SF Contracting & Design

Review: SF Contracting installed a hardwood floor product that shrank more than is allowable, creating gaps on the side of the floor. They obtained the product from Lumber Liquidators, and the product was warranteed against excessive shrinkage. After presenting photos of the damage and written documentation, Lumber Liquidators did offer several boxes of new material and an additional payment of $500. SF Contracting decided that was not enough compensation to justify their return to our home to correct the defects. I offered to transport the new material myself and suggested the job could wait until SF had another job scheduled close by. Rather than accepting this solution, SF stopped all communication with us.Desired Settlement: I think that SF Contracting could have accepted Lumber Liquidators offer, and our offer to work with them and make the best of a bad situation. Eleven pieces of flooring replaced would have satisfied us, becasue those are the glaring gaps. This was a very small fraction of what they installed. The gaps in the floor on one side could have been lived with, since they were under closet doors or heating elements. In sum, they should have accepted Lumber Liquidator's offer, and worked with us. We didn't care about the floor being perfect, but we did want the most noticeable gaps covered. SF would not consider this solution. Honestly, it would have cost them nothing. I don't understand why they would not have gone for this solution: scheduled at their convenience, we would have transported the product for them, and only the most obvious gaps would have to be addressed. Instead, they stopped all communication.

Business

Response:

The complaint from the customer is not accurate. When [redacted] met with the customer to first bid the job, he tried to discourage him from using the flooring from Lumber Liquidators because of quality issues. The customer was adamant about using this particular product so [redacted] purchased the flooring the customer wanted to satisfy him. When the issue occurred, Lumber Liquidators would not work with the customer directly because he was not the one to purchase it. Henceforth, SF Contracting had to do the paperwork and deal with Lumber Liquidators directly. After mailing all of the paperwork they requested to the address we were instructed to use, we heard nothing. After about a month and a half, we were notified that they didn't receive the paperwork and we would have to submit it again before they could do anything. When we contacted them to tell them when it was mailed initially, they did some searching and it was suddenly located. They offered to supply 2 boxes of the product and $160. to install the product. [redacted] informed them that the labor to install would be about $500. because of the process to replace it. The customer stated in his complaint that Lumber Liquidators offered to pay [redacted] the $500. to install it. At no time have they offered more than $160. We asked the customer to produce the documentation showing the $500. offer but have received nothing back. With the time spent on dealing with this problem already, we are in a losing situation. We have always dealt with any problems that customers may have to their satisfaction. Our normal suppliers have always backed their product and made a warranty issue easy to deal with so we wouldn't lose money. We used the flooring that the customer wanted us to use but now the issues that are occurring will cost us money. Are we suppose to continue losing money on installation of a product that we didn't want to use in the beginning? We want to keep our customer happy but this will result in a losing proposition for us under the offer from Lumber Liquidators.

Business

Response:

SF Contracting & Design has responded to every e-mail that we have received from the Revdex.com in regard to this issue. In fact, we contacted Mr. [redacted] directly about 2 weeks ago because we were having no success in reaching Lumber Liquidators and could not get them to respond to our messages. I finally received a call this a.m. from Wendy at Lumber Liquidators. I am emailing the paperwork I have to her today. She stated that all she can find is an offer they made to give $158.88 which she said would cover the cost of 2 boxes of flooring. [redacted] from SF told them he would need 4 boxes to cover the repair. This problem is being worked on to find a resolution.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. It has been a frustrating experience for both them and us. It seems that S F Contracting is making a good faith effort to rectify the situation. I would like to stay on good terms with [redacted] and his staff.