Brampton Hardwood Floors Ltd

UPDATE - reply to "Company Response":
Sir/Madam, obviously you don't understand what points i'm trying
to get across. Let's see if i can make this clearer.
Yes, i have no problem with the price of the wood and materials
purchased. I have no problem with the work done by the actual
contractor. You say,
>"We receive no benefit from the referral save for the satisfaction
>of our many customers"
This is misleading, BH may not DIRECTLY receive benefit, but
the BH salesman we delt with DOES, using the Brampton
Hardwood name. When a BH salesman comes over to my home,
he is a representative of Brampton Hardwood unless otherwise
stated. There was NO mention of another company and such
was a rep of BH as far as we were concerned. After the install
contract was written up, the BH salesman asked for a $500
deposit to be made out to "LNG Contracting", he did not state
this was his own company. When the install was completed, the
contractor who did the ACTUAL work told me to make the
cheque to another contract company. I asked the contractor,
"Not to LNG Contracting ?", as that was my assumption who was
doing the work. He said, "No, thats the BH salesman company". I
have no problem to pay a deposit to the contractors doing the
actual work ...what it comes down to is the BH salesman is
charging you $500 (for himself) to refer a contractor
(subcontracting) to do the actual work. So, saying "We receive
no benefit from the referral save..." is misleading !
Second, there was not "deceit" by the contractors who did the
actual work, i have no problem with them. The deceit was from
the BH salesman to get the contract (so he can pocket his $500)
by offering us work for free (3 landing stairs which never
happened) ...we wanted a quote including the stairs. He kept
telling us the stairs we're included even though i asked him more
than once ...sorry, but i only know one definition of stairs. The
other quote was for the railing and pickets ONLY, it was then,
after the floor work was half done that now the stairs are a
separate cost. The 2 stars are for the good price but you lost 8
because of unethical practice by your BH salesman.

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We purchased flooring to cover approx 1200 sq ft in our home
from Brampton Hardwood. We also ended up getting the floor
installed through Brampton Hardwood, though we found out,
that's not really the case. The 2 stars is only for the good buy of
the hardwood. Yes, if you're going to install yourself and/or have
your own contractor, i do recommend to check out Brampton
Hardwood for pricing. The first negative we ran into is that if you
have BH deliver, make sure you count the boxes! I wasn't home
and the trusting person at home accepted the boxes. It wasn't
until i got home and counted that i noticed there were 4 boxes
short. BH didn't acknowledge the shortage and they weren't
going to tell us either. When i phoned to say i was 4 boxes short,
the response from our BH salesman was, "i'll have to check the
camera in the warehouse and get back to you". i finally got a call
back from a lady and finally did get those 4 boxes.
Next, we were looking for an installer, the BH saleman came over
and presented us with a great deal...so we thought. The install
quote we were looking for was for the whole house, 1st floor, 2nd
floor and the stairs. He told us that a different guy would be doing
the stairs separate from the flooring. Oh, and we have a 3 stair
landing towards the basement, he said, "because you're such a
nice family i'll do that for free" ...right ...never happened!!, a
salesman is always a saleman, their word means nothing. So,
when writing out the contract it was stated to install on first and
2nd floor. i asked does this include the stairs, he said "yes
...everything", the quoted labour price to install 1200 sq ft and
stairs was $5,300. We thought this was an excellent price ...too
good actually...so at another point i asked again if "1st and 2nd
floor" include the the stairs, he said, "yes yes ...everything" ...it
was like i was annoying him with my constant asking. It was
understood from the invoice that the 3 stair landing would be for
free and the 1st and 2nd floors done, which included the stairs. It
was understood what was not included was the railing and the
balusters.
It was when he came over, brought the stairs guy and sample
balusters that now NO stairs was included in the price!! My wife
and i were both upset, naturally, as she heard what i heard
re: stairs included. Now he was giving us another quote of
~$6,500 to do the stairs. We couldn't wait for him to get out!
It became clear the BH salesman deceit was for his own gain.
You see, when we paid the balance to the installer, it was a
different company than the $500 deposit. I was informed at that
point that the $500 deposit went to the BH salesman's own
contract company, nothing to do with BH, then the BH salesman
sub contracts someone else to do the actual job, which you have
to pay on top of. So of course he wanted us to go through him to
have the floors installed and pocket $500. If I was running BH i
wouldn't allow such a practice!

