ComplaintsforGreat American Flooring

• Initial Complaint

  07/21/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I hired Great American Hardwood Flooring to sand, stain and seal our floors. The employee was supposed to be at our house to start the job on 02/26/24 and was to be completed by 03/01/24. The employee came at approximately 3:30 pm on 02/26/24 to drop of his tools, then left. He was here from 02/27/24 through 03/03/24. As you can see from the attached photos, the footprint in the living room, and overly stained areas in the Dining, Living and both Bedrooms. I pointed the blotched areas out to the employee before he applied the sealer coats. He said that "the sealer should make it less noticeable". So, I let him proceed. On 03/02/24 he entered our home at 6:49 am to put the first coat of sealer down, and left at 10:14 am and never returned that day. Then came back on 03/03/24 at 6:47 am to apply the second and third coats, and left at 8:22 am and never returned that day. Per the employee and **** website, it takes 4 hours for this product to dry between coats. There was simply not enough time to apply 3 coats of sealer/finish. On 03/03/24 at 9:01 am, I received a text from the employee saying that he was finished and needed to wait at least a full 24 hours before we could start moving things back in. At that time, he said that there are footprints in the living room, which must have been caused by my daughter and I . I let him know that my daughter and I didn't wear shoes on the floor. That we were instructed by him, if we needed to go in, to wear socks. Then he said, "that it must have been my son that caused the footprints". On 03/04/24 at 2:39 pm, I called and spoke to *****l about my dissatisfaction with the job that was done. I let her know about the over-stained areas in all rooms of the house and the footprints. She asked me, "what do you think the job is worth paying?" I never responded until I received their bill 5 months later, asking it to be paid in 3 days. See the attached emails.

  

  Business response

  07/22/2024

  I reached out to our foreman that worked on this project to get a recap as I was in and out of the office for several weeks in February and march due to a family emergency. He recalled the majority of the concerns on this project and we did offer to fix all the areas of concerns at that time, however the homeowner could not prolong their time away from the project for us to fix properly. I will reach out to the owner directly to still arrange any type of remedy to the concerns. 

  

  Business response

  07/23/2024

  We do state that project duration is a sliding scale, there are several factors involved in estimating the time frame including variables out of our control, and those are unique to each project. We have removed the balance. 

  Customer response

  07/24/2024

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *****

• Initial Complaint

  06/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  * Worked with owner **** for bid to refinish hardwood floors in my house & install floor in closets * Bid received 3/8 for $5571.20 including labor cost for den, living room, hall, bedrooms & closets. Labor rate $1047, times 5 areas listed, total labor cost $5235 * Work on hardwood floors done 3/13. Paid $3000, to pay remainder once job done * Went to store 3/13 to pick out floor. Man wrote down sq ft & parts, employee Janell to let me know about stock * 3/21 Janell said floor no longer manufactured, sent pics of options, told updated invoice to be sent * 3/26 got invoice for $799 & accepted * 4/3 told must be paid in full before they would order (not told this before). Paid $3370.20 * 4/11 asked for status, told would let me know * 4/15, told should be in 4/19 * Installer to start 4/23, discovered Janell didn’t order all parts, told they would expedite * 5/20 asked for status, told should be in 5/23 * 5/20 contacted **** about unacceptable service, got a simple sorry, that parts were 4-6 wks out at time of order (was not told this when told they would “expedite”) & his office got confused * 5/31 installer finally heard parts were in (instead of 5/23). Installer to start work on 6/3 * 6/3 installer arrived & discovered flooring was completely different color. Installer recommended I get money back and be done with them, said he would never work for them again * 6/3 contacted **** &Janell to provide photo of wrong flooring and requested refund of $799 for floor and $1047 for labor cost. Janell called, said it was her fault that she didn’t verify flooring was correct, said she would refund $799 but argued that I hadn’t paid for labor. I pointed out labor paid with original invoice. She said she would work up a “summary” of costs and what I had paid and would send to **** and me immediately. * Janell said **** would reach out same day 6/3. As of 7:30pm 6/3, no communication from **** or refund issued

  

  Business response

  06/04/2024

  Original Bid $6879.58.
  
