So you want to renovate your house?

This is a victory post.

Few of you know the struggles that we've had with a little company called Lumber Liquidators. I'll make this as short and sweet as I know how. Here's the story.

August 27. Andy and Jessica walk into the local Lumber Liquidators store to check out a sale. Jessica has done a ton of floor research up until this point, so they know exactly what to look for, and exactly what is worth paying for. We find an interesting real wood oak floor of medium quality (but good enough) for a damned good price. We are assured that the shipment will arrive on September 21. Done and done.

September 20. Jessica calls to confirm shipment. It hasn't arrived yet, but they assure us it's on its way.

September 21. No call from Lumber Liquidators. Jessica calls them. They say that a truck just arrived and they'll check the inventory to see if our floor is on it. They'll call us back. No call back.

September 22. Another phone call to Lumber Liquidators. They claim their system is not functioning well and they are sure our wood will arrive that day (they have been claiming to be victim to a faulty system since our first visit in August). Little do Lumber Liquidators know that they delay of the arrival of the wood flooring means that we will have to delay a number of other items between us and move-in day, like the appliance delivery, painting, etc. Their tardiness is becoming a larger problem as we have to call all the other guys lined up and move dates back.

September 23-27. Same story. Phone calls to Lumber Liquidators. False assurances of a call-back. No wood.

September 28. One week has passed since our wood should've arrived. Andy goes in to the store to talk to them. Here's the story: "We sold 5 times as much of this flooring as we had in stock. As a result, we can't get you your flooring. Instead, you'll have to pick out some different flooring. No, we can't get you flooring equal to, or better than, the flooring that you have bought. We can get you more expensive flooring of the same or better quality, but not at that same price." So, here are the salient points, 1.) we had already paid for the flooring (like suckers), 2.) they were pulling a bait-and-switch, 3.) we had little choice but to pay more money for same/better quality wood because they delay in pulling our money out of Lumber Liquidators would've cost us another month of waiting for wood to ship in from someone else. On this day, we got a refund for our original payment (or so we thought), and paid $300 more for another oak floor - thankfully it was a better quality wood. The refund, we were told, would take 3-5 business days.

October 2. No sign of the refund in our bank account.

October 5-13. No sign of the refund. We make phone calls to Lumber Liquidators nearly daily asking for our money back. At this point, we involve our bank and complete an affidavit stating that Lumber Liquidators has promised us a full refund but we have not seen a penny.

October 15. Affidavit complete, we wait for Lumber Liquidators to respond. Nothing comes back.

October 16-25. We loop in Lumber Liquidators headquarters. They avoid/apologize/promise to make it right. They fall short every time. Every time they promise to call us back. Every time they promise to take our claim to someone who can do something about it. Finally, someone gives me the name and direct line of the woman in charge of our case. Bam. I spare her the whole story and simply say that I will give them six business days to refund us our money, and if it's not in our account by Monday, November 1, I am walking into small claims court and suing. Now, she knows as much as I do that settling in court is a much more costly route than just giving us our money.

October 26-28. Daily phone calls asking for the status and reminding her that Monday, November 1 is right around the corner and that this was not an empty threat.

October 31. I sit down to prepare the necessary paperwork to walk into an Alameda Courthouse first thing Monday morning. I see the funds were deposited yesterday.

I am at once filled with a sense of victory and rage. I want to punch Lumber Liquidators in the nose. I can't believe that this company only acts when their ass in on the line. Okay, I can believe it. But I don't like it. The threat of court was the only thing that gave us our money back. Those mother fu@*ers.

So, you want to renovate your house? These are the kinds of a-holes you'll probably have to deal with too (disclaimer: we've also had some really great people work for us). I'm spending some time online with the Better Business Bureau tomorrow morning.