Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Jan 06, 2008 2:50 am We just made a very expensive mistake.
After looking around for a while we found some carpet that we liked and the salesman put pressure on us to pay a deposit on the 'sale' carpet before we left the store. We found out a week later that they are charging us more than $500 extra than the normal price charged by other carpet companies for the same carpet and underlay We spoke to the salesman (NOT a nice person) who said they don't promise to be cheaper than anyone else ... it is just on sale in their own store. What a joke. It is virtually impossible for us to find out what they are charging for laying versus carpet supply. We are furious but apparently we can't do anything about it as we signed a contract. Have spoken to consumer affairs and they advise us that we should try and severe the contract but will probably lose our depost ($850). Suffice to say I'd love to tell you who the carpet dealer is but as we will be taking them to small claims court we should probably be discreet. I can't believe they can be so disreputable. How infuriating ... and I thought we were pretty savvy in terms of shopping around and getting good prices on most of our household items!!! Re: Our experience with carpet 2Jan 06, 2008 7:00 am Have you taken a floor plan into the store and got them to quote off that?
That’s the way to see what they are charging for what. If the carpet is say….$175 per lineal mt……by getting your floor plan quoted and a final mt count on carpet from the plan…..you then know how much they are charging extra. All carpet is usually sold for 1 price…..carpet, laying & underlay all included in the price you see on the price header. Work it out yourself……0ff a plan 100 x 50 scale……carpet comes 3.66 mt wide. Measure your rooms on the plan……its easy….then divide it by the price they have charged you. There will be wastage in the carpet….but it will give you a rough gauge. Let me know, I’m curious of the outcome. By the way, disgusting behaviour from them…….go sick em! Good luck! Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: Our experience with carpet 3Jan 06, 2008 7:27 am Warning alarms always start ringing in my head if anyone tries to pressure me to sign anything. There's rarely a deal that can't wait a day or two. Re: Our experience with carpet 4Jan 06, 2008 10:18 am Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh that makes me angry....
Have you brought up Today Tonight or A Current Affair. Believe me it would NOT be worth the bad plublicity for them to "rip you off" like this!!!!! You never know, it might be worth a call...just to find out if they would be interested???? I am not one for staying quiet, i think most of you will know me by now.... I am assuming you have met with the Store Manager... If it is a national chain of stores, then go to or contact the Head Office and make the complaint there, or else speak with the Store Owner if it's a small place.... Please let us know how you go...come one give us a hint as to who it is???? Read your contract very carefully is there any loophole that you can slip through??? We're all with you here....please let us know how you go!!!! Re: Our experience with carpet 5Jan 06, 2008 10:59 am Ouch - DeeElle.
Good luck with the smalls claims dept. If they are $500 more expensive and you've paid $850 it's not going to help by pulling out unfortunately, unless you can get your deposit back. and as per Cabin fever - Unless you know it really IS a bargain, it can wait till another day or 2 to you suss out the others before you sign the contract. Poor sales technique on their part and yes we'd like to know which side of town at least But don't do it till you know where you are at with getting your own position in the issue sorted. Steve Re: Our experience with carpet 6Jan 06, 2008 12:03 pm Hi DeeElle,
Its important to keep a level head here..... Firstly, I'm appalled that a salesperson is applying pressure sales. It is quite rare these days (thankfully). Certainly, go straight to the head of the carpet retail store you're dealing with, BUT its important you do your homework and be in possession of proper facts & figures first. ARE YOU COMPARING APPLES WITH APPLES? Depending on your floor-plan, carpets may be quoted in different ways (where seams are, etc). So, one store might quote you for 20 Lm of carpet at $4000 with minimal seams, and another may quote $3600, supplying 18 Lm of the same carpet, but with several more seams to make it fit. I'd suggest the first quote would be offered by a more professional contractor, in this case. So, look closely and rationally at the terms of the proposed installation before you jump to conclusions. If after you have analysed the details and are sure you've been screwed, present your case to them, and tell them you want out of the contract. I believe that any contract like this is subject to a 'cooling off period'. If you are within this period (small claims tribunal should be able to advise, and it should be stated on the contract anyway) you should be able to get out of the deal. If however, you are beyond the c/o period, well you may well be bound by the contract. Even then, you may be able to renegotiate the price if you play your cards right. Good luck with it! Ash. Re: Our experience with carpet 7Jan 06, 2008 2:13 pm Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement
Keeping a level head is definitely required but I am absolutely furious inside. Would love to give that salesmanager a piece of my mind but he is so unprofessional it would probably escalate beyond repair I keep thinking what we could have spent that $500 on ... it is a lesson well learned. In our defense we wanted to shore up our selections and just be done with it. Three carpet companies gave us quotes for the same carpet and style, & quoted on 26 lineal metres on premium underlay (different underlay but fairly comparable). Two came in at around the same price ... our guy was $500 over everyone else. They all had the house plans to quote from. You're right of course, alarm bells were going off at the salesmanagers tactics (yes his is the manager unfortunately). We should have waited for a couple of days, but my husband rang one of his tradespeople while we were in the store, who said it was a good quality carpet and the base carpet price was good so we went for it. The price tag said it was reduced by about $40 per lm. What we didn't know was that they are overcharging for laying by more than $500. We will be going to the Director on Monday but I would guess that he will be forewarned and forearmed and will support his Manager. Western suburbs Re: Our experience with carpet 10Jan 07, 2008 10:58 am So you put a deposit down and then found a cheaper price elsewhere?
Did the salesman claim that their price was the cheapest available? The only thing that I see here is that the salesman put pressure on you to put down a deposit immediately but that is fairly common practice and very hard to prove. Bummer that you have found it $500 cheaper elsewhere but you were happy with the price before you knew this. Forget legal action, you haven't got a chance, different underlay and installation means that you havent even got a like for like product and no evidence of deliberate deception. Stick with trying to shame the company and try to be a right royal pain in the rear (call every day etc) and they may just deciede that it is just not worth it. Good Luck Re: Our experience with carpet 11Jan 07, 2008 1:29 pm 3timesbuilda So you put a deposit down and then found a cheaper price elsewhere? Did the salesman claim that their price was the cheapest available? The only thing that I see here is that the salesman put pressure on you to put down a deposit immediately but that is fairly common practice and very hard to prove. Bummer that you have found it $500 cheaper elsewhere but you were happy with the price before you knew this. Forget legal action, you haven't got a chance, different underlay and installation means that you havent even got a like for like product and no evidence of deliberate deception. Stick with trying to shame the company and try to be a right royal pain in the rear (call every day etc) and they may just deciede that it is just not worth it. Good Luck Our main issue is the attitude of the salesmanager .. yes he promised it was the cheapest but that would also be hard to prove. We spoke to the Director today who is considering returning our deposit and has apologized for the salesmanager. We'll see how we go. Re: Our experience with carpet 12Jan 08, 2008 9:37 pm Update on the situation.
Director of the company gave us personal service. We selected a great carpet that we are happy with ... price is excellent. So it is worthwhile complaining about ******* service ... as long as you keep your cool (hard to do sometimes) Re: Our experience with carpet 14Jan 09, 2008 6:29 am Very good!!!! Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com I second taking your plans elsewhere. They're yours (unless you ended up in one of those cheaper arrangements where you don't own the rights and the build will be tendered… 2 803 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 54997 Hey Mate, I faced the same issue that you are facing. My builder left my house incomplete after going through liquidation. In… 1 22506 |