Hardwood Giant

Never shop here!

This is the absolute worst place to shop. The staff ensured the product I ordered was uniclic, however when I received my purchase it was tongue and groove. I had to travel to the Brampton location and again to the Scarborough where I was ensured they I could make an exchange with no extra cost. However once I arrived to exchange my hardwood there was an additional cost included. This store knows nothing about there products and constantly go back on their word about the service that they can provide. I have now had to spend an additional $1000 selecting new product and paying a truck to pick up the new product! Customer service is not in these people's vocabulary and I would warn everyone to STAY Away!

Where to start. The stress with this company started over a year ago. I walked in with my mom and was approached by a sales man who said he would take care of us. Knowing my father had passed and I was a single girl, completing renovations on my own was a scary thought. "The salesperson" Manny reassured me that he would look after everything and make sure I got the best deal for the best price. Of course you had to pay upfront for the "sale" which I did. I presented the sales person with a quote from another company and he said he would do better with the price and give me everything included, because he "wanted to take care of me" and that "I should trust him". I came home and started looking at reviews of this company (which I know I should have done first) and I started to panic. I called Manny and he reassured me that i will have a seamless installation (no pun intended)
Now we move to measurements. Khameron "measurer" (and thats all I will call him, because apparently he has no OTHER role) arrived. Like many reviews here, he started with the extra costs, I needed to pay for the sub flooring to be nailed it, a new noising piece and the furniture to be moved. He started to tell me that they didn't include the nosing costs where the banister needed to be replaced. I tried to be fair with them and agreed that the noising was not included and I would pay for that but everything else was to be included .
Install:
Hardwood: they did arrive on he scheduled day, the completing the install removing every last piece of wood. The account for 10% extra in their measurements which they should leave behind, They don't tell you the number of boxes you receive and me have no knowledge of any of this (yes my fault) never questioned when they said "they had NOTHING left".
Carpet:
The first scheduled date I removed all the drawers to make it easier for the furniture to be moved, and I sat there and waited. No one showed up. I spend two hours calling people to find the installer "had a family emergency".. right .. No one had the decency to call and let me know so I could continue on with my day. Next install day I again removed all the drawers in both rooms and waited. After an hour of waiting I start calling the office again. I am now told "sorry he cut his finger and cannot come today. You need to reschedule". Needless to say i was NOT pleased. The girls in the office (poor things have to deal with angry customers all day, because of everyone else's incompetence), told me they would compensate me and did what she could to get an early rescheduled date based on my availability. The guys show up tell and me my under pad is BETTER (12 years old) then the one i purchased. I went to check it and they are right. I call the office, say i don't want the under pad. After some back and forth I agreed that there would be no warranty on the carpet for stains and that I would received a refund of the cost (approx $300). She then tells me I owe money for the noising ($600). I agree and say no problem, talk to your manager and offer me some compensation for have to empty the rooms 3 times for the install and lets come to the number which includes the compensation minus the refund of the underpaid. NO CALL BACK.
In the next few months I think things are great, until my boyfriend realizes that they put spindles were installed with the incorrect spacing, there all at 5 1/2 at centre except for the last two which were 2" on centre, they also left two huge holes in the wall where the old bannister was installed. That same weekend we are moving furniture around to find that they put 3 friggen seams in the master bedroom to install this carpet and were short a 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 ft piece so they decided to use a slightly darker patch. They moved my furniture over it so i wouldn't see.
