Lumber Liquidators

Horrible customer service personnel. Understaffed and unprofessional. There are better deals for hardwood at local building supply companies in the Bay Area.

To be brief: Lumber Liquidators (the Burlingham store) messed up our flooring order at every step of the way. We ordered solid bamboo flooring and we’re happy so far with the product. This review is solely based on the purchasing experience.
1) Six weeks or so ago I started the process and gave them a rough estimate of the square footage. A few days later the installer came out to finalize the actual dimensions and scope of work.
2) Five weeks ago: They shipped me the original estimated amount instead of the amount the installer sent through to them.
3) Four weeks ago: They had failed to ship out the moldings and vents. Found that out when the installers (who did a decent job) were here installing the underlay and boards. When I drove the excess materials to the store to return them that weekend, the guy there rather grudgingly told me they wouldn’t charge me a restocking fee since I’d brought the excess in myself.
4) Three weeks ago: I paid quite a bit extra to get the moldings shipped to me quickly so the floors could be finished in a timely manner.
5) Two weeks and a bit ago: the moldings arrived, but they only sent the T-​molding for the doors and not the quarter rounds for the walls.
6) A week and a half ago: got a call from the Pleasanton store telling me my order was ready for pickup. I was very much in a state of WTF at that point.
7) One week ago: They finally sent out the quarter rounds, only they ended up in SF. I found this out because a couple neighbors noticed the door tags on our old house in SF. They took pics of them and sent those to me. I looked up the numbers on Fedex’s site and based on the dimensions knew immediately that LL had sent the packages to the wrong address: an address we had never actually given to them. I called LL and was very angry. Was told their store manager would contact me when he was in, but of course he has yet to call.
Thankfully, I called Fedex and explained things. The nice woman I spoke with explained to me that Fedex received the package in SJ and had no clue what to do with it as it didn’t have a valid address (just our house number – nothing else – no street name), so they looked up my name in their DB and tried to deliver it to our old SF address. They quickly rerouted the shipment, and yesterday the installers came and finished the job.
So in summary, I have no idea how so many things can go wrong with what should have been a very straight forward job.

I was at the store in July buying the bamboo flooring. The store in San Francisco is terrible, but the store in Burlingame is good, simply because one of the staff member, Brett K. Brett is not only honest and patient. He is also knowledge and conduct himself professionally. Highly recommended!~!!

I have to give the Burlingame store a thumbs up! The store manager/​Bret helped me out when the SF store and delivery company had issues (damaged during delivery) with some of my flooring. My contractor was installing my floors and I needed to replace one package that morning and Bret understood my situation and stepped in to help.
Thank you,
Pierre

Just purchased laminate flooring, beautiful and what a great product! The service and friendliness was great! Jim, the assistant mgr. was very helpful throughout the whole process! I recommend them for all flooring needs. Our friends and relatives love our floors also! Like to share pictures of our beautiful floors with you. Again thanks! Fred!!!

It sickens me to even give them 1 star — it’s not just the branch store but the business in it’s entirety that is disgusting. They deliberately refuse to disclose the BRAND name, and Manufacturer information, obviously hiding the fact that most of their products are being illegally sold in California — as was discovered recently, the formaldehyde level is off the charts. The most disturbing of all is that they do not accept my return and would not refund the money I paid, even if it is within the 30 day period.
SCAMMERS and CROOKS.

We bought our hardwood floors here but did not use them for installation. We bought them during one of their no tax events, months before we were ready to install them.
We got a great price and I still stare at them sometimes because I love how they look. The service can be slow, because they only have one or two salespeople working, but everyone I’ve dealt with has been professional and helpful.

Purchased from burlingame store, and use the contractor of Lumber Liquidators, after several time’s fix, it’s like this:

