Conklin Bros Floor Coverings

The Conklin representative insisted on coming to measure and give an estimate late on a Sunday afternoon. He brought along his friend. He calculated an estimate for new lineoleum and wall to wall carpet. This Conklin brothers representative failed to mention that new sub-flooring is required, and Conklin Brothers does not do sub-flooring. New sub-flooring is obviously needed as the sub-flooring had water damage and was replaced by the insurance company repair team with rough planks that had big gaps, splinters, and were uneven. And in the mean time the Conklin Brothers representative, upon this first visit, had brought his friend with him who charged my 83 year-old mother $75 per hour to pack cookbooks into boxes and move them less than 15 feet to the porch. The second friend the Conklin Brothers representative brought into my mother’s life was a more reasonable $18 per hour to pack dishes in cardboard boxes. She was great. I wonder what service values Conklin Brothers hold dear if their rep fails to note plainly evident rough, substandard, and uneven sub-flooring and charge vulnerable elders $75 for their friends to pack cookbooks into boxes and move them less than 25 feet to a porch! The lack of professional standards here is amazing!

We were on a very tight deadline, and were very upfront about this from the onset of our working relationship. The product was 2 weeks late from expected start date, no attempt made to do prep prior to flooring coming in. When the work finally started they only allocated 1 installer to the job, and then pulled him off the job to work on another emergency mid day. The time line we were promised from the start of the installation was also not kept. When we finally spoke to the "problem solver" we were made to feel foolish for believing all of the promises that had been made at the onset of our working with them. No one communicated with us when things were falling behind, no one appeared to communicate with each other at their store or between the sales staff, warehouse staff, or the installers. The floors are beautiful and were expertly installed, if you have oodles of time and want a great product feel free to work with them.

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Went back for carpeting to update the rest of the floors in my condo, as soon as I could move everything into the newly plank vinyl rooms. The carpet looks good, feels good on the feet, and was affordable. The job was remarkably fast.

Word of mouth steered me away from the big box store and down to Conklin Bros. Paul Henthorn worked hard to stay within my tiny budget, and after a few weeks of shopping he found a great deal on Luxury Vinyl Plank that looks like oak. Mario and Jose installed the floor very professionally in only 2 days. When the job was found to be harder than expected, the whole team communicated well with me. IBe aware: this is a very dusty job! I should have covered everything in the house.

The service was somewhat spotty at first due to lack of punctuality, but after speaking with the manager it was eventually corrected and we were ultimately satisfied with the service.

Conklin Brothers lived up to the A rating on Angie's List, both for sales and installations. With the ten percent Senior Discount, it actually undersold the bid from the firm that Costco was using, California Carpet. That was a pleasant surprise. Jerry Phillips came to the house punctually and measured. Thirteen years with Conklin, highly professional. In contrast to his competitor, he drew a whole floor plan on graph paper, and when asked why he wasn't using an electronic gun to measure, gave a learned explanation of the flaws of that method, and why he still used tape though it took longer. He brought samples. We went to the San Mateo showroom on June 25 to see him to make a final selection. Large, uncrowded attractive showroom with a million choices. No pressure. Though Conklin only offers Angie's List a five percent discount, I used the ten percent senior discount, and Jerry gave us a good price. We checked to see that the carpet was in stock because we didn't want to wind up doing it when our relatives were visiting. Jerry said no problem and put the carpet on reserve. To our dismay, when the dispatcher contacted us, they had scheduled it for July 13, exactly when our relatives were coming. We immediately contacted Jerry and said the dispatcher was about to blow the perfect Angie's List rating. Jerry made calls, and the dispatcher rescheduled it for Saturday the 6th, even though that was the 4th of July weekend (probably the problem in the first place.) So Conklin was as good as its word. Mario and Pedro arrived exactly on time. Mario has about 15 years of experience at Conklin Brothers. That's a good sign. Cheerful, powerful guys. They worked nonstop, except for a half hour lunch break, working from 8 in the morning to 630 at night. They carried furniture all over the place, and when we showed them an enormous couch that had to come down a circular staircase, Mario only said, and quot;Piece of cake.and quot; Mario renailed the floor once the old carpet was off it, nailing down and then screwing down (at my request) squeaking boards. He cut carpet into correct pieces from complicated looking floor plans. The circular stairs change shape slightly as they go down. This is not for amateurs. Excellent job.
Always cheerful and professional though it was fast, nonstop physical effort and 90 degrees that day. Doors were open so a/c didn't help much. Such hard work and they did us favors, even moved a solid electronic piano up the circular stairs, heavy as lead, we gave each $30 tip. They hadn't expected it, we just wanted to. Highest praise for Jerry and Mario and for Angie's List too. A good recommendation. They even turned out cheaper than the California Carpet/ Costco bid, with our discount.