Complaint Review: Ifloor.com / Smooth Corporation - Tukwila Washington

Aloha,
 Fair warning-this message warns ALL parties to NOT purchase from the "NEW" iFloor.com, whose new company name is Longhau USA DBA iFloor.com! Here is the story, from purchase to present. I was referred to iFloor.com by friends who have used the product, installed the product in their own home and in four other homes they have either built or worked on. The product I bought was ALLOC Floor Santos Mahogany. It was perfect as to the color I was seeking, the type of laminate floor and the TEN YEAR WARRANTY! I was really pleased with the pricing, not to mention the courteous customer service I received. Nikki Phillips was a pleasure to work with. I purchased and finalized my floor and underlayment with her. My items had to ship to HI so pricing was VERY important, hence Nikki and iFloor. For $1300.00 my products were fairly priced, considering the distance they had to travel. I received everything in less than a month.
Our friends spent about fourteen hours total installing the flooring in the living room, hallway and master bedroom. Wow-what a difference it made from the dingy, dirty, pet-stained Berber carpeting! It WAS awesome!

Fast forward to having to actually CLEAN the floor! Here is where the problem lies. Prior to this, I never had to do more than sweep, vacuum, damp mop/paper towel a pet issue, or dry-mop the floors to keep them neat. I had to actually "clean" the floors after about four months. At this time, we purchased a product specifically made for laminate floors along with a long-handled terrycloth "mop". After following the directions we proceeded to clean the floors. It was a disaster! The floors did NOT come clean! So then we tried a few readily available products, such as pine sol, dishwash liquid Dawn, just a plain damp mop, and a few other things recommended by our friends and family. NOTHING WORKS! I contacted ALLOC at 877-DO-ALLOC (which is the contact number listed on the ALLOC website, my packaging of Santos Mahogany floors, and the mailing I received) and the representative, Shepre, says she will relay al of my concerns and have someone contact me withing 24-48 business hours. That was on May 22,2009. On June 2, 2009, I reached Sue who apologized for my not having a return call, took all of my information AGAIN. She proceeded to explain that they "only recommend their brand of cleaner" BUT if that does not work then use a 50%/50% mix of mineral spirits and water. First Sue told me to wipe it on and wipe it off, then corrected to it to "spritz on/spritz off" the mix. Well, with four dogs, and one cat and two or more humans here at any time, I asked if this would void the warranty, she assure me that it would not. OK, but I am not sure if I want to try this as we, as well as guests, smoke and I do not want my home to explode because I cleaned my ALLOC flooring with paint thinner! The small area I tried this on looked the same as the rest of the floor-cloudy, milky film on the entire floor-even on areas not used or walked on, such as closets.

Now, on to the present, from the beginning of August until today, August 20, 2009 and the anger has boiled over on my end. I have never yelled at, verbally abused or e-mail abused anyone in the course of this process. My anger and disappointment were conveyed in pleasant tones to each person I communicated with. Nick Howard is the person I e-mailed and Bruce is the person I spoke to. These people are affiliated with the "NEW" iFloor.com. In the most recent e-mail I sent to Nick Howard, I referred him to the "live chats" I had with several representatives. One of the chats took place while I was on the telephone with an ALLOC representative. The information I was given, if I wanted to file a warranty claim, was to contact my dealer, iFloor. Now, things fall apart. On August 18, 2009, I spoke with customer service's Bruce. I told him about my disappointment with my ALLOC floors and that I wanted to proceed with a warranty claim. Bruce, from iFloor.com, informs me that  Bankruptcy was filed by the "old" iFloor in December, 2008. The "new" iFloor is owned by Longhau USA and they bought out the "old" iFloor in February of 2009. Since my purchase was made with the "old" iFloor.com the "new" iFloor would NOT HONOR MY WARRANTY CLAIM and they would have NO RESPONSIBILITY for purchases made prior to February of 2009.

I now have contacted ALLOC again. Their customer service number of 800-385-6310, is located in Norway, and falls under Central Europe Standard Time. Patricia, at the 877-DO-ALLOC is located in the central standard time zone of the US. She tells me that the Norway toll free number is seven hours behind the central standard time zone. I have NO CLUE where HI time falls in the scheme of all of this, so I just left a message. Get your choice or option right the first time because the "#" has the person come back on speaking Norwegian.

** DO NOT BUY FROM iFLOOR.COM OR BUY ALLOC FLOORING! **  JMHO- since we are looking at about $5000.00 in horrible flooring. To replace, we are probably looking at least that amount. You can see why I am doing everything possible to get this problem corrected and getting someone to honor this warranty issue, rather than passing the buck. The buck being passed is just a circle, or rather a semi-circle, since I see no closure at this point in time.