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 After seven years of looking at outdated, dirty, stained cranberry carpet, and after several days of walking on OSB floors, we now have brand new clean neutral carpet that is wonderfully un-trendy.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 and overall, I am happy with their work and we as a family are thrilled with the final product.
I am also very impressed with Lowes. As a result of an error in measurement (theirs), we had an unreasonable amount of carpet left over. The culprit was the raised entrance landing which is tiled, but for some reason was included in the measurement for the carpet. And the amount of underpad was overestimated as well. I returned to Lowes today and pointed out the errors hoping to nrgotiate 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 tried to negotiate a reduction in price only to be told that the contract price was the contract price– no renegotiation. That left a bitter taste in my mouth that has lasted to this day, but I see their point: we were the ones who breached, not them.
In the case of Lowes, 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 Lowes 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. Lowes only had to wait twenty minutes before I made another purchase in the store.
So overall, dealing with Lowes 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 Lowes. And Lowes 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 thing put back in place is the television, sofa and chair (we do have our priorities). In addition to the time I spent in Lowes 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. Drapes need to be hung. Switch plates need to be replaced. And book cases, DVD and CD racks and their contents need to be cleaned and put back in place. I would like to get this stuff finished soon while I still have some momentum. And I would like to keep that momentum going so I can paint the stair banister and spindles before Christmas– something I have been putting off for more than a year.
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