Perinton Carpet and Flooring

and I asked that install be done on a Saturday which was accommodated.  Men were late, no phone call.  After job was completed?, my doors were not put back on, didn't bring their saw to trim them, could not remount my powder room toilet.  They did some cutting in garage and left it a complete mess, fine reddish dust all over everything.  Driveway was a mess, not swept.
I guess one of the men forgot to use the bag with the saw that catches dust.  I had to spend hours the next day cleaning up garage.
They did reimburse me $50 that I paid another person to put doors and toilet back on.  Also the owner brought over a 2 foot by 4 foot remnant that was bound for me.  I didn't need this.

This was a nightmare.
 
This is not the Perinton Carpet of old.  Jim Lewis, the previous owner for years, retired and sold the business to Tony Geraci.  Jim was experienced, meticulous and hands-on.  The original install done by Jim was absolutely perfect, beautifully matched throughout all the rooms.  In September 2012, we noticed the seams had opened.  I called Perinton Carpet; spoke to Tony, who instructed that I call Armstrong.
 
We were hoping this could get resolved easily by just filling in the seams, but ended up down the warranty replacement road.  Tony finally came out and took photos in November 2012.  He didn't show at the appointed time, but arrived unannounced the next day.  He talked about having the flooring for install by Thanksgiving.  Either he was handing us a line, or he was really clueless how warranty claims worked, because Armstrong didn't OK this until January 2013.
 
We were told Armstrong would only pay for the install of the new flooring over the old.  Having two layers of vinyl was not something we wanted, so we opted at our expense to have the old floor ripped up.  Tony provided an estimate over the phone, I accepted.  No paperwork was exchanged, nothing was signed.  A major mistake on our part.  Nothing was agreed upon in writing beforehand. 
 
We were told we were getting his "best installers" and they showed up when expected -- which was the last positive thing that occurred.  The lead installer, Pete, was moody and argumentative from the moment he arrived.  This may not have been so bad if he were actually good at his job.  Instead, we got a horrible installation:
-- Seams were done by cutting blocks in half instead of at grout lines.  Some seams were done joining two different block halves.
-- The flooring was not laid fully to the wall in front of the sliding glass door, leaving a 3/4" gap.  Pete had assumed the molding would cover the gap.  It did not.
-- The flooring is not secure in the corner of the kitchen cabinets.  From a distance you can see it slopes.  When you touch it, it pushes down.
-- The flooring around the toilet in the powder room now cracks (not a squeak, but loud cracks) when you step on it.
 
Additionally, the kitchen cabinets were damaged:
-- The kick plate piece between the dishwasher and the corner of the cabinet disappeared completely.
-- Several dime-sized gouges were made in the kick plate, veneer gone, now down to plywood.
-- Long scratches on the end of the cabinet from moving the appliances into the dining room.
 
And this is Tony's best installer?  We were determined not to have these people in the house again after that, but two weeks after this fiasco, the seams opened up.  When Tony came to check, we showed him everything that went wrong.  We did not want Pete back, given the problems the first time, but Tony insisted Pete be the one to fill in the seams and patch in front of the sliding door.  The seams were fixed, but we got another crappy job for the slider patch.  The pattern was not matched, and so much glue was used that the patch sat higher than the rest of the floor, so that the molding did not lay flush with the floor.
 
Seeking some sort of fix to our predicament, I stopped in at Messner Carpet and explained the story, hoping they could direct me to someone to assist in repairs.  They were kind enough to link me up with their installer, and Dave was more than willing to come out and help.  He confirmed we got a poor installation, and we're stuck with the poorly laid out pattern matching.  He confirmed that the cracking noises in the powder room were either bad plywood or not enough staples, but it could only be fixed by removing the floor and should not be done unless really necessary.  But he could easily give us a decent patch in front of the slider, with pattern matched and level with the rest of the floor. 
 
Worse was that Dave said we went through all of this for nothing.  He had dealt with seams opening up plenty of times.  When they are done on the grout lines (as all of Jim's were), you just patch with synthetic grout matched to the color.
 
This was an expensive disaster:  the cost to Perinton Flooring, the cost of the cabinet repair, the cost to Dave to correctly patch the floor.
 
Tony comes across as a personable guy, but it seems he's bought a business he is still learning about.  Over the course of the five months this fiasco played out, we noted several times where the stories were inconsistent.  And from the beginning, the phrase I heard again and again was "I don't want to lose money."  I have no idea if he lost money here, but he's certainly lost a repeat customer.  I would never do business with them again, and have made it a point to encourage everyone I know to avoid them.
 
And kudos to Messner.  They could have easily brushed me off.  But their willingness to help me has earned them our respect and our next flooring purchase.

Chuck was out due to injury so we didn't get the job started right away. However, once he was healthy he was able to come out with an assistant to take care of the issues. It was not only a great job but also quite an education. It turns out that repairing botched Home Depot jobs is a very common occurrence, and it actually bothered Chuck to see how poor of a job that the did (as well as not standing by the job after the fact). He was very friendly (very social to our 2 little boys) and also neat and professional. The job was done extremely well and it was exactly as stated over the phone. We paid $150 (original estimate was $140-$160). Also, it's worth noting that Chuck does NOT charge to move furniture, and we had some big stuff to move. He said that it's 'embarrassing' that other carpet companies charge to do this. Great job!

They were local and I didn't job around.

Family owned business, the chief installer is the husband-owner and the wife-owner operates the store. Easy to work with. I selected some carpet samples, and they let me take them home to look at in the room. I choose the carpet and put down a 1/3 deposit, then scheduled installation for about a month later because I wanted to do some repair work and paint the room before they installed the carpet. They arrived when they said they would and installed the carpet. Only complaint is that they slightly damaged some of the new paint on the baseboard, that I will have to touch up, but I think that was unavoidable, as you press the carpet down to slide under the baseboard, the edge of the carpet scrapes the baseboard. Price was competitive with other carpet stores, as far as I can tell (none of them sell the same brands). I liked dealing with a small, owner-run business, and think I got very good quality carpeting and installation.