Whenever business slows down, claims increase and the creativity level follows suit. What does that mean? Flooring dealers may be more ambitious and imaginative in their efforts to force a manufacturer to honor a complaint they think is legitimate - but may not be.

The product is a carpet tile being installed in a retirement home. This is the first time this dealer has used the product. The tile being installed is a replacement for another manufacturer's previously installed tile. The manufacturer's technical representative went to the job site to work with the contractor to get the job started, which is not uncommon for a large commercial installation. There was no problem at that time, and it was believed the job would go well. This was not the case.

The flooring contractor later contacted the manufacturer to explain as he worked with the carpet tiles he did not think the edges looked good, so he decided to cut one inch off all four sides of every tile. Remember, the technical rep was on the job site at the beginning of the project, the tiles looked good and there was no complaint by anyone to the contrary. But the flooring contractor did not think the edges looked good, and he didn't contact anyone prior to cutting off the edges.

After the edges were cut off - an amazingly laborious undertaking -the flooring contractor called the manufacturer and wanted reimbursement for the labor. The manufacturer told the dealer he shouldn't have cut off the edges and would not pay for something that was totally unnecessary. More amazing was there was no argument on the part of the flooring contractor because he just said, "OK, I thought I'd try."

This story is true. The dealer did not have a great deal of experience working with commercial products and less with carpet tile. Why he would even think to cut the four edges off every carpet tile on a job that consisted of several hundred yards of carpet is beyond my wildest imagination. How he could think the manufacturer was going to pay for it is even more crazy. This is akin to cutting a perfectly good 12-footwide roll of carpet down to 10 feet because you didn't like the way the edges looked. How many manufacturers would pay labor for that?

The fact that this situation fringes on insanity just goes to show how ridiculous things can get in the flooring industry when the economy slows down. The vultures circle the jobs and pounce when they think they have a chance at a meal. This guy had no business being on this job. Can you imagine the work involved to cut every tile to be installed?

I'll be the first to come to your defense when you have an absolutely legitimate complaint that you're getting the run around on and help you determine what the problem is and how to resolve it. But when claims are contrived to cover your shortcomings, that's when you should be made to suffer the consequences of your own follies.

While you have more time on your hands from business being slow, it might be a good idea to make an effort to educate yourselves on the products you sell, how they should be installed, how better to sell them and how to operate your business to increase profits and minimize losses, particularly from claims. We all have to be creative right now and look for every opportunity to make money, but try not to be as "creative" as the dealer in this story.