house. The installers knew there was a problem immediately. We compared what was brought to what was ordered, everything was correct on that end. We got the salesman on the phone who basically fed me a load of you know what..."That's really the best you're going to do." He didn't want to hear me say that the floor looked much darker, really completely different, than the sample we were shown. "The installers just pulled dark boards out of the box." Luckily these guys were great and not only let me know that I was getting horrible customer service, they got on the phone on their end and let their supervisors know what was happening. They took a look at our existing hardwoods and said that we definitely could find a much better match and that if Empire could not help we should go elsewhere.
So after they left I got right on the phone with Empire customer service (not the salesman) and ended up with talking with the regional sales manager. When I started to go into the experience with the salesman: "Oh I already know what happened, your installers had me on the phone." Asked me to send him pictures of the wood and he would take a look and see if they could get a better match. I did and shortly afterwards he called me back to let me know that: #1 we were matching sanded hardwood to prefinished so we would never find an exact match. Which DUH, we already knew that. However, we want prefinished in the kitchen for the durability and he did agree what was brought (based on the salesman's "expertise") wasn't even in the ballpark. #2 unfortunately they didn't have a good match. The contract was cancelled immediately (pretty easy to do since we hadn't paid them anything). Great service from Empire at that level but seriously, you guys need to have a heart to heart with that salesman.
There we were back at square one. And while I was disappointed not to have new floors I also felt confident in our decision to refuse the install. On Saturday we decided to stop at Lowes on the way home from grocery shopping, just to begin looking again. And there it was. Right there in the front of the flooring section, ON SALE, ladies and gentlemen: our floors.
Now that's a better match! Pretty much an exact match in some places (The best we can do....HA! Take THAT Mr. "I just want my commission" salesman!). A quick call to the installers, who were more than happy to drive back out to take on the job (gotta love subcontractors), and I was on my way to Lowes to pick up the materials. Why do I always seem to be the one
who gets to drive the car when it is loaded down?
Needless to say I drove back very slowly. Almost took back roads until the guy at Lowes mentioned that the highway would be a whole lot smoother compared to the turns and bumps I would encounter by going the other way. I stayed in the right lane and luckily traffice was very light. All those boxes you see are now sitting in our dining room stinking up our house with the smell of fresh wood...ahhhh!
I promise some before and after pictures come March 11th.
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