Cali Bamboo, LLC
reviews and complaints

Cali Bamboo delivered of the worst customer service experiences of my life…and to top it off, they are keeping my money with no response.

I had placed an order with Cali Bamboo in February of 2022. The main part of the order never shipped. Two months later, in April 2022, after one month of me chasing them on the phone and emailing them to find out what’s going on, they finally notified me that the material had been damaged in the warehouse. Not only is my project further delayed, now I am left absolutely stuck.

I was notified via email that a Cali Bamboo customer service team member would be contacting me within 24 hours. No one contacted me from Cali Bamboo—even after waiting for one week. I then called the customer service line and was told by a specific agent that someone else is handling my case…and so I was transferred to that someone else...then that someone else told me that they are not responsible for my case. That’s right…not responsible. I got transferred many times within the Cali Bamboo “system” and eventually got to a prerecorded message advising me to leave a voicemail. I left a message…of course, I never received a call back. Thanks, Cali Bamboo.

So then, I emailed the Cali Bamboo sales rep and received no response—I am starting to think it’s the company culture. After chasing after him with many emails and phone calls, I was able to talk with him on the phone. This is now May of 2022 (the Cali Bamboo horror began back in February). I asked the sales rep to please find out what the damage is and whether I can salvage and use some of the material (since that specific color of material is suddenly no longer produced). He assured me that he would contact the warehouse and have them send me photos to review…you guessed it—he never did. I had to again, call and email this Cali Bamboo sales rep multiple times in order to get an answer. At this time my job has been delayed three whole months. To top off the experience with this unprofessional and unreliable company, Cali Bamboo has now messed with my mind and my time as an added value for doing business with them.

At this point, I had Cali Bamboo send me a different material with the same color to improvise and somehow get the job done (since all the aforementioned had occurred with the original order). At the end, Cali Bamboo only partially refunded me for my original order and decided to hold onto the shipping cost amount for a large item that I never received from them. I contacted the well-known shipping company and was provided a quote for what Cali Bamboo had sent me—it is only half the amount that Cali Bamboo is claiming. Yes, half.

To say that I am extremely frustrated with Cali Bamboo is an extreme understatement. No one should ever have this experience and it’s so sad that companies like Cali Bamboo can get away with it without any consequences. What I had to go through over the last nearly four months is completely unacceptable. The “team” at Cali Bamboo has no remorse for what they have put me through, and to top it off, I have not received an adequate reimbursement for their gross mismanagement of the order.

If you are seeking drama, money loss, and headaches, I strongly recommend doing business with Cali Bamboo.

We were enamored with the descriptions of Cali Bamboo Flooring, the different selections, the widths and the hardness of the product. We installed it paying close attention to your recommendations for acclimation to the environment and literally let the product sit in our house in a latticed stacked position for 3 - 4 months. We installed following directions precisely, leaving minimal 1/2″ space all around at walls, doors, etc. We have had nothing but ongoing bulging, areas raised as much as 1 - 1 1/2 inches. We had to remove baseboard throughout the entire install area, pry the edge boards out as they had expanded under the drywall, re-cut the edge boards 1/2″ back from the wall, put baseboard back and 2 months later have encountered the same problems. Our opinion of this product is — I would never ever use bamboo flooring again unless it was glued or nailed down. But we can't do that as we have a radiant floor heat system. We were assured this was an acceptable product to use. The local salesman who sold it to us (and the Cali customer service rep we spoke with) said it's a great product and would work well in our climate. We are in the mountains of North Carolina and our humidity runs 40 - 65%. My recommendation is there are other and better products to be had for less money!

Absolutely incompetent, disinterested and insulting service from Cali Bamboo. They absolutely loved taking my payments, yet hated delivering the correct flooring and anything resembling problem resolution. Don't look to CEO Doug Jackson or Supervisor Ashley Dawn to respond to a complaint. They'll let their infant staff do that. And do it poorly.

They sent me the WRONG flooring, which happens to weigh about 400lbs, promised to expedite overnight delivery of the correct flooring via Fedex Freight. What they didn't tell me was there is no such thing with the freight unit of Fedex. So, when it didn't arrive as promised, Fedex tells me it wasn't even shipped out until day 3. Isn't that so sweet? It was shipped out the day after it was to arrive. Must be a special kind of Cali timing or sumthang?

