KARASTAN/MOHAWK CARPETS SELLS DEFECTIVE CARPETING; CORNROWING IN TRAFFIC AREAS AFTER TEN MONTHS IN 2 SEPARATE INSTALLATIONS & WON'T PAY MOVING EXPENSES! DALTON GEORGIA

In January of 2006, we bought $42/sq.yd, Karastan "Tournier", wall-to-wall carpet and a top-of-the line premium pad from Brentwood Carpets of Cary to the tune of $5,342.00. After 9 months, I began to notice crushing, matting and "cornrowing" in all of the traffic areas in the house.

After a month of steaming, vacuuming and more steaming to no avail, I finally called Wesley Newsome, our sales associate from Brentwood Carpets, out to see the carpet. He said, "If I didn't know this carpet was only ten months old, I would've thought it was ten YEARS old! In 15 years in the business, I've never seen anything like it. I'll have to call Rick Beck."

On January 3, 2007, Wesley told me that Rick Beck, their local Karastan rep out of Wilmington, NC, told him that Karastan had "received a lot complaints" about our particualr "run" of Tournier. He pronounced it "defective", SIGHT UNSEEN, and said Karastan would replace it free-of-charge with new, "rigorously tested" Tournier, pay for removal of the "defective" carpet and for the installation of the new.

"Who's going to pay to pack up all of our stuff, move it out, store it, pay for our hotel stay while our entire house is in a pod, etc.", I inquired.

"Karastan's 'standard policy' for 'moving furniture' is $1.00/sq. yd" and a $1.00/sq. yd. for "carpet removal," replied Wesley. I was going to get a whopping $208 towards what had cost us $3,000 to do the first time around. We'd done most of the packing ourselves, hired casual labor to help us pack up the rest, and shlepp it into a rented Penske truck.

Then, we'd moved into a hotel for 5 days & 4 nights. Brentwood put down the new carpet, and then casual labor shlepped everything back into the house, shoved it into the correct room and disappeared, leaving us in what should've been declared a disaster zone. It took us MONTHS to get the house back together again, AND to recover from the stress of moving in and out of our house in 2006 & then again 2007.

The NEW, "rigorously tested" Tournier carpet was installed on August 20, 2007. We hired a lawyer for the second go-round to try and force them to pay for the moving/hotel stay charges. Karastan hid behind their "consequential and incidental damages" clause, saying they weren't liable for those charges. Some states disallow this clause, forcing big companies to step up to the plate and fulfill their responsibilities to the consumers who bought their product. in good faith Unfortunately, NC is not one of those enlightened states.

Finally, after getting The NC Consumer Protection Services involved, we were able to squeeze $1,700.00 out of Karastan towards a bill totaling $5,257.00 in moving expenses and a hotel stay. We were left holding the bag for the remaining $3,557.00! We ended up paying THOUSANDS for something that wasn't our fault. Karastan treats it's customers like you-know-what.

Flash forward to July, 2008. The NEW, "rigorously tested" Tournier carpet is crushing, matting and cornrowing in all of the traffic areas in the house. It looks like it's been down ten YEARS, not ten months. EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM has happened in EXACTLY THE SAME TIME FRAME as the last batch. How's that for a 'coincidence"? This will be the THIRD TIME the carpet is going to have to be replaced.

I say, "Over my dead body! We want our money back because we're gonna replace the carpet with ANOTHER BRAND. NO MORE KARASTAN FOR US!! We want the $5,000 + it's gonna cost us to pack/move out/store/hotel/move in/unpack. It may take us 3-5 YEARS to gather enough inner strength to go through having our house torn to shreds again. How many times are we supposed to put 'Humpty-Dumpty' back together again at OUR expense?"

As far as I'm concerned, lightning typically doesn't strike twice in the same place. Why did we get yet another batch of "defective" carpet the second time around? Is The Great Carpet God punishing us for some unknown flooring transgression? Or, is Karastan just selling inferior carpet that craps up after 10 months? I think I'll choose . . Door #2!"

Karastan is cheating it's consumers left and right. Passing off shoddy, worthless, substandard carpeting as expensive, luxurious, high-end goods. In less than a year, this carpet looks worse than cheap bath mat. Tournier has a TWENTY YEAR 'LIMITED' WARRANTY. What a JOKE!!!! They've given us this "defective run" BS two times in a row now. I don't think I can endure having to pack up our enire house again and then fight them for 1/3 of the ACTUAL COSTS of moving out/storing/hotels stay/moving in.

Something is TERRIBLY wrong with this line of carpet. We don't have children. We don't have grandchildren. We don't have pets. We are not running a daycare in our home or allowing the Carolina Rollergirls to do laps in the living room. My husband and I pad around the house in the morning and evening in slippered feet. Our cleaning person vacuums the house thorougly every other week with an expensive vacuum cleaner.

CAN ANYBODY TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Carolynn
Cary, North Carolina
U.S.A.