Whenever business slows down claims increase and the creativity level follows suit. What does that mean? Flooring dealers may be more ambitious and imaginative in their efforts to force a manufacturer to honor a complaint they think is legitimate but may not be. Following is a case in point from a commercial installation.
The product is a carpet tile being installed in a retirement home. This is the first time this flooring dealer has used the product. The carpet tile being installed is a replacement for another manufacturer’s tile that had been installed previously. The manufacturer’s technical representative went to the job site to work with the flooring contractor to get the job started; this is not uncommon for a large commercial installation. There was no problem at that time and it was believed the job would go well. This was not the case. The flooring contractor later contacted the manufacturer and told them as he worked with the carpet tiles he did not think the edges looked very good so he decided to cut one inch off all four sides of every tile being installed to improve their appearance. Now understand, the technical rep was on the job site at the beginning of the project, the tiles looked good and there was no complaint by anyone to the contrary. But it was decided by the flooring contractor that he and he alone did not think the edges looked good so he was going to do something about it and did. He didn’t contact anyone nor discuss this with anyone prior to cutting the edges off.
After the edges were cut off the tile, an amazingly laborious undertaking, the flooring contractor called the manufacturer and wanted reimbursement for the labor! The manufacturer told the dealer he shouldn’t have cut the edges off and that they would not pay anything for something that was totally unnecessary. More amazing was that there was no argument on the part of the flooring contractor because he just said OK, I thought I’d try. This story is the truth. Hard as it is to believe it was told to me right after it happened. The dealer did not have a great deal of experience working with commercial products and less with carpet tile. Why he would even think to cut the four edges off every carpet tile on a job that consisted of several hundred yards of carpet is beyond my wildest imagination. How he could think that after having done this the manufacturer was going to pay for it is crazier yet. This would be like you cutting a perfectly good 12 foot wide roll of carpet down to 10 feet because you didn’t like the way the edges looked. How many manufacturers do you think would pay you labor for that?
The fact that this situation fringes on insanity and has you talking to yourself just goes to show you how ridiculous things can get in the flooring industry when the economy slows down. The vultures circle the jobs and pounce when they think they have a chance at a meal. This guy had no business being on this job. Can you imagine how much work it was to cut down every tile they installed?
I’ll be the first one to come to your defense when you have an absolutely legitimate complaint that you’re getting the run around on and help you determine what the problem is and why and how to resolve it. But when claims are contrived to cover your own shortcomings that’s when you should be made to suffer the consequences of your own follies.
While it may be that you have more time on your hands from business being slower it might be a good idea to make an effort to educate yourselves on the products you sell, how they should be installed, how better to sell them and how to operate your business to increase profits and minimize losses, particularly from claims. We all have to be creative right now and look for every opportunity we can to make money in the business but try not to be as “creative” as the dealer in this story.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts