MaxCare Hardwood Flooring

We went to [redacted] ***'s residence on January 7, and provided an estimate At the time the floors were covered with carpetWe went through the refinishing process and also discussed puttyWe recommended not to putty all the holes as the putty does not match and it becomes more of an eye sore with specs all over opposed to leaving them and having them blend naturally with the floorShe agreed at the time and we moved onto discussion of transitionsIf she would have not agreed and requested we still putty all holes it would have been written on her proposal and a fee would have been given, as it does take time and material.She called and scheduled on January 15th for the work to begin on January 28thOur crew arrived and we began [redacted] pointed to three cable holes she would like to have filledThere was no reason to clarify what she was asking as she literally pointed to each holeShe did not say she wanted all nail/staple holes filledIf she would have requested so, we would have happily done so for herIt is not standard for our company to automatically putty all holes as some customers do not like the look of puttyAs stated at the time of the estimate, if you'd like to have putty applied you [redacted] have to let the crew know, as they do not just do itOur crew did fill random larger holes they saw as she had large screw holes where someone tried to fix squeaks in the floorTwo days later another crew arrived and applied a top coatUpon returning for the final coat [redacted] pointed out nail holes that she wanted puttiedShe stated she wanted them filledFor the process, putty should be applied before the sanding and staining so the excess putty can be sanded offIf she did originally asked for the holes to be puttied, I'm a little confused as to why she didn't call the next day to ask why her holes were not filledWe skipped a day to allow the custom stain to dryThis would have been another opportunity for her to call to ask why the putty was not appliedWe arrived two days later to apply the first coat of finish and nothing was mentioned againA clear coat was applied to the floorUpon arrival for the final coat is when she mentioned putting the holesOur finish guy spent an hour and a half applying putty to nail holes on January 30th(We have a video on file)Putty does not match exactly to begin with and now with applying the putty over a finished floor it is even less likely to matchBefore we applied the last coat we had her approve what we had doneWe then received a call on February 3rd regarding the nail holesWe asked she send a picture overWe then sent a crew out the next day to putty additional nail holesUpon arriving the crew informed her there [redacted] be a charge of $per hour for the time involvedShe was not happy and sent them awayThe next day we spoke on the phone and never was she told we don't have time for thisAs [redacted] stated, we did want to make this rightWe disagreed on what our crew members were telling her as she was stating things that didn't jive with our practiceWe sand and refinish five to eight houses a dayWe have a system down as we've been in business for yearsHer job wasn't anything out of the normWe offered to do a phone conference with all the crew members so we can openly discuss what was saidThe conclusion came to she did not request for all nail holes to be puttied at the time of sandingShe requested it at the time of the finish coatsIf it was something originally talked about at the time of the estimate it would have been placed on the crews work orderNow that the floor is completed she would have to pay an additional feeWhat she is expecting is not realistic as she had an existing floor that was covered with carpetIt's disappointing as we tried to make her happy

We went to [redacted]'s residence on January 7, 2015 and provided an estimate.  At the time the floors were covered with carpet. We went through the refinishing process and also discussed putty. We recommended not to putty all the holes as the putty does not match and it becomes more of an...

eye sore with specs all over opposed to leaving them and having them blend naturally with the floor. She agreed at the time and we moved onto discussion of transitions. If she would have not agreed and requested we still putty all holes it would have been written on her proposal and a fee would have been given, as it does take time and material.She called and scheduled on January 15th for the work to begin on January 28th. Our crew arrived and we began. [redacted] pointed to three cable holes she would like to have filled. There was no reason to clarify what she was asking as she literally pointed to each hole. She did not say she wanted all nail/staple holes filled. If she would have requested so, we would have happily done so for her. It is not standard for our company to automatically putty all holes as some customers do not like the look of putty. As stated at the time of the estimate, if you'd like to have putty applied you [redacted] have to let the crew know, as they do not just do it. Our crew did fill random larger holes they saw as she had large screw holes where someone tried to fix squeaks in the floor. Two days later another crew arrived and applied a top coat. Upon returning for the final coat [redacted] pointed out nail holes that she wanted puttied. She stated she wanted them filled. For the process, putty should be applied before the sanding and staining so the excess putty can be sanded off. If she did originally asked for the holes to be puttied, I'm a little confused as to why she didn't call the next day to ask why her holes were not filled. We skipped a day to allow the custom stain to dry. This would have been another opportunity for her to call to ask why the putty was not applied. We arrived two days later to apply the first coat of finish and nothing was mentioned again. A clear coat was applied to the floor. Upon arrival for the final coat is when she mentioned putting the holes. Our finish guy spent an hour and a half applying putty to nail holes on January 30th. (We have a video on file). Putty does not match exactly to begin with and now with applying the putty over a finished floor it is even less likely to match. Before we applied the last coat we had her approve what we had done. We then received a call on February 3rd regarding the nail holes. We asked she send a picture over. We then sent a crew out the next day to putty additional nail holes. Upon arriving the crew informed her there [redacted] be a charge of $60 per hour for the time involved. She was not happy and sent them away. The next day we spoke on the phone and never was she told we don't have time for this. As [redacted] stated, we did want to make this right. We disagreed on what our crew members were telling her as she was stating things that didn't jive with our practice. We sand and refinish five to eight houses a day. We have a system down as we've been in business for 15 years. Her job wasn't anything out of the norm. We offered to do a phone conference with all the crew members so we can openly discuss what was said. The conclusion came to she did not request for all nail holes to be puttied at the time of sanding. She requested it at the time of the finish coats. If it was something originally talked about at the time of the estimate it would have been placed on the crews work order. Now that the floor is completed she would have to pay an additional fee. What she is expecting is not realistic as she had an existing floor that was covered with carpet. It's disappointing as we tried to make her happy.

