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CONSUMERS BEWARE! As an employee of Express Home Services L.L.C., I wish to remain anonymous. I have seen first hand the faulty business practices consumers are forced to endure after signing a legally binding contract. They include, but are not limited to...
Product Bait and Switch
This is the most disturbing, and a very common practice used to keep you from cancelling your contract within 72 hours. This happens as a result of promising next day installation of a product that in most cases isnt in their warehouse, and in some cases has not even been ordered by the installation date. "Design Consultants" show up to your house with a high end sample, and lock you into an agreement.When the installers show up, they will unload inferior laminate product made overseas instead of the high end Shaw or Mohawk product you are expecting-the same goes for top of the line plush carpet being switched out for bottom barrel product in the same color-DO NOT BE FOOLED!Ask to see the box your product originally came out of, not the repackaged box bearing the EHS name.You can request the sample be brought out on the day of installation.You can also request the bill of lading bearing the product name and call the manufacturer the installer picked the product up from.You have the right to question ANYONE coming into your home!
Faulty Installation
EHS has been BOOTED from the Better Business Bureau, and receive countless complaints with the Registrar of Contractors on a REGULAR BASIS.Customer complaints include tile that has been laid crooked and unevenly staggered, contrary to the manufacturer's specified requirements. Laminate installations where, instead of manufacturer's 2 in1 underlayment, the installer used a cut up piece of cardboard-this caused the floor to squeak so bad it had to be tore up and replaced(mind you, the installer still worked for EHS after this incident).When the customer complained, EHS told them the monsoon moisture was the cause of the squeaky floor, this is FALSE! Any installer knows laminate needs to acclimate in the environment it will be installed in for at least 48 hrs prior-this is a guideline EHS blatantly ignores as they are a next day installation company. In cases like this, EHS will actually try to "buy the customer out" to keep them from filing an ROC complaint. In addition to this, EHS installers are subcontractors, not Express employees! Another common practice is telling customers their product has been damaged to buy some time until they actually receive it in the warehouse-DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! You can request to see the damaged product to ensure you are not being lied to.
Immoral Sales techniques
In an effort to lock a customer into a sale, often times a "Design Consultant" will place a mock call to the office in front of you to give you the impression they are "checking stock"-do not fall for this! In most cases they are using codes, and talking to an answering machine! This is the most deceptive practice, as they make you believe stock is limited when it is not!Furthermore, there have been cases where customers have requested a detailed billing after realizing they paid way too much. EHS will NEVER provide this! Ask yourself...If they are legitimate, why is this a secret? Do you not have the right to know what it is that you paid for, line for line?
My intent in filing this complaint was not to point fingers or name names, but rather get this off my conscience!I am not typing this out of anger or malice. Legally, I have every right to post this as I have never been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement by my superiors, and the information is not falsified in ANY WAY. I hope anyone considering a flooring purchase with this company will read this first !
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
In Defense of Anonymous
As a former employee of this company, I can attest that the essence of everything in the above posting is true.
The product bait and switch noted above, in my opinion, was not the result of malice on the part of Express Home Services, but normally that of the incompetence so common to today's business world. The scenario described absolutely did happen on any number of occasions.
Express Home Services' membership in the Better Business Bureau has been revoked, and their BBB rating is an 'F' ('booted' is a rather unceremonious term, yet accurate). The spin that Henry and the rest of management at Express Home Services puts on this particular tidbit of juicy scandal is the envy of every armchair politician in North America. It's also ridiculously false. According to the Better Business Bureau: 'On November 15, 2007 this company's accreditation/membership in the BBB was revoked due to a failure to eliminate the underlying cause of complaints and a failure to support the principles and purposes of the BBB by engaging in activity that reflects unfavorably on the Bureau and its members.' So, it's not the number of complaints Express Home Services has received, nor is it the ratio of complaints to praise nor the size of the company. The problem is that Express Home Services' business model is fundamentally flawed in the eyes of the Better Business Bureau.
I am not intimately familiar with installation techniques of either laminate flooring or tile, however from my days as a manual laborer (prior to my employment with Express Home Services), I can state that such incidents are unfortunately common. Especially in older buildings. While not a professional solution, it's probably unwise to lay the blame of this at the feet of management.
The faulty sales techniques are a bit mislabeled. While we were actually trained to provide coded data and imaginary warehouse locations to the salesmen (to indicate whether we actually had the product or not), I wouldn't characterize this as faulty. It was a very successful tactic, ableit immoral.
I should also point out that Express Home Services will attend various home shows under fictitious business names. 'Regal Flooring' being the most common fictitious business name (though I've been informed recently they've actually registered this company's name with the ROC, I haven't bothered to confirm).
It's also distressing to learn that in light of the above posting, Express Home Services required their employees to take a polygraph test to determine who posted the truth to /link removed/ This, as I understand it, is in direct violation of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988. Polygraph tests are also notoriously unreliable, to the point where many consider them pseudoscience. Hopefully, management never actually went through with such nonsense.
Now, I recognize that Henry and the gang at Express Home Services will have little difficulty in identifying me and that their slander of my good name will continue unabated. At the very least, it will be interesting to observe their apoplectic reactions to a calm and measured statement of the facts.
Regarding re packaging of materials.
It is my undestanding that express buys the cheapest material they can get there hands on and repackages it into there own boxes. They then go as far as to tell the customer that there material comes with some over inflated and rediculous warranty. I've heard as high as 60 years! People if they want to warranty this material for those periods of time then thats great but you should ask for a copy of everything in writing. Don't be stupid consumers. They offer 60% off. 60% off of what. If 1200 feet of laminate costs you 10950.00. Then that means before your 60% discount you were at 17, 520.00. SEVENTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR LAMINATE! Even TEN THOUSAND! 10, 900 devided 1200 feet equalls 9 dollars a foot. for 9 a foot you can do a lot better then some cheap 39cent chinese garbage. Come on wake the hell up. THey get away with it because theres no price gouging laws in AZ.
Your starting to see all these emails because the employees can't sleep at night. They're good people being made to participate in a fraud of the people. You can't be mad at the low level employees. They are people with families to support. They're doing what they have to to survive while the guys at the top of this fat cash cow are touring the world, buying new houses or bigger office buildings.
Another point to consider. They offer a lifetime installation warranty. Take the time to read every line of the back of the contract. They have an out for almost anything that can go wrong. That warranty isn't worth the price of the paper its printed on.
gonif 20 up, 2 down
A thief, a crook. An untrustworthy person, particularly one who steals outright or over-charges for merchandise.
(Hebrew & Yiddish: ganev, meaning thief)
This company was awful... high pressure in home, terrible initial customer service... DO NOT USE!