If you understand anything about the carpet industry, you knew it had to happen. With business booming and mills running at full bore, product which is less than perfect is being shipped.

As a result, complaints relative to product defects have escalated dramatically. The more product gets shipped, the more problems seem to exist, and that’s because almost everything made gets out the door. Manufacturers do not intentionally provide you with product which is not perfect, but with voluminous orders coming, there isn’t time to slow down or relegate product to a “seconds” category.

You would think with all the capacity this industry has, the work could be spread out to minimize having to go to warp speed to produce the product, but technology in manufacturing-carpet especially-has meant finding ways to go faster, often at the expense of quality.

You can push the edge of the envelope only so far before you fall off. Certainly there are efforts to establish some controls over quality, but if an order just has to be at a dealer’s location at a particular time, it will go out the door. Once it gets to the dealer, he has no choice but to install it and worry about the ramifications later.

At that time, you’ll argue with the manufacturer about who made the bigger mistake. You’ll argue the mill shouldn’t have shipped a defective product, and the manufacturer will argue you shouldn’t have installed it with a visible defect- kind of like, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” But, this question is easier to answer.

If the goods were shipped as less than perfect, the manufacturer is responsible for whatever results from this compromise. You’ll have to pacify your customer, deal with the mill, get replacement, handle rip-up and reinstallation, and take whatever time is necessary to resolve the complaint. All this takes away from your making money selling more flooring. Who will pay for this time, and did you even realize someone would, or that you could ask for it?

Compensation for warranty services has long been a subject of dispute between dealers and mills. Dealers have maintained that, with the cost of replacing material, transporting and installing it, they should be compensated for the time they spend handling warranty claims. Mills have almost universally refused to pay administrative charges, handling fees, or any profit on replaced carpeting. A California law, and perhaps laws in other states, specifically provides that manufacturers must pay “reasonable profit” or a “handling charge” for taking care of problems they create.

REFERS TO A CALIFORNIA LAW WHICH REQUIRES DEALERS BE COMPENSATED FOR DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS THAT MANUFACTURERS CREATE

A class action lawsuit filed in California by Carpet Clearance Warehouse against Mohawk Industries alleges that, in 1992, Mohawk, without notice, changed its warranty service compensation policy and determined it would pay dealers any amount demanded as compensation for the service performed in honoring warranties.

However, dealers were not informed of this and therefore, had no opportunity to submit requests for services rendered in resolving complaints and replacing defective product. The lawsuit alleges the change in policy was kept secret “to deceive dealers and with the intent that the dealers would rely on the old policy and not submit claims for full compensation for warranty services they are entitled to and which the law requires that defendants pay.” If true, this would apply to dealers nationwide.

It is unfortunate dealers have to take action against manufacturers, but if this is what it takes to shock the industry into providing product which are not compromised, maybe this is good for everybody. By providing a product which is not marginal, not defective visibly or latently, and provides a good profit for both manufacturer and dealer, losses can be reduced dramatically. You are all to blame for this: The dealer for beating everyone up, including the installer to get the lowest price, and the manufacturer for letting it happen. In this industry, we accept it as part of the equation and build in complaints as “acceptable losses.” There is no such thing as an acceptable loss in business. We should always strive to make it right the first time.

You are supposed to be partners in business, not adversaries; and when you all function as a team, you’ll eliminate the largest problems plaguing the industry.