The new carpet has been installed in the family room. After seven years of looking at outdated, dirty, stained cranberry carpet, and after several days of walking on OSB floors, we now have brand new clean neutral carpet that is wonderfully un-trendy. It took the installers about four hours from start to finish to lay the carpet and pad. Overall, I am happy with their work and we as a family are thrilled with the final product.
I must say, Lowes was impressive. (This is not a sponsored post). As a result of an error in measurement (theirs), we had an unreasonable amount of carpet left over. For some reason, the raised tiled entrance landing was included in the measurement for the carpet when I was clear only the riser was to be carpeted.
I returned to Lowe’s today and pointed out the errors hoping to negotiate at least a partial refund. I spoke with someone in the flooring department who spoke with someone in charge of installations and they told me that I could return the unused carpet and pad for a refund.
The installers did not leave the leftover pad behind, so I am relying on their honesty. But the carpet was still in my possession, and I was able to return it without any problem. Once we receive credit for the pad, we will have a total of more than a couple hundred dollars back in our pocket. Not too shabby, considering that we have a signed contract.
Seven years ago, when we had the roof installed, the contract called for the removal and replacement of three hot water solar panels. When we decided not to replace the solar panels, we unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a price reduction. The contract price was the contract price. That left a bitter taste in my mouth that has lasted to this day. But I see their point: we breached that contract, not them.
In the case of Lowe’s, they supplied the amount of carpet that they said they would supply. We signed the contract agreeing to that amount of carpet. They could have easily refused to refund any money at all. After all, a contract is a contract. Mind you, if they had taken the hard line, they would have lost any future business from me, and it would have potentially been a bad PR move. But Lowes chose instead to “do the right thing.” It was their error in measurement. Would it have been reasonable to expect me to catch that mistake?
The difference between the roofing company and Lowe’s is simple. It could be a quarter century or more before the roofing company would get any repeat business from us if we didn’t move. Lowe’s only had to wait twenty minutes before I made another purchase in the store.
So overall, dealing with Lowe’s has been a positive experience. I must say that as much as I love to hate the big box stores in general– I view them as a necessary evil most of the time– I have never had any problems with returns to either Home Depot or Lowe’s. And Lowe’s today went above and beyond to ensure my satisfaction.
Meanwhile, back in the family room…
The carpet has been down since Thursday but the family room is still largely unfinished. In fact, the only things we put back in place are the television, sofa and chair. We do have our priorities.
In addition to the time I spent in Lowe’s today, I also went shopping for some curtains to replace dusty rose blinds. I have not yet put the painting supplies away. Closet doors are sitting downstairs right now waiting to be painted. We need to hang drapes. I still have to replace the outlet cover plates. And book cases, DVD and CD racks and their contents need to be cleaned and put back in place. I would like to finish this stuff soon while I still have some momentum.