NIGHTMARE EXPERIENCE - SHOCKED & DISGUSTED

FLOORING SOLUTIONS BELLVILLE: PLEASE BE WARNED ABOUT THIS COMPANY. We've just had an absolute nightmare experience with them that lasted over 5 weeks. Jacques came out to quote and presented as a professional. We paid our deposit the same day and then couldn't get hold of him for 3 days thereafter. No reply to our Whatsapps. The office told us he was off sick. No red flags yet as people do get sick. On the morning of Friday 30 January 2026 the Flooring Solutions driver dropped off their 2 installers to lay our laminate flooring. No-one was with them to show them what had to be done. They asked us for information. We didn't stand over them as they worked, because we'd done our homework on the company and read their positive Google reviews. However, by 2pm in the afternoon it became apparent that they were not qualified installers. Pics attached of their workmanship, because words cannot describe it. We immediately phoned the office and spoke to Jacques to explain the situation. He told us that we need to speak directly to the installers. We weren't happy with that, because we contracted Flooring Solutions and not their installers to do the job. When Jacques 1st  came to quote we asked him whether Flooring Solutions used their own contractors for installations. He confirmed that they had their own teams (not subcontractors. We told him that the store manager (Tersius Burger) had to come out and do an inspection. Tersius came on the Friday afternoon and we pointed out all the issues to him. He was in complete agreement with us and promised that everything would be sorted out. He called us on the Saturday morning promising the earth. He said he'd send an installer on Monday who knew more about laminate flooring than he did to rectify the issues. Monday came and went. On Tuesday afternoon around 1pm the same installer was dropped off to sort out the issues. When he left there were more problems than before. On 5 Feb we emailed Paul Fowler ***ner of Flooring Solutions Bellville). He could only do an inspection on 9 Feb. He came to our home with Tersius. Despite numerous problems being evident with the newly laid flooring, Mr Fowler was only prepared to change 4 rows in the passage (the most problematic area according to him). Tersius who had been there on 30 Jan did a complete 360 in the presence of his boss and denied everything he had said to us. We told Paul Fowler that we wanted a full refund. He said that he couldn't refund us, because the flooring had already been laid. We put him to terms giving him 14 days to refund us in full and remove the flooring otherwise we were going to institute a claim against him at the Small Claims Court for the max amount. In the interim we contacted the manufacturer of the laminate planks in Germany to ask them whether they had a rep in Cape Town who could do an independent inspection for us. This person came out and was taken aback by the workmanship in general, the fact that no gaps were left for expansion of the planks, bulging on the long and short ends of the planks, the way the installers "hacked" the planks and by which company did the job. He told us straight out that the manufacturer would never honour the warranty due to the way that planks had been laid. We gave Paul Fowler until 25 Feb to refund us our deposit. On Monday 2 March Paul Fowler refunded us a portion of our deposit and promised to pay the balance within 24hrs after the flooring was removed. The flooring was removed on Weds 4 March. By Fri 6 March when we still hadn't received the balance of our refund, we called Paul Fowler to ask him what was happening. He told us it had been paid that morning. On Monday 9 March I sent him another final demand after which we finally received the remainder of our money. This has been an extremely disappointing, frustrating and hurtful experience. Now we have to start the process all over again and repair the damages caused by their installers - they chipped all our newly painted doors and doorframes. Flooring Solutions have a questionnaire that they want their clients to complete when they are finished with the job. One question asks if the team leader explained to the installers what to do when dropping them off. There was NO team leader in our case. A driver dropped them off. They didn't have the appropriate tools, they cut in our study and had no broom - there was dust all over, they used the wrong colour sealant, they wanted to use one of our *****drivers to widen the gap for the T-join - 8mm thick planks that their blunt jigsaw blade could barely cut through, they had no cloths to wipe the sealer when they sealed off so they got it all over the floors, they hit the planks together with such a force that they damaged them, chipped numerous planks, etc. This occurred throughout the 3 bedrooms and the passage, BUT Paul Fowler wanted to replace 4 rows of flooring in the passage only....an insult to our intelligence. This has been an extremely disappointing, frustrating, inconvenient and hurtful experience. Flooring Solutions Bellville come across as being professional with their website, Facebook ads, Google reviews, etc. but they are *********. My aim is to expose them for who they really are from the owner to the branch manager right down to their sales people. It's my belief that they've done this to other people too and that their Google reviews may be generated using Wix or AI. I also strongly believe that they picked up the 2 installers they sent to us on a street corner somewhere. During this whole fiasco I asked for advice on a flooring group on Facebook. I received over 300 comments confirming what a bad job was done - I attach only a few to this post. * UNFORTUNATELY CAN'T POST PICS HERE, BUT WILL BE POSTING THEM ON FB @LOUISESMAL