Local family gets refund on flooring job after Call 4 Action report

CLARENCE, N.Y. (WIVB) -- A local family was out of luck when they hired a flooring company that showed up, ripped up their floor and never finished the job, so they contacted Call 4 Action.

We've received more than a dozen complaints about the business practices of Buffalo's Best Flooring, a company that took deposits from people but in a number of cases performed little to no work.

Katherine and Tom Hanes of Clarence hired Buffalo's Best Flooring two years ago to do a complete removal and installation of the flooring in their kitchen and dining room and gave the company a $4,000 deposit.

According to contracts with Buffalo's Best Flooring, the company says it takes up to 12 weeks for materials to be ordered and to arrive. But many more months of delays went by, and eventually, some work was done.

But, Katherine says after countless excuses about why the flooring couldn't be installed, they fired Buffalo's Best Flooring from the job.

"The first day that they actually did come, which they had already canceled three times, they ripped my front door off of the hinges and just said that it happens all the time, and then it didn't get fixed for probably two and a half months," Katherine Hanes said. "And they also cut my water line in the basement, there's water everywhere ... We did get the plywood kind of put down, but no flooring, there was never flooring."

Hanes said they had to hire another company to finish the job Buffalo's Best Flooring started. Despite all this, Robert Gleichenhaus, an attorney for Buffalo's Best Flooring, says the majority of their customers have been satisfied with the work by the company.

But, Gleichenhaus says a predatory loan situation has resulted in the company going out of business and facing numerous lawsuits.

Call 4 Action is happy to report that the Hanes family says they were reimbursed $2,700 last week. Though their initial deposit was $4,000, because some work was done, the entire deposit isn't being refunded. The Hanes family hopes they can now put this whole thing behind them.

Katherine Hanes sent us this email:

"The money that Buffalo's Best Flooring owed us was deposited in our bank account today! Thank you for all of the effort and research you put into this for us. I think having the story run on the news dictated an outcome we never perceived could happen. We really appreciate all that you did! Thank you!! We received about $2700, which was about $500 short of what we thought they owed us. At that point though, any type of reimbursement was welcomed since we thought we'd be getting nothing."

If you have a Call 4 Action complaint, you can click here or call our hotline at 716-879-4900.