Most Carpet stores would rather lose you than take care of you. Once you’ve discovered that they intentionally screwed you over, they know they have nothing to gain by helping you. Most of them consider it throwing good money after bad. They know it's impossible to regain a person's trust once it's been lost.

If you paid retail, and if there is a problem with the installation, you better be ready for a fight. You better do your inspection and start complaining right away. If you wait too long, then the store might treat you like a total stranger. They’ll have a hundred excuses all designed to get you past the 1 year point so they can tell you “SORRY, we can’t help you now; your warranty has expired.”

Retailers start with stall tactics designed to get you past the end of that first year.  You’ll hear “it will go away in a few weeks,” or “the manager will call you tomorrow.”  If you hear any of this, you better start taking notes as to who said what, and when, because you’ll need it to prove that they stalled you. Unfortunately, when you go up against a retailer – especially a big name store – you’ll have your work cut out for you proving they deceived you. No one will want to help you. Even court judges can be biased. They see retailers as powerful allies who can bolster their political career. But even these weak judges crumble when the facts are disclosed. They must conform to the judicial system that supports them.  

Here’s a list of the type of excuses you’ll hear from carpet retailers:

They’ll try to sucker you by saying  “The installer no longer works here.”  Don’t be a sucker. You contracted with the store, not the installer. 

They’ll make false promises, “We’ll be out there tomorrow to take a look.”  Be ready for postponements at the last minute. I’ve got histories of people who have been put off a dozen times before the store Rep. actually showed up. All these missed appointments are designed to wear you down. Most people give up after a couple of years of futility. I know because I’m the guy they finally call to come fix it. So, it’s up to you to be persistent. You can't give up.

They’ll try the quick fix by sending in an installer to “touch it up.”  They’ll sweet talk one of their installers to drop by your place on his way home from work. He’ll be working for free so you can guess how much effort he’ll make. I’ve come in after a lot of these quick fixes. See Devious Warranty Tactics… ‘Third Times The Charm….’ You’ll be lucky to get a half hour’s work out of these guys. They’re tired and they need a beer. You still have every right to demand that they do it right.

They may try the intimidation excuses: “Well, why did you wait so long?” As if you hadn’t left them a dozen messages and they’d missed every appointment. You better have a witness to help you prove you actually talked to someone at the store because these are carpet retailers you’re dealing with. They think they’re above reproach.  Don't let them get away with it.  

They may use the pass the blame excuses: “Well, do you have furniture?” If you say “yes,” they’ll say “Well there you go. It was your furniture that caused the wrinkles.” Don’t believe it. Furniture never caused wrinkles. Moving furniture just accentuates the looseness that was there from day one. Furniture can cause dents, but dents tend to be minimal when carpet is installed properly. Super heavy items like pianos can permanently dent padding, but not carpet. Don't accept any excuse.

From here on, various stores have various tactics. Some cave in and help you. Especially if you go over their head. But most are in such denial you’ll need a court order to get them to come clean. Even then, it’s like pulling teeth.  I've been through it many times. You will prevail, but only if you persist.

They may blame the carpet cleaner: “Well, have you had your carpet cleaned?” If you say yes, they’ll say “Well there you go. It was the cleaner who did it.” Now, it is true that carpet cleaning can cause wrinkles but only under cases of extreme over-wetting. And most people remember if such an event occurred. The damage can usually be traced back to a portable steam cleaning. It's one of the reasons I discourage people from using portables. But wrinkles from repeated or prolonged wetness look very different from wrinkles due to improper installation. Fortunately, it’s easy to differentiate the two:

Prolonged wetness causes the glues in the carpet’s backing to weaken (delamination) resulting in long thin wrinkles:

They'll ask you, “Well, were you there during the installation?”  If you weren’t there, they’ll finish anything else you say off with, “well how would you know? You weren’t there?” It's one of the reasons I stress BE THERE for the installation. There's some key information you can ascertain from being there that you can't get any other way. You gotta realize, these people have lots of practice. It only happens to you once. But it happens to them on a regular basis. 

My advise is to look closely at your carpet and if you have the big ‘wavy’ type of wrinkles, then you should keep complaining until they finally agree to fix it - at their expense. They must send an installer or repair guy with a power stretcher. Don’t let them send in a gypsy with a knee kicker because that’s what caused the looseness in the first place. And don’t let them leave your home until it passes the snap test.

Depending on how practiced they are, you may hear dozens of other excuses:
“Well, do you have pets?… Well, there you go…”
“Well, do you have kids?… Well, there you go…”
“Well didn’t you read your Warranty Brochure?” Well, there you go…”
“Well was it cold or rainy the day of the installation?” Well, there you go…”

If they have their way with you, eventually you’ll buy one their bogus excuses and you’ll be back down at their store buying new carpet all over again. “After all, it was your fault, right?”

Well, can you see that they're running out of excuses. Eventually, they all do. At this point, they’ll do whatever you want just to get rid of you, but it takes persistence to get here. I've seen them replace carpet, write checks and apology letters, bow down to judges, you name it... but only to the persistent.

There’s only one thing they can say that will change your course, “We’re done with you.” You’ll only hear this from stores in total denial. They’re saying “do whatever you want – tell everybody in town about us – but we’re not gonna help you.” If you ever hear this, just say, “OK, fine.” Then read my report, How to Bring any Service Company to its Knees.  It works. I guarantee it!