Cathedral City man upset with defective flooring he purchased at Lumber Liquidators

A Cathedral City man is upset over bad flooring he purchased from Lumber Liquidators, and the problems he is having with the product could be impacting a number of homeowners around the valley.

At quick glance, the new bamboo flooring at his home in Cathedral City looks great and appears problem free.

But the man who purchased the product from Lumber Liquidators in Palm Desert says the looks are deceiving.

“As a customer I feel like I am being left out to dry with $9,000 dollars worth of defective wood,” said Jamie Tarascio.

Tarascio says he and his wife bought the “Morning Star” bamboo flooring last August.

After following the manufacturers recommendations of allowing the flooring to “acclimate” in the house for 45 days, the couple hired a licensed contractor who installed it in mid-September.

But a short time later, the father of two says he started noticing problems.

“We’ve had cracking in the wood, we’ve had shrinkage of the wood, we’ve had peeling of the bamboo parts, and we’ve had excessive splitting of the wood,” said Tarascio.

Tarascio says he contacted Lumber Liquidators, and after a lot of back and forth, they told him to ship a piece of the bamboo flooring back to the company so they could inspect it.

A company representative informed Tarascio the bamboo flooring was defective and told him to get rid of it.

But, with the flooring still in place, and not satisfied with offers from Lumber Liquidators to make things right, Tarascio asked CBS Local 2 to get involved.

“Words can’t even describe how upset and sad I am for my family and for us, for the community to have a company like this that doesn’t want to stand behind their products,” said Tarascio.

We went to the Lumber Liquidators store on Dinah Shore Drive in Palm Desert to speak with the manager on Jamie’s behalf.

The manager said because of “some of the details involving his experience with the customer”, he preferred not to talk on camera, and directed us to contact his corporate office.

A spokesperson provided this written statement:

“Customer care is our highest priority and we have tried, on numerous occasions, to resolve this matter. Though under no legal obligation to do so, we have even offered Mr. Tarascio a full refund of his purchase price – an offer that remains open today.”

But to accept the offer, Tarascio has to agree not to publicize his troubles.

Also, more than just the purchase price of about $5,400, Tarascio says he wants an additional $3,600 to cover the cost of installation and shipping.

“I tried everything to go ahead and rectify the situation and road blocks kept on being put up in front of me,” said Tarascio.

He is not alone in his troubles with bamboo flooring purchased at Lumber Liquidators.

Plaintiffs from at least four states have filed a class action lawsuit seeking damages after purchasing the product.

Jamie says he might consider joining the class action suit, or sue the company on his own.

If you have this same bamboo flooring installed anywhere in your home, you should know, the warranty on the product could be invalidated if the temperature in your house exceeds 80 degrees, which could easily happen here in the desert, especially during the summer months.

Lumber Liquidators has also been sued over high levels of formaldehyde used in their laminate flooring.