Brazilian Direct, LTD.
reviews and complaints

My experience with Dan Cosgrove, and Brazilian Hardwood direct is not good, unfortunately. I bought 4000 sq ft of Brazilian Walnut, or Ipe flooring - that is $23K worth! According to everything I read, this company had a high integrity. However, my experience was otherwise. The wood that was sent for the stairs was incorrect. Dan orders these from a mill, and they are shipped directly. The stairs are 48"wide. When I received the materials, the stair treads were 48"... but the risers were only 42". Obviously this was a mistake, either by Dan and his staff., or by the mill. Someone shipping this should have realized, that the stair treads and the risers will have to be the same length. This will obviously someone else's fault, and I should not be left holding this bill. I contacted Dan immediately, who did nothing. Initially he wrote me."I guess I will have to eat it... "But then he simply went silent on the whole problem. I waited 3 weeks — my entire flooring job was held up, while we waited for Dan to tell us whether he would replace the incorrect 42" risers, or he would send a check to replace them with a local supplier.in the end, I had to purchase 16 Ipe risers, from a local supplier, for the correct width... at a cost of about $800, plus tax! Dan simply ignored me, which was disappointing, because I felt that their company had a better integrity. So I would say, reconsider doing business with them. I do not like to leave a negative review... but my experience is that if there is a problem, I don't believe this company would do the right thing, and stand behind a mistake.
So for that reason, no I would not recommend them. It seems strange to me, that a company would sell me $23K worth of product, and then withhold paying for an $800 mistake. But that was exactly my experience. I have waited over a month, and dan has never sent me a check, or communicated with me at all, to resolve this.

Consumers BEWARE. Brazilian Direct Ltd. sells inferior flooring products which they claim on their website to be 'Premium' and 'the best'. They LIE and will abandon you after the sale after promising excellent products and customer service prior to the sale, and they do it in a smug, insulting, rude manner (particularly Shannon).

I bought $8, 000 worth of 3/4' walnut hardwood flooring (1300sf) from them in what were supposed to be 5' widths. The flooring widths ranged from 4 7/8' to 5 1/8' wide! Numerous boards are different widths from one end of the same board to the other! Problem not discovered until well into the installation. Called owner Dan Cosgrove and he at first said he couldn't believe that the widths would be off by that much, and he said to continue with the installation because we shouldn't even be able to notice. He said he would take care of it if the installation took longer, because the installers had to literally measure each piece on BOTH ends (because some pieces varied in width from end to end), and segregate them by width and install same widths in each row. Problem was that over 50% of the boards were wrong width, resulting in unavoidable situation where different width boards had to be put into the same row... But Dan said we wouldn't notice it and that he would take care of it...

Installation was a nightmare, and floor looks like c*** with all the uneven widths. Dan continued to say that it couldn't be true, and asked me to send him some boards and photos, so I did. Even after sending the samples and photos direct to him and to the mill, they continued to deny the problem exists, obfuscated, ignored, and basically blew me off, after I sent them 20 sample pieces and 30 high resolution photos clearly depicting the problem, AND OVER 100 EMAILS. And the amazing thing was that I had sent them an email prior to buying it, and asked them if they GUARANTEE that the widths will be consistent, and Shannon responded 'most certainly as that is all we offer'... I have all of this in writing, and the photos below don't lie, and I have dozens more physical samples!

They refunded about $1400 that I had to pay my installers for the extra time it took to install due to uneven widths in over 50% of the flooring they sent me. However, I am now left with flooring that does not line up properly, and it is highly visible. I am going to have to tear it all out and start over.

These people will promise the world but when it comes down to it, they WILL leave you high and dry and they will laugh about it, as they did with me. I am out $16, 000 because they will not stand behind their products or their commitments or their promises.

This is the first time I have ever made an effort to do an online review of a company because I just don't have the time for this. However, in this case, I am making the time (as well as preparing to sue them) because what I went through with these people should not ever have to happen to anybody else. If you are smart, you will LISTEN to what I am saying and TAKE ADVANTAGE of my NIGHTMARE experience, and FOLLOW my advice - DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH BRAZILIAN DIRECT AT WWW.BRAZILIANHARDWOOD.COM. You take a great risk if you do and, if you do, and get screwed, don't say I didn't tell you so. Upon request, I will PROVE what I am saying. Just send me an email at [protected]@verizon.net and I'll be happy to help you to understand why it is important that you NOT trust these people with your hard earned money.

Take a look at the photos at http://www.dataweb-design.com/brazilian.html. These are what I sent to Brazilian Direct. They can't be doctored. They are what they are. Ask yourself if YOU would be happy after paying nearly $8, 000 for this flooring?

Here is a link that might be useful:

http://www.dataweb-design/brazilian.html

Also much more here:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/flooring/msg0220351823669.html