I received an e-mail from a dealer with a very frustrating and perplexing problem. He’s been in the business 30 years and said you’d think after this length of time you’d seen and experienced everything. I can state for a fact everyday brings a new and different circumstance or problem. I’ll share his problem with you.

His firm installed over 200 yards of very high end carpet in a $2.5 million dollar home. The day after the installation the customer contacted him and said she was unhappy with the installation. “ I can see the seams from 10 feet away!” she said. At the time of her statement there was no furniture, window coverings or anything else in the house to minimize the seams appearance. I have written several articles over the past 16 years in this column about seams and the fact that they are not invisible. Some carpets will make the seams virtually invisible and others have an inherent tendency to make the seam look more obvious. Any type of product that must be put together in sections be it carpet, vinyl, wood, ceramic, plywood, sheetrock, or clothing fabric, will show a seam. This dealer goes on to say he sent the installers back to do some touch up work. After 10 days he was called out to a meeting to walk the job. This is the one area that should have received more attention. After the customer called and complained about the seams the dealer should have said I’ll be out to look at your concern and how soon can we get together. This may have minimized his problem. An inspector also looked at the job in the meantime, the dealer stated, the inspector was somewhat biased by the customers complaint but he did state the industrys acceptance of seam visibility. The dealer is now fighting for the credibility of his installers and the customer does not want them back in her home. I think there may be a little more to this that we don’t know or else this customer is totally unreasonable.

The dealer contacted an installer who was recommended to him to be perfect to help salvage this job and get him back the respect of the customer. This installer spent 6 hours “touching up and detailing the seams.” The installer was happy, the inspector, who obviously was called out to look at the carpet again, was satisfied as well. Several days later the customer faxed the dealer telling him the job was still unacceptable.

The dealer, at his wits end, offered the customer three options. 1. Accept the carpet as is with no additional costs incurred by either party. He currently has 40% in payments and deposits which means he loses 60% on the job and walks away, virtually giving the job away. 2. Allow the dealer to complete the repairs as the customer requested, apparently there were more concerns after the last installer worked on the carpet, and the dealer will deduct 25% for the inconveniences the customer incurred. 3. The dealer will credit all labor charges, provide replacement carpet and the customer will have to contract with their own installer for replacement with the new carpet provided by the dealer. All of these options, in my opinion, are more than reasonable. Number 3, in my mind, leaves no reason for any further complaint or question. The dealer is literally giving the customer new carpet at no cost, after she only paid him 40% on the original order. The customer is receiving a fair, equitable, more than reasonable settlement from the dealer which should end the issue. Instead, the customer will not commit to any of the options listed and told the dealer to do what he thinks is best and she will then take appropriate actions. How can he do that when all of the options require her making the decision. Given the story as the dealer related it to me, I think the customer is being totally unfair and unreasonable. At this point the dealer is at a loss as to how to handle the customer and questions whether there is any way to satisfy her and resolve this issue.

The dealer has offered three reasonable and viable solutions to this customer. I’m not an attorney but I have worked with enough of them to know a few things. If this complaint goes to small claims court the judge will want the customer to work out a solution with the dealer based on the reasonableness of his offers. The dealer has done everything possible, as far as we know, to fix the job. He has definitely offered far more than most would offer to resolve the job as far as replacement is concerned and his is willing to forgo any profits at all. There isn’t anything left for him to do. At this point it may be best for the dealer to involve an attorney or take the customer to small claims court, depending on the monetary limitation of the court. I think the judge would make the customer take one of the dealers offers seeing there are three viable ones on the table all of which benefit the customer and none of which benefit the dealer. The only thing the dealer gets out of this is the peace of knowing it’s over.

One lesson to learn from this is to have information for the customer that states all types of issues and concerns they could have with the carpet in some form of document. In it, there should be a statement that seams are not invisible. Second, when you get a complaint like this, drop everything and go look at it as fast as you can. It is possible it will prevent things from getting ugly. However, in this case, I don’t know that it would have made any difference at all.