ComplaintsforHardwood Giant Ottawa

• Initial Complaint

  07/04/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  Date of Transaction: May 22, 2021. Cost: 16,711.98 - Stairs, $21,799.01 - Flooring Installation Completed: We hired Hardwood Giant in the spring of 2021 to replace the floors in our two main floors of our house. In general we liked the work that was done, but we noticed a few problems early on that took some wrangling to fix. During the process they had also missed our basement stairs and we had to pursue them to install them. We felt at the time that they seemed rushed to do the stairs. In October we noticed and let the company know about these problems: - Spindels are wiggly. - Curved handrail cracked. - Curved baseboard on the top end cracked. - Top baseboard near the beginning of the handrail is not aligned. - Corner baseboard on top of the stairs are not connected. After some time they came and took care of the cracked handrail, and changed out the baseboards. The baseboards were still not what we hoped, but we were told by the installer that it was the only way it could be done so we left it at that. Overall we were still satisfied, so my wife left a 5-star google review for the company, but she was honest in the review about our disappointment with the trim work. Recently we noticed that the railing was off-level, and that our steps to the basement were fading quickly. We reached out to see if we could do anything about it - for the stairs in the basement we were worried they would be rushed so we thought we would just get our contractor to fix them so we asked what the stain colour was. The owner responded that due to our review on google, he wouldn't deal with us and that we had to talk to his lawyer. This was totally absurd - He made no attempt to ask us how we could resolve the situation, he just abdicated his warranty responsibility and left us hanging. We have tried contacting the franchiser and they have said we have to deal with this owner to get warranty service. I've attached the email chain for this as well as the invoices.

  Business response

  18/04/2022

  Although Hardwood Giant Ottawa has a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, and every attempt is made to rectify all warranty issues.
  
  There is a process to warranty claims. You have to notify the company of any dificiences so we can remedy them.
  
  The unfourtunate part of this case is the company was in the middle of repairing the final deficiency for the client Which was merely a 3 cm crack 1mm wide in a severe bend in a hand bent railing, This repair takes multiple visits. Last thing I said to the client was "I'll be back to do another coat of stain and varnish"
  
  When out of the blue 4 days later the client decided to post a review of their job mid repair. This is out of context and slanderfull in nature, as the deficiencies were not yet completly repaired.
  
  The only reason we have now denied any further warranty work is the following.
  In *** **** first online review she claimed she had to "refinish the stairs by herself"
  This although seemed very unlikely at the time as we are professionals and I saw her job once complete and it was perfect(see attached pictures). By touching the job instead of asking us the do the repair voided all warranty on the stair finish.
  
  Unfourtunatly some clients are unstable and impossible to deal with. That's why this client was told to only communicate with our legal team moving forward.
  
  Apparently she is already suing her kitchen supplier.
  
  Furthermore since the client was told to stop harrassing me, This client has tried to publicly attack us through our head office, our on Facebook page (blocked)The BBB and various Facebook groups and online methods up to 3 times a day using various different personalities including but not limited to *** ***, and ******* *****
  
  We do thousands of installs a year, and would like clients to judge for themselves on the quality of our work.

  Customer response

  19/04/2022

  
  ********** ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  I have not done any work on the stairs, as I expressed to ***** when he made this accusation over email.  Further - my original review said absolutely nothing about doing any work myself (attached image of original review).  Hardwood Giant has an obligation to warranty the work they did, in accordance with the terms we signed for - and this fabrication that we did work ourselves is a petty attempt to get out of meeting those obligations to protect his own fragile ego.
  
  He can ask all he wants that we don't review his business, but we will be continuing to review his business at every opportunity so future unsuspecting customers know what kind of business this is, and their complete ethical failures.  This is our right as consumers and we will be exercising it.
  
  The picture he posted is indeed of the stairs going to the basement.  Those stairs are now wearing at the ends (pictures attached).  As you can see - they are unaltered from the picture he took.  This also doesn't speak to the other set of stairs to the basement that are also fading - original complaint included those.
  
  I'm not sure what his point was about the railing - it was repaired by the company that did the railing (who apparently is not working with them anymore) at the time, and then the came back to stain it.  It is cracking again (see image), and we've noticed it's off-level (in the original complaint).  
  
  I'm noticing a trend here - ***** wants to attack my character with wild accusations, instead of addressing his workmanship problems.  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *** *****

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