Starting in December 2008, Custom Decorators created a problem for me which has not be resolved. My carpeting (purchased through Costco) was originally installed seven or eight years ago. It was in excellent condition, according to one of the reps from Custom Decorators. I had a very large roll of extra carpeting because the original installers made a mistake (specifically, they did not follow the instructions given to them by Custom Decorators) and had to redo most of the job.
My husband died on the carpet in July 2006, and I could never get the stains out. I called Custom Decorators. For a fee of $100 they would send a person to see whether I had enough in the left-over roll to replace the stained carpeting in my back hall. I agreed to the fee. Someone measured and said I had enough. I agreed to the fee for installation.
Carpet layers came and botched the job. I did not have enough carpeting, and the pile on the piece I did have went in the wrong direction. I specifically told them I did not want a seam in the middle of the hall. Nevertheless, the carpet was laid with a seam in the hall.
When I called Custom Decorators, I learned that their contractor who had installed the piece, Coverall, had gone out of business.
Thus began an eight-month struggle with Custom Decorators to fix the botched job. To exacerbate an already unsatisfactory situation, the dye lot of my original carpeting was no longer available. It took months to come up with something vaguely close to the original. I was very unhappy, but something had to be done.
Because my den was one of the areas that needed re-carpeting, my bookcases were dissembled. I had boxes of book and CDs and knick-knacks all over the house, including the kitchen, dining room, living room, my office, and my bedroom. After EIGHT months of living in complete chaos, I reluctantly agreed to have the closest possible color carpeting installed. I mean RELUCTANTLY. They kept telling me I had no other choice and it was the best they could do. I felt like I was being beaten up emotionally by the company. My only choice, they said, was to live with the first job or agree to having a mismatched piece installed. I caved. Enough was enough.
I wish I could say it helped. It did not. I am miserably unhappy. The match is noticeably poor. The seams are awful. George from Custom Decorators came here to repair the hole in the ceiling the carpet installers made when they took apart the bookcase. He saw the bad seams, and he tried to make them look better by combing over them. Well, the seams were done poorly and they will never look good, no matter home many attempts are made. Plus, the carpet in the hall does not match the original carpeting, and the mismatch is obvious.
I got embroiled and victimized by this because I was assured I had enough of the original carpeting for the job. Had the person who measured my extra roll told me the truth--to wit: you don't have enough to do the job without a seam, and the pile on what you do have will lay in the wrong direction--I never would have proceeded.
Now I have a mess, which has devalued my home. Every day I looki at the botched job and wish I could turn back the clock to the day the Custom Decorators representative who measured the carpet had told me the truth.
I have reported this to Costco. Costco spoke to Joe at Custom Decorators in Portand. They're satisfied. I'm not, but I have to live with this.
It will NEVER look better.
I had a realtor here this week to give me an estimate and advice. The first thing she noticed was the bad carpeting job. "It looks like pieced-together remnants that don't match."
I am a senior citizen and a widow. I simply do not have the strength to open initiate another protracted battle with Custom Decorators, especially after living in chaos for eight months last year. They ruined my carpeting, but the "best they could do for me" was to give me another botched job.
What do I want? I want Custom Decorators to have enough integrity to install matched carpeting in three rooms and a hall. It was their mistake.
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