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Opinions Needed - re: Sears Fiasco from last week
Long Story.....Last week I posted about issues we were having with Sears causing a water leak at our house during a refrigerator installation. I finally have been speaking with someone at their transportation company that handles all deliveries and installations for Sears (at least here in Baltimore). The claims person has been very helpful. They sent someone out to our house to replace our broken water line from the basement up to the kitchen. They have also agreed to pay to replace the drywall and ceiling which is comes out to $325. The thing they are having a problem with is our carpet. We just had the carpet installed 5 months ago, it came with a 7 year warranty which we have been told is now void by the carpet manufacturer because it was excessive water damage and not normal wear and tear. The estimate to replace the carpet (by the same company that installed it 5 months ago) is $2800 because they need to replace the entire basement which is a very large area. They said that is the only way we would once again have a warranty. If we only replace the padding (which is what Sears wants to do for $650) then we no longer have a warranty. I havent spoke to the Sears person this afternoon he was calling the manager at the carpet company to get details on why the entire basement needed to be replaced. I will call back tomorrow to find out where we are with all of this.
Just curious what all of you would do in this situation. Would you accept the payment to replace the carpet padding and just forget about the carpet warranty that is now void or would you continue to battle with Sears over this? If they ultimately say they will not pay for new carpet is this something we would try to get a lawyer about? I have never dealt with anything like this before and feel like I could use some outsider opinions.
Thanks for taking the time to read this....I know it was very long!
Re: Opinions Needed - re: Sears Fiasco from last week
Ugh, that sounds like a nightmare. Sorry you have to deal with that.
Is the carpet alright, aside from being damp? What I mean is if Sears replaces the padding and lets the carpet fully dry, will it look alright?
If it were me, I'd keep trying to get what they owe you. I'd try to get a letter from the carpet company that states when you bought the carpet, it's warranty, and how it is now void due to Sears, and that they only way you will have a warranty again is to have it replaced. At the very least, they should compensate you for the padding and any additional costs it would take to have the carpet professionally cleaned after the damage.Crap happens and the guy that messed up the install is probably going to be seriously reprimanded, but they're the ones that messed up. I wouldn't go so far as to get a lawyer, but I'd definitely try to get the problem fully rectified.
Fortunately my husband went into our basement about 5 hours after the refrigerator was installed and saw the leak so we were only dealing with 5 hours of water and not a few days of water. We immediately used a shop vac to extract as much water out of the carpet as possible. Then we ran a fan and a dehumidifer for the next week to get the moisture out of the air, carpet, and drywall. Mold is a huge concern for me. I am pregnant and we have a 16 month old at home so I dont want to have any issues with mold showing up in the next few months. I feel like if the carpet padding is replaced hopefully that will eliminate the potential for mold. The carpeting does not look bad but for my husband it has come down to the principle of us losing out on our warranty than the look of the carpet. I feel like this has already inconvenienced us for the past 1.5 weeks it would be nice to just have it over but I also agree that Sears should be responsible for the damage they caused.
Just wondering how far people would take this before just accepting payment to have the padding replaced. It has only been 1.5 weeks and I am already tired of all the phone calls and dealing with all of this. Not to mention we will need to take off work to have the drywall work done and then whatever carpeting work is going to be done. So we are losing vacation time at work as well. ugh.
I think with things like this...each party just keeps fighting until one gives up...it's hard to say how long I would fight the good fight but it seems like there should still be some fight in ya...
out of curiosity, if you were able to dry the carpet out so well, why even tell the carpet company
good question...sears suggested that we contact the company that installed the carpeting a few months ago so that they could be provided with an estimate from a professional on the damages. we dried out the carpet the best that we could but we have no idea what it is like underneath because I didnt want to tear up our wall to wall carpeting unless i knew someone was going to be able to either replace it or put it back down without it being noticable.
so now the warranty is gone on the carpeting but we have also been told by the carpet company that at the very minimum the padding has to be replaced because that will never fully dry out and that is what usually causes molding. they also told us that the backing on carpeting after being saturated with water breaks down so the carpeting will actually wear out in that area of our basement much faster than any other area.
it's just become one of those things now that i just feel like they should be responsible for whether it's new carpeting, new padding, something.
Because of the fact that the warranty on your brand-new carpet has been voided by their mistake, I would continue to fight it. I know it's such a pain to have to volley the phone calls and deal with the back and forth, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with it, but it sounds like it's a fight worth having.
I agree with the PP who said that you should get a letter from the carpet company stating that due to the water, your warranty is now voided. It doesn't even matter if the carpet is in good shape because you and your husband caught it quickly and scrambled to take care of it - a 7 year warranty has been rendered null because of their fuck_up, and they need to take care of that. If the only way to regain that warranty is to replace all of the carpeting, then so be it. It's not your fault and it's not your problem.
It's good that the claims person from Sears is speaking directly to the carpet company. If the carpet company suddenly says that you can replace part of it and have the original warranty on the original portion that remains, I'd get it in writing in case you end up having untimely breakdown later that they try to deny as being covered under the warranty due to this incident.
In your shoes I don't think I'd deal with hiring a lawyer, but I'd definitely keep fighting with Sears about it.
Good luck!
Thanks so much for all of the feedback, I really appreciate it!
We did contact our Home Owners insurance company when it first happened and they told us that with our deductible being $1000 it would be better to just see what happens with Sears first but at least they have everything on record that happened. I havent heard back from Sears after yesterday so I guess I will be making more phone calls this morning but I am hoping that the carpet company spoke to the claims manager at Sears and explained everything. Either way I will ask the carpet company for something in writing about the warranty being void. That will definitely be helpful. In a few days if it doesnt seem like Sears is really moving forward I will go ahead and contact our Home Owners company and just file the claim and see what they say when they send someone out.
I honestly was not interested in getting a lawyer but I have had a few friends tell me we need to hire one. I guess I am just hoping that we can get it sorted out with Sears ourselves.