Steve Brown - SB Floor Coverings Trenton Ontario

1 - On October 21st of 2007, Steve Brown whom I believe to be the owner of SB Floor Coverings came to my home (at my request) and gave me an estimate to remove the Carpets and put down Hardwood Flooring (supplied by him) on the second Floor Hallway (around the Staircase) and in four Rooms on the First Floor.

2 - The estimate was broken down into 2 phases. The first phase was going to be the Hallway on the Second Floor and the estimate for this was $1,766.00 (the estimate for the 4 remaining Rooms was $4,151.00).

3 - I gave him $1,000.00 deposit (highlighted in the contract) towards the $1,766.00 (I offered him $500.00 but he insisted on a check for $1,000.00 to cover the cost of the Hardwood).

4 - The date to do the work was not schedule at the time because he didn't have his schedule with him. He said that he was driving his wife's car because his vehicle was being repaired and the schedule was in his vehicle. He called later the same day and scheduled for Nov 12th, 13th or 14th.

5 - A few days before Nov 12th he called to re-schedule for Nov 28th, 29th or 30th. He delivered the Hardwood a couple of days before Nov 28th but on Nov 27th called to say that he had to re-schedule for the following week.

6 - He showed-up with a crew of 4 on Dec 3rd or 4th (I cant remember exactly) however, after his Installers looked at the second floor Hallway, they told my wife that they didnt know how to do the work (even though I had already removed the Handrails and all the Spindles to make it easier for them). My wife called me at work and Steve Brown told me over the phone that he had to get different Installers to do this job. He said that he was going to call me back to re-schedule.

7 - He did and re-scheduled, but later cancelled. He kept on re-scheduling and cancelling giving me all sorts of excuses. Some of his excuses were the Installer who could do the work quit one of my Installers suffered a heart attack one of my Installers broke a finger cant make it due to a snow storm, etc., etc.).

8 - Finally around the end of January or beginning of February, I told him that I wanted to cancel the contract and asked him to give me my money back, but he asked me to let him come over to speak with me and my wife.

9 - I agreed, so he showed-up sometime mid February, 2008 (I cant remember the exact date) and told us that because our sub-floor was Waferboard, he would have to put down a layer of Plywood on top of our sub-flooring. He explained that we would have problems in the future if he installed Hardwood directly on top of Waferboard.

10 - He also told us that in order to get a good finish around the edge of the flooring, we should change the Hardwood we had chosen because it was not really solid Hardwood, it was finger joined and this would show around the edges (I had asked for Hardwood and I thought that this is what we had chosen, but apparently it wasnt).

11- We told him that we would agree to his proposed changes, but only if he gave us a firm date this time. He agreed, so we chose new Hardwood and he took back the Hardwood that he had already delivered. The additional cost for the new Hardwood and the Plywood was going to be $1,100.00 for a total of $2,866.00.

12 - He re-scheduled again, this time for Mar 8th or 9th but this time he also wrote in the contract that if he didnt meet this date, he would return our deposit in full (date and condition highlighted in the contract).

13 - On March 7th he left a voicemail saying that he would not be able to do the work on March 8th because there was a Snow Storm coming, but he would get it done before the end of the following week and asked me to call him back to re-schedule.

14 - However, when I called him back, he told me that he could not re-schedule because he didnt have the Hardwood yet. I didnt believe him, first because he had said in his voicemail that he would have the work done before the end of the following week (this implied that he already had the Hardwood) and second because he had called his supplier in front of us right after we chose the new Hardwood and said that it would be delivered the following week (way before March 8th).

15 - At this point I anticipated the same pattern starting all over again (scheduling, cancelling and re-scheduling) so I told him to cancel the order for the Hardwood, cancel the contract and return my deposit.

16 - His answer was that it was too late to cancel the order and that he would not return my deposit in full. He said that he would keep 50% of my deposit as re-stocking fee. I told him that I didnt believe that he could not cancel the order or return the product if it had already been delivered and I insisted that I wanted my money back in full, but he told me that he was not going to return it and in fact was going to sue me for breaching the contract.

17 - I told him that he was the one who had breached the contract and not only once, but many times over and that I was going to take him to Small Claims Court to get my money back. He owes me a total of $1,125.00. This amount includes $1,000.00 deposit, $75.00 Court Costs and $50.00 for Gas, loss of time and aggravation.

However, I would like to keep these amounts open (if possible) in case these costs get higher, or there are additional costs that I cant anticipate.

Tony
Oshawa, Ontario
Canada