We bought Jatoba flooring for the entry way in our new home. We got home, setup for installation and realized the flooring was all broken in the box. We called the owner Domenic, explained what happened and he told us we were unable to return the flooring.
We bought 365 sq ft of remnant jatoba and were guaranteed that there was at least 280 sq ft of good product for installation. I made sure with quasie that there were no cracks, chips on the end or cupping on the flooring. He assured me that it was simply "character" wood and it had knots and some plainer marks.
We returned to three towers flooring the next day to speak with Domenic the owner. We unloaded the flooring outback onto a skid and then had the owner come out and see for himself what a mess the wood was. Over 75% was unusable! He told me that I needed to leave the premises immediately or he would move my car with the forklift.
Long story short; the police were called and a report was taken. Three towers flooring has been reported to the better business bureau of Canada and consumer and corporate affairs. I'm out over $500 and they could care less. I can't believe how rude and unprofessional these people are. To take advantage of new home owners like that is unforgivable.
To top things off, while waiting outside for the police, he tried to sell our broken wood to come other guy! Great job three towers flooring, great job. Never again!
- Approximate cost of services:
- $500.00
- Company Response
This customer bought the jatoba off the clearance section on the web page, that clearly states "NO WARRANTY, SOLD AS IS." He bought it for 50 cents per square foot, and we showed him half a box of the flooring before he purchased it. The pieces that we showed him had knots, and cracks, and we explained to him that that if that was the type of floor he was looking for, and he purchased a bit extra than he would be happy. He also mentioned it was a small space, and it would be covered by carpet and sofas, so it did not matter to him what it looked like. He also knew full well that anything he purchased on the odd lot and remnants section would be a final sale, as he phoned to say that he was coming from Barrie and he asked the definition of "rustic". Now, most people understand that rustic will have knots and some sort of manufacturing defects, and most people will have the common sense to know that when we say it is final sale, and there is no warranty, and we are openly telling you it is inferior quality, and hence that is the reason why we are selling it for 50 cents a square foot, that they are not getting a first rate product. The fact is, he was very happy when he was in the showroom, and we showed him all the pieces with defects. There are a lot of customers who want this type of flooring, but on our part we want to make sure that we are selling it to the people that want it, and not to people that are expecting something different. It would be very easy for us to say, "what do you expect for 50 cents per square foot?", but even then we went to the extent of showing him what he was getting, and putting the following disclaimer on his invoice, which is exactly what appears on the web page under our odd lots and remnants page:REMNANTS/ODD LOTS/OPEN BOXES
All Clearance items must be taken as stock lots. **UPDATED October 23rd, 2013. Subject to prior sale. Most of these items are over stock, or left overs from one-off production runs. Some of the clearance items boxes may be opened, or damaged. Stock must be taken "AS IS" and sold with NO WARRANTY on remnants/odd lots specials. Quantities may not be exact and need to be confirmed prior to sale. WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS ON REMNANTS!What appears to have happened, is that he purchased the floor without consulting his wife, and while he was installing it his wife did not like the knots. He came back to the showroom and his wife was complaining about the knots, and we showed him the web page advertisement and the invoice where her husband signed the disclaimer.
At this point, the customer got extremely agitated and got into his car and opened our warehouse loading door by himself, and started unloading the opened boxes of the hardwood and throwing them on the ground. We explained to him that he was not allowed to simply go into the warehouse on his own without any authorization, he started swearing and screaming and saying he wanted the material replaced with "good" material. We do not believe we should give you $5 material if you only paid 50 cents!! We were completely open and up front about the remnants and clearance items. We have one contractor for example that buys that material for Irish pubs, and he loves it. Some customers use it for their attic floors, some customers use it on trucks. The bottom line is we cannot read the customers mind, and if we are telling you there is no warranty, and it is sold as is, and we are telling you and showing you even what is wrong, how can you come back and say to us that we told you you were buying "good" flooring for 50 cents per square foot?
At the end of the day, we could not take back the material for 2 reasons, #1 the odd lots and clearance items are sold as final sales, and #2 we could not replace the material with select and better.
This customer in particular has been personally harrassing me since he purchased the wood, and only stopped after we sent a cease and desist notice as he was calling my personal cell phone at 3 a.m and 5 a.m and texting me rude and profane messages over the Christmas holiday period, and it is difficult to know why a customer buys something or what goes on in their head. If we told him it was select and better and he got this material, he would have every right to complain and if such a mistake were to happen we would make it right. But in this case, we showed him, and did everything possible to even talk him out of buying it. We would have been more happy if his wife came to the showroom, told him she does not like knots from the beginning. Bottom line is he liked it and his wife did not.
Unfortunately, because of this customer we have since decided to stop selling remnants and odd lots items on our web page. Its basically the same idea as Leon's or The Brick when you go to their section of returned and scratched items, you get it for a discount but you can't go back and complain that there is a scratch when you knew that is what you were buying...Anyway we sell them now to a liquidator, and he sells the items at auction or on kijiji. We found it was just attracting the wrong type of customer. We do apologize to the customers that were taking advantage of this discounted material, we can direct you to the liquidator that sells it now if you still want to purchase it. It just is not worth the hassles of selling those product in the store.