  For Sanding 1114.5 sqft (the half was a typo and later accounted for)
  
  
  $3000.00 Deposit
  
  Balance Invoice Sent.
  
  ***** emailed to remove the closet demo charges and evac charges. -$970.88 as well as apply the deposit.
  That would have brought the remaining balance to $2908.70
  
  At this time I dropped the sanding charges from 1114.5 sqft to 1047sqft. Which were the measurements I had for the closets themselves at 67 sq feet as you can see on the demo line item that was removed.
  
  Installing vinyl is cheaper than sanding, so this was to make sure we did not over charge for the service. 
  Doing so…. Dropped the remaining payment from $2908.70 to $2571.20 which is a $337.50 difference.
  
  There has been no labor pre paid for the closets. I already deducted the measured from the paid amount on the sand invoice.

  Additional areas of vinyl were added on site with the installers, and materials were ordered off of that. 

  The miscommunication of the transitions was addressed and materials were expedited once discovered. We communicated arrival date, verbally and in text.

  One of the flooring materials selected, which did arrive a while back, is the wrong color. Which none of us caught until now. In response to this we are refunding the $799. 

  

  Business response

  06/04/2024

  We charge everything by the square foot, not by the room. The total square footage on the original bid was 1114, at $5. Which amounts to $5570. Our original bid and invoice reflects that, and you responded to it asking for the closet demo and dust evac to be removed from. We did not know there was not wood under the asbestos tile until we got on site to refinish the wood. So we 100% did not know that prior to the job start. We never remove a product we can lay over, unless the intent is to sand wood underneath. **** would simply not bid any project that way when it comes to asbestos. He is also not involved in the billing process. I am. I itemize everything by service and amount, there are obviously no charges to install any type of flooring. The closet areas were too small of a project for us to handle in the office, so we had you work with ***** directly on that, while we were solely the retailer of the flooring. If it had gone through the company the charges for the installation would have been on a separate estimate, invoice and a completely different unit rate. I am unsure of where any confusion lies as the services we have completed are the only services you have paid for. 

  Customer response

  06/06/2024

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Great American has fraudulently kept $2,281.20 I paid to them for labor. The invoice for the flooring job is broken down as follows: $5235 sand/fill/stain/etc labor; $46.20 tear out/haul carpet labor; and $290 transitions & installation. When I got the bid from ***** he said he was booked out a ways but he had a retired installer who could do the work. To my understanding I was still contracting through Great American and never hired anyone or spoke with anyone about any sort of separate side project. **** said his retired installer would probably appreciate some cash up front since he was able to start the job right away, so I gave him $3000 in cash directly per suggestion from ***** This payment can be seen as the reduction on the attached invoice, which left a balance of $2571.20. **** very much knew that there would be installation of other flooring in the closets, as evidenced in the screenshot of the conversation I had with him on March 7 where he asked me to send him a photo of one of the closet floors. I got two emails (also attached) from Great American for the first invoice balance as well as $799 for the new flooring order. Your text, ******* on April 4 instructed that both invoices had to be paid in full before you would order the floor. I used the links in the emails you sent for the invoices to pay both balances that same day, as shown in the attachments. Of that $2,571.20 payment, only $290 was a direct cost to Great American for the transitions (although you also lumped installation in with that cost). The rest of that, $2,281.20, was for labor. However, I have no knowledge that this money was paid to the installer for the labor. As this was a “side job” as both you and **** have now said several times, I should never have been billed or paid any money for labor to Great American at all, but should have paid this directly to the installer. As such, please refund that money - $2,281.20 - to me so I can pay it to the installer for the labor. If you’ve already paid it to him on my behalf, please provide me with record of such. 

  Sincerely,
  
  ***** *****

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