The RIGHT guys to have when things go WRONG.
I hired MaxCare for a refinishing job--and due to the condition of the floors, had to do a complete tear out instead. And new underlayment.
They bent over backwards to keep me on the schedule and get the job done. While we had a few glitches, we got them resolved.
The new floors look great, tough job working around and under my radiators. Nice job.

MaxCare TRASHED MY HOUSE.

I hired MaxCare to refinish floors and cleaned up and left town so they could spend 8 days refinishing without any additional dust or pet hair. WHen I contracted with them, they assured me only MaxCare employees would be on the job.

They quickly determined I needed new floors, and subflooring. I agreed. I stayed out of town to let them work, speaking with a manager almost daily on progress. When I got home, I determined that MaxCare had not only failed to mask off or protect any of my possessions (given their dust free promise I had not covered anything before I left), they had done all of their cutting inside, covering every thing in my house with dust and debris. My neighbors verified MaxCare did all their sawing inside.

They also did the following:

1. MC insisted I have painting done first, then flooring. But the floor guys have put greasy hand prints on virtually every newly painted wall and surface. Handprints everywhere.

2. the dust is so bad I will also likely have to hav all baseboards repainted as well.

3. Not only did they not close of/shut doors of rooms they weren't working on, they USED these rooms for cutting stations, even moving all the furniture and my bed to make room for cutting.

4. They trashed my office for the same use as workspace. ALl my electronics are covered with dust: computer, TV, printer, etc.

5. They trashed my upstairs bathroom: it looks like they dribbled pee down the toilet, ground debris into a carpet, and used the bath tub for either cutting or washing, it is covered in saw dust.

6. they took down doors and didn't rehang a back door before leaving for the weekend.

7. They ground debris on the stair carpet runner.

8. They snooped in the attic, leaving the light on.

9. THey started to put in red oak although I had specified white. Given the job is half finished, it is hard to tell if they are doing it half and half, which will look terrible.

10. All week on the phone, their rep portrayed the workers as maxCare emmployees. (They are not and my neighbors verified it was subs on the job, not MC employees).

11. I now will have to tussle with MC over getting the entire house professionally cleaned, and all the newly painted surfaces cleaned and repainted.

12. I cant believe they treated me and my house this way.

Review: Had requested MaxCare to come over and provide a quote for service to refinish our living room, hallway, guest bedroom, and office. At the time of the quote we went through the steps of refinishing the floors. One off the steps was that we would need to let the workers know if we wanted to the nail holes to be filled.

On Wednesday, January28, 2015, MaxCare arrived to refinish our living room, hallway, office and guest bedroom floors. When the gentlemen arrived at 8:30 to sand the floors, I had asked him to fill in the holes in the floor from, nails, and cable cords from the previous owners. There were several nail holes in the floor in all of the rooms. Additionally there were cable holes in all of the rooms that I had requested to be filled. [redacted] did not ask for specific clarification on the holes to be filled just – do you want the holes to be filled, which my answer was yes. [redacted] filled the cable holes and some of the nail holes. He left about two –three dozen unfilled.

On Friday, January 30th, a gentleman returned to finish the project and put the clear coat down. I had pointed out to him all of the nail holes and asked why they looked that way. [redacted] the MaxCare employee, responded with that the holes should have been filled in before they sanded. His exact words were “this is a very elementary step and I have no idea why it was missed.” He proceeded to apologize and state that the person that was here on Wednesday would be reprimanded for making the mistake. At this point [redacted] stated the only thing he could do to attempt to fix the issue would be to now putty in the holes. [redacted] did about three of them and asked if they looked ok and at that point they looked alright. I did tell him I was not happy about the discoloration and he said he would put more stain down so that it blended in better. He went on to do roughly 10 more in the hall way and that was it. The remaining ones that he did after asking how they looked, now looked WORSE than just leaving the nail holes. Before [redacted] left, he again apologized for the mistake and instructed me to call the office to see what else can be done. I called the office and left a voicemail.

