ComplaintsforAnderson Floor Company, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  01/12/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was having my floors redone and the first day they showed up to work on my house and my wife was met with rude remarks when she asked one of the workers to wear a mask in her house. She was met with more rude remarks when she was asked were the 220 outlet was and she informed them that this is an old house and dose not have one. There was also a lack of professionalism when she talked with the workers about when to pick stains and a general lack of caring. But the real complaint is when I got home. I was told that there might be some scuffing to the molding on the floor but that its nothing that cant be cleaned up with some small paint or stain. What I found is they have gouged not only visible but removed a good amount of wood now requiring the replacement of molding that was original to the house. Then I went into the basement and found wires hanging out of an left open exposed panel. The next day when I personally met them at the door I was willing to maybe work with them about finishing the half of the house they started but when my one request at the door for them to wear a mask in my house met with a snarky no. I told them they can leave then. When I asked them why the ground all my molding I was met with "well the floors are uneven", when I asked about why are there wires hanging out of my panel I got "well we need 220 for our equipment", when asked are you an electrician I get "well no but we need electric to work". Now I'm left with a panel that I need to inspect because I don't know if the guy even knows what he did is correct.

  

  Business response

  02/23/2022

  I like to begin that our son, *******, was the crew ******* on the job that day along with our other employee ****.  ******* has been with us over 11 years and we have never had a complaint about him being rude to a customer.  In fact it is just the opposite, dozens of compliments consistently over the years.  ******* will be taking over the business when we are ready to retire so he has a lot of skin in the game.

  
  

  My office assistant, ******, had spoken with the wife the day before we started their job to confirm the start time for the next day.  The owner initiated the call.  ****** told her that we would call prior to our arrival, that the crew had finish coats to apply first on another job, and would probably be about mid-morning arrival to her home.  The next day we got a call from the wife around 8:30 am asking where the crew was.  ****** was surprised considering she had just spoken to her the day before.  She was upset that the crew was not there yet.  She told ****** that someone in the office told her a first thing start.  Since ****** is the only one in the office, I was out on bids, she was confused.  No one told her first thing, so that was not true.  She also told ****** that her husband had also called our office and was told the same thing, again, not true.  ****** told me that she never spoke to her husband the day before.  So now we have an upset customer before we even step foot on the job.  ********** did not call the crew to inform them of the confrontation that we already had with the owners' wife.  We don't want to sour the crew's attitude even before they get to a job.  So they had no idea what had already taken place with my office.

  
  

  Now the crew arrives at the job.  They are asked to wear a mask.  I leave it up to the individual if they want to mask or not due to the nature of the work performed.  The customer never indicated to me at the time of the bid, to ****** when the job was scheduled or the day before we started when the job was confirmed that this was going to be a requirement of their job.  I even told the owner during our phone conversation when he wanted me to call him back after he kicked the crew off of the job that had they requested that we wear a mask when they scheduled the job, I would have politely declined his job to avoid exactly what happened.  This is also the first request that we had of this nature.  No one has demanded that we wear a mask to enter their house to do work.  Most customers are not present during the work because they can't be.  It's loud and the floors can't be walked upon.  When speaking with ******* he simply told her that he doesn't wear a mask.  **** volunteered to wear a mask if necessary but ******* did not give her the answer she wanted to hear, not that he was rude.  And considering she was already rude with my office, I believe my son.  Consequently, she allowed the crew to work the entire day and left the house.  ******* and **** did not see the Mr. at all that first day.  So his complaints are based on his wife's account of what happened.  

  
  

  Secondly, in regard to the 220 power.  This is an electrical requirement for our big machine (belt sander) to operate.  I make a point at each bid to ask the owner where their 220 source is located.  If they do not have one they are told that it is required to provide that or let us know so we can schedule our electrician accordingly.  We have this in writing on the tip sheet provided to each owner at the bid and it is also written on our contract, that the owner signs and agrees to, that they are to provide the 220.  Some owner's will make other arrangements for us and others want us to take care of it.  This picture shows exactly how our electrician would hook up the power for us.  The wires used are not different whether they hook it up or we do.  Our men have been thoroughly trained by our electrician on this simple procedure.  Since the owner failed to read his contract, we were unaware that the 220 was not set up already, and apparently neither was the Mrs.  When ******* asked her where the 220 was, she was confused about what he was asking about.  So they obviously were not ready.  Since I cannot call my electrician on the fly to do the hookup, ******* did it to save time and efficiency and not delay their job.  It doesn't look pretty and I think the owner thought it was unsafe.  I assured him it wasn't and again our electrician uses the exact same set up.  I asked him what in his house was not working properly and he couldn't answer that question.

  
  

  In regard to his shoe molding or the trim that he stated that we ruined.  Again, he did not read his contract.  It talks about possible damage to the interior trim and that it cannot be helped.  I told him in our phone call that if I could identify every time we were going to "buzz" the shoe molding, I would tell the owner.  I do discuss painted trim work because it usually has to be repainted, but the stained/finished shoe, I know we touch up, so no big deal if it gets sanded in our experiences.  But he had a rough floor.  ******* said that it was very uneven and he had to start with a 16 grit of paper to grind off the old finish on the floor.  16 grit is practically rocks on the bottom of the paper, so yes you are going to sand the shoe in this instance.  However, we also touch it up with stain so it doesn't look noticeable.  He didn't give us a chance to explain that or remedy the issue for him.  He just wanted us off of the job.

  
  

  The total amount of time the crew spent with the Mr. on the 2nd day was 15 minutes.  ******** came to the house, he answered the door and asked them if they were going to wear a mask, again ******* said no and they were promptly asked to leave.  The only other thing ******* said to him was "well can we at least get our stuff out of their house?".  It was only as they were loading the equipment back into the vehicle that the owner started trailing them in and out of the house saying "and by the way you ruined my trim, now I have to replace it all, and why did you leave all of those wires hanging in the basement, do YOU know what YOU are doing?? And on and on and on.  So no amount of words were exchanged with the Mr. other than a brief explanation that yes, your floors were uneven and that happens and yes I know what I am doing.  And again this was after they were kicked off the job, so no conversations are going to be lengthy.  ******** just wanted to get out of there at that point.  Since this has NEVER HAPPENED before, we were all a little shocked when ******* promptly called the office.  

  
  

  In closing, ********* law allows a contractor the opportunity of procurement in a situation like this.  We were denied that opportunity.  I offered to send another crew that would mask.  I offered that they could leave the house while we were there.  I offered to disconnect the 220 each day if necessary.  I asked him to allow us to complete the job and see what can be done.  It is not our policy to deny service to a customer.  I tried everything to keep us on the job.  The guys just lost a half of a week of wages plus the following week for part 2 of his job.  How am I going to fill in the schedule at the last minute?  We were also scheduled for 2 separate weeks to do her mothers floors as well, but they cancelled their job because of their daughters' experience with our company.  So I lost 4 weeks worth of work in total.  But all he could tell me is "no, we are done".   He also told me that my schedule was not his problem and that if I couldn't fill in the work it wasn't his worry.

  Customer response

  02/23/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. I was hopping for a reduction of my **** seeing as less then half the work was completed but I was forced to pay full price after I was told it was ok to leave my moulding on and they wouldn't touch it, but they then hide behind there contract for not being liable for damages.
  
  [Please type your response here.]
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

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