Review for Home Topics
The owner of this company, James Leibrecht, was the epitome of arrogance as well as a lack of professionalism. He gave me a figure to restretch the carpet in 1 bedroom and a living room and the hallway of $330.00. As he was here, ready to do the work and I was in a time crunch, I went ahead and let him do this work for $330.00. I later discovered that the normal cost for this size would have been under $200.00 (around $179.00). I never received a contract or a receipt. After he completed the work that day taking a lot of shortcuts to get done sooner, he asked me to pay in cash so he could pay his worker.
The worst part was when they split 3 carpet seams in the process of restretching the carpet, which James refused to take care of, spouting off that it wasn’t his responsibility. He claimed that it was the fault of the initial installers who didn’t install the carpet properly initially, that if it had been properly installed then the seams would not have split. The gaps were wide and unsightly as can be seen in the attached pictures.
His hired worker agreed to repair the ripped seam in the hallway when he came back to pick up a couch that I gave him. He also asked me for gas money to give his son who drove him out here that night to pick up the couch. That was 2 months or more ago. I next called the owner. He decided the seams couldn’t be fixed and has never done anything about them. He never would relent on his contention of his lack of responsibility stating that before I could even take him to court, I’d have to have a “master installer” look at it first and decide who was at fault!
James did agree to come back once himself to restretch what wasn’t fully done the first time. At that point, he told my boyfriend that he’d replace the hall although I haven’t heard from him since then and that was over a couple of months ago.
James also was inconsiderate about our schedules, assuming we could be available not only any time of the day but also any day of the week that was convenient for him. My boyfriend took off a half of a day from work once before to be here for the owner who never showed. He called 30 minutes or more after he was to be here saying he wasn’t coming at all.
To make a long story short, I had to hire someone else to come out to repair what Home Topics tore up. That made this a very costly venture since I’d already paid him more than a third more than the going rate. I have multiple pictures which I’m more than happy to share to substantiate the job his company performed.
The person who finally fixed their screw-ups couldn’t believe they didn’t stop and fix their tears before continuing to stretch the carpet. He had to use carpet from a closet and make a strip out of 3 separate pieces for just the hallway. It took 2 pieces to fix each of the living room seams. He gave me a piece of carpet to put back in the closet and installed it for me. His comments to me after seeing what they did and fixing those things were that the original contractor and owner, James Liebrecht of Home Topics, who did this work was a “disgrace to the industry.”
I probably should take Mr. Liebrecht to court and still might although I am not sure if it is worth all the trouble. I am sure he is probably banking on that or he’d have made some type of effort by now to do something. Therefore, I have decided to give him some reviews of his work instead at this point. Hopefully, this will prevent the same type of thing from happening to others who are unfortunate enough to encounter him in the future.
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