Lumber Liquidator and bellawood

Revised complaint

We purchased 682sq.ft of Brazilian Teak Select and spent almost $4,000. We

have defective flooring. The wood has milling issues, some of it is shaped

like a trapezoid and almost all of it has different widths, not noticeable

to the eye. We also learned the wood has high moisture content, and now

believe the wood may have not been dried completely during manufacturing. We

contacted LL at the beginning of our installation about the small gaps; we

didn’t quite understand that it was a milling issue, but that lines weren’t

nice. We were told to use wood filler and that they wouldn't take it back

because it was a nonstock item. After more complaining the man said they'd

take back the unopened boxes for a 20% restocking fee. Twenty percent would

be about $800.00. The gaps from the milling weren’t obvious at first. Over

the past few months the gaps from the milling issue are now visually

noticeable and the wood is warping. The company has admitted to the milling

issues but refuses to honor their Warranty. We asked for a refund and when

the defect became known to their customer care team, they offered us less

than 20% for product replacement, claiming that the flooring is our problem

because we unknowingly installed their defective product, which they refused

to take back!!! When we contacted the BBB they revoked their offer. I

estimate the cost that I will incure to fix the problem with their defective

product will run me a little over $15,000 for removal and reinstallation.

These defects were not noticeable to the eye. I feel it’s completely

unreasonable that I should have known their product well enough to determine

it was defective. The installation instructions don’t require consumers to

check the wood flooring for moisture content or the milling. In my opinion,

by their logic those that purchase their product need to be experts and

catch defects the manufacturer couldn’t, yet they market to

Do-it-Yourselfers.

Second if you do have a problem with their product they use contradictory

text in different locations and you feel like you unknowingly bought into

this. On a customers receipt it is printed that the item is nonstock and

cannot be returned, in another location that there will be a 20% restocking

fee and in yet another location that there is "100% satisfaction Guarantee"

but if you install it you are accepting the product (with all it's defects).

I have been pointed to all three of these conflicting statements, but the

last after it was installed and the problem became obvious.

Gary Daniels

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Comment On This

What exactly do you think the word LIQUIDATOR means? Lumber Liquidator liquidates lumber. By its very nature you should expect it to be secondary product... That's why you got such a great deal. People who pay full retail for defective product have room to complain. People who pay liquidation prices should expect to make up the difference with sweat equity or creative installation techniques.

Comment On This

I have the same problem with the same exact wood species. I have ordered 1365 sq' for my entire house and more than 75 percent of the order is defective. Many of the boards lose 1/8th of inch or more from one end of the board to the other. I have been fighting with LL about how to resolve this and the best i have been able to get them to do is replace some of the order with a diffrent width and i have to pick through my order and find pieces that are not defective to install. my ordeal is still not over but i will never use nor recommend LL again.