Lumber Liquidators review: warranty is bogus 14

We also ordered Bellawood Brazilian Cherry (lite) from Lumber Liquidators. Three weeks after installation, we noticed splits occurring in the finish. More every day. We contacted Lumber Liquidators, which has an amazing system in place designed to keep the consumer from speaking to anyone but an information taker, the consumer's "representative." After turning down our initial claim, and after much argument from us, LL sent out an "independent" inspector, who decided the splits were always in the boards, we just didn't see them. (Absolutely not!) And of course the warranty specifically states that flooring must be returned before installation if there's a problem. When I questioned why the inspector hadn't examined our boxes of leftover boards, none of which have splits in them, our LL "representative" merely said, "Her job was to inspect the installed floor." Claim denied again. We will now hire our own inspector and resubmit the claim. LL should not be able to get away with this kind of consumer abuse. And we will never buy Bellawood flooring again.

I have installed floors for more than twenty years and I have never seen a poorer product than Bellawood Flooring. After visiting friends in Virginia, my mother decided to pull up her carpet and put down Bellawood after seeing her friends beautiful floors. She decided on Brazilian Cherry. Two years ago I installed her floor and it looked great –for about 6 months! Her home is located in south Ga. and is on about a three foot crawlspace. Before any of the planks were installed, I laid down a DOUBLE moisture barrier (It was my mom’s house). The bottom of her crawlspace had already been protected by a moisture barrier per recommendation by Georgia Power to receive the good cents energy saver discount. The problems began a quarter of the way into the job when I began noticing serious milling mistakes. I also noticed very poor finishing on some of the planks. Both of these problems are a common accordance with hardwoods, so I just grabbed an empty Bellawood box thinking I would return them for a refund. When I finished the job I had more than 3 boxes out of 40 with poor milling/finishes. When I tried to return them I was told that the warranty states that you have to accommodate 5% for industry defects, 8 – 10% for exotic woods. This is B.S. I have never had a problem with returning defective product with any local or national retailer. I guess by translating the warranty 5 - 10 % of the product you have already purchased and haven’t opened is crap. The more serious problems began about 6 months later when the some of the planks began to buckle and some split. When I called Lumber Liquidators I was told that I used the wrong nails. I have installed a whole warehouse full of hardwoods, and the nails are standard. I was also told that the humidity in the home was too high. This might work as an excuse, but if there is high humidity in the home, then why aren’t the hardwood floors in the other rooms affected?(Bruce and Traffic Master). Now, every time my mother goes on vacation, I get called when she gets back to bang down and nail a new buckle. Again, no other rooms with hardwood are affected. I suppose if you install Bellawood floors you have to leave you’re a/c or heat running while you are gone for weeks at a time. Bellawood is the worst flooring I have every installed some much so that I will not install it for any customer and do not recommend it to anyone. By the way, about a year after my mother floors began giving her so much trouble, her friend from Virginia called – Their Bellawood floors began to buckle and split too! I anyone would like to ask me any questions please email me at tgpil@hotmail.com

I would like to know how many complaints are there for floors
buckling. I am having problems with my own and they say it is the moisture barrier

Three years ago we bought our house and a few months later we redid our kitchen floor and hallways in Washington Oak (Dream Home Charisma Laminate). This claims to have a 20 year warranty. Over time we have dropped things on the floor causing various chips and gouges. Being that this is a wood laminate we found that only the very top surface is the wood-like appearance, but the damage reveals the next layer of a black particle board like substance . So, in various places on our floor we have little black divots. We used wood filler and tried to be as careful as we could, until someone at Lowe's told us that we should be able to contact Lumber Liquidators about that issue, especially since we had a 20 year warranty. We could possibly even get replacement pieces all the way up to a new floor. My wife called LL and they told us that something could probably be done; we just need to send in photos. Just a few days ago we received a response letter saying that "Because of wood cell structure, all wood products can scratch and dent and to expect this never to occur is unrealistic. Finish scratches and denting of installed flooring is a site related concern and beyond the manufacturer's ability to control. This is why no wood manufacturer guarantees their flooring against these conditions. LLI does not warranty any of its products from scratches and dents. Lumber Liquidators will not take any additional action regarding this matter."
We understand that damage happens to wood (however, our floor is not real wood). But, we didn't know how EASILY it would damage to the point of being unattractive, and something that could affect sale of our house. These aren't just scratches and dents. Also, LL sent a copy of the Charisma flooring warranty and in the first paragraph it states: "CHARISMA FLOORING warrants that all flooring panels, installed for residential use, will be free of manufacturing defects and will not fade under artificial light or sunlight, stain or show wear through the decor layer..." which that last bit is what happened to us. Later, the warranty states "If a panel does not perform as stated, CHARISMA Flooring will replace the panel with the same style product, if it is still available, or with a comparable product from the current line." Hmm. Think we'll call the CHARISMA 800 number and see what THEY have to say. Feel free to tell us we're in the wrong and why, but we feel that we're being screwed by LL.