****UPDATE**** Laminate Flooring installed for less than a month. Dropped a cup and nicked the laminate. Dropped a small fitting nicked the floor in another area. These people are truly selling crap. Best to go elsewhere. Definitely will need to replace their laminate in less than 5 years.
This could have been a 5 star review had I known the customer service issues that we would have experienced. LL is found on low prices to get us in and what they say and do are two different things. So I will put together a guide post to doing business with LL.
1. When you enter the store don’t be overwhelmed with low prices because only their FLOORING is a deal. Their underlayment, trim, and everything else is sky high. Buy your flooring here and get your baseboards and underlayment at home depot. The same underlayment at Home Depot premium grade is $ 50 a roll compared to $ 80 at LL. They will say this voids your warranty, but look at # 4 below regarding warranty.
2. WHAT THEY PROMISE PRE SALES IS NOT WHAT THEY HAVE US SIGN ON PAPER. They will try to get you to buy as the sale is only a limited time. They will say, «just get as much now and return anything unused later». THEY NEVER MENTION THE 20% RESTOCKING FEE. But it is in the fine print. An honest company will be upfront about that AND allow customers to return products.
3. When you sign ANYTHING make sure you are not signing the bill of goods/​packing slip. Mario had us sign the paperwork, got the materials and delivered to our car. He never went through the packing list to make sure what we got was right. Well he gave us the wrong color in trim molding plus minus to pieces. Guess what, when it came time to finding out we had the wrong product. «We signed for it» Yes, we did apparently before we even had the materials in our hands. May be Mario could get the right pieces before just grabbing a bunch of random pieces. Then after we complained, HE KNEW HE SHORTED US PIECES AND NEVER OFFERED TO MAKE GOOD!
4. THERE IS NO PRODUCT WARRANTY! Take a second and read their warranty. It actually excludes everything possible to warrant. Kitchen, bathroom, installing it yourself is all voids the warranty. Just buy an extra box or two as your warranty and you will prevent a lot of headache later.
5. Customer Service Issues — You wont get far at the store with customer service issues. However, if you call their 800# and nicely plead your case. They may handle it for you. However, be prepared to sign A PREMADE GAG ORDER that prevents you to post on Unilocal or contact any authority. We did not sign the agreement and made them do what they were supposed to do first. GET OUR ORDER RIGHT!
I’m not saying don’t buy here, just know the tricks and what you possibly can be getting into and to avoid headaches. As far as the product goes, we purchased the laminate and installed ourselves. So far so good.

UPDATE: The laminate could barely be considered durable. We’ve already gotten several severe chips from very small objects, like a cup, dropping on the floor. With the product warranty reading more like a list of caveats than a guarantee of quality merchandise, it’s obvious we’ll be replacing this floor again in a few years (not 30 like the warranty) on our own dime, and we won’t be doing business with Lumber Liquidators in the future.
Buyer beware! My recent experience with Lumber Liquidators left me truly bemused. I’m deeply disappointed by the poor quality of customer care and service and the way that, in my opinion, Lumber Liquidators relates to its customers in such bad faith. We had a very simple mistake with our order, two moldings were omitted at delivery. This amounted to about $ 52 worth of merchandise in an over $ 1000 order. We tried to resolve what we thought would be a quick fix with the local store, and the associate there took the tone that it was our problem from the first interaction. After several trips to the store with completely unsatisfactory customer service (and the issue unresolved), I called corporate at 1−800-HARDWOOD and got equally unimpressive assistance. Instead of seeking a replacement, I figured I’d just ask for a refund on the missing items then. My request was escalated to a «case worker» who sent me a bizarre form letter that I would have to sign in order to get my refund for the missing moldings. The letter read like a legal settlement, with a clause that required me to never discuss the refund or my poor service if I signed it. So, of course, I did not sign the letter and instead called the «case worker» at Lumber Liquidators. Finally, after going that high up the corporate chain, the issue was resolved: the two missing moldings were sent to me. No thanks to the associate at the Adrian Road location in Burlingame; that guy demonstrated a callous disregard for the mistake that they made on our order and zero intention to fully resolve it for us. Worse yet, along the way, talking to so many different people to try to get this minor mix up solved, they kept pointing to a signed order. The only thing I signed was a credit card receipt at the point of purchase BEFORE any materials were taken from the warehouse to my car (so how could I have approved merchandise I hadn’t yet seen?). While that tactic may protect Lumber Liquidators from liability, I believe it is an extremely bad faith way to treat its customers.

I purchased a small amount of hardwood and knew that I may not need the wood. I was specific with the sales rep about a possible return. He told me that I could return it with no problems within 30 days.
I go to return the wood after 20 days and they short my credit by $ 100 without mentioning any restock fees. I catch it and ask. They point me to the fine print section about restock fees.
I don’t feel that they were square with me concerning restocking fees. Restock fees were never mentioned until I asked about the short credit. I asked the manager to make it right. He declined.
I won’t go back.