Calling their awesome customer service team is such a joy. When you ask for a supervisor, they'll just keep you on hold and transfer you to 3 other people who are NOT supervisors. It's called the game of merry go round. Thinking maybe you'll get so fed up, you'll hang up. Not me, I love a challenge. Finally, I get to Zoe Brodsky, the ding-dong who made the overnight promise, and she was just as flaky as could be. Trying to prevent me from speaking to her invisible supervisor. I was just rude and pushy enough to spur her into action and whaddya know - a promised refund as a "courtesy". She couldn't say "Hey, we screwed you, lied to you, let you down - so to make amends for our immense stupidity, it's free!". Nah, the ego machine needed to make me feel they were going above and beyond by giving me a freebie.

As of this writing, no refund has been forthcoming. SHOCKING, right? No response from the CEO or even the dude who sold me the floor.

Integrity and righteous sense of honesty does not live among these heathens. Oh, about that 400 lbs of flooring taking up residency in my living room? Zoe tells me I can just do without as I like. Since it's ugly as cow poop, I'd like to shove it up her @$$, but I guess I will just use my super human powers and carry each 51lb box to the dump. Thanks, Cali - you're just super duper poopers!

UPDATE: Within 24 hours of this review, the VP of Cali Bambo, Alexandra Gerritsen, emailed me that she was cancelling my order by ordering Fedex to return my flooring to them. I have paid in full, NO REFUND has been issued and she is clearly retaliating against me because I had the nerve to complain to her inferior organization. She states I can buy the flooring from their suppliers if I want it. That would cost me time and a 20%. What a DESPICABLE company! I have now filed a complaint with the BBB in San Diego.

My saga with Cali Bamboo began a year ago, when I saw a display in Lowe's. I had a budget planned out to do 7 areas in the house and waterproof pvc vinyl installed in our sunroom. I honestly believed that Cali's fossilized wood would be the ideal choice for a beautiful floor designed to be environment friendly and beneficial to allergy suffers. I laughingly called it "the poor man's hardwood."

Because my special order was large (26 cartons for stage 1 and another 18 for stage 2) I decided to order directly through Cali Bamboo and not through Lowe's. Before I place my order, I had major concerns with eucalyptus, because it is not indigenous to Ohio, but is grown in tropical regions of the world. My salesman - Paul F. assured me that it has been installed in colder regions than Ohio and that as long as I purchased Cali complete (their moisture barrier) that my floor will do just fine. He also abated my concerns about the difficulty in installing it) I read one review that said it was "temperamental") and he assured me that their click and lock floating floor system and all of their products are designed for the DIY (do-it-your-seller) and that they have a very good customer support team!

So, I ordered all of the supplies and I asked for referrals and found the two most seasoned floor installers in my area. Both men have 50 collective years of installation experience and have laid hundreds of floating floors!

Phase I of my install took place from July -August of 2017. I printed off the instructions before the contractors came to do the work and asked them to read over them. I also provided Cali's customer support number and the links to their work videos.

We had also bought Cali's white aspen waterproof pvc to be installed in our 3 season sunroom. Hubs and I (not the installers) took all of boxes of wood and vinyl that was dropped off at the long end of our driveway and transported every one of them into the house ourselves. We also opened all of the boxes and stacked the wood. Two weeks later, the installer comes and installs the vinyl first, in order for the eucalyptus boards to further acclimate. All supplies; Cali complete; metallic tape; threshold; and encap was ordered; delivered; and ready to be used, before the installers arrived.

The floors turned out beautiful, and we were very pleased. Until, the winter came. The eucalyptus boards stated to pull away from the walls, develop gaps around floor vents and doorways, and lifting occurred.

Because we still had more areas to lay and due to our first installer being diagnosed with cancer, we found a second one with tons of experience. He looked at the directions; our floor; the acclimated boards and said that he would glue the tongue side of each board for more stability. He also said that the tongue should have been wider, due to the weight of the boards.

