Hehehe! Oh yeah. I am thrilled with this turn of events. You know I have posted about the floors we have, and that I want to replace them. Many flooring companies want to limit their warranty and not cover flooring that you buy online–mostly because they don’t want you getting the flooring at a discount. We’ll leave behind questions of price fixing for now, and just say that stinks.
BUT! Look at this:
iFLOOR, America’s largest online flooring retailer, today announced a $1,000,000 limited warranty designed to protect its customers from predatory manufacturer policies that exclude warranty coverage from online purchases.
The policy, which goes into effect immediately, offers up to one million dollars of coverage in the event that a customer’s warranty claim is denied specifically because they made their purchase online. It is complimentary for every iFLOOR customer, and protects the buyer under the same terms as the original product warranty.
iFLOOR, Inc. CEO, Steve Simonson, came up with the program to combat “scare tactics” used by manufacturers of hardwood floors and laminate flooring. “Their idea is to discourage you from buying at a discount!” wrote Simonson in his blog “It’s About Flooring”. “This is not right! You deserve to save money! So we’re going to take care of this problem once and for all.”
And it would appear that federal law is on his side. Section 108 of the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Act, states that, “In general, tie-in sales provisions are not allowed. Such a provision would require a purchaser of the warranted product to buy an item or service from a particular company to use with the warranted product in order to be eligible to receive a remedy under the warranty.”
Under iFLOOR’s new warranty, a key provision allows for iFLOOR to “seek justice” on behalf of the customer in the event of legal action. According to Simonson, “I’m putting iFLOOR’s money where my mouth is.”
About iFLOOR, Inc.
Since 1998, iFLOOR.com has been the leading online and retail flooring company, with 36 local retail stores nationwide offering more than 70,000 products, including hardwood floors, laminate flooring, bamboo flooring and cork floors. iFLOOR.com is the largest online flooring retailer according to Internet Retailer Magazine, and was named by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States for the past three years. Committed to quality customer service, superior selection and friendly expert advice, iFLOOR.com enables customers to buy flooring both online and in its retail stores at a substantial savings over traditional retailers. For more information about iFLOOR, please visit www.iFLOOR.com.
Sweet, huh? iFLOOR 
has just guaranteed itself a huge chuck of the internet flooring business. I know when it comes time to do my floors, I’ll check them out, just because they are standing by their customers.
I just saw this neat night light over at Edmund Scientific. Isn’t that wicked cool? Of course, they aren’t calling it a night light, but that is totally what I would use it for, after I used it to teach an astronomy lesson, of course. You know it fits right in with our Science theme for this term. Too bad we are almost done with the term. Why didn’t you guys tell me about it?
