Mr. Sandless of Raleigh

I had Mr Sandless to put a new finish on hardwood floors in four rooms and a hall. I have an issue with one room and the hall.I had serious dark pet stains on my living room floor and in the hall. [redacted], with Mr Sandless gave me an estimate and I was told the stains were likely all the way through the floor and could only be eliminated with having new flooring. However, I was told by [redacted] with their process of green chemical, screens on scrubbing machine, and stains. [redacted] also stated " I think we can improve the overall appearance quite a bit. As discussed, we'll do the best we can with the pet stains". I see no evidences of as [redacted] said "the crew did all they could" to minimize the stains. I am very happy with the floors elsewhere and signed off on all the floors. When I began putting furniture back in on the floors it became evident to me that I believed the floors in the living room and the hall had the old finish removed and the new coating only. There is no change to any areas of the floors in question. If the floors had a screening and hand sanding as [redacted] explained I would think I would see some difference on the minor surface stains. I sent one email with my concerns to [redacted] and was told he would suggest I refer to our email chain of what could and could not be done to stains. It took two emails, to [redacted] the Raleigh franchise owner, and a call to the Mr Sandless headquarters to get any response to my emails. The email I then received from [redacted] just stated the process had been done on my floor and that was it. I NEVER expected the stains to disappear but I did expect to see some kind of change if even minor.Desired SettlementHaving not been offered any type of resolution, I really wish some customer service would be attempted. To be defensive and throw the entire problem back on me, in my opinion, is not customer service. I am not sure I would have heard from [redacted] had I not called headquarters with a complaint. After no offer of resolution I had stated I would consult my attorney for my next step. I was advised to try contacting [redacted] again. When I did not hear from [redacted] in over a week I sent another email and stated I didn't want to be forced to post a negative complaint against Mr Sandless. I was told by [redacted] that I did not have grounds to post a negative review. [redacted] stated I had threaten him with legal action and the negative review, he was exactly correct I was not receiving any civil discussion of resolution. I asked what else should I have done. What I would like for resolution is for [redacted] to have his crew do their process on the hall and living room again in my presence.Business Response It was explained to this customer multiple times (in email and verbally when I performed the originally floor inspection and again on the morning of service) that the pet stains (caused by a bacteria) would remain after our service. Some of the stains were not as dark as others and I told him that these stains could be confined to the surface and that it was possible that they could lighten a bit but they would most likely still be there after our service. My crew did everything possible to improve the lighter stains (including our screening process and hand sanding). The lighter stains turned out to be deeper than surface stains and therefore remained after our service. The customer signed a waiver acknowledging that Mr. Sandless would do our best to conceal the stains but only board replacement would eliminate them. In this waiver, he also agreed to the service and outcome that we were able to achieve. The contract that he signed also address pet stains and the acceptance of the outcome that we would be able to achieve. The customer claims that we did not do everything possible to eliminate or lighten the stains. He claims that he would have been able to see a difference if we would have tried to screen and hand sand the lighter stains. His claim is not true. Everything possible was tried. We would not be in business long if our customers were able to tell where we had screened and sanded. We are experts in blending these areas with the rest of floor. That is exactly what we did in this case.The customer claims that we did live up to the promise of improving the overall appearance of the floors.After our service was complete, the customer said that he was thrilled with the outcome of the floors and stated multiple time that the floors look much better. Mr. Sandless has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If the customer is not happy, they don't pay. The customer signed off on the job stating that the job was completed in a satisfactory manner. He then paid us for our work. The overall appearance of the floors was improved significantly.The customer claims that I was unresponsive to his communications after our service was complete.Job date was 9/22/15. The customer contacted me with his complaint on 10/31/15 (more than a month after we completed the job). I responded to him the very next day (on a Sunday - we are closed on Sundays). Without any evidence or knowledge of flooring (self-admitted in his email), he accused us of not doing our job and basically called me a liar. I referred him to our email exchange before the job. He responded by threating legal action and writing bad reviews on my company. He was being irrational and I decided to cut off communications with him. We had done everything possible and everything promised. I decided that I did not want to be threatened by this customer any more. I had rather fight the issue in court that be threatened by a customer how was clearly in the wrong.There is nothing more that we can do for this customer. We did everything within our capabilities. The customer took a risk with the pet stains. Our capabilities were fully multiple times. He signed a waiver agreeing to the outcomes that we were able to achieve.Supporting documentation (email chain, waiver, and contract) can be supplied upon request.