He used titebond professional glue on phase 2. Six months go by, and we can see a noticeable difference in the non-glued areas opposed to the glued ones. Namely, the non-glued areas are still gapping; lifting; and separating. The glued areas are more stable with some visible gapping, that somewhat has closed in during the summer months.

I wrote to Cali in June of 2018, filed a written complaint, asking for reimbursement on deconstructing and reinstalling with glue, in the areas that are unglued. Cali Support responding quickly, sent out a husband and wife team to inspect our floors, only to deduce that our floor failure is due to installation error and that they are closing my case. # 54389

They further recommended contacting a certified NWFA (national wood flooring association) installer in my area to correct the problems. From the list they gave me, I could only find one installer within 50 miles of where I live!

Which brings me to major contention:
"How can Cali ethically market their bamboo/eucalyptus wood products to novices and D-I-Y-ers, when they advised me to use an installer that has had 3 years of specialized training and certification to correctly fix my floors?!?"

Would a REASONABLE person honestly believe that a hired contractor through Lowe's; Angie's List; other flooing companies perform the following labor for $2.39-$3.69 a square foot:

Read 15+ pages of instruction; tear out the existing floor; repair any unleveled areas; carry heavy 80 lb boxes of wood from a truck/driveway to the center of every area room that is being installed; unbox the wood; stack the wood like Lincoln logs; wait the minimum 5 days before taking a moisture reading; continue taking moisture readings of the stacked boards; subfloor; room air/temperature; and baseboard UNTIL the recommended level of moisture/acclimation is reached before they install?

I too read the instructions and became concerned with the following statement buried in the pre-installation instructions: "Controlling flooring moisture content is important for success. Bamboo, like all hardwood flooring species, is hygroscopic: its size abd shape changes naturally with the absorption or release of moisture. The amount of movement varies depending on the preventative steps taken at the time of installation (I.e, acclimation, moisture barrier application, etc, ) and the stability home environment thereafter. Care should be taken to control fluctuating levels of moisture indoors."

Because this product is special ordered only (no boxes to see/read) at the big box stores, shouldn't this disclaimer be in bold letters near or on the display? Consumers should know that they need a moisture meter (and that one can be found in Lowe's tool section); that they probably will need to install a whole house de-humidifier; and that the most qualified installers are NWFA certified and that there are few to choose from! This information should be available before we place our "special order" not from floor inspectors who are paid by the company to defend their product!

In closing, products should only be placed in big box stores that caters to the "do-it-yourselfer" and non NWFA installers if it has been designed to be virtually fool proof and not predisposing consumers to early failure! We have had zero problems with Cali's waterproof PVC and I wished we would have used the natural elm throughout the house and not the eucalyptus! I have also had Pergo click and lock flooring installed in other houses, and it too was faultless. Please investigate all the facts and help us gullible consumers regain what we have lost!

I was sold a bill of goods by cali bamboo. I was told the bamboo fencing was more durable than steel, weather resistant, and the perfect outdoor fence. I ordered 400' of fencing, and was told that their would be explicit directions on how to install it. The installation manuals were a joke, and the labor to install a picture frame version of the fence were pathetic. Once the fence was in, and i had sealed it with their sealer, it looked absolutely georgeous, for about 2 months. Then the mold started to set in, convering every square inch, deep black mold. I have spent countless, countless hours powerwashing and resealing, to no avail. Not to mention once about every minute while in the yard in the summer you hear "pop" "pop" which is the bamboo splitting, which makes it look like garbage. The fence is a waste of money, and with shipping, all the sealant, and the horrible mold, it is not environmentally friendly in the least.
I also had installed the decking material for a 400 sq ft raised deck. Once again it look beautiful for the first 2 months. It now looks like it is 20 years old, cracking, falling apart, and covered in horrible mold. The fence and deck are less than 18 months old, and the deck needs to be replaced, it looks like garbage. The fence looks ok, but i have power washed it and sealed it 4 times now. Power washing the bamboo takes an extraordinary amount of time, b/c the mold sets in so deep. I spent a full 10 hours last saturday just on the fence, and am 1/3 of the way done power washing. that means 30 full hours, x 2-3 times a year, 100+ hours to power wash and seal it per year. This material is total garbage, do not buy it.