The is where it gets worse. I call the company and after 5 emails with pictures supplied of the crappy install, and several messages they finally call me back. The "Measurer" (remember him) comes over on Good Friday (March) to check things out. We walk him around and show him all the defects and he agrees that it was done incorrectly. He then asks me why I waited do long which i advised until we moved the furniture I did notice, and why is there no one who comes to get our your sub contractors work? No comment to that question. He then presents me which a bill for the $600 owing, which i refuse to even discuss at this point. He says we will hear from someone in a week. 2 weeks go by I call him he tells me its not his job, he gave his report in and its now the office job. So I call the office. The girls again have no clue what i am talking about.
Then one of them goes on vacation and my file is missing... convenient huh?
Once i get a hold of them again in May they have to send someone else to look at the carpet work. He comes out, agrees and writes a report. "You will hear from someone at the end of the week"... Crickets... I start my usual calling now we are preparing to put our place on the market. They agree to have someone come out right away to install the new nosing. The guys show up at 7pm on a Sunday, with an unstained piece. They laugh at how it was installed and said they will take care of it. We find them now on their knees scrubbing the front stairs because they have dropped the stain. They didn't bother to stain on the grass or even use a drop cloth. They ask my BF if he has anything to remove it. He said no and offered to go buy something. We were told don't worry we will be back tomorrow to clean it. They install the wood and off they go. They do return the next day with a cleaner that is only smearing the stain. When my BF suggests they needed something with acid as it has now sat for 24 hours he installer looks at him and says "well you said you were going to take care of it". They were then asked to leave right away as we had had it.
On yeah.. still no carpet. The "measurer" comes out again saying. Now he needs a sample of the carpet. After the house is sold (late June) he takes the piece from the cupboard. Says it takes 3 weeks to order. We advise of our closing date, are told NO PROBLEM once again. After three weeks I start to call. No one seems to know what I am talking about and I have to wait until they speak to the "measurer". Come now August 9th. Someone shows up with the carpet.. YAHOO!!! its the wrong colour and size. At this point we are fed up. I am surprised I can still type. The installer starts laughing and him himself (who is doing a favour for a friend to install this) comments on the crappy work and service we have received. He then says and "they are asking for you to pay an outstanding balance of $600". Now we have no choice but to all laugh, including the installer. That Sunday Giant Hardwood was having their "BIG SALE". We make our way to the head office, the Mississauga Store (which by the way is not called Giant Hardwood, its a family company so they spilt costs. There way of taking more money from people), Burlington store and called the Scarborough one.. we can't find the "measurer" or the sales guy anywhere. We are now closing in 5 days. MY BF drives back to Brampton and asks for the closet piece back, no one knows where it is. Oh to add I have been calling along with my BF prior to the visit for some answers. He sits there for 3 hours because the "measurer" starts at 5pm. At 6:45 he is told, "this is not an excuse but the "measurer" was in a car accident and will not be in". When he left he told the girls (again who know NOTHING about anything) to have him call us and deliver our piece (which we paid for) for the closet, and that we were done. For two days we hear nothing, other then excuses every time we call. My BF makes a surprise visit on the Wednesday (2 days before closing). The "measurer" is there and acts as if he has no idea of what we are talking about. Another gentleman there states that he will look after us. No one knows why the measurements are off or why the wrong colour was sent. But he will call the warehouse and have it done before we close. In the meantime he sent my BF home with the closet piece which was not filthy, as they had it in the warehouse, amongst the crap and had forklifts driving over it... Awesome.
To end this nightmare of service story, we have moved to our new place. NO replacement carpet was ever installed and are investigating our options with with smalls claims court.
Apologies for the long winded rant.... but that is how long we have been dealing with this horrible, horrible company. Please if you want to save yourself the hassles, pay the extra money and don't trust these guys.
I have included several pictures from the install, to the stain of the stairs, replacement carpet etc.. Enjoy

