| Floor and Decor |
| Floor and Decor Outlets Outrageous shipping charges , Internet |
| 23rd of Jun, 2011 by User562835 |
Floor and Decor Outlets has lost my business, my contractor's business and the potential business of all my friends and acquaintances due to unreasonable shipping policies.
Since a first experience with the company was fine (I spent hundreds of dollars in new tiles plus freight shipping to my contractor), I decided to go back to them for one extra box of my original 13x13 tiles ($26) and 2 boxes of new 6x6 bathroom tiles (around $40). Total product cost: $70. I called customer service to confirm shipping cost and was told that given the 13x13 size of one of the tiles, freight shipping (over $300) would be required. I told them this was unreasonable but received no other options. Just to validate the customer service claim, I went through the website order process and was able to select UPS as shipping method wthout any problems or error messages. (Should I have increased the number of boxes and thus the weight, I would have had to select freight, as messages in the order page pointed out whenever I tried it). UPS was still a ridiculous $80+ to ship the $70 of the 3 boxes, but still less than $300+ and I needed the tiles.
I thought everything was fine, until I got a customer service call (same person I had talked to on the phone and sounding really annoyed in a "I-already-told-you-on-the-phone-so-I-don't-know-why-you-thought-the-website-order-would-work" kind of way) telling me they couldn't do UPS and I would have to pay freight. When I called the next day and talked to a different customer service agent (who must have known about me because she knew about my tiles right away and sounded very unfriendly and annoyedl), confirmed the need for freight shipping and offered to immediately cancel my order, offering no other options for shipping. Apparently spending over $300 to ship $70 of product seems totally normal to them. Of course, I canceled the order.
If I had known about this I would have never ordered from them in the first place. Now I am stuck with a floor that is missing 10 tiles and nowhere to get them from.
If you have a very large order and don't intend to buy from them ever again, they might be the ones to go to, but personally, I wouldn't go to a company that obviously doesn't care about repeat business or good customer service. |
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Having a lot of experience in this area, I should tell you that most fragile products (tile included) cannot ship via UPS or Fed X or any shipping method rather than freight if you expect it to arrive intact. In order to ship via freight, you typically have to palletize and secure the product to the pallet to safely ship it to prevent damage upon arrival.
I know you think that the freight rate is ridiculous, but the freight companies have a minimum - not necessarily because of the weight of the item, but because of "dim-weight" (dimensional weight). One pallet of "X" takes up the same amount of room in the truck as one pallet of "Y" no matter how heavy it is.
Trucking companies make their money on moving trucks full of freight and charge the same amount regardless of the weight.
If you needed the product so badly and don't live near one of these stores, you might have tried a "day trip" to go pick it up, or pay your contractor to do it. Either way, it's less likely to cost $300 in shipping fees. I doubt any company, who wants to sell their products, would charge $300 for $70 dollars worth of product and expect to stay in business for long. My guess, they charged the freight charges and allowed you to determine cost efficiency. |
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