Friday, June 25, 2004
Home Improvement Projects Suck, Part II: This Summer's "Don't Miss" Sequel!
For those of you who are not already painfully familiar with the drama of our laminate flooring, you can find the backstory here and more recently here. To summarize, last June we had a local flooring company install a top-of-the-line [read: top-of-the-DIME] laminate flooring product on most of our main floor. It is quite pretty and withstands muddy poodle feet and toddlers with a penchant for spilling things, but two of the transition strips (between the laminate and the carpeted areas) cracked due to improper installation.
That was slightly bothersome, since it meant calling the company and having them send someone here to fix it. Then again, just two transitions should be an easy fix, right? The company rep who came out to assess the requested repairs also said that they'd fix some gaps between flooring planks when they came to replace the transitions.
Yesterday, a team - using that term very loosely - of two guys showed up to do the repairs.
Problem 1: They only brought one transition piece.
Problem 2: They cracked it while installing it. Solid oak, it turns out, is prone to cracking when it's being jammed into a space that is about 1/4" inch too small.
Problem 3: They neglected to mention that before leaving.
So we're back at square one, with two cracked transitions that need to be fixed. When I called the flooring company this morning to discuss my concerns about this, the lady who schedules the repair work pointed out that the guys also forgot to fix the gaps yesterday. This really did not improve my opinion about their customer service.
Oh but wait, it gets much better...
"What day would be good for you to have the guys back out there to finish?", she asked.
"Today would be a GREAT day for them to come out and fix this mess," I answered.
"Ummmm...our trucks are broken down today..."
Really? ALL of the trucks are broken down...how interesting. Fortunately, I was able to suggest a solution: since these are fairly short pieces of trim, they would fit nicely into a car. I half expected her to tell me that all of the cars were broken down, too, and all of their employees biked to work today.
"Ummmm...the pieces still need to be stained..."
At this point I cut in with what probably sounded like borderline psychotic ramblings about how they had a written work order, how did they manage to "forget" more than half the job, how did they NOT KNOW that they cracked another piece of trim, and how could they be SO COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT YOU BETTER SEND SOMEONE DIFFERENT OUT HERE RIGHT! NOW! (Please note that I did not use the expression "unfuck it" at any time during my partial freakout, which I feel demonstrated considerable maturity and restraint on my part.)
"Ummmm...we're still waiting for the installers to show up today..."
*sigh*
And thus the saga continues. The next chapter of this story is scheduled for July 1st, which is the earliest that they can send out another crew of installers. (Seriously, how hard is it to round up someone - ANYONE - who can measure, cut and nail down a couple pieces of trim and putty some gaps?!) I'm less than confident that it will be the FINAL chapter, but we'll see. The excuses that they come up with are mildly entertaining, at least.
# posted by Amanda at 11:06 AM |
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