We purchased engineered hardwood flooring from Hosking Hardwood Flooring in early April. Website displayed and their customer service/sales staff twice confirmed that I was ordering a product packaged in the same 42" lengths, not random.
This is the issue because I did not receive what I ordered - all boards in 42" lengths. My research prior to ordering indicated that most similar type products are packaged in random lengths - the reason I confirmed twice the accuracy of the website information with their customer service/sales staff before placing my order.
Jeff Hosking is the President/Owner.in the end, his primary premise was their "T&C's" protected them, being interpreted as disclaiming responsibility for the accuracy of any/all information posted on their website.
To my great surprise, Discover Card and their 3rd party dispute resolution reviewer stands behind the merchant on this. The clause referenced discusses at length ONLY the color of the product ordered - nothing addresses dimenisional sizing and packaging discrepancies or errors.
But the language states at the end of paragraph #3..."Information and descriptions on the website are believed to be accurate at time of publishing but due to ever changing conditions above and beyond our control Hosking Hardwood Flooring make no implied guarantees of its accuracies."
Let the buyer beware. The credit card company will not stand behind the cardholder. I did everything a reasonable person should be expected to do - confirming twice before ordering that the engineered hardwood flooring product dimensions were as indicated on the website, confirmed twice with their customer service/sales staff prior to placing the order via their website.
Effectively, the owner/president stated he was making under $200 on my order, and would not absorb sending this back, refer to his T&C's. First that they were not responsible for the accuracy of ANY information on their website - the manufacturer/distributors frequently change packaging.
When I investigated and confirmed with the manufacturer - Scandian Wood Flooring - they said they never packaged any pre-finished engineered or solid hardwood flooring in their 16 years of existence in anything other than random lengths. This shot down Hosking's excuse #1.
Next it was the product would look the same, it was the same color...
Hoskings wanted me to absorb the freight both ways, a 30% restocking fee, and a 3% credit card fee to accept back the product - I would be left with nothing, costing me about 50% of the original order cost.
So let the buyer be aware, check those T&C's, expect the credit card companies to stand behind the merchant and very broadly interpret the merchants's T&C's meaning.
In this instance, Discover Card agreed with me in concept, but sided with the Merchant because I had accepted the T&C's to transact the web order - and accept the broadly interpreted disclaimer that Hosking claimed no responsibility for any information posted by Hosking's.
Subsequently - for this product - they have corrected the dimensional sizing error on their website.
So if you order from Hosking Hardwood Flooring, my experience was that they take zero responsibility for any/all inaccuracies for information posted on their website and conversed with their customer service/sales staff answering their tollfree phone number.
If you get the wrong product and want to return, it will cost you ~50% of what the original order placed cost - all with them hiding behind the vague nature of the T&C's.
Ask yourself the question, do you really want to order anything online where the risk is you get shipped something other than what you ordered, and to return it will cost you 50% of what you paid - and in the end get nothing in return?
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