NBC 5 Consumer Unit Helps Solve $6,000 Flooring Complaint

When an Indiana woman's $6,000 flooring investment buckled beneath her feet, she called NBC 5 Responds to help her get resolution

NBC 5 viewer Debbie Porter said she spent more than a year researching the renovation project for the Schererville, Indiana, townhome where she raised her three sons and now cares for her 3-year old grandson.

The project came to a screeching halt, though, after her new $6,000 bamboo floors were installed.

The floors buckled just two weeks after installation, she said.

“It was sickening,” she said. "My sons were the ones who saw it. … They called me in and said, ‘Mom, your floors are buckling.'”

Porter said it never entered her mind at that point that Lumber Liquidators, the company from which she purchased the flooring, wouldn’t fix the obvious problem.

Weeks after sending in pictures and video and spending hours on the phone trying to get answers, Porter said the company turned its back on her.

“I asked them, ‘What is my next step?’ They said, ‘Mrs. Porter, there is no next step. We’re finished here.”

Porter said the company contended there was no problem with the product or the installation, so the moisture causing the floor to buckle must have been her fault. 

After her rehab job stopped cold for months during this dispute, she asked NBC 5 Responds to help her get answers. 

Within hours of our calls to the company, a crew was slated to remove the problem flooring and redo the entire job.

The company insists it was planning to help Debbie Porter with the complaint, but acknowledged a breakdown in communication during the weeks she was trying to get help.

Porter’s new floor is scheduled to be installed by Feb. 19.

Here is the full statement from Lumber Liquidators:

"Customer satisfaction is very important to Lumber Liquidators and we regret Ms. Porter’s negative experience with us. Her flooring was installed properly according to the moisture readings at that time. We sent a professional inspector to Ms. Porter’s home once her floor began cupping and he determined the cause was a sustained spike in moisture from an undetermined source. We can’t be held liable for changing conditions within a home but Lumber Liquidators' dedication to customer service – and because we had an uncharacteristic breakdown in communication with Ms. Porter – led to our decision to completely redo her flooring even before being contacted by Ch. 5. The solution for achieving this with the current moisture level in Ms. Porter’s home will cost more than her original purchase. We expect the new installation to be complete by February 19.”

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