Last year, John and Andrea Counts decided to take on the flooring project in their home themselves.
Both are teachers and thought doing it themselves could save them a lot of money. Andrea turned to her laptop and found a good deal through the website FastFloors.com.
“We spent $1,200 so I wanted to make sure we got our money’s worth,” she said.
Andrea said she called FastFloors to ask for a sample and was told the company doesn’t provide flooring samples for small orders but was assured it would be the right flooring. But, when the flooring arrived, John and Andrea said there was a big problem.
“I opened up the box and I pulled out the color and I said this is the wrong color,” John said.
John and Andrea said the company had sent them a darker, different shade than what they had ordered. When they connected with FastFloors customer service, they said the company told them they got what they paid for.
“Your story is very common,” Dave McCowan, a local flooring expert with ProSource Flooring and told John and Andrea. “Your computer screen does not necessarily depict the actual color that you’re going to get,” he said.
Local
When it comes to something like hardwood flooring, a product varying in shades, types or sizes, experts say your best route is to buy in person. If you can’t pass up a deal online, they say to always make sure to order a sample first before placing a large order.
The Counts told us they should have looked past a good deal they saw online and made sure they could get a sample to compare to their flooring at home before they placed their order.
Consumer Reports published a consumer guide to purchasing flooring. To see the guide, click here.
To see how NBC 7 Responds helped the Counts, watch the story above.
In an email, Fast-Floors General Manager Tony Cuozzo told us, “The material that was shipped to Mrs. Counts was the correct material...We do our very best to insure (sic) customers are satisfied. In this case, if the customer did not obtain a sample and now is not happy with the product, our remedies are limited.."
To read the full statement from Fast-Floors, click here.
