How Carpet Exchange lost my business over 1mm

The debate in our house has been heated and long. Do we re-floor the downstairs? Carpet or laminate? To say the least, a lot of shopping has been done. Finally we selected to go with do-it-yourself laminate. Now where to put our money...
We looked everywhere. In a household with one income, two kids and the ever-looming thought of an unstable economy, we have to be very careful with the little spending money we do have.
So with what we have saved for this investment we decided to take our business to Carpet Exchange. We were referred by a friend, who was 'more than accommodated" and we felt like we would be taken care of too.
To explain, I am old school. So, if you do right by me once, you have my business for life and for whatever project I might have in the future.
I wish that more businesses would stop thinking of profit in this economy, and focus more of growing a customer base. It would be nice if they thought of us first.
Anyway, we go into the store, which is conveniently located off of I-25 and look at some options for flooring. Not a huge selection, but we can't have everything I guess.
The sales associate is really nice, and helpful, it seems, until he learns that this is a small job with a budget. Uh!
After that, it seems, we are hurried along and paid no special attention. Ok, whatever. I ask about their 'lowest price' guarantee and he hurriedly explains it and moves on...ok.
Still having faith that my dollar is worth something to them, I naively decide to shop around a little more and see if I can find a lower price on what we saw at the store and liked.
And I do. Online, on a little site I find a better price on the same product (I thought) with a better warranty AND more product per box. Then I look a little more and on an even littler site I find and even BETTER price on the same product.
I'm not talking a few cents here people, I am talking up to a $0.61sq/ft difference! Keep in mind, these boxes of flooring come with more per box and a better warranty than 'my floor store'!
So I call up Carpet Exchange, wanting to clarify the terms of their 'price match guarantee', still hoping to keep our money in Colorado, and this my friends, is where things start to go south.
I talked to the first guy, who gives me a vague answer to my simple question and then passes me onto the voicemail of the guy who 'helped' me earlier. Then, when he calls me back, this term, which if I hear never again would be too soon, comes into play...'apples to apples' I GET IT! I am not stupid. Apples to apples means you are comparing the SAME exact thing....so, guy at Carpet Exchange, if what I am explaining to you on the phone isn't the same as what you have, please don't waste my time. just tell me it isn't the same and that you won't price match. End of story, right? NO! Uh!
He tells me that 'they won't lose a sale over that' so he's going to give my information to his boss, who will see what he can do.
So the clock on my wasted time starts ticking, the next morning his manager calls me and asks to clarify some information...blah blah blah...I give him the same information that I gave the other guy. He tells me that 'we really aren't comparing apples to apples, but I will price match what you have anyway, just bring in your paperwork, so I can send it to corporate.' To clarify, at this point, I AM HAPPY with the customer service, I am thinking to myself, 'wow, it is great for a company to WANT my business' Literally to the point that I have my checkbook in hand, ready to buy!
WOW, GREAT! I am so impressed...for about 24 hours, and that is ONLY because I couldn't make it down there that day because my daughter was sick.
So I carve out some allotted time, about 30 hours after I talked to the manager, to go down 'get taken care of' and buy my flooring! YAY!!!
I walk in to this beautiful showroom of plush carpet and nicely lit hardwoods and laminate and confidently ask for the manager.
If I knew then, what I know now, I would have just lied to myself and saved myself the time and effort that I wasted on this whole ordeal, alas, my faith in man is sometimes misplaced!
I hand the manager my paperwork and he looks it over for a good long minute, and says 'ya this isn't the same thing.' The difference is 1mm thickness. I can't believe this Carpet Exchange, 'my floor store' is blowing me off over ONE MILLIMETER! But in all fairness he offers to knock off $0.15, hardly a comparison to what I believe I was told.
Hey guy, I knew that, we discussed that, and you said 'no problem' that you would match it anyway, do my ears deceive me? OH MY GOSH! What a colossal waste of my time!
Ok, well I decided to wait for my husband to show up and talk it over with me to see if we still wanted to buy there, but of course, no, it is the principle of the matter...'why invest with a store who doesn't want our money unless they get all of it?' Ya, I said it!
So I go back to the manager, and point out that the ad I brought in had a better warranty and more per box and could they come down on price a little more. At this point though, he didn't seem interested. So whatever. It is like offering a steak dinner to the first 10 people to get there and giving them a hamburger and saying, it just looks better with people in the restaurant, it really doesn't matter if they are happy and satisfied!
So here I am, after wasting almost a week on Carpet Exchange, I am back at square one, trying to find a good deal on laminate.
Would I spend with them if they offered to follow through on their promise? Ya, probably, the customer service wasn't great, but the money stays here, in Colorado, and in the end, that is what matters!