I give them 3.75 stars.
Customer service AT THE SHOP was a bit rocky at first, but after another employee interjected, things went more smoothly. I'll withhold names. All I'll say is, the greeting and approach could've gone better. However, after the second person joined us in conversation, everything went smoothly. The first person was much sweeter after that. In fact, he provided stellar customer service after that day.
The shop is on the tinier side, but I didn't mind since they had a decent selection of engineered wood, real wood, laminate wood, vinyl, and luxury vinyl floors. They also have a good variety of carpets.
I paid for Noble Hall engineered wood, half of the price upfront and the remaining half after installation. We agreed to a date and time for the installation.
The day of the installation, they came late by an hour and a half. They explained that the store wasn't opened yet for them to pick up what they needed. Mm, okay, but they still could've arrived 30 min. earlier. Plus, they came late again, by an hour, the second day they were supposed to come. I'll get to that later.
So the contractor arrives and does a seemingly great job all around. His customer service was good and he was efficient (maybe 3 hours for about 400 sq. ft.). Unfortunately for me, I also had a security alarm guy at the house setting up. All three of us chatted a little, and the security guy and I agreed that the contractor did a good job. Then, the contractor left, and soon after, the security guy left. That's when I saw the contractor's work in detail.
The contractor left so many splinters behind on my new floor as well as on my carpeted stairs. There was some sawdust around as well. The transition on the quarter round also didn't look good on a few of them. They either were cut poorly or awkardly, had random splinters, or had holes from the nails. One of the quarter rounds had a nail sticking out! The first thing I thought of was, "Thank God my nephews aren't here! Their toes or heels might've bled by accident from it."
I texted the first person I spoke to at the store before and he kindly reassured me that they would take care of it and gave me Sam's number. I guess he's the boss or something. Very long story short, I called him, he told me to email him with photos, I emailed him and asked for new quarter rounds, there was miscommunication with the contractor and me, I got angry and emailed Sam, and Sam swiftly took care of it. There was also lots of frustration between me and the contractor, partly because there was a language barrier (he's Korean and knows little English).
The second time the contractor came to my place, he was late by an hour. He took a look at the quarter rounds I complained about and simply snapped off the nail and hammered in the rest of the nail, scuffing the wood and making it even more ugly. Mind you, this is just ONE of the quarter rounds I complained about. He hadn't addressed the others.
In disbelief, I asked "That's IT?!" As in, that's really all you can do? He laughed, shrugged, smiled, and said "That's it!" At that point, I was pissed. I told him how I asked for new quarter rounds and thought he was gonna give me new ones to replace all the quarter rounds with the nail sticking out, the splinters sticking out, and the sharp edges of the quarter round sticking out from it being awkwardly cut and shaped. He said no, I have to pay for that.
I was so mad and said it should be free since he didn't do it right the first time and that he was wasting my time that I should be spending at work. I explained that for the money I spent (over $3k), I should have beautiful floors with no damages from the beginning.
He left and I contacted Sam again with all my complaints. Thank God Sam is a patient and understanding man. He had the contractor return days later to replace the messed up quarter rounds, for FREE. I inspected all the quarter rounds before the contractor left and verified that they were done to my satisfaction. The contractor was WAY more pleasant during that visit. He was polite and didn't argue with me like the last time he came over.
Sam rescued the day!! I am now very happy with my engineered wood floors!!
Before I forget, I would like to note that Yelp shows that their page on Yelp has a "100% response rate" and says they respond within 2 hrs. on average. That's a lie, because when I reached out for help on the messed up quarter rounds, I NEVER got a response. They either never read my message on Yelp, or they ignored me.
Back to Sam, it is because of Sam that I am giving them more than two stars, and it is because of the frustrating experience I had, the arguments, and the initial impression I got at the store why I am not giving them a 4/5 rating. My final rating is 3.75. I boosted it from 3.25 because Sam really did his best to make me happy.
If you want to support this small business, just please CHECK their final work before they leave!! read more