Page 3 - 2018-05-CFR Volume 116 - Admission of Guilt - May 2018

presents itself that is out of the ordinary realm of the May 2018
little challenges that come with any project on a daily
basis, a red flag goes up. They know when some-
thing out of the ordinary occurs. To have someone
tell them that what they’re seeing and experiencing is
normal or just a characteristic of the product when
they know better is ridiculous. They know when and
if they’re being fed a line of malarkey that doesn’t
make sense, defies normal and flies in the face of
reality. Even if the products are new introductions
they still have to perform as flooring material should -
they should be installable and perform. The product
should live up to whatever expectations are made for
them in sales or marketing materials. And if a prod-
uct can’t perform under normal and reasonable con-
ditions that flooring materials are placed in then that
flooring material has no business being offered for
sale.
More and more we hear unbelievable and ludicrous
comments in defense of a product issue that are be-
yond the comprehension of even a simpleton. I
question when I hear such dumb statements if the
party speaking is actually from this planet or from an
alien galaxy that doesn’t use flooring. What’s amaz-
ing is that when you sit in one of these meetings
there are some people that actually think what
they’re hearing is the truth. Anything is better than
admitting you have a product problem and taking re-
sponsibility for it – quite the opposite of admission of
guilt. So maybe we deny any culpability but we’ll
give you some product to replace a few areas and
that, they expect, will make the concern go away or
at least appease the unhappy party. This is just
wrong especially today and particularly with the gag-
gle of hard surface products on the market that no
one can keep up with and that people who never
saw this product before are all of a sudden experts.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It reminds
me of when I got into the flooring industry when there
was hundreds of carpet mills stuck in buildings they
could fit a tufting machine in because carpet was the
hot product. Back then carpet was covering hard
flooring; mostly hardwood. The pendulum has swung
back that way and the market is being inundated with
a multitude of hard surface products that vary from
near junk to actually excellent quality and perform-
ers. But the players, the people selling the stuff, may
not know their ear from their elbow about them. Yet
when there’s a claim or complaint the first thing they
do is blame the installer, the environment, acclima-
tion, adhesive type or application but never the prod-
uct. However, they may say that if you use this

3 Commercial Flooring Report