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LETTER: Great customer service needs to be recognized

Two Chilliwack companies stepped up to he plate in a big way

Unfortunately in this day and age, poor customer service seems to be the norm, not the exception. You expect a salesperson to be late, you expect there to be a problem with a company living up to the promises made, you expect the quality of product to not be as good showcased, etc.

I’d like to share a very recent story that restored my faith in good quality service and highlights not one but two established Chilliwack companies, Freedom Homes and Pioneer Building Supplies.

My wife and I built a new home in August 2019. The flooring in the entire house (except for two small bathrooms) was laid with a very nice looking laminate. However, there were problems from the start.

We noticed a few creaks as we walked across the floor throughout the house right after it was put in. We just thought it was the flooring settling. When winter came around, the flooring was all of a sudden very quiet; no more squeaky noises. However when spring 2020 came along, the squeaking was heard again. By the time summer came around, the squeaks were loud, horrible sounding and we couldn’t find a corner of the house that was quiet!

We made a few jokes to ourselves about this in order to keep a good attitude towards the problem. We found it humorous that our eight pound cat could make the floors squeak as if a person was walking by. The other joke, was that there was no need for an alarm system in this house because nobody could break-in without us hearing them.

Here’s where the fantastic customer service begins.

We made the builder, Freedom Homes, aware of the problem in the middle of the summer. Not once did they become defensive, or say it really wasn’t that bad. They came in and did a few tests to find out what could be the issue. My wife and I, always felt that they had our back and best interests in mind, saying “Something will be done about this!” Because of those words we had 100% confidence that the situation would be resolved for us.

Owner, Ryan Anderson of Freedom Homes then got the laminate supplier, our sales rep Paul Bouthillier of Pioneer Building Supplies, involved. After another site visit, the two companies had their own closed door meetings at their office to figure out how to deal with our situation. Even during this meeting stage, the Paul called to keep us posted saying, “We are still working on a solution, but don’t worry something will be done!”. Now that’s good service!

It ended up that the flooring manufacturer went out of business shortly after our purchase. Pioneer Building Supplies and Freedom Homes were left holding the bag. At the end of the day, these two companies came together and installed brand new floor in our home, covering 100% of the expenses to supply and install the new materials.

I know that the COVID-19 virus is getting everyone down these days, but there are some feel good stories out there and this is definitely one of them. It’s my time to openly show appreciation for a job well done and that’s the reason for this letter. A shout out and huge ‘thank you” to Pioneer Building Supplies and Freedom Homes!! You not only did a fantastic job but you restored my faith in good customer service.

5 star Google reviews from me!

Peter Kmyta

Rosedale

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