Again, Ben fails to answer the $64,000 Question: Did you use a credit card? (Or rather, $8,000 question in your case.)

If you paid cash or wrote a check, or paid with a debit card, you're shit out of luck unless you can sue the contractor if you paid them separately from Lowes. (If you paid Lowes for the installation, see below.) If, however, you did use a credit card (not a debit card) you can report a dispute with the merchant and do a chargeback, even if it's a Lowes card.

Most store cards are issued by a bank, e.g. Target's credit card is issued by T.D. Bank. Even if it is, they still have to follow the rules. Generally, the purchase must be within your home state or else within 150 miles of your home, but the low level clerk at the credit card company will neither know nor care. They'll accept it, credit your account, reverse the transaction, then let you and the merchant sort it out.

If you arranged installation trough Lowes on a non-credit card purchase, you [u]may[/u] be able to sue the store that booked your order. If they used a contractor, (which they did) you may get better results by writing a letter to Lowes and asking for it to be fixed. Since they will want you to chase the contractor, either you should know or find out, then probably contact the state licensing board (or their website) who issued the contractor their surety bond. Then send a copy of the letter to the surety. This will make the contractor take notice.

Give some pics and maybe we can crowdsource a solution for pinback.

I can inline youtube videos for you to follow along, will that help?

Can you just fix my floor, just this once? We have beer.

I helped my brother put in a hardwood floor just last fall. It's easier than it looks. The problem isn't Lowes, it's the crappy subcontractors they used. Lowe's should make it right for you though. Of course they won't, that would cost them money.

As for Nationwide AArdvark Home Improvement, I would have to pass. Thank you for suggesting my meagre talents though. I'm having motivation issues just getting little stuff done, like painting the swingset out back. Much easier to avoid looking at it than actually paint it.

THE
BLIND SPOT
AARDVARK

My go to, hitherto untested plan for anything legal going forward will be to first hire Paul as my "legal researcher" and then do...uh, whatever the research leads me to do. Perhaps Paul would be willing to do some pro bono work for an old friend in need. Whatever you do, don't neglect the RESEARCH. Once sufficiently researched, this seems like it will be a slam dunk case.

I'm sorry you got ripped off. They caused the problem and then blamed you for it and expect you to keep paying and paying for their mistakes. Typical. I pretty much expect to be screwed over whenever I have someone do work on my house. I end up mostly blaming myself at this point. I knew what was going to happen, but I made the call anyway. I hired the surly asshole or group of surly assholes, I opened the door, I pointed out the problem...I brought it all on myself. I tend to feel better about performing a bad DIY job than getting some nice, professional work done just because I never feel ripped off when I do it myself regardless of how much I spend on tools or materials.

This brings to mind another idea I had: AaaS -- AArdvark as a Service. Basically, we'd all pay a subscription fee and AArdvark would travel the country (plus Scotland and Greece) fixing all of our hovels. Vark would appreciate the recurring revenue stream while the rest of us would enjoy getting some quality work done for a change. It's technology that would actually make all of our lives better.

[quote=Flack post_id=123352 time=1629949202 user_id=840]
We once had an issue with a Home Depot installation. When we called Home Depot they informed us that they don't do installations, they only coordinate installations between customers and contractors and that they are not responsible for any damages (they offered to send us the paperwork we had signed saying as much). When we pushed things further we were told that these contractors change company names frequently and tracking them down much less making sure they stay in business long enough to sue them is a challenge. You should be able to get the contractor's name through Lowes, and complaining to them may help as they can cut a contractor off, although we quickly learned that these guys have multiple company names.
[/quote]

Wow, Flacks right, you're probably fucked

We once had an issue with a Home Depot installation. When we called Home Depot they informed us that they don't do installations, they only coordinate installations between customers and contractors and that they are not responsible for any damages (they offered to send us the paperwork we had signed saying as much). When we pushed things further we were told that these contractors change company names frequently and tracking them down much less making sure they stay in business long enough to sue them is a challenge. You should be able to get the contractor's name through Lowes, and complaining to them may help as they can cut a contractor off, although we quickly learned that these guys have multiple company names.

[quote=pinback post_id=123342 time=1629903115 user_id=5]
We paid $8000 for new hardwood floors, and it's all fucked up. They say they won't fix it because it's due to water damage from a leak.

1. Not all of it appears to be from water damage.
2. We had hardwood floors before, and there was no water or leaks.
3. During installation they broke the flange under one of the toilets, causing water to leak into the basement and making us have to replace the flange and toilet ($800).
4. So yeah, maybe that's where the leak came from, if there was one?!

We paid $8000 for them to destroy our house, and they are going to continue to run us around, so I would like to prepare to TAKE THEM DOWN.

Anyone ever TAKE THEM DOWN?
[/quote]

Actually, my real (not sarcastic) answer is I've lately had more success by calling directly into upper management at companies. For example, I was getting no results dealing with a fucked up order from simplynatural.com but when I called up their Dir. Customer Service on his cell phone then damn right I got some results and fast. These companies are built that the low level people have their marching orders so the upper level folks don't have to deal with it. You wouldn't believe what can be accomplished by raising hell with the Dir/VP/C-suite. I had an issue with my rental property management so I looked up their whole management team and emailed EVERYBODY and got fucking results (permanently burned the landlord/tenant relationship but good).

So maybe try someone like this (and frankly I'd email her and call her goddamn cell phone, and just ask and I can pull up Zoominfo and look up other folks there):

Ronda Harlow
Director Executive Customer Relations

Lowe's Home Improvement
www.lowes.com
(704) 758-1000
1000 Lowe's Blvd Mooresville, North Carolina 28117, United States
Home Improvement & Hardware Retail, Retail
10,000+
$71.3 Billion
(704) 758-5928 (Direct)
(704) 758-1000 (HQ)
(336) 658-4766 (Mobile)
ronda.harlow@lowes.com (Business)


You've gotta be prepared with a concise description of how you've been wronged because people are shit and they'll grab any excuse to quibble or pull apart your story.

Go to Judge Judy, she's more of a bitch now than ever before.

Did you happen to use a credit card to pay them at all?

So I am lucky that I have two people in my life - my wife and my brother - who can instantly engage in conflict and one (my brother) who lives for it. Nothing gives him greater pleasure. I try to good cop his bad cop when it comes to stuff like this.

I think due to the amounts involved you might, as a resort, be able to take them to small claims court??

Do you have pictures of how bad it looks now?

We paid $8000 for new hardwood floors, and it's all fucked up. They say they won't fix it because it's due to water damage from a leak.

1. Not all of it appears to be from water damage.
2. We had hardwood floors before, and there was no water or leaks.
3. During installation they broke the flange under one of the toilets, causing water to leak into the basement and making us have to replace the flange and toilet ($800).
4. So yeah, maybe that's where the leak came from, if there was one?!

We paid $8000 for them to destroy our house, and they are going to continue to run us around, so I would like to prepare to TAKE THEM DOWN.

Anyone ever TAKE THEM DOWN?