Ruben's Hardwood Floors did a horrible job on our hardwood floors not once but twice!
Last summer we hired them to do the floors in the whole house and they had to refinish them twice because of blotchy and uneven color. The edges of the floor turned out many shades darker due to what Ruben called "problems with his sanders". The uneven sanding led to darker and lighter patches of color throughout the floors. This was not due to different grains in the wood, this was due to poor workmanship. After consulting several wood experts and learning that uneven sanding equipment and sand paper was to blame for the problems, Ruben Sr. acknowledged the poor workmanship and redid it. Even after redoing the job, the workmanship was still not good and the floor color was blotchy throughout the house. With a move in date looming we just ate the poor workmanship and moved in figuring we cover them with area rugs and runners. Had it ended with uneven color, I would not be complaining here, but it got worse, much worse.
After a few months of living in the home, we started noticing the varnish and stain coming off around the edges of many floorboards and some boards even starting to crack. Mind you, this is not the typical gapping that happens with weather changes, but full on cracking. Over the last months the varnish and stain has continued to peel off and our floors look awful. Recently I brought in three different floor contractors in to look at our floors and each of them remarked how horrible the color was and noted the blotchiness. Moreover, they all said Ruben's workmanship with the varnish was done incorrectly and that is why the stain and varnish were starting to come off throughout the floor. They all gave me bids for over two thousand dollars to re-sand, stain and varnish the floors in the worse part of the house.
As all this has been transpiring over the last months, I have called Ruben Sr. and left him messages and texted him. He never responded. Finally, a couple weeks ago I wrote out a very long email and included more than a dozen photos of the floor problems. I also included a couple bids for the repair by reputable floor people. I emailed him and texted him saying he needed to get back to me. That night, Ruben Sr.'s son, Ruben Jr., finally responded. Sadly, his son started off our conversation disputing how many times I had called his dad, denying that I had made several attempts. Then he began saying how wonderful they are and how they never have problems. According to him I am the only customer they've ever had who has complained about problems with their floors. Ruben Jr. went on and on and this just infuriated me. Honestly, this is not the way you handle customer service with someone who has had nothing but problems with your company and has just sent you dozens of photos showing you just how bad your workmanship was. I finally cut him off in the conversation. I was done. His denial and sales pitch just made me realizing that there was no point in trying to resolve this with him because his mission was to tell me how great he and his company and he was never going to acknowledge the problems with the floor, rather he would just try and deny or underplay the problems. After I cut him off, Ruben Jr. asked to come over and look at the floors and "talk about it" but at this point I was done listening to his dog and pony show. I knew that "Talk about it" meant denial and downplay. After all, what is he going to say? "They look great" , "We're a wonderful company". Instead I told him I sent photos and bids, and I have videos of the floors if he wanted to see those. He said "No!" Then "a family friend", a woman I had never spoken to in my life, got on the phone and also started talking about how they had to come over, etc. Never once did Ruben Sr. get on the phone and speak to me, even though I speak fluent Spanish. What a sad attempt to "resolve" matters it is when the owner of the company won't even speak to you. I would never, ever use them to repair the mess they made here, especially with their track record.
After my conversation with Ruben Jr. on the phone, I contacted the friend that referred me to Ruben. She couldn't believe how badly this whole thing went. Over the last couple years, she has referred more than $20,000 worth of work to his company. She too sent Ruben and email and told him how terrible my floors look and that he should pay to have someone come in and repair my floors. He never responded to her.
What a nightmare experience this has been with Ruben's Hardwood Flooring.
Their workmanship was terrible and my recent customer service follow up with his son has was horrendous. I would not recommend them to anyone. Everything I have written here is documented. read more
