This is a very interesting situation to me since in two days I heard the same story from two different men. The carpet they had purchased with their wife or girl friend had been what they, the men, had remembered being installed in their homes growing up. Since the carpets had performed so well, as they had experienced, they thought choosing the same type product would work in their homes as well.

UNALTERABLE TRAFFIC PATTERN

The most interesting part of this story is that the men actually influenced the decision for the carpet and overruled their partners only to have the carpets fail to perform up to what they had grown up with and expected. Both women wanted berbers since they like the look more and felt they would perform better. One house only had the two people, both of whom worked all day, but this house had an unalterable traffic pattern with a separate large family room. The man in this house chose a light beige cut pile velvet nylon carpet.

The problem he had was that the first carpet installed showed weird patterns of semi- squares and a star in the middle of the living room as if someone had placed a pattern over the carpet and sprayed something on the face of the carpet which this pattern covered. So, as the carpet was used, these patterns became more evident. That is, the pattern looked the same color as the carpet and the outer areas looked like they were darkening because of soil build up.

That’s what was happening, however I haven’t a clue as to how this happens after 28 years looking at carpets. I’ve seen it before, can’t explain it, can’t think of anything in manufacture that would cause this. Someone would actually have to take this roll of carpet, place cut out patterns on the face and spray a substance that was soil attractive on the exposed areas of the carpet.

Either it’s a prank or something going on inside the mills that is alien to everything known about carpet manufacture and face yarn treatment. If any of you know, please tell me.

CRUSH MARKS

So now, this man has the carpet replaced for this problem but only part of the carpet is replaced because he now has roll crush marks. The dealer tries to steam them but they don’t come out. And she’s saying I told you so. The compromise, replace the living room, dining room and hall with what he likes and put berber in the family room. The problems with this carpet are in fact manufacturing related, even the crush marks, if they won’t respond to treatment.

In the other case the husband wanted a nice, plush cut pile carpet. It was a polyester/nylon blend. This is a small ranch house with unalterable traffic patterns, two adults, two young children and she operates a day care out of the same place. Lots of traffic, lots of use and a problem. The carpet is getting spotted, matted and looks worn. He had the same type of carpet growing up and didn’t see any of the conditions. So he felt that’s what they should have. She wanted berber for the look and what she thought would be better performance.

The problem, wrong carpet chosen, wrong carpet sold. The original carpet got replaced as a dealer accommodation because of poor performance after a short period of time. The replacement, the consumer says, looks worse. By the way, the replacement is the exact same product which again was the mans decision, the man of the house and the man at the dealership.

This women is also telling these guys I told you so. Now both of these carpets will get replaced because the woman of the house wants something different. The men’s choices failed as a result of the carpets themselves and not necessarily their decisions, it is a failure nevertheless. If they don’t fight with the dealer to replace they will have to live with the pressure of the woman they love.

What do you think your decision would be? Answer: Make her happy at all costs. Both these guys knew their mothers didn’t have this problem, so they didn’t think it would be a problem to choose what they grew up with and keep harmony in the household. Any of us would have done the same. I remember the carpets we had as kids and it never was an issue of a complaint in our house.

What’s the moral of this story? As retailers trying to satisfy your customer with products that won’t create problems for them and money losing claims for you, you have to make sure you qualify your customer. By asking them about what they like, why they like it, how they use the house, how it is layed out, how many children they have, how the carpet is to be used, what color they want and why it will or won’t work and how long they expect the carpet to last, your helping them make a wise decision. You’re not going to discourage the sale if you work to get them what they need so it will be what they want and perform the way they expect it to.

By doing so you’ll have happier customers, who will thank you for your help and you’ll have more profit because you won’t be giving away carpet. And listen to the woman. It’s obvious from these two cases that a lot of men are idiots when it comes choosing carpet. Here are two ladies that I suspect will get showered with gifts for putting up with these guys, at least they should.