I got a call from a dealer I know, the other day and he told me about an experience he had with a manufacturer that he thought was worth sharing with you.

This particular dealer caters to a very affluent clientele and most of his work is through designers, which makes this situation all the more bizarre. The carpet in question is a high end brand name that he’s carried for years. It is a multi-level loop, tufted pattern, nylon product. This carpet is installed in the master bedroom of a home occupied by an elderly couple – they are the only two people who live here.

The problem with this carpet, as it was explained to me, is that the pattern in the traffic areas is walking out after a short period of time. The dealer has sold this carpet for years, into a number of installations and never had a problem with it before. He filed a claim with the manufacturer who would not entertain the complaint stating that they were not responsible for the materials used in the carpet. He was told he’d have to go to the material supplier, in this case one of the brand name fiber suppliers and file his claim with them. He couldn’t believe this response from the mill, nor could I.

The query posed at this point was, “this must mean the manufacturer isn’t responsible for the backing, latex, or dyestuffs used in the carpet either.” I suppose that if any structural component of the carpet fails, that the mill did not make, you’ll have to contact whoever supplied it to file a claim. How absurd! The fiber supplier did not design, engineer or produce the carpet, nor did they market or sell it. The position taken by the carpet manufacturer would be like an automobile manufacturer saying to their dealer or end user, “we only build the car from parts supplied by our vendors, if you have a problem with any of the parts, you’ll have to go complain to our supplier.” If this makes any sense to you then you’re on the same drugs as the person at the mill. Is it me, or are we starting to hear more stupid stuff like this as an excuse not to have to deal with a complaint from a dealer. More and more similar scenarios repeat themselves. You folks, as retail dealers are told you’re the only ones having the problem you’re having; no one else is complaining. In fact, what is more often true is that the majority of the dealers are complaining about the same thing everyone else is experiencing.

Getting back to the original story, if this is not a legitimate complaint or concern for the manufacturer, since the dealer has sold lots of this carpet and never had this problem before, then what is? Wouldn’t you think they’d like to know if they’ve all of a sudden got a problem with this product? Furthermore, the carpet is installed in one of the lowest traffic areas of a house and used by only two older people. The most glaring abnormality in this case is that this is a loop pile nylon carpet, which should have extremely high resiliency. Why then is it doing what it’s doing, when it didn’t do it in the past?

This may actually be a fluke for this carpet failing to perform as it has. It’s possible the yarn is not plied as tightly as it has been before, maybe they changed the fiber, the pile height could be higher than is normal for the product, all of these thoughts are plausible because these types of things happen in carpet manufacturing. The fiber manufacturer is certainly not going to find a problem with the carpet. Since the pattern is walking out the fiber manufacturers warranty will not cover this event unless there is actually abrasive wear, which never happens with a nylon carpet, and certainly not in this application. The fiber producer does not warrant pattern walk out, which could be interpreted as matting and crushing. And this is what’s actually happening here, compression of the carpet face. This is a normal occurrence you may say but with this carpet, based on the dealers experience with this particular product, it has not happened before so it is abnormal. He wouldn’t have filed the complaint if this was a common performance characteristic of this product.

But, alas, the claims person didn’t care. They didn’t care that he is one of their better dealers, that they have a high end brand name and reputation to protect or that anyone was satisfied at all in this case. Just pass this along, so it could be turned down and move on to the next victim. One fact I’ll add, for what it’s worth. With all the price increases occurring in the industry, and I don’t question their validity one bit, retailers are going to be expecting more responsibility from the manufacturers. The relationship between the manufacturer and retailer is fragile as it is and it won’t take much to fracture it completely at this rate. Passing the buck and dodging responsibility is not the way to strengthen this relationship.