Lowe’s to Refund Over $1 Million to NY State Customers

Did you purchase flooring from Lowe's? If so you could be entitled to a refund.

Lowe's corporation, according to the Daily Freeman, has agreed to refund more than $1 million to customers who were overcharged on flooring installation fees.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told the Daily Freeman that Lowe’s overcharged 16,000 customers with a shady sales practice that it has since agreed to halt.

It worked like this: Lowe's would offer installation of carpeting, tile, wood and laminate flooring by third party contractors at square foot rates that were applied to materials bought, not those actually installed. The installers typically added 10 to 20 percent excess flooring to its measurements of the actual area to be covered. The larger amounts were ordered by Lowe’s, and the installation fees per square foot were based on that higher number, which almost always wound up being more.

Lowe's has 64 stores in New York and a bunch locally in the Hudson Valley, including stores in Ulster, Highland, Catskill, Greenport and Poughkeepsie.

According to the settlement, Lowe’s will return up to $1.1 million in cash refunds and pay $900,000 to the state for its investigation. New York customers who paid the fees from 2009 to 2012 are eligible for the refunds.

If you have been affected by this settlement, Lowe's has said that they have mailed notices to customers affected by the settlement, which applies only to New York stores.