We recently purchased Traditional grade Imperial collection hardwood flooring to redo our living room and dining room. The installer they recommended, "Their best guy", started to do our floors and baseboards. He was done about 1/3 (6 boxes) of the install when I had a concern about one of the baseboards he had installed. During that conversation, he started to point out what he saw as problems with the wood he was installing. He suggested I contact the store and let them know about the deficiencies (manufacture defects) in the wood. I went down to the store with a few samples in hand and the store manager starts talking about industry standards and natural things found in wood. I assured him these types of things are not that and that the installer they recommended said that the wood was no good. The installer said that about 40% of the boards he put down so far had this type of issue. When I asked what could be done about it, he says, well a board installed is a board accepted by the customer. Well I am glad I asked, what If the entire floor was down? At that rate of deficiencies, I would need at least 8 more boxes. I was then told that once a box was open It wasn't able to be returned. I told him that the installer should have come to me after the first box or two of being installed and not waited until 1/3 of my order was installed. I then told him what we were told by the staff regarding the installers they use, "We warranty the work of all our installers". I said well then, if this wood is deficient I shouldn't be expected to pay for any of the material needed to bring it to an acceptable level. The managers response to my amazement was " We warranty the is installers workmanship, not their ability to make decisions". Well, I think that an installers ability to make sound decisions is directly related to his/her quality of work or workmanship as I think most others would as well. In fact if that is the logic they are applying, how would anyone ever be able to make a judgement call on their products, if they don’t trust the judgement of installers they themselves are recommending.
For example, I had a roof installed by a company that also warrantees the work of its installers and when I had a problem with it, they did in fact correct the issue created by the installer they provided. The store manager did offer 3 boxes of material to cover the deficient material but this, according to the installer, would not be enough. At this point, the floor was started on Tuesday and is not completed, home is upside down, we have family over for the weekend our installer is coming back tomorrow we will see what is going to happen. As far as I am concerned and after speaking with a few knowledgeable people, Brampton Hardwood should be covering all the cost of material that is “deficient” and go after the manufacturer for the loss and not expect that the customer be on the hook for it. The customer is buying a product in good faith that it will be in appropriate condition when purchased new and not make something that is often a large investment and a stressful time even more difficult. I am hoping that Brampton hardwood will step up and do the right thing from a business standpoint.
Waiting for resolution..... I am waiting to see how they handle our problems and possibly taking further action, I hope it doesn't come to that.

UPDATE!
Well our floor was finally completed 15 days after the project was put on hold thanks to the help of Frank Puchiele and Joe, the Operations manager at Brampton Hardwood.The final product looks very nice. Frank was very understanding with our concerns and was prompt with his responses to my phone calls and e-mails. Unfortunately, it still took 6 days for the initial inspection and then another inspection 3 days later. After the inspections, we were supposed to have another installer arrive 3 days later but they didn't arrive until 5 days later was left waiting with out a phone call.
Once on site the installer and his team worked very hard to address our concerns and correctly install the remaining floor and base boards. Unfortunatley the successfull competetion of the floor was followed up by the installer who didn't want to clean up the consturction debris left after the floor was done, even after I had offered to pay an additonal fee to have them remove it. I ended up cleaning up our car port and taking all the wood, cardboard etc.. to the city dump myself.
I think it is important to note that the installers they recommend are really not employees of Brampton Hardwood and you, the consumer, are paying them directly. So beware, do your homework, have a clear understanding with the installer you choose on what your expectations are about the entire job BEFORE you let them start installing your floor. Don't just assume because they tell you they have years of experience that they will do it right. Make sure you clearly explain your expectations and read all the small print before you buy.
All the great help and follow up in the world won't help you if the person installing your floor doesn't do it right.

I am a builder of custom homes in Toronto and Brampton Hardwood was recommended to me by a designer friend of mine. John was extremely helpful in assisting me with the selection of my flooring material and arranged for the delivery and installation of approx 2,800 sf of oak flooring. The installer seemed to take great pride in his work and was courteous, efficient, and did a fantastic job. The quality of the wood was near flawless with very little waste -- and it looks gorgeous. The price was very reasonable and the end result cannot be beat. I will definitely be contacting them for my next project!

Good selection of flooring at a competitive price point. Good customer service IF you don't run into any problems with your product. Do not leave their warehouse without first inspecting your boxes for damaged product. Almost 5 boxes for my project contained cracked, dented, and crushed wood. Vince the manager was completely unsympathetic, and could have cared less about the inconvenience we faced at having to stop our project mid-way through, and having to drive up 3 times to finally get what we paid for. Would have been nice if the managerial staff took a little more pride in their company name and their product.

The best company ever to deal with. It was like being back in time. The prices are fabulous and the Customer Service is extremely fantastic. Thank you Jhon, Rina, Yandana and Wendy. I have not received this service since the 1960's where customers were important. My first time dealing with the company, I purchased flooring for 2 of my rental apts about 10 months ago and had 6 boxes left over that I did not know what to do with. I did not want to return it because of the re-stocking charge. Well I went back anyways and mentionned my problem and to my surprise they actually took care of me. Not only exchanging my product but meeting the price when I purchased flooring for my private home. After shopping all over the place for flooring they are far the best place to go for quality, service and pricing. They are highly recommended.
Johanne Howarth
Brampton