Crappy service. First time came to pick up — waited for 30 minutes (after calling ahead) and only the flooring was available, not the trim pieces. Second time came to pick up the trim pieces — called ahead and then waited 45 minutes in the store (and there was only one customer before me). Third time called ahead, asked specifically if they can have the stair nosing piece ready (just that one piece), and nope, got to the store (completely empty) and still had to wait (now 10 minutes and counting, gave me time to write this review). Also, the cashier asked me to sign the receipt before he would go get the piece, even though the receipt says «you have inspected the item blah blah blah.» Not cool.
The product (Tranquility New River Gorge) looked good. We hired professional installers who thoroughly cleaned the existing vinyl floor, evened out the floor with self-​leveling compound and applied glue all over (even though the flooring is peel and stick). Even with the additional glue, edges on some of the pieces are still curling up a little, after just a week. Will have to see how the flooring performs in a few months.

All BS all the way, only reason I’m giving two stars is for the corporate office refunding us the money we were owed that the store manager and assistant manager would not give us, and one for the installer we used from the store, Richard, who was FANTASTIC! Cameron and Mario will tell you one thing but never follow through. Overall they tried to take us for just under $ 200, which isn’t much, but infuriated me on principal. DO NOT GO HERE! Corporate is sending me a survey to explain what happened further, hopefully others have complained as well so these two aren’t able to run their little scams anymore.

We got our Morning Star bamboo floors from Lumber Liquidators and love it. We got some samples, but they had a limited amount of samples, so we had to make sure we compared the thickness and style to other similar wood. Nice quality for the price compared to Home Depot, Costco, or Lowe’s. I watch a lot of Property Brothers in HGTV and I see Lumber Liquidators get used a few times. I’m sure they’re a sponsor but the store is convenient from where I live so I decided to drop by.
We ordered from the Burlingame location but they ended up getting shipped from the Livermore location for FREE to meet the timeline and quantity for delivery we needed. Make sure to measure carefully so you don’t over-​order. Try to watch prices for sales also to help you save some money. $ 0.20 a square foot can add up quickly.
We didn’t go with their installers but that option is available if needed.

These guys are the most inefficient and a great con artist especially Cris. This guy doesn’t have any sense of customer service. «Just take back whatever you didn’t use anytime!» Per Cris. Guess what don’t believe this low life– I brought it back and he said «no men I am very careful in making sure I explained the 30 day policy!» Haha! I am in a customer service business too Cris and you talk like a duck and too bad I fell for it. For the sake of clarity — i was only 4 days late. For those people who will buy in this store — careful, careful. And Cris, you don’t have any space in customer service, you shld not be talking to people at all. You cannot be trusted!

We got some samples. Still deciding whether to order from here. Of course, everything that is on sale is out of stock.

bought cork flooring — not great quality but good pricing. They sold me their «best» flooring underlayment based on four choices on display — when first roll was opened it was at most ²⁄₃ the thickness of the sample. Went to return for correct thickness (affects acoustics, insulating quality, feel) Chris kept repeating «its the right brand, its what you bought». They call that «bait and switch» at the fraud unit. Still get two stars for low prices, after that, not impressed.

There were some obvious downsides to my Lumber Liquidators experience:
1. It took me 40 minutes to make my order over the phone because the person on the other end and I couldn’t understand each other, and the invoice was never emailed to me so I had to call them back.
2. When I visited to get a floor sample there was only one person working the store and he was busy moving floor material for another customer for 30 minutes before I was helped.
However, I appreciated that they let me return some of my unused laminate floor despite the packaging being ripped and open (minus the agreed upon 20% restocking fee). All the laminate floor boards were there and unused, but I was afraid they wouldn’t let me return it. My room looks good with the new laminate floor and despite the headaches listed above, I’d be open to doing business with them again. The main difference is that I’d make the order online to avoid human interaction.
My feet give Lumber Liquidators…4 Stars!

Great price on excellent materials, but lacking in customer service and deceptive about shipping times. AFTER we’d dropped $ 4k to cover our 1800 sq ft of commercial floor space, they called us later in the day to tell us that every single part of the shipment was going to be delayed in some way, some by up to a month.
Luckily our flooring contractors were flexible about their scheduling, otherwise we would not have finished by our project deadline. In fact there are STILL materials sitting there at their warehouse in Burlingame which we never plan to pick up because they didn’t arrive on time and we no longer need them– we were forced eat the costs and work around them in order to meet our deadline.
Like I said, great materials– our black wood-​laminate flooring is gorgeous. But just know what you are getting into and plan to build in a LOT of slack in your project schedule. If you need things on time or need a specific delivery date, forget it. Look elsewhere.

Just the friendliest, most patient sales people I have ever met. They know their stuff and do not try to BS you or pressure you to buy. They were consultative and laid back.
They have a decent selection and when I do buy from them, I will provide an update.