Carpet Exchange Scam

This is a long story but the bottom line is you would be better off NOT dealing with these people. Here is a copy of a letter I sent to the store manager:

On June 15th I started working with sales associate Abbey to have new carpet installed in my home. Abbey assured me that Carpet Exchange could beat any deal and have it installed in 3-4 days instead of 3-4 weeks. I faxed my quote from Home Depot to Abbey. The quote contained all details of carpet type, color, padding, etc. After several days Abbey was unable to provide a quote, kept calling to get additional information (after it had already been given to her), and finally came back with a quote that was $200 over what Home Depot quoted me. I told her I would rather go with Home Depot and wait a couple weeks than pay an extra $200. Abbey sighed and got rather irritated. Abbey did not agree and felt that time was worth more than $200. This was Thursday June 18th. She then said she would have to talk to her boss and get back to me�in a quite unfriendly tone. Several hours later she called back and hung up on me! Several hours more passed and she called again and said someone had walked into the room as she was calling me so she could not talk at that time.

By now I was frustrated because a week had already gone by and my only incentive thus far was that Carpet Exchange was supposedly much faster than Home Depot.

I copied the below guarantee from the Carpet Exchange website.

PRICE

Because of our incredible buying power at Carpet Exchange, we're able to bring you the lowest prices in town. In fact, we guarantee it. We'll beat any competitor's price quote by a full 10%. That way you

can focus all of your attention on picking out the perfect flooring for your home, instead of wondering whether you could have gotten a better deal.

This guarantee was never met.

Home depot quoted me $4,993.73 after tax, installation, removal, etc. The Carpet exchange quote was a few dollars more than this (after the additional $200 was taken off the original quote) with the added incentive of a speedy install. According to your guarantee my price should roughly be $4494.36 after tax, installation, removal, etc...not $5000.

All this aside, I was willing to just get the job done so I made the deposit of $2500. Abbey stated she would order the carpet and call back with my install date. This is still on June 18th.

On Monday June 22nd I had still had not heard back from Abbey regarding an install date so I called her. That is when she told me the carpet had not been ordered yet!

Abbey then made the order and said the carpet may come in the same week and could possibly have it installed Saturday June 27th, but she would call back with a definite answer.

By Friday June 26th I was getting frustrated since Abbey had not called me, so once again I made the phone call. It was Abbey�s day off of course so I talked to another associate (I believe his name was Chuck but I am not sure). This person said the carpet had already come in the day before and seemed to be confused as to why an install was not already scheduled. The installation was eventually scheduled for Saturday after several more phone calls from Carpet Exchange. They needed to know what color the carpet was, who came out to do the measuring, etc.

Saturday finally came around and the installer showed up at 12:30pm as opposed to 10:30am like I was told. He did not have the correct carpet, had far inferior padding, insufficient amount of tack-strips, and no paperwork explaining the layout of my house, measurements, etc. The installer also stated he waited at the shop for three hours since nobody was able to find my carpet.

Needless to say I was now quite upset after having moved all my furniture into the kitchen, garage, bathrooms, and everywhere else. This is not an easy task for me as I lost my left arm and have other physical disabilities from injuries sustained in Iraq. The installers left and I began moving furniture...again.

Naturally I was on the phone with Carpet Exchange explaining the situation. It was being explained away as a simple ordering mishap. I do not for one second believe this to be true. I believe Abbey and her associates intended to scam me in order to beat Home Depot�s price and still make a large profit. No way should the installer have shown up with the wrong carpet AND the wrong padding. Both were completely inferior to what I had ordered...inferior and far cheaper. I am guessing nobody thought I would notice. This is what upsets me more than anything else. I was already on high alert because of some of the remarks Abbey made and the tone she used. The first thing I did when the installer arrived was match up the carpet and padding with the samples I got from Home Depot.

I am now waiting�once again�for a call back on Monday to see if the correct carpet is in stock. While waiting I decided to see if this sort of thing is common for Carpet exchange and found several complaints online as well as the following from the BBB:

BBB processed a total of 21 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 21 complaints closed in 36 months, 5 were closed in the last year.

These complaints concerned :

2 regarding Billing or Collection Issues

1 - Improper collection practices

1 - None of the Above - Credit, Billing or Collection Complaint Issue

1 regarding Contract Issues

1 - None of the Above - Contract Complaint Issue

4 regarding Customer Service Issues

1 - Failure to provide promised assistance or support for products or services

1 - Inappropriate behavior by customer service personnel

2 - None of the Above - Customer Service Complaint Issue

3 regarding Guarantee or Warranty Issues

2 - Failure to honor service under the terms of warranties

1 - None of the Above - Guarantee or Warranty Complaint Issue

3 regarding Product Issues

2 - Defective, damaged, or incorrect product received

1 - None of the Above - Product Quality Complaint Issue

2 regarding Refund or Exchange Issues

2 - Failure to honor promised refunds, exchanges, or credit

1 regarding Sales Practice Issues

1 - Sales presentation used dishonest sales practices

5 regarding Service Issues

Hopefully my experience is an uncommon one. At this point I see no reason to continue doing business with Carpet Exchange without extraordinary incentive. Had I gone with Home Depot in the first place I would probably have my new carpet this week sometime.

So...the manager called me back after this and tried to word-smith his way out of it. He said the guarantee is only to match the price of the carpet. Well, this is NOT what is advertised on the website. The website says they will beat any quote by 10%. He had no response for anything else. When I asked about the padding being far inferior I got silence. He tried to explain the carpet away as a small ordering mishap. I did get my money refunded another week later. Very poor business ethic!

Hopefully this helps someone...BEWARE!!!