Last Friday I received a call from Kathy Williams, assistant to the claims manager at Mohawk Carpet Mills. She received a claim that afternoon from Forrest’s Carpet and Furniture in Pennsylvania. Dave Forrest, the dealer, had a piece of higher-end goods he was installing in a customer’s loft family room. The end goods has ink on the face from the labeling printed on the back. There was also a shade variation at the portion of the seam in the center of the room.

Kathy asked if I could call the dealer to try to help him out. I called Saturday morning, spoke to his wife and left a message for him to call me. Monday morning he called back. The mill and the dealer working together, decided that I should look at this problem.

SHADE VARIATION

After talking with the dealer, I made arrangements to go to Pennsylvania. I brought a steamer and a spotting kit, prepared to service the carpet. In our phone conversation we had talked about the ink problem. I told the dealer it would be good customer service to go out and remove the ink himself, since this isn’t difficult and he knew how. He agreed, and in fact did just that.

The dealer and I went to the home shortly after I arrived at his store on Wednesday. All the while, the mill was in communication with the dealer and myself. Upon inspection of the carpet, I indeed found a shade variation at the seam, but it didn’t run the entire length of the two large drops.

At first, there was every indication that the two pieces were reversed. Four separate tests were conducted along the seam to determine pile lay. We pulled the carpet up, noted the markings on the back, measured, compensated for cuts and waste, and proved that the carpet was installed correctly. The consumer was present during our inspection.

I determined that the surface pile of the carpet had reversed. This occasionally happens during roll-up and is a correctable condition. Don’t confuse this with the infamous pile reversal, pooling, or shading that so many carpets of higher quality suffer from. This happened to be a very unique situation.

CORRECTIVE ACTION

I asked the consumer if he’d allow us a corrective action and he wholeheartedly said yes. I first steamed the carpet near the seam to determine if this process would work, and so as not to waste anyone’s time or money. The first two passes created a complete reversal and shade match. With this success, the process was continued. The steaming yielded total success, and the consumer was very happy that the carpet didn’t have to be replaced.

The point of revealing this true-life adventure to you is that every claims should be handled this way. Not that everything can be corrected, naturally. We all know that each case has its own idiosyncrasies, but this was conducted with in a model fashion and with great speed.

Forrest’s Carpet and Furniture and Mohawk both deserve an award for the fact that they worked conscientiously, openly, quickly, and responsibly to solve this problem.

A FIVE-DAY CLAIM

This was five days, start to finish, including the weekend to report, handle, service, solve, and settle a claim. Folks, it just doesn’t get any better than that. This is the way it can be when everyone works together. This is service in its purest form.

This was a new home and three separate times before we left, the consumer asked the dealer about additional floor covering. Who’s the winner in this situation? Everybody. The mill, because the dealer will buy all the carpet he can from them, the dealer, because the consumer will buy all the floor covering and everything else he has to sell from him, and the consumer, because he got service that retailers talk about but don’t overwhelmingly deliver, as this one did.

You are all capable of responding this way. Try it, and see how good it makes you feel.