Thursday we were supposed to have our new hardwood floor installed in the master bedroom. (This is the floor we bought after Melissa smeared indelible rouge into the carpet.) When the installers arrived, we discovered that the lumber we'd been sold was cut into uniform 12 inch pieces, useless as flooring. Technically, you could use it; it would just be horribly unsightly.
I was at work. Rachel called Lumber Liquidators. They said it was the mill's fault. Rachel called the mill. They said you get what you get and that's that. She went back to LL and they said we could exchange for something else but pretty much everything in stock was twice the price or more. We were pretty annoyed. We could go through the credit card company but I didn't look forward to trying to explain that while yes, we did get something that, technically, matched the description of what we paid for, it was unfit for its intended purpose. I didn't picture a low-paid claims worker necessarily being capable of that sort of distinction.
Fortunately, our installer, Rich Wood, was in our corner. He and his wife had installed our floor in the main room last year, and we were pleased enough with their work that we paid them more than they charged us. They remembered Rachel, and when she told him of the runaround she'd been getting, he called up LL and arranged for us to exchange for a lot of seconds at the same price. We're not sure why he had more influence with LL than did Rachel; perhaps some of his clients have him take care of ordering the lumber as well as installation. At any rate, he arranged for the exchange, and even took care of transportation. (We don't have a truck so I'd had to borrow a friend's on Saturday to bring over the original lot.)
So, everything ended up working out. The seconds look fine; Rachel says they look like they have about 10 Matthew-hours of wear, versus pristine wood. No big deal for us. And the Woods will be getting another bonus.
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