I purchased this about 2300 sq ft at $5.19 square foot of the Cumaru Hardwood from the Floor Depot one of Brampton Hardwood store in the Niagara area and I was told it was Canadian hardwood however nowhere on the box I can find made in Canada nor anyone in the store can confirm that it was made in Canada also the St. Lawrence company does not exist anywhere in Canada. I found that out when my installer noticed the product was defective and he stopped installing after the third box was opened. I called the store and they sent a "supervisor" to inspect the product and he agreed that the wood was defective and he passed me on to Joe “director of operation” and from that moment I can only speak to Joe. I told Joe that it taking the installer too long to sift through the wood and that it's going to cast me more to install and if that's the case I want a full refund and he said that he will cover the extra time that it will take to sort the wood. Well, after about a month of back and forth I did not get a penny for the $700 it cost extra to install the floor, also I have 5 boxes of defective wood that he refused to replace and basically ignores my calls and will not allow any one in his business talk to me. So all I can say about Brampton Hardwood is they are dishonest and do not stand behind the product their which they claim it's the best in Canada so imagine if I have to call them for warranty issue. As far as I'm concerned there is no warranty on anything Brampton Hardwood sell. I Was naive not to get all of his promises in writing and now I have nothing to support my story, and when I put in a complaint to the BBB against him, he claims that he did not promise me anything and denied everything, so the BBB had no choice but to close the case . My advice is, stay away from Brampton Hardwood, you will save allot of money in the long run.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $12,500.00
- Company Response
It is quite unfortunate that this customer still chooses to denigrate our company after our many, extraordinary efforts to resolve his issues to the best of our abilities.
The St. Lawrence brand of hardwood is manufactured in Bramalea, Ontario and is well known throughout the industry as a respected Canadian producer of top quality hardwood flooring products.
The St. Lawrence hardwood flooring that we provided to this customer was not defective in any way, as he claims. The very slight variations in size and gap were well below the industry standard of tolerance. Wood is a natural and organic product, and is therefore always subject to considerable variations in grain, color, texture, marking and edging. The exotic woods as purchased by this customer have even more inherent variation. We explained to the customer on many occasions that due to the foregoing, he could not expect all of the boards to look uniform when installed. He wanted the uniform look anyway and therefore separated, and didn't use, perfectly good boards that did not match his unrealistic idea of how the finished floor should look.
Furthermore, the customer installed the hardwood himself, with the help of his brother-in-law. Neither of them is a qualified hardwood floor installer. In fact, there were many occasions where we were gracious enough to provide guidance and advice to them on proper installation techniques.
We were always perfectly willing to explore possible accommodations for extra costs of installation. However, when we repeatedly requested copies of an invoice or other proof of the alleged $700 extra costs incurred by this customer, we were always refused (obviously due to the fact that the customer performed the work himself.)
The installation took many months to complete, as the customer was not an experienced installer. A professional installer would probably have taken less than a week to finish such a job. Throughout the long installation process, the customer would pick through the many boxes of material and separate entire boxes that he wanted replaced. Out of good faith, we replaced this material box-for-box whenever asked, on an ongoing basis, from another different batch of the same product. This repeated service resulted in substantial administrative and restocking costs to us.
A qualified and experienced contractor would be aware that there is about a 5% waste factor in any box of hardwood due to the previously mentioned natural variation (i.e. wood knots, etc.) and standard manufacturer imperfections (i.e. edge cut differences, etc.) Such a professional would follow the standard practice of cutting out the small unusable portions of the boards and utilizing the rest accordingly (i.e. as filler or end pieces, etc.). Entire boards would not be discarded due to imperfections to a slight portion thereof, which is what this customer was doing. Because the customer did not maximize his utilization of the material, his measurement calculations ended up being too low and he needed to buy more product to make up for the excessive waste that could have easily been avoided.
Customer satisfaction is of paramount importance to our company, and we therefore sent two professionals to deal with this customer's concerns. One was a qualified inspector who examined the product and confirmed everything stated here. The other was a professional hardwood installer from our independent contractor referral list. This contractor began to install the floor for the customer but could not continue due to the customer's incessant nit-picking and unreasonably high expectations. As would be expected, the professional installer did not appreciate being told how to do his job by someone with no actual expertise in the business and therefore was unable to continue working. This was surely the result this customer wanted, as he always intended to install the floor himself to save costs.
It should also be noted that this customer always had the option of returning the hardwood prior to installation if he was not happy with its quality. Instead, he refused to do so and went ahead and installed it. This clearly shows that the customer was in fact satisfied with the product, but is now trying to wrongfully recoup some of his own personal costs from us.As is our usual practice, we made great efforts to accommodate this customer. Based on all the facts of this matter we were unable to provide any of the unreasonable resolutions he requested. The customer has already tried to push his complaint through the Better Business Bureau, and they immediately closed this case once the truth was revealed.
Brampton Hardwood has been a trusted retailer for over 25 years, and we always go to great lengths to treat all of our many customers with respect, honesty and integrity.