[redacted]Consumer Response I agree, Mr Sandless explained to me multiple times (in email and verbally) about the pet stains. Some of the stains were very dark and I understood these stains could not be improved without replacement. My issue are the stains that Mr Sandless referred to as "lighter and a possibility these stains could be lightened". I understood what I signed the morning the crew arrived to do the work. When I arrived home at the end of the day the crew was packed up and waiting to jump in their vehicle to head out of Durham. I was disappointed with the stains but thought everything had been done to improve all the stains. The more I looked at the stains I just could not discern where any screening or hand sanding had been attempted.I have absolutely no issue with the other rooms that Mr Sandless completed, I was completely satisfied with the improvement of the other floors. I did not realize that if I paid and signed off on the job I waived any further customer service questions or issues on the actual service. Mr Sandless became immediately defensive with my very first email when I voiced my issues with the stains. There was no offer of meeting with me to see if there was anything Mr Sandlless could do to answer my questions and address my concerns. This is a copy of my first email:I think I am getting close to getting everything back in place from having my floors done. I really feel like I have a really clean house after moving everything in my house and having the floors completely cleaned and sealed.I have one concern about my floors. I know I agreed to take the chance on the outcome of the living room and hall because of the dark dog urine stains. I guess I was expecting the stains not to be so dominating and show no change at all. I think I remember in our initial discussion it was mentioned the process would involve an abrasive screen used on a floor machine to remove the old finish and some imperfections on the floors. It was also mentioned you had someone who was really good at using stains to help blend blemishes. I realize I am not a professional, I cannot discern if anything beyond preparing the floor to accept the water base polyurethane "green process" was attempted. In all rooms except for the living room and hall the results are more than acceptable. Was there an attempt to use a screen to take more than just the old finish off? I do not see any evidence that any kind of stain used to blend stains in those rooms. Was stain used to blend? The pet stained floors appear to just have the new gloss finish. My concern is I cannot tell anything was done to help disguise the problem areas. Did I misunderstand your presentation? When people see the floors, they are amazed at how nice the other rooms look. I guess I was expecting some change to the rooms with pet stains. Is there a type of stain that could be put on top of the finished floors with stains that would be opaque that would just totally cover the current floor with a new color? I am even thinking of just using floor paint. You did make me aware that the stains would not disappear but I was hoping for some improvement and/or change. Any information or explanation of the work done would be appreciated.This is Mr Sandless response to my original email:I suggest you read our email chain below that references what we can and can't do with pet stains.The guys did everything possible with the stains but when they realized what I suspected (that the stains were completely through the wood), they were not able to impact the areas.I wish we could have achieved the results you were hoping for...Regards,[redacted]As one can read, there is no offer or any attempt of customer service. In my "irrational" response I did question Mr Sandless process. After no offers of any customer service, I stated I would consult an attorney and later "threatened" to write a bad review. My complaint is more about the absence of any CUSTOMER SERVICE after the job than the stains themselves. I had asked in one email if Mr Sandless would show me where on my floors the sanding that was done. No response!Recently, I decided to sand an area that I had thought would have been improved by Mr Sandless process. I used a small Black and Decker Mouse sander. I spent a couple of minutes sanding on the floor. Once I sanded through the Mr Sandless finish, I quickly went through most of the stain. It appears the area I sanded could now be expertly stained to blend into the rest of the floor. I am not a floor professional, as Mr Sandless agreed, but I am capable of using a small sander to see if the stain would lighten. Just as I suspected, my small sander made a difference on the area I sanded.I apologize if Mr Sandless feels I basically called him a "liar". I was trying to get some clarification to the questions I ask. When I realized Mr Sandless had no intention of addressing my questions, I guess I did resort to "irrational threats". I did not get a response to two emails so I called the main office of Mr Sandless and finally heard back from the service provider. I felt berated and bullied by the response. Again, my issue and complaint is the lack of an offer and a little patience from Mr Sandless to attempt to answer my questions and concerns. Customer Service, in my way of thinking, would be for the provider to meet with the client at the home and rationally address any questions.I will be more than happy to share my pictures of the spot I recently sanded. I was not able to attach the pictures to this response.