This sad story comes from a retailer with a message for all of you. They have done business with a local insurance repair contractor who would call them and tell them he was going to send a client in to pick out carpet. He would give them an indication of how much the customer could spend and about how much material they would need. Sounds like a pretty good deal and it should be, until you run into something like this.

The repair contractor sent an elderly couple into the retailers store to pick out the carpet. They brought a piece of their existing carpet, which was a good idea in this case since it was an insurance job. They looked at several samples and decided on one. The dealer wrote down the carpet style and color, which was a honeysuckle, described to me as a “light taupish crystal” and submitted the bid to the contractor, which he approved. The consumers’ previous carpet was a vanilla color and the Mrs. wanted something that didn’t have so much yellow in it.

The carpet arrived at the store and was sent out to the jobsite for installation. When Mr. Consumer, who was present at the initial selection of the carpet, saw what was delivered to his house he said it was not what they picked out. The dealer had the installer check the label on the carpet and that information matched what the dealer had written down. At this point everyone was upset. The dealer left a message with the contractor and in their words, “we told him the job had gone south.” 30 minutes later the installer calls back and informs the dealer that Mrs. Consumer had arrived home and authorized the carpet to be installed. The carpet went in, a custom built bed was re-assembled (four man hours worth) and everything was fine - or was it?

A few days later the contractor calls and tells the dealer they installed the wrong carpet. Mind you, this guy has never seen what they picked out, has no idea what it was and wouldn’t know if he was looking at the right or wrong carpet if it meant saving his life. He proceeds to give the dealer an outrageous bill for labor to re-install new carpet, which he wants the dealer to order and pay the labor for everything, including bed tear down and assembly. The dealer thinks that when the new carpet was installed it was a bit too light for their tastes. The consumers claim not to remember what they picked out but they do remember that it was not the honeysuckle color. The dealer added that Mr. Consumer was old and crotchety. On top of all this the carpet ordered matched the store sample exactly.

This should make you upset; there was only 32 yards of carpet on this job at $6.00 per yard, that’s $192.00 worth of carpet at dealer cost. Labor for the bed was $250.00! The dealer asked for help and wanted to know what to do.

At this point there’s not much they can do because there was nothing in writing that the consumer or contractor got that would prove the consumer received what they had chosen. The dealer wrote the information down and put it in a folder but no one else got any copies because this was not an ordinary type sale. There is no proof that what arrived is what was ordered even though it matched the sample perfectly. No sales order was written, verified, signed off on or furnished to the contractor or consumer, because of this the dealer has almost no recourse. They have no choice but to give in because fighting this case will cost more than the replacement, including all labor. The dealer is right but they’re also wrong, do you know why? There’s no paper trail.

Every sale, no matter to who for what, has to have a paper trail - documentation to verify information, selection and details. Without the paper, and a copy for everyone involved in a sale, no matter how many parties, there’s no proof of anything, it’s only your word against the consumers and the consumer will win that fight every time. You must go over the order, show them the sample(s) again, make sure it’s what they picked, go over any details and get a deposit or full payment up front. When you receive the material compare it to the store sample, make sure it’s right, call the customer to let them know the carpet’s in, that you checked it against the sample, that it is the same and that you want to verify the installation date. Too many times the wrong carpet gets to the installation site because it wasn’t verified against the sample, even if the case isn’t like this one.

This is a valuable lesson to learn. Always document everything in every sale and give copies to the consumer and go over the information with them to insure it’s correct and then have them sign it. This is good business, it’s not a burden and it certainly will help you avoid problems like this. My book “Flooring: Problems to Profits” will help you too, order your copy now.