On Monday, February 2st I again called the office with no returned call.

On Tuesday, February 3rd I called the office and spoke with [redacted] about the issue. She again apologized and stated “we [redacted] make this right for you.” She requested I take photos and send them to her cell phone so she could review them with her boss. I did this and received a phone call back to set up an appointment for the guys to come back out and fix the issue. [redacted] apologized again and stated we want to make this right. We set up a time between 2-4 pm for the guys to come back out on February 4th, 2015.

On February 4, 2015 no one showed up to the house so I called the office at 4:15 with no response and left a voicemail. I then received a call at 5:15 stating that they would be on their way. When the guys arrived I again showed them the issue and they stated “this should of never been missed.” This all took place as one of the guys that was over now, was the original one that made the mistake. The guy stated there is really no way to fix this without re-sanding the floors. He also couldn’t understand why the originally spots that were worked on and I approved look drastically different from the ones that he did later. His thoughts were that he did not take enough time to let the putty dry. He then informed me if they did any work they would charge $60 per hour for this. I was completely flabbergasted because this was never discussed in any of the conversations about setting up the appointment for the work to be corrected.

After the guys left I called the office and requested a call with [redacted] and [redacted].

On February 5th, I never received a phone call from the office so I called at 2:30pm and expressed my frustrations with [redacted] that no one had called me and another day is passing by with the work not fixed and our furniture not in the house. She stated she would have [redacted]l call me.

At 5:00 [redacted] calls me and states that I did not tell the gentlemen on the first day to fill in the holes (which I did). I raised the question that if I had not said to fill the holes, than why did [redacted] fill any holes at all, and [redacted] stated that was done because he was being nice. I continued to talk through my concerns, which [redacted], made it clear she did not have time to discuss and was frustrated with my phone calls and that I was costing her money by having the guys come back out. We left the conversation with that she would conference call me on February 6th, at 7:30am with [redacted] to ask him if I asked him to fill the holes.

On February 6th at 7:30am, the conference call took place and [redacted] stated I did not request the holes to be filled, which is a lie. If [redacted] was at all confused by what I was requesting he should of asked for clarification vs. just picking and choosing what holes he felt like filling. [redacted] continued to say I was looking for a miracle and I stated I just wanted the work that was promised to be completed. At this point there is no way for them to fix the issue without redoing the floors. Her only solution was to send back out the guys and charge $65 an hour to putty the holes, but that they would look worse then what they currently look like. At the end of the conversation she requested payment for the remaining balance of $802.50, which I refused and told her that I was not satisfied with the work and need to find out what my options were. She stated she would follow up on Monday for payment.

I am requesting a 20% discount off of our original quote of $1605 as the requested work was not completed. Additionally, two Maxcare workers stated that this was an elementary mistake and should have been completed. There is nothing Maxcare can do at this point as the putty needs to be put down before the sanding. I can photos to show an example of the unputtyed holes and the putty holes that were done (these do not include the three holes that [redacted] had asked my approval on). This would make our reaming balanced owed to Maxcare $481.50.Desired Settlement: 20% discount off of our original quote of $1605. This would make our remaining balance $481.50 as we already paid $805 towards the work

Business

Response:

We went to [redacted]'s residence on January 7, 2015 and provided an estimate. At the time the floors were covered with carpet. We went through the refinishing process and also discussed putty. We recommended not to putty all the holes as the putty does not match and it becomes more of an eye sore with specs all over opposed to leaving them and having them blend naturally with the floor. She agreed at the time and we moved onto discussion of transitions. If she would have not agreed and requested we still putty all holes it would have been written on her proposal and a fee would have been given, as it does take time and material.She called and scheduled on January 15th for the work to begin on January 28th. Our crew arrived and we began. [redacted] pointed to three cable holes she would like to have filled. There was no reason to clarify what she was asking as she literally pointed to each hole. She did not say she wanted all nail/staple holes filled. If she would have requested so, we would have happily done so for her. It is not standard for our company to automatically putty all holes as some customers do not like the look of putty. As stated at the time of the estimate, if you'd like to have putty applied you [redacted] have to let the crew know, as they do not just do it. Our crew did fill random larger holes they saw as she had large screw holes where someone tried to fix squeaks in the floor. Two days later another crew arrived and applied a top coat. Upon returning for the final coat [redacted] pointed out nail holes that she wanted puttied. She stated she wanted them filled. For the process, putty should be applied before the sanding and staining so the excess putty can be sanded off. If she did originally asked for the holes to be puttied, I'm a little confused as to why she didn't call the next day to ask why her holes were not filled.