Pergo: Dream Kitchen Floor turned into Nightmare

Shirley, AR"Nobody should be able to put one thing on the shelf as a sample and sell you a different product," says Jo Lockard." Pergo is deceptive and they shouldn't get away with selling defective laminate flooring." Lockard wanted the best possible floor for her dream kitchen—which has now turned into a nightmare.

"In 2000 I shopped for flooring and brought home a sample each of Pergo and Armstrong from Home Depot," says Lockard. "I abused them; I was mean to them--water, fire, the works. They were both good, hard products and took the abuse well." But she found out later that the Pergo sample was a far cry from the product she purchased.

"My husband wanted a finished floor so we went with Pergo," she says. "We spent $3,000 for the flooring, including everything the store said I needed to lay the floor correctly. We followed the instructions and even watched the video—as well, my husband has been a home builder for 30 years so he knew what he was doing.

It looked great for a few weeks then I noticed a warp about two inches long. Part of the floor was swelling up. I thought the dog had peed on it but that wasn't the case--I noticed more buckling up. I called Home Depot.

'You didn't put enough glue on it, go back and rub more glue into the top of the floor,' someone told me. The second time I called, they told me the glue was defective and that was causing the problem. This was crazy--I had soaked this product (the sample) overnight in water, it should be able to get wet. And it has underlay.

This product is junk. It is like particle board—it just falls apart.

I still have five extra boxes unopened, sitting in my kitchen, still wrapped in the original package. And I still have the original glue. Worthless. It definitely isn't what was on the display. Pergo duped its customers. The corners of the floor flake off; it is not held together like it is supposed to be.

Then I called Pergo. They said there was nothing they could do about it and the product was fine. I was going for the Pergo name but that name means nothing now. They had to have known the sample wasn't the same as their product. You could butt a cigarette on the sample and not leave a mark. I will never buy a Pergo product again—they meant to deceive us, they knew all along they were selling a piece of junk. Anything would be better than the floor I have now. I show it to as many people as possible and tell them what not to buy.

The company should have recalled it and replaced it. If I got cheap stuff for $1 per foot, it would be better than what I have now. We needed about 700 square feet—it was expensive. And I am sickened by this, knowing I am stuck with it. My only recourse is to rip it up because you can't just take up one piece. Or I can join a class action lawsuit."