Monday, February 18, 2008

Project is Finished! (Part Two)

Installation day was finally here. The installers showed around 9 AM and proceeded to bring in the flooring and their tools, and headed on down the hall to scope out the situation. I locked the cats into one of the bedrooms to keep them out of the FLOOR PATCH COMPOUND and the GLUE (from past experience, I know to do this - - THAT is another post all its own!). I then retired to the sunroom to read the morning paper, drink some hot tea, and stay out of their way so they could get the job done and get the hell out. Yes, I was still harboring bad feelings towards FlooringAmerica at that point.

As it turned out, I had good reason to.

They had not been on it very long - - just long enough to put in the patching compound to seal any seams in the subflooring - - when the first "snag" came up. It seems that one small part of the subfloor, where four pieces of the flooring met, was not glued down as tightly as it should have been. It was going to need a couple of screws on 2 of the corners to make sure the floor was level.

I said a COUPLE of screws. Remember this.

Anyway, the one installer came out to the sunroom and told me about this, and said that they would need to leave, have my husband "work on it" that evening, and then they would come back tomorrow to finish the job.

Excuse me? They wanted to LEAVE? Because of a COUPLE of screws? And come back TOMORROW? Meaning, of course, that I would have to try to arrange to get more time off the next day, which was impossible to find out at that point BECAUSE IT WAS A STATE HOLIDAY AND CAMPUS WAS CLOSED!

I told them they would have to speak to my husband about this. They said he could call in after he got off work. I told them he was on break, and I intended to call him NOW, and they could speak with him NOW. He was still protesting this as I dialed and got Steve on the phone. I handed the phone to the installer, who (very unhappily)took it and started trying to explain the situation.

A couple of minutes later, he handed the phone back to me, and Steve said, "What the hell is he talking about? I have screws, and a drill, and they can just get it done while they are there!" He wasn't getting any arguments from me on that!

I went downstairs, found the screws they needed, brought them up and handed the box to they other installer, who immediately informed me that the other guy was on the phone with their boss to find out what they were supposed to do about this. I totally ignored that, and just politely asked if they would need a drill to use; if so, to let me know. I then walked out of the room and back to my newspaper.

A few minutes later, I noticed that it had gotten very 'busy' - - apparently their boss had told them to "do whatever it takes" to get the job done. Suddenly, the screws had been placed in the subfloor (all TWO of them), they were suddenly very nice and polite, and the flooring got installed - - PERFECTLY - - in no time at all. They then got all their equipment picked up and hauled out, and went on their merry way.

The floor is beautiful, by the way.

However - in their haste to get out of there . . . they took off with the box of screws belonging to dear hubby. I made a call and asked their supervisor to have them drop the box back by the house.

Tomorrow it will be ONE WEEK. The box of screws has not been returned yet.

I know it's a small thing, and I should probably let it go. But after this entire ordeal - - I'm not going to.

But one thing is for certain - - we will NEVER, EVER do business with FlooringAmerica again. EVER.

It's a good thing the floor is as beautiful as it is.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Okay, I have GOT to see a picture of the floor! After everything you have gone through, don't you think you need to post a picture?

Man, good help is hard to find, and good company, who doesn't rip you off, does the work as promised, and correctly the FIRST time, is even harder to find.

Anonymous said...

Ditto to the picture request. Aren't contractors a bitch?

NerdyRedneck Rob said...

That was exhausting!