I wish that I had read the reviews for this company when I went and purchased hardwood from this company in June when they had a sale, not knowing what I was getting into. When I had the guy come over to take measurements for installation the price went up drastically as apparently I needed more items for installation. When I called the company and demanded that I wanted my money back they said it was a final sale and no refunds would be given. So I said that I on,y wanted the hardwood. We managed to get just our wood but when I wen to pick it up somehow I had to take to under padding as this was a final sale as well. We were never told this! I would not recommend this store as the customer service is horrible and they try to take more money then they are entitled to.

I went into the Scarborough location of Hardwood Giant and purchased about 750 sq. ft. of laminate flooring from a sales manager. I believe his name is Mahmoud. He told me how much extra material I should purchase to cover wastage and informed me "Whatever you don't use, you can bring back for a refund."

So I placed my order and it was delivered on the requested day about a week later. The product was excellent quality and looks amazing.

After finishing the job, I had 5 unopened boxes of flooring and one unopened roll of underlayment remaining. I returned to the store with these items to return them.

At this time, I'm informed that I will only get a full refund on 2 boxes and the other 3 will be subject to a 35% restocking fee. Then Mahmoud tells me that they do not accept returns of underlayment AT ALL. I explain that neither of these conditions were ever explained to me, to which he responds "It's company policy." He then suggests that I could sell the underlayment on Kijiji... like gimme a break.

He should have explained the restocking fee and the policy about not refunding underlayment when the sale was being discussed in the first place. I was shown my original invoice, with a full page legal disclaimer on the back which states that they can charge a restocking fee of up to 65%, at the discretion of the store. There is nothing about not accepting returns of underlayment.

I really feel like he intentionally omitted the details about returns when making the sale. This un-mentioned restocking fee policy must be a cash cow for them. I really felt had by it.

While I was in the store, two more customers arrived behind me. Both had major complaints and within minutes, Mahmoud was in a full out yelling match with an unhappy customer who had ordered some custom stair pieces.

Fortunately, another sales person named Shaik got me sorted out with a reduced restocking fee and eventually accepted my roll of underlayment. He was far more reasonable and helpful.

You try to help out the local companies for this kind of stuff.. and you're rewarded with sneaky tactics to make money. I won't be going back, which is a shame for Hardwood Giant as I'll be doing the floors in my parents' 2200 sq ft house this fall.

Edit - After several phone calls, the company came through and made everything good. It took a bit of arm twisting but there was some miscommunication on their part. We straightened it all out.
The original review is below but I do feel more comfortable dealing with Hardwood Giant now.

Went to the Brampton location on Torbram road and dealt with Naz as a sales rep. She was easy to deal with at the location.
Spent an hour getting a quote, gave a 30% deposit and was told that someone would call me within a day to set up the final measurements. No one called. I called every day for a week and was told that someone would come by soon. It's been two weeks and not even a peep. I've filed a chargeback with my credit card company and will get a refund.
I wouldn't deal with this company again.

NIGHTMARE!!!!! After they get your money they don't care if you have a problem. The installation was poorly done and not finished It took over a month to come and finish and fix it. The guy just made excuses. Nails were sticking up, baseboards with spaces flooring with spaces unfinished trimming. It was a mess. Nobody came from the company came to see the mess . IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!!

We decided to replace the carpeting in our house and chose Hardwood Giant for hardwood floors. We talked about the different choices with Shaik and found him to be very knowledgeable and helpful in giving us suggestions, competitive pricing, and a timely delivery date that allowed us to get started on installation right away.

We though of changing our carpeted floor and stairs with hardwood. We have been shopping around since three months and different sales persons gave us different view and idea. When we went to Hardwood Giant, where we met Mr. Shaikh. He took time and explained everything in great details with patience. He has possessed great knowledge on flooring and stairs, needless to say he is so friendly and witty. The moment he greeted us, we connected well with him. His was warm, honest and accommodating. The floor and stairs look great and we felt we got the product and service for value of money we spent. We will not hesitate to point Shaikh to anyone to deal with him. Thank you Shaikh!!!

I bought laminate floor from Hardwood Giant Scarborough location. Shaik is the salesperson who helped me with my purchase. He is very knowledgeable and accomodating. He answered all my questions and recommended nice looking and good quality laminate and underpad. Shaik's customer service during and after sales was outstanding. I returned 2 boxes of excess laminate, he gladly took them and promptly processed my refund.

We recently bought an older home and are doing some major renovations. When it came time to finding flooring we went to Hardwood Giant. The value of the products at Hardwood Gaint was great. We had done lots of research before purchasing flooring, and Shaik was very helpful to ensure what we purchased was going to meet our needs. He was very knowledgeable and had great customer service. We went to hardwood giant a few times and each time he very pleasant to work with and gave great advice. Although we only went there to buy flooring, we also bought all our trim and casing.
Great products and the best customer service - I would recommend Hardwood Giant to friends and family ... and specifically Shaik made a difference for us!