Purchased Nirvana Laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators in Pittsburgh PA. Once purchased was told all sales were final - no returns. Prior to instaLlation my contractor and myself realized just how inferior this product was. The floor crumbled in my hands with little pressure- but I was stuck - I couldnt return the product! What to do? So I installed it. My daughter dropped a plastic hairbrush and the floor dented and the wood grain covering peeled off. This floor is simply pitiful. I did the right thing and contacted the Customer service office. I then sent a letter with 3 pieces of sample board for their quality team to examine. And then emailed the corporate office to assist in resolving this issue and THEY RESPONDED WITH THE FOLLOWING RESPONSE" I personally examined the samples provided and noted several impact damage marks on the sides of the boards and the samples support the original findings shared with you that the product was not in fact defective, but the care being used to install the product was in question.I see no evidence of manufacturing defects from what we see and the claim the product is defective is unsubstantiated.

Brian Pullin x7521

Office of Tom Sullivan, Chairman

Lumber Liquidators, Inc

3000 John Deere Road

Toano, VA 23168

What an easy way out! At least 2 of every 8 boards per box were damaged upon inspection And the locking tracks were so fragile they cracked and snap off in my hands. I actually resulted to taking each board out with gloves and had them wrapped in a towel - can you believe that! And this is supposed to have a 25 year warrantee! I was told the warantee is only for manufactureres defects. What a joke. I have been offered a 3rd party hired by Lumber LIquidators to inspect the floor. Wow how biased would that be? Hmm let me think VERY biased! I showed my contractor the email and he flipped his lid and will be letting everyone in the area to NOT USE LUMBER LIQUIDATORS for anything. He knows how careful and precise he was in getting this floor installed. Lumber liquidators has an A+ rating on the BBB site but actually there are over 40 cases in which the customers issue was not resolved to their satisfaction. They should be rated an F in my book- I have asked in all correspondence with them to call me and they decide to email and hide behind their PCs. MY suggestion go buy the cheapest flooring at HOme Depot and it is twice as durable and a quality product. DO NOT GET Taken by Lumber Liquidators. They do not stand behind their product or know how to handle customer inquiries. All in all RUN dont walk AWAY from using them.
ll HAD AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR ( PAID BY THEM ) LOOK AT THE FLOOR AND HERE IS WHAT THEY SAID JUst got the letter from LL - THEY S U C K ! The most unprofessional group of thieves in the business. They actually stated that their inferior product is due to installation! What BS! D O NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM LUMBER LIQUIDATORS- THEY DO NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCT AND THEY WILL BLAME YOU OR YOUR CONTRACTOR FOR THEIR CARDBOARD FLOORING DEFECTS. wARRANTY? WHAT WARRANTY! I HOPE THYE GO UNDER- MANY H O N E S T BUSINESSES EXIST THAT WOULD DO A QUALITY JOB WITH A QUALITY PRODUCT- L L IS N O T ONE OF THEM!

I have to agree this company needs to have a class action brought against it. I have waited over 90 days only to once again get the old "moisture" problem blamed on me. I had vapor barrier down under crawl space and all moisture readings were within Bellawoods tolerance at time of install...Most all of the Inspectors are biased and tilt the reports in favor of LL. Take photos of inspectors if they will let you when they do the readings and note where and how they do them. But yeah, this company sucks when it comes to standing behind their products.

