Universal Floors Inc

November 20, 2014In response to [redacted]'s claim, we submit the following.The floor was inspected by the Shawn G[redacted] Vice President and the salesman Tim A[redacted] of Universal Floors on the “sheen” of the floor. There was no "stain” involved in the contract. The customer keeps mentioning the word...

stain. The sheen that was applied on the floor by Universal Floors was a satin finish. Because no sheen type was mentioned in the contract, we agreed in good faith, to add an additional coat of finish in a gloss sheen at no cost. This was agreed to by [redacted] in the presence of the man who painted her house and then several days later,she refused to let us come in and complete this final process.We agreed to pay her repairs bills on the HVAC repair if in fact we were at fault. She said she asked an expert [redacted] from “[redacted]"on what our sanding/finishing process was and did we do it correctly. He told her something to the effect that we did not use a bag on our machine properly and that the dust that was not contained and clogged the filter. [redacted] is a company that does not sand floors. They do a process called "screening and re-coating which simply removes the top layer of polyurethane with a buffing machine and then they put on a new layer of polyurethane. In our view, these people are not floor experts. We have been in business doing this work since 1953 and are members of the NWFA (National Wood Flooring Assoc.).The filter did show some dust caught on it which means it did it's job. When the Vice President of Universal Floors and met with [redacted], we noticed the house had the A/C on with most all of the windows open. I thought this was strange being that the temperature was in the 90's that day. Anytime you run an A/C unit in 90 degree weather with the windows open, the unit will work very hard and cause ice to form around the coil. This is what we feel happened and what caused the water leakage. In fact, the bill from the HVAC company [redacted] dated 7/24/2014 only lists an emergency pan cut off switch that needed to be replaced. It did not mention anything about the evaporator coil being froze or the unit was full of ice. The cut off switch did not do it’s job of shutting down the unit and therefore caused a flood which she is trying to blame us for.The ceiling/wall damage was not caused by dust being caught in the filter. She opened the windows in above 90 degree weather and left the A/C running. This was found to be defective and replaced by [redacted]. We have been in this business for over 60 years and a filter that is doing it's job collecting dust has never caused a A/C unit to freeze up with ice.In summary, Universal Floors received a signed contract from [redacted]. We executed the contract on the day specified and completed the job as specified. Even though the sheen was not listed on the contract (satin finish is 90% of what we do, gloss is not as common), we stepped up and agreed to give her the gloss coat at no extra charge. [redacted] agreed on a specific date for us to put the gloss sheen on the floors. She was the one who changed the agreement and then refused to pay her bill. She also started to accuse Universal Floors of damage that we feel we did not cause. The job total was $3544.00. We want her to pay the amount of the contract that she signed.Thank you,Tim A

Review: July 18 , 2014 Universal started refinishing floors in my house The salesperson (Tim) and I agreed upoin a high gloss finish

July 19, 2014 (Saturday) stopped by to inspect work and noticed lead person for the job (Hugo) was not on the job- he left a non -English speaking person in my house who was sanding upstairs without a bag on the sander. He was on his hand and knees running the sander without a bag.

Concerned, I came back later to speak with Hugo to inquire why the man was left unattendned ? why the floors looked dull and not shiny as I asked for a high gloss finish and I inquired as to why his assistant was NOT using a bag on the sander? I also, had concerns that his assiatnt was NOT a legal worker. Hugo dismissed my concerns. He was argumentative and threatening. I called the sales person Tim and left a meassage at the office. Tim called me back and arrived at my house a short time later. He addressed the issues with Hugo with regard to the stain was placed on the floors and that Hugu would re-do the floors with the correct stain. Hugo exploded and became very, very aggressive and siad he did not have enough time and the floors were done correctly, and he would have to be "compensated for Tim's mistake" At that point Tim took Hugo aside and I was not privy to what was discussed. Tim assured me Hugo would fix the mistake and all floors would have a high gloss and be done by Monday night or maybe Tuesday. I informed Tim I would have to move into hotel-he told me the company, Universal would reimburse all my expenses.

July 20,2014 (Sunday) revisited my house and no one was there. I noticed my air filter was completely sucked up into the air vent. I noticed the house was warm and no windows were open.

I noticed the floors uptairs were not shiny and no finish was put on the floor. In fact they looked exactly the same as I left them on Saturday.

I then pulled the filter down and out of the vent to notice a completely saturated filter which was full of floor dust!

I called Universal and left messages for both Tim and management.

July 21,2104 deposit was charged to my master card of $$1182

July 22,2014 (Monday) I inspected house , no one had come back to finish the job. Called universal and left a message.

July 21,,2014 Called Universal Floors again and spoke to" Spriggs".I complained about the floors being finished with a stain not agreed upon and the job had seemingly been abandoned by their worker Hugo.I was informed by "Spriggs" (an owner of Universal Floors)that "a job of that size should have taken 10 days not 3 days". he then said some one would get back to me. No one called me back.

