Pergo Flooring: How to Get Out of Pergo-tory

Manchester, NJCarol Millin's Pergo laminate flooring was not even a month old when she noticed huge scratches and dents. "Every day I would see little indentations appearing from nowhere and they are permanent," she says. But thanks to her perseverance—and understanding the fine print from her credit card company—Millin was able to get some compensation for Pergo's defective flooring.

"The reason we bought Pergo flooring was because they said it was the most durable flooring on the market today," says Millin. "My husband, Vinny and I looked around for a considerable time; then we got a Pergo sample in Lowe's Home Improvement store and ran a key across it really hard, it didn't make a scratch. We were sold."

They bought the flooring in February, 2006 but complaints to Pergo and Lowe's began one month later. "This flooring comes in individual pieces--long slats of wood in all different sizes so you can make it look like old fashioned hardwood," explains Millin. "Vinny lay the flooring the way Lowe's told us to do it but it looked all 'wavy'. Lowe's said it didn't need to be glued—'float it' they said. But it didn't work out that way.

"After Vinny had done a large area, some of it was up in the air. I walked over it and called Pergo direct. 'Oh no, you have to glue the floor,' a customer sales rep said. But it doesn't say that in their instructions. Luckily we were able to shoot the glue under the flooring and glued the rest.

"It was down about one month and I noticed that if I even dropped a pen on the floor, it made a scratch and dent. We have a big screen TV on wheels, and the entire floor now has dents from the wheels and marks where we rolled it. Imagine if we had kids—fuhgeddaboudit!

Then I sent Pergo an email, telling them the floor looks like hell.
Their email response: 'The beauty of this floor is that you can sand it and refinish it.'
He left me his phone number.
'Let me ask you something', I said. 'This floor is now six weeks old and not yet paid for. What part of that do you not understand?'
' But you know, you can get it refinished,' he said.
'It's on a delayed payment and guess what, it is never going to get paid,' I replied.
'If you are so unhappy, go back to where you purchased the floor and file a complaint with the store,' was his last comment.

I went back to Lowe's and went through the whole thing with them. They took my complaint. And I waited. I was so pissed off that I was getting jerked around. This floor cost $2,200.
Finally got a call from an independent contractor-he was going to look at my floor.

This 'inspector' asked me numerous questions. For instance, do I have a humidifier, is my house insulated? He brought out a huge magnifying glass, got on his hands and knees and looked at the dents and scratches. Then he took photographs and measured everything. 'I'll give my report to Pergo and you'll hear from us in a few weeks,' he said.

As it turned out, his visit was just a bunch of crap. He confirmed dents and scratches but said it had nothing to do with the warranty and wasn't covered. Pergo said, 'We're done.'

Back to Lowe's. The assistant store manager said, 'Just give us a few weeks and see if we can't make this right.' By now the floor is three months old. Lowe's return policy: 90 days with a receipt. They were stalling.

Everyone was missing the point: the floor wasn't paid for. I am so glad it was on delayed payment. I wasn't worried about my credit rating if I didn't pay it because on the back of my credit card, it says that if you have a defective product and you have made every effort with the company to try and resolve it and you have proof, you can dispute it and it won't reflect on your credit rating.

I then planned to make Lowe's life a living hell. They stepped on the wrong toes with me! I then posted my complaint online and on Lowe's website. Next up, Lowe's sent a letter and wanted to talk. They offered me a $100 gift card. What a joke--I wouldn't buy a screw from them!

'I will rip up this entire floor and dump it in your store and when I am done with you, you aren't going to sell anything,' I said. I'm a pit bull with lipstick.
Then I went online and phoned the Lowe's corporate office in North Carolina. And I sent certified mail.

Finally, one guy called and said, 'You tell me what you want.'
'Ideally, I want to give the floor back,' I told him.
'If that is what you want, we will take it back.'
(But Vinny custom-built banisters over the floor so we would lose about $1,000 if we returned the flooring.)
'This is what I want: credit me $1,000 on my charge card plus tax and I would pay the balance,' I suggested.
In August, 2006, they agreed.

Now we have runners everywhere covering the floor. It is not a living floor, it is a looking floor. But we are living with it-- we turn the other cheek."