We bought a berber carpet from Buddy's in Florence after shopping several other suppliers. The sales rep, Ron, was very knowledgeable and straight forward - unlike some others we visited. We were very excited about replacing our old carpet that had been damaged when a water pipe burst during the polar vortex.
We were also having some painting done at the time and to complicate manners had some family visiting from California, for perhaps a once in a lifetime trip, and had struggled to have everything completed prior to their arrival. Unfortunately our install was scheduled on the second day of their week long visit.
We moved everything out of our den into our kitchen the night before the carpet was scheduled to be installed (with our couch standing upright on end) - with all our furniture and everything else we needed to move we could not get into our kitchen whatsoever. We had also scheduled the installers to stretch the carpet (from a different vendor's installation) in our living room as well and had everything from it in our foyer.
On the morning of the day (Tuesday) the carpet was to be installed the service manager, Kim, called and said that when they had opened the carpet they had discovered a stain and it would need to be reordered. I asked when I could expect that to take place and she said she could not tell me then, but when she had a chance to talk to the supplier in Georgia, she would call me back - she left me believing that would be that morning sometime.
When I heard nothing from her, I called the next day and spoke to the sales rep, Ron, and he said there was nothing that HE could do that I needed to talk to Kim.
She finally called me back that afternoon and told me that they would install the carpet on Saturday - the day our family was returning to California.
That Tuesday the installers did show up to stretch our carpet in the living room, on which they did a great job, and were VERY apologetic about not being able to install the new carpet we had ordered (note they are third-party contractors and not employees of Buddy's).
Needless to say that when we found out when our carpet was to be installed, we could not realistically move everything out of our kitchen back into the den and our house was in complete disarray the entire time our visitors were in town - we had to make special arrangements to eat out every night and could not visit with them in our home as we expected.
We were once small business owners, having lost our fledgling business during the great recession, and are reasonable and understanding people. We understand more than others how things sometimes go and although, after pressing, Buddy's did send us a check for a mere $150, it was really not adequate compensation for the aggravation they caused.
What really infuriates me though and prompts me to take the time to write this review is the way they handled the whole situation and the overall attitude of ALL their employees.
Not once during the whole ordeal did ANYONE say to me, "sorry Mr. Customer for the inconvenience this has caused you", which may have been sufficient, but which would have been reinforced by further saying "something like this never or ever rarely happens and we do sincerely apologize" etc. etc...
I note that they could have examined our carpet well before the day of the install to ensure they could easily meet their commitment to us (and we would have not moved our furniture when we did)...
After I mentioned to Ron that his Service Manager Kim had not apologized and had been somewhat curt, and that actually the only people that had said anything were the installers... I gave him ample time to respond, and even when I hinted and prompted him; he did not take my bait to apologize either but merely said it was out of his control.
After making him aware of his failure to apologize as well or to say anything regarding the situation, I asked to whom the store reported and he said he would have his District Manger call me - from whom I never heard!
With the entire staff's attitude, I can only surmise this happens all the time.
It will be a long time before I ever even consider shopping at Buddy's again - it seems in particular the service manager has been there over 25 years and one might have thought she, as a Service Manager, might have been a little more "customer service focused".
For transparency, we purchased our carpet the summer of 2016 and I was delayed in posting this until I verified names - I have only had the time until now to complete this, but note that as I have taken the time to do so at this late date it surely speaks to how disappointed I am in the way I was treated by Buddy's.
Tom and Beth read more
