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Where Should I Buy Carpet?
Depending on where you live, you may have only a few good choices as to where to shop for carpet. Most carpet retailers are only out to get your money and could care less about you and what carpet you select. Then there are the big home improvement stores like Lowe's and Home Depot, and there are shopping clubs like Sam's and Costco. I would never suggest you buy carpet from any of these big box retailers for a number of reasons which I explain in my ebook.
The main reason is that they lack industry experience. They hire people who are not experts in the flooring field. With a lack of carpet knowledge and experience, you may not get the correct answers you need to make wise choices.
Another problem these big stores have is finding qualified flooring installers. When they send out a sub-contractor to install your flooring, it is your responsibility to be sure they install your flooring correctly. If they do a poor job and you call the store to complain about it, they will simply refer you to another company who handles the hiring of sub-contractors. They in-turn will send out the same installer who will try to fix the problem that he created. The problem is, the installer that created the problem may not know how to fix the problem. That leaves you holding the bag, calling and calling to try to resolve the issue again and again.
Private Labels
Many large carpet retailers have made special carpet deals with the big carpet mills. These carpet retailers change the style and color names of the carpets and place their own labels on them. They do this to make it difficult for consumers to comparison shop at other stores.
So if you find a carpet you like at one store, you can't just call a different carpet store to see what their price would be for the same carpet. The style name or color from one store would not be known to a different store. This is called "Private Labeling". Both stores may have the exact same carpets but with different names on the labels.
Comparison Shopping
Comparison shopping is not as easy as it once was. If you were shopping for a new Sony 40" flat screen television, you could call around to different retailers and ask for their best price or look in the newspaper. But not with carpet. They fool you.
They change the carpet names. They change the color names. They remove the labels that have important information about the construction of the carpet.
They withhold specific information you need to make a wise choice.
They give you a total package price, they won't give you a cost breakdown.
They do everything they can to make it confusing and frustrating for you.
They want to rip you off, scam you, over-charge and over measure you.
They want you to just close your eyes and make an expensive investment in your home without asking any questions or getting honest or accurate answers.
There are plenty of good places to buy carpet where you can still get good deals. But you need to know more than just where to go, you need to know what to look for, what to avoid and what to ask when you get there.
The above articles and consumer information are written by Alan J. Fletcher, a 30-year carpet expert, consumer advocate and author of The Complete Carpet Buying Guide ( $14.95 ebook)
Available at http://www.howtobuycarpet.com ©2002-2009 All Rights Reserved
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