Bluntness

I've also been told I have little tact, so if this offends you simply ride on.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Carpet?

So, since I'm not a flooring / blinds specialist, I thought I'd chat about customers, since this breed is different than those I dealt with when I ran the paint desk.  For one thing, these people are debating, for the most part, about spending a lot of money.  Carpet can be expensive.  Hardwood is expensive.  Laminate... well, even though it's popular, you can end up with a lot of problems with laminate; it's not uncommon to have issues because most floors, in spite of what we want to believe, are not totally level, and with laminate 1/4" can ruin an install.
I had a carpet customer yesterday whom I'll call Sandy.  She told me she was selling her house.  We hear this a lot, and than the customer usually puts in a lower end carpet.  Not Sandy, she was looking at middle range price points.  She didn't want to pay for a measure, but she sure did want to take home samples... about 15, and she also signed out a sample board.  She also told me her husband needed to approve the color and style...   The sample board she signed out was for patterned carpet, which is unusual for someone wanting to sell their house; I mean, what if the buyer doesn't like it?  Will she buy new carpet?  Probably not.  She spent over an hour and a half looking at colors... you don't put that much time into carpet if you're selling your house.


And then there's another customer I'll call Josiah, a nice young man who lives in the heart of Harrisburg's gayborhood who's just bought a townhouse.  I get the notice that his measure is done so I give him a call and I get the following message "This mailbox is full, please try again later."  Not a good sign.  So I tried again the next day and got the same message.  This does not bode well, I mean, if he can't empty his mailbox he has a bit of a problem.  I did manage to get a hold of him yesterday and he told me he'd stop in to pick out his carpet....  Often, when the customer says that, it's like saying "the check is in the mail."
Anyway, I do get measures and I do get sales and so everybody is happy.  The only thing I really hate is cutting roll carpet and vinyl... I'm very clumsy when it comes to putting it on the cutter and usually ask for assistance.  Besides, it's a cheap product, and I never go cheap, and I can't understand why someone would want to install their own carpet or vinyl...

1 comment:

  1. A interesting read. I myself have an apartment. Every apartment I was ever in had wall to wall carpeting,( probably the norm) and so did my ancestral home. But I notice as I have gotten to middle age, I love the look of hardwood floors with area rugs. I and a friend rented a whole three floor townhome in downtown Harrisburg when I still lived there and it was all hardwood floors. I miss it terribly.

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