Let me start by saying there is no claim or complaint on the carpet we are about to discuss. A very good dealer friend of mine brought this situation to my attention and thought it was interesting enough to write about – I think you’ll agree.

The dealer sold and installed a very high end expensive, 100% wool, Woven Wilton in a residence on the stairs and in a hall. It was down for eight months when he got a call to do a repair for some damage her son had caused. When the installer went out to successfully make the repair he noticed, and reported to the dealer, that the carpet didn’t look like it was performing well on the stairs. Mind you, the consumer didn’t say anything about the carpets performance or appearance and wasn’t complaining at all.

The dealer sent me a sample book of the product, complete with beautiful color photographs of it installed in various settings. He asked me to call him when I got the samples and before telling me why. When I got the book it showed, in one of the beautiful color photos, the carpet installed on a set of stairs in a home, in a portion of a living room and in the hallway. This was a similar installation and application that he sold the product into. When I called him he told me to lift the large sample swatch and read the text beneath it. I was amazed at what I read. The last statement printed was that the carpet was not recommended for use on stairs. Directly across from this sample and the information under it was the photograph of the carpet installed in the setting described previously. The carpet was pictured installed on the stairs! The question is why would you show a picture of the carpet installed on the stairs if you are making a statement that it can’t be installed on the stairs? It makes absolutely no sense. It gets better. In the specs it says - Location Guidance: Residential. Down further in the listings it says chair pads are recommended under office chairs, which implies the carpet can be used in an office environment. Didn’t it just say that the carpet is for residential use? Then why would it comment on office application, which is a commercial use? If you can use it in an office why can’t you use it on the stairs? On the back of the book there is a sentence that says, “The natural resiliency of wool carpet permits it to withstand all of the day to day traffic you can give it.” The implication in this text and in the photos, is that this carpet can be used anywhere in the house. However, it specifically states it is not recommended for use on stairs.

Now, I can understand full well why the manufacturer might not want the product used on the stairs because it may have a tendency to fuzz. But Woven Wilton’s have been around for longer than the modern carpet industry has been in existence and they’ve been used on stairs all over the world. The contradiction in terms and in example for this particular product creates some serious issues. If you can’t use it on the stairs why picture it being used there? If you can use it in an office type environment wouldn’t you think you could use it on stairs in a residential application?

The carpet industry does not warrant carpet on stairs because this is a location that receives concentrated, unalterable and pivotal type traffic. Carpet naturally has a tendency to “ugly out” more quickly on stairs. But the industry does not tell you that the product can’t be used on stairs. If it did there would be a lot less carpet sold. At over $70.00 a yard this carpet cost you’d think and expect that a consumer would rationally and logically feel they could install this carpet in their home without limitations and distinctions between where they could and could not use it. After all, it was installed in their home, not their office. As a comparison, the statements made about this carpet would be like saying you can’t drive your luxury car on anything but smooth streets, and we know it will be driven on any street and be expected to perform doing it.

It never ceases to amaze me how ridiculous this industry can be how strange the interpretation of information is and how absurd some of the statements are. This is a perfect case. If this were a claim how would you handle it? The statement says the product is not recommended on stairs but opposite that information is a huge picture of the carpet installed on stairs. An attorney would have a field day with this. I’m sure the case could be argued that if you show the product on the stairs, regardless of what the statements are, then it should be interpreted that you can use it on the stairs. But hey, who knows. If a President needs an interpretation of what the word “is” means then maybe this carpet manufacturer needs an interpretation of what the word stairs means.

Bottom line is, if you can’t use something somewhere and you say that you can’t then don’t show it being used there. If I have a problem with the product on the stairs the first thing I’m going to shove in your face is the picture of the product in a place you say you can’t use it. And if you show it there then it must be OK to use it there or else you wouldn’t have shown it to me being used there. This situation gives new meaning to the word ambiguous, which means confusing, unclear and in this case definitely stupid.