Company Response
Bolton,#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, August 10, 2009
This customer called our company several weeks before our service date and booked us over the phone. We did not see her floors but we went into detail regarding the facts that Mr.Sandless does not sand and therefore cannot remove marks we just refinish meaning our solutions go on top of the wood. She did not see all the floors as there was carpet on the floor. We also explained that because we don't go into the wood with our colouring the floor will not look like when it is sanded 1/8th of an inch and then stained such as what sanders do. She said she understood completely and was fine with what we did as we are much cheaper than sanding and there is no mess. She called 2 days before the service thinking about cancelling as she was going to go into surgery and wasn't sure if she should be doing this at that time. The doctor notified her that week that she was to go into surgery and she seemed stressed about it. This should have been a red flag to us. She called back and said she wanted to go ahead with it. We said to the customer several times that she should be available for the day to give us her opinion on the floors after each coat since her husband wasn't really involved-according to her. But she left it to her husband. We arrived and we went through the company waiver and colouring waiver and she signed both documents. One of our waivers states "Every floor is unique in the type of wood it is made of, its age, amount of wear, stain, use and work it has already endured. Our goal is to make your floor look its best under the conditions we find it in." Our colouring waiver states "By signing below you agree to that (slight tone difference from the colour you have chosen) and accept the outcome of the colouring and refinishing." I had explained to her several times on the phone in the previous weeks about our limitations. She signed this. She was deciding to change the colour she had picked and her husband and her went back and forth. We explained that a walnut would be better to hide the marks but she wanted the rosewood. After mixing the stain the husband told us that they changed their mind and wanted any colour that would hide the marks. We let him know even changing the colour would not hide the marks completely. He said he understood. We proceeded to do our process and the customer left for work and the husband went into the basement. We told him that we would call him with each coat of colour to ask how he liked it. We called him on the first, second and third coat and he said they looked great and the floors looked much better than before but that the customer called and said she wanted all the dark marks to be hidden. We asked the husband so would you like us to go darker and he said yes. So we did. When we finished that coat he said great. And we started to clean up and put our final coats of finish on. The husband said,while he was looking at the floors, that you forget what the floors look like from before and stated how good they looked and that several marks from before could not be seen. As we were cleaning up the customer came home. She immediately started to complain so we tried to appease her but going over a few spots with a cloth. This has been done at other customers homes with good results. We have several customers that are very happy with our work but of course it is the one customer like this one that can make a bigger issue than it really is because they forget all the conversations that explains our limitations. Sometimes no matter what you say to a customer they have their own thoughts and don't really listen. We feel it could be because she was under stress with dealing with the surgery. We called the customer to explain that we were sorry that they were not happy with the work so we were more than willing to come back and fix it. We actually decided to strip the whole area as the customer said that everything had to match and we understood. That night the husband stated that to him the floors looked good but to his wife they werent because she is very picky and in hind site she should have been at home. They let us know they put a stop on the check and we were fine with that. So the next day we returned to strip the floors to fix them,started, completed one room, and the technician found a letter explaining that we would not be able to sue for non payment as well a list of their complaints. It also said our colour waiver would not hold up in court. We were surprised as we had all the right intentions to go back and make the customer happy. The father in law was asked to be present for the second day as both the husband and customer were working. The father in law said to stop stripping the rest of the rooms since the floors looked great. He said to wait till the husband got home. The father in law knew what the floors looked like as he owned the home previously. So the technician stopped and waited. We called the customer and she said she didn't mind giving some money to complete the job and that the letter didnt mean much-but now we realized that we may go in and do all the work without payment. She hung up and called another franchise without telling us. They refused to go in and do the work as they did not want to get involved with a customer that was like this. The husband basically said that they did not have the confidence that we could fix it and even when we tried to work it out with him he talked over us and would not listen. We still were trying to work it out. Unfortunately sometimes some people are never happy no matter what you do. We had Mr.Sandless come in and do our floors and we loved it so much that we bought the franchise. We have several happy customers so one customer like this should not be listened to. If you want references we are more than happy to supply them. Company response Bolton, Ontario Canada Canada"> Step