My husband and I own a raised home in the New Orleans area. We have been married less than 2 years and decided to purchase some Bellawood Brazillion Mesquite 3/8x3 hardwood floor when we found out I was pregnant with our first child. We ordered the wood floor on 10/10/09. When it came in we put it unpacked in the nursery for 3 weeks prior to installing it. My husband, who is a handy man by trade worked so hard installing the floor (11/21/09). He followed all of the instructions for installing wood floor correctly, using an adequate moisture barrier, leaving a 3/8 inch gap around the perimeter for expansion, etc. (I have photos I would love to share with you) It was beautiful everyone commented on how beautiful the floor was and how good of a job my husband did. Fast forward 5 or so months I was walking thru the completed nursery with my 2 month old son in my arms to change his diaper and tripped over a huge buckle in the floor that literally appeared over night. My husband and I examined the floor from every angle. Cupping and buckling had occurred in the entire 180 sq foot room. My husband immediately checked for a leak or any other moisture issues. There was nothing. He trimmed out the major buckled area and ran a dehumidifier. After every attempt to fix it, the floor remains wavy.

I am so depressed about this. We don't have much money and tried to make a nice place for our child to play and learn to crawl. Now our child won't be able to play in the floor without possible injury. While I was on maternity leave I lost my job and we can barely afford our mortgage payment and formula much less afford to put down a new floor.

BTW we have over 1700 square feet of wood flooring in our home and have NO problems with it.

photo 1 - installing, photo 2 - installing, photo 3 - how pretty the floor was for about 5 months, photo 4 - buckle, photo 5 - buckle

I sent an email...we will see what type of reply I get.

I don't know what happened to the images?

THEY SUCK

Never ever buy Bellawood! They blame it all on humidity

I purchased plain laminate flooring from my local Lumber Liquidator store. I paid cash and when I was given my receipt, the only thing I was told was to hang on to it, in case I needed to return it. Was never told if I did return it, there would be a 20% restocking fee and that if I paid cash, It would take 3-6 weeks to receive a check from the corporate office in Virginia. Had I known that before the purchase, I would have gladly went to Home Depot, Lowe's, or Costco and paid a little extra . At least they would have gladly refunded my money with no hidden fees and no waiting for 3-6 weeks. I will never purchase anything from them again. And to boot, I loaded the stuff.

I agree someone needs to start a class action suit against Lumber Liquidators. They are theives and liars pawning off their inferior products for high dollars. I warn anyone who is thinking of installing wood floor "STAY AWAY" It is not the bargain it appears. The guarantees are absolutely worthless. Extremely poor customer service. All they want is your money. Run to Home Depot, Lowes, etc. At least they will back their product and services.

Just had the sugar mill 3/4 inch hickory floors professionally installed, with in 6 weeks they buckled and now we are fighting with Lumber Liquidators installers. Very frustrating.

Jim Rogers
Los Angeles California

I'm a general contractor we built a large high end home in the salem oregon area last year. we purchased 3.25" select white oar per the owners wishes from lumber liquidators salem oregon store and use the installer they recommended on point hardwood. I paid for the material and tim (on point hardwood) picked it up and delivered it to the house and let it set to acclimate for a couple of weeks. they installed it over the next week or so. I was on site when the wood was laid out and the work seemed to have been done properly and was really nice at first. over the next few months the hardwood started to shrink about 15% give or take. this has left the floor with large gaps between the boards and at the ends.

I filed a claim with lumber liquidators some months ago which was not easy to do as the manager of the store could not seem to get it done for some time. once we got the claim filed it took a number of weeks for the manager to get the claim information to us he had to be reminded to do so.

Now the company was supposed to contact us in a number of days. we called cristina the person that is supposed to be in charge of the claim. we have called her at least 10 times between us and the installer. called customer care any number of times myself and got the same speech they will contact us in a couple of days. I talked to cameron yesterday 4-15-19 and got the same speech.

At no time has the company contacted us or made any effort to address the claim. to date claim #5370384 is open and is getting blown off. we are beginning legal action at the end of this week to get the floor replaced.

At this time you can see the outside edge of the tongue between any number of board they have shrank that much.

Save your money buy your wood from a reputable vendor.