Alliance Floor Source provided the flooring and installation for my living room and hall, and installed baseboards and quarter-round that I purchased myself
Customer service: They made the floor selection very easy, and responded to all my follow-up questions. Their quote was very reasonable. I wasn’t thrilled with the payment requirements (a charge for the estimate [that did later come off my balance], 50% upon signing, and pre-arrangements for them to take the remaining 50% the day of install, before the work was complete). Alliance strongly recommended quarter-round for the baseboards, and although I was initially against this I agreed, and am very happy with the result. I’m very glad they recommended it. I had handled the demo myself and had not felt that sanding was necessary, however agreed to it when told that failing to do so would void my warranty.
I was disappointed with the handling of the install date and first payment. I’d requested an install date prior to the payment being taken, and when the original date provided was not possible, I expected that we would proceed to select a new date. Instead, Alliance assumed I’d agreed to proceed with payment arrangements and took the first payment without providing a date. It was difficult to get Alliance to commit to a date after this. It took several emails and a threat to escalate as a complaint before I was provided with a conditional install date, which Alliance did meet.
Finished Product: I love the flooring (vinyl) they helped me select. The installers arrived on time, and were polite and professional. One item I’d purchased was forgotten at the store, however I agreed to substitute another and the cost of the first was removed from the final charge. The floor and baseboards looked great, once installed. I later found that parts of the floor were bumpy, with little raises and dips, but when I mentioned this to Alliance I was told that this was to be expected, as the vinyl follows the contours of the floor. I was also told that this was why sanding, initially, was so important, so I was disappointed that these ridges still existed even though I had agreed to and paid for the sanding.
I also noticed that the floor immediately next to the heat vent was very weak, and standing there caused the floor to bend downwards. We’ve had to place an end table there to ensure no one steps there and breaks it off. I’ve since learned that this is also normal with vinyl flooring, but would have preferred to know this going in. I also found there was more of a push for me to write a follow-up review than there was any follow-up on the actual job.
I would definitely recommend Alliance, however I would do so with some cautions.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $3,300.00
- Company Response
Mr Lehman,
First and foremost, thank you for your business.
I will be long in responding to your "payment requirements" comment to help others who read it and this response understand the concept. May I start by saying that we never(!) take the balance payment prior to completing a project and receiving an "all complete" from the Customer. We do however, as you mentioned, Pre-authorize a Credit Card for it at the time the deal is made to make sure we do in fact get paid upon completion (not a day, 3 days or 3 weeks later), just in case something happens to the Customer "between the cup and the lip" outside of our fault or control. Unfortunately things don't always work out with people's finances as they plan and we cannot be on the loosing end because of these possibilities. We were, and are always, up front about our Terms and I don't think we did anything untoward to you regarding them.
I do apologize for any misunderstanding between You and Mike regarding your "yes" answer to his question if you still would like to go ahead when we couldn't accommodate the first date requested. It must be said here, that (hopefully understandably) we cannot and will not book installers and order materials without a deposit and signed paperwork. Only upon receiving a commitment from the Customer are we able to commit our resources to a project.
As to the soft spot in the floor: It is likely due to the sub-floor not being supported near the vent. When Mike originally visited, you had (rigid) parquet glued to the sub-floor that would have helped support the weak sub-floor from the top. YOU removed and disposed of the old floor and prepared the sub-floor for the installation of soft vinyl flooring. Sanding of the high ridges that we suggested and you paid for did not offer, nor guarantee a completely flat and smooth surface. Only that it would bring it closer to the required tolerance of flatness. Minor, technically acceptable imperfections are inherent in that type of sub-floor. I am willing to guarantee you that if one of our installers had stepped close to that area near the vent and noticed that it was soft he would have suggested that it should be supported somehow. That's just the way we roll. Unfortunately it didn't happen. We didn't have anything to do with the structural integrity of the sub-floor, thus it is hard to understand how you can possibly blame us for it's weakness. I take full responsibility for everything anyone working for me does, but cannot for what is outside our purview and/or control. Support under the sub-floor is neither. I also am not certain how we could have anticipated this possibly happening in order to warn you "going in".
I imagine when we contacted you to "follow up" on your project and make sure all was well, is when we asked you for a review. We hope everyone who reads and gets the benefits of these and our Google reviews takes the time to write one themselves, but sadly it is a real problem to get people to take a few minutes and do so. Especially when everything is great and everyone is happy and busy. You can imagine that we had a few more than 250 Customers in the last 6 years. It's like pulling teeth. Our asking once and only once seems to be a burden for some Customers, but what choice do we have? If we don't ask, we don't get!! And these days we can't do without them. We never ask more than ones and never pressure anyone to write one.
Please accept our sincere thanks for the business you had given Alliance Floor Source and the comments you made from which we will learn for the future, and hope to see you and/or your family and friends back soon. Thank You.
Lehel Fabok, Owner