Don't do business with Hardwood Giant
Don't do business with this company. They sell 'rustic' maple and state only difference is knots with divots, wood is unfinished and comes in varying lengths (like all hardwood flooring). Bought it for our new construction vacation home 2.5 hours from our primary residence. Took two separate days off work for deliveries which never came. The delivery came the third day; about 90%of pieces were 12-18" long and each one had a black crayon mark down the middle of the good side - remember this is raw wood. We did not accept the delivery and sent it back. Hardwood Giant staff said 'what do you expect for the price?' "no we don't know how to get marks off." We said we expect what you promised us and sold us. Three days off work, travel time, costs etc. We are now out of pocket our initial invest +++ to the tune of $5,000. We've got their strategy figured out however. The wood which was delivered was dated 2013. They sell the 'rustic' product, deliver unusable byproduct. Consumer doesn't accept. They say sale is final, no refund but money could be applied to other regular, non competitive priced product. Lost leader for sure. Encourage anyone with similar experience to file complaint under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act https://www.ontario.ca/page/your-rights-under-consumer-protection-act . This is just plain wrong in so many ways.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $5,000.00
- Company Response
The customers, husband and wife, seem to be twisting the facts to their favors/benefits, which may misrepresent Hardwood Giant.
They both visited us during our three day mega sale event from May 8, 2015 to May 10, 2015 at our Burlington store and told us crystal clear that they were on the look out for a "cheaper than the cheapest" hardwood floor for their vacation home and did not want to spend more money. Our Sales Team suggested the customers browse through the samples displayed in different varieties and qualities in order to pick a floor of their choice, and further discuss and place the order. The customers took about two hours to carefully view over 250 different varieties and qualities of floor samples that are displayed in our store. They showed much interest in the display sample of “the” Unfinished Rustic Maple Hardwood and wanted to put up their order. They were very happy and overwhelmed to find what they had been looking for, for the past many months at different vendors, and asked us to make the necessary invoice for the Unfinished Rustic Maple Hardwood floors. Before accepting their order, we once again made it very clear that the floor they were about to order is unfinished, unvarnished, rough, in random lengths with knots, cracks & marks, and the plank length might not be longer than 4 ft (48 inches). We also told them that the floor is of low grade at the lowest price and they should not expect more than the value that they would pay for. The customers very clearly replied to us that they have been looking for this type of floor for a long time and they were happy to find this one with us and already made up their mind to buy this floor from us. The customers further said that they wanted to give their vacation home a cottage or antique look and were not worried about the product, but rather the price. Thereafter, they went ahead and bought this floor.
With the clear understanding of the aforementioned, we placed the order for 3,000 square feet of the Unfinished Rustic Maple Hardwood floor at $0.87 plus taxes per square foot (YES, YOU READ IT CORRECT, EIGHTY SEVEN CENTS ONLY PER SQUARE FOOT), which the customer conveniently and/or deliberately chose not to reveal here, only to mislead the readers. The total value of this floor was $2,970 (for which we, the company, covered the applicable taxes in addition to this total) WITH FREE DELIVERY TO OAKVILLE. Upon making the order, the customers were well aware that this product was an “As is & where is” basis and the “Sale is final” and “No return” and the customer willingly & consciously signed the contract with us. A sample of this flooring which shows the mentioned characteristics can still be found in our showroom.
The customer was not ready to accept delivery at the time of creating the order, as the renovation was yet to start and they were also preparing for vacation in September / October 2015. Upon returning from their vacation, they communicated to us a new delivery address in NORLAND City of Ontario, which is about 230 km away from our Store in Burlington. The customers were persistently requesting free delivery on such a heavy product to such a long distance. We advised them to arrange their own pick up, but they said their transporters were asking way too much to carry the product of about 5,000 lbs and at such a long distance. Finally, after the long and hard negotiations, they agreed to a nominal delivery charge. They suggested the delivery take place on 31 December 2015 and since that date was going to be the New Year’s eve, and if no transporters are available, they would want the delivery towards the last week of February 2016. A point to be noted here is that Hardwood Giant has been stocking this material for about 8 months, from last May 2015 until now, without imposing any storage cost to the customer, in order to give them better service.
In the second week of January 2016, the customer requested delivery in the third week of January 2016, and the customer agreed to pay the agreed upon nominal delivery charges to the transporter directly upon delivery of the ordered hardwood flooring at their garage. After the material was unloaded at their garage, the customer told the transporter that they would not pay the delivery charge. When the transporter informed the customer he would have to take back the materials if they did not pay the agreed transport charges to him, the customer started finding faults with the floors in order to not pay the agreed transport charges. The lengths of the wooden planks were not 12 to 18 inches as claimed by the customer, but they varied from 12 inches to 48 inches.
Upon not receiving the agreed transport charges from the customer, the transporter reloaded the material and brought it back to our warehouse, in turn, we were required to pay double transport charges to the transporter. The next day the customer phoned us to say that they would come to our warehouse to pick and choose the best hardwood pieces from the entire lot, to which we told them that the price would go up a bit, simply because the product becomes Select & Better grade which in another word is a premium product. We then suggested to them that they visit our store to choose a pre-finished option. They visited us and chose one of the fast moving, best quality Canadian pre-finished floors, yet they did not want to pay more than $3 per square foot including tax.
It is needless to say that these customers were looking for “the best of products” yet they did not want to pay for the value of the product. It is understood that the quality of any product depends upon the money paid.
In an effort to provide the utmost service quality to the customer, we encourage this customer to return to our store to choose an economical option such as our high quality laminates, or best quality Engineered hardwood floors if they do not want to spend more money on their vacation home.