July 22, 2014 Met with Shawn G[redacted] , Universal Floors,at my house to inspect the floors. Shawn G[redacted] and his sales person, Tim agreed to reimburse me for the hotel and would re-do the work. I informed Shawn that I did not have confidence in his company to re-do the work. The job was botched from the beginning, why would I want them to come back. I also, had concerns that the "contractors" they used were not legal which he denied. Shawn and Tim left and I told them I would talk with them the next day.

July 23,2014 I noticed water leaking from the upstairs bathroom through the ceiling. I had just had the entire house painted a week prior.The entire ceiling drywall was buckeling and the water was moving down from the vent which is beneath the aircondotioner.

July 24 called Universal and informed Shawn G[redacted] I was not interested in his company ever coming back to my house and requested reimbursement..I followed up with emails requesting reimbursements for damages and for a credit back for the charges of a deposit of $1182.00- which Universal placed on my credit card.

July 24 , 2104 I called [redacted] Aircondotioning Company to inspect my airconditioner. [redacted] confirmed the cause of my bathroom ceiling damage was due to " a frozen evapaorator coil as a result of poor airflow...air flow had been reduced by a very dirty/clogged air filter". It took 4 days for the air conditioner to thaw out.

I have attempted numerous emails to Universal and asked for the deposit to be returned and to reimburse me for the damages caused by their workers. I have not heard anything back from Un iversal. They have refused to return my deposit. The floors are damaged and due to the age of my home another sanding is impossible.

I can produce, documentaion of everything I listed above, along with pictures.

I was under the impression from the Universal Web Site that the company was a family owned and operated business. But it is not. They hire sub contractors who are quite possibly illegal aliens ( I have repeatedly asked for documentation proving the workers that were in my house are legal and to no avail) Universal does not care about the qulaity of work or customer satisfaction.Desired Settlement: $1182.00 returned to my [redacted] -Deposit for job

$228.86 Hotel

$205.96 hotel

$150 [redacted]- service call

$800 [redacted] -repairs to drywall and painting bathroom

Business

Response:

November 20, 2014In response to [redacted]'s claim, we submit the following.The floor was inspected by the Shawn G[redacted] Vice President and the salesman Tim A[redacted] of Universal Floors on the “sheen” of the floor. There was no "stain” involved in the contract. The customer keeps mentioning the word stain. The sheen that was applied on the floor by Universal Floors was a satin finish. Because no sheen type was mentioned in the contract, we agreed in good faith, to add an additional coat of finish in a gloss sheen at no cost. This was agreed to by [redacted] in the presence of the man who painted her house and then several days later,she refused to let us come in and complete this final process.We agreed to pay her repairs bills on the HVAC repair if in fact we were at fault. She said she asked an expert [redacted] from “[redacted]"on what our sanding/finishing process was and did we do it correctly. He told her something to the effect that we did not use a bag on our machine properly and that the dust that was not contained and clogged the filter. [redacted] is a company that does not sand floors. They do a process called "screening and re-coating which simply removes the top layer of polyurethane with a buffing machine and then they put on a new layer of polyurethane. In our view, these people are not floor experts. We have been in business doing this work since 1953 and are members of the NWFA (National Wood Flooring Assoc.).The filter did show some dust caught on it which means it did it's job. When the Vice President of Universal Floors and met with [redacted], we noticed the house had the A/C on with most all of the windows open. I thought this was strange being that the temperature was in the 90's that day. Anytime you run an A/C unit in 90 degree weather with the windows open, the unit will work very hard and cause ice to form around the coil. This is what we feel happened and what caused the water leakage. In fact, the bill from the HVAC company [redacted] dated 7/24/2014 only lists an emergency pan cut off switch that needed to be replaced. It did not mention anything about the evaporator coil being froze or the unit was full of ice. The cut off switch did not do it’s job of shutting down the unit and therefore caused a flood which she is trying to blame us for.The ceiling/wall damage was not caused by dust being caught in the filter. She opened the windows in above 90 degree weather and left the A/C running. This was found to be defective and replaced by [redacted]. We have been in this business for over 60 years and a filter that is doing it's job collecting dust has never caused a A/C unit to freeze up with ice.In summary, Universal Floors received a signed contract from [redacted]. We executed the contract on the day specified and completed the job as specified. Even though the sheen was not listed on the contract (satin finish is 90% of what we do, gloss is not as common), we stepped up and agreed to give her the gloss coat at no extra charge. [redacted] agreed on a specific date for us to put the gloss sheen on the floors. She was the one who changed the agreement and then refused to pay her bill. She also started to accuse Universal Floors of damage that we feel we did not cause. The job total was $3544.00. We want her to pay the amount of the contract that she signed.Thank you,Tim A