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We were aware that nothing with Lowe's was free. But we were naïve, and went to Lowe's for a carpet installation quote, as we were replacing the entire carpet for one of our rental properties.
Lowe's gave us a surprisingly cheap quote, so we went ahead to schedule measurements. Once measurements were done, the final quote came back and the price increased by 50%.
We called Lowe's. At first they said the first quote was not from them, even though I could cite the project number. Then, they said the salesperson giving us the quote was not working at Lowe's. We went to the store and showed them the quote. Then, they said what was labelled a "project estimate" wasn't a quote; it was a "product estimate" merely citing product prices (which were also listed on the shelf, so why would customers need product estimate?!).
In the final quote, another salesperson crossed out "installation" by hand, and relabeled it "carpet pad." He said we were paying for high-quality carpet pad, and that was why the price now jumped up 50%. We said we wanted cheaper pads, but were told we had no choice because pads come from the installer.
We contacted the installer directly, who said that pads are free but we pay for labor.
That's simply false advertising, and is outlawed by FTC Act.
(Home Depot also offers free carpet installation, but they're upfront about certain exclusions.)
This is why I refuse to give verbal, ball park estimates. It just leaves everyone feeling soured in the end and i'm really sorry you had that experience.
So here's how I explain the free installation to my customers. While the labor is free, the padding is being provided to the customer via our installers. Thus the pad is sold to Lowes via our installers. So it has to be sold under the labor section of the install quote. Now our installers have a wide variety of paddings to choose from depending on the region you're in. Generally we quote for the SM memory foam pad since the Elite padding(best there is) is on extreme back order. That said, you do have a choice of padding and have the right to request to look at a sample of the available pads. Generally though, the one you were quoted is the one to get in 99.9% of situations since it offers the best cushion and water resistance currently available. Lets say you spilled water on the carpet, it would soak into the carpet and not the pad. Now i will advise you that you cannot, under any circumstance buy any of the pads on our shelf as a substitute. It just can't be warrantied against and that's directly from the insurance contracts our installers have. Got to love the underwriters.
As everyone else has said, don't contact the installer... trust me they know nothing about how our contracts work and i spend a good 2 hours of may day clearing up misunderstandings that result from those conversations.
As for some of the accusation I can't really get into it because I'd be risking my skin here due to corporate policy on social media. But i'll say this, the only way the padding cost would come out to be more than the carpet is if you picked a cheap carpet. You've done just that. Again you do have a right to change your mind on the padding and the carpet you selected as well.
p.s. despite what people think, we do not get commission.
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1: The padding samples you see on display are what our installers will install. Of course, this is assuming that your local store is setup like mine. There tends to be a little variance as to how things are displayed given each stores plan, size, and region. My samples for example are on a chain all bundled together and you'd see names on them like Super 6, Odor ban 2, Stain master Select, etc. They're about 2 foot by 2 foot square and ideally most stores should have a couple sets of those. At the very least you should have been given the choice of the Select or Memory Foam padding by Stainmaster considering those should be national brand level product. Any Specialist and DS can change that in the labor configuration menu when necessary.
2: Now this one is a bit of a tricky one because this depends on what's allowed in your region. Technically it can be done like that if the installer will allow it in your area and if the Store manager will get his flatbed guys to go pick it up. IF flatbed is unavailable, then it would have to ship LTL and that costs your store a fair chunk of change on shipping costs to my understanding. The store may not have been willing to cover the costs since that has to have a Store Managers approval. That said, my particular store orders all of our carpet directly from the manufacturer and has it shipped to the installer. Honestly it's worked out so much better for my customers than the old method. Mainly because it ensures that you will indeed get your carpet in a timely fashion,2 weeks on average, and that it will be free of potential defects. Basically no worrying about defects or if you can get enough carpet. Once the manufacturer accepts the order there's very little that could go wrong from then on. Only major caveat to our method is the carpet is slightly higher due to it having to be ordered as SOS (ship from vendor). So what would have happened if it was coming from my stores location is, I would have called product support or the manufacturer and gotten the SOS item number for the carpet and plugged that in instead.
Honestly it all sounds like the people you talked to had no clue as to how to effectively do their job from lack of experience. I've been doing this for a number of years and these are all the hallmarks of someone fresh to the role. That said, again, i'm really sorry you had to go through that. Hopefully you'll consider us for your future flooring needs.