***Update on Trex Class Action Lawsuit***

I received a letter in the mail yesterday from Trex Company.  There is a legitimate Class Action Settlement in place from Trex.

Here is all the information you should need to get in on this sweet, sweet action:

Trex Company, Inc.
Trex Class Action Settlement
ATTN:  Trex Mold and Color Fading/Variation Litigation
P.O. Box 921789
Norcross, GA 30010-1789

Toll Free Line:  1-877-495-0068
Fax:  1-855-301-9935
Email:  trexclasssettlement@trex.com

http://www.trex.com/legal/2013classactionsettlement.aspx

Claim Forms must be faxed, e-mailed, or sent by U.S. Mail and postmarked no later than May 27, 2014.

A new Trex Class Action Lawsuit

I just received this email message in my inbox.  With any luck this lawsuit will actually go somewhere unlike the previous one from Hagens Bermans.


I am an attorney working on the Trex issue and looking for people interested in joining a class action. I AM NOT ASSOCIATED WITH HAGENS BERMAN'S OFFICE. I am with the Law Offices of Jennifer R. Snyder in the San Francisco Bay Area. Please email be at jennifersnyder10@gmail.com or call 510-825-3822 if you are interested in a Trex action. Jennifer R. Snyder, Esq. 


I informed Jennifer that I would be more than happy to join the class action suit against Trex.  Hopefully I can still join despite the fact that I'm no longer a Trex Deck owner (thank God).  Either way, I'm out $7000 because of their product and refusal to help customers like me.

I stumbled upon this website the other day which has long list of Trex customer complaints regarding their Transcend line.  It's the same story, persistent mold that leaves the owners feeling frustrated and powerless against a company that really doesn't give a rip about customer service or keeping the customers best interests in mind.  I see my "friend" Brittany from Trex has responded a couple of times on this message board.  I think Brittany was the one who ultimately booted a bunch of Trex naysayers off of their Facebook page which in turn spawned the very blog you are reading now.

Please share your experiences on Plumb-n-square's website to get the message out.

Thanks!

Out with the "mold", in with the new.

Well, it's been a long, frustrating journey my friends.  But the Trex saga has come to an end.  At least from my ownership perspective.  The new Ipe deck has been installed at our house and I must say, my wife and I are both very pleased with the results. The picture above is of my original Trex deck.  Blah!  As a reader of this blog, I probably don't need to recap you with the constant nightmare that Trex has proven to be.  The persistant mold, the loss of color, and the eventual deterioration of boards due to multiple applications of bleach-based cleaning solutions. Done!  Finished!  Finito! The next set of pictures are of my newly installed Ipe deck.  What a world of difference!!!  We used Ipe decking with Ipe clips so as not to have an visible screws.  Cedar rail supports with an Ipe finish top rail.  Black aluminum balusters, capped off with some copper post caps. Now according to Trex, mold is an environmental condition that is in no way caused by or encouraged by Trex products.  Okay, fine.  So, here comes the real test with my new deck.  I will do nothing more than sweep my deck and gently hose off for a routine cleaning procedure.  If Trex is correct, that it doesn't matter what material is installed, then I should see black mold covering my deck in approximately 18-24 months.  The clock is ticking Trex.  I'll be very curious to see if my deck turns into a petri dish much like my old deck. Friends and relatives with Ipe decks, or any natural material for that matter, have never has any sort of mold problems with their decks.  Even neighbors who opted for composite material such as Azek haven't had any issues and they are going on three years. I'm told that yearly maintenance for my new deck includes:  washing off with a hose,  and applying penofin oil to bring back the lustrous sheen you see in these pictures.  This type of work is much more acceptable to me than the type of effort I was applying to my Trex deck. The beauty of this is that when I'm done maintaining my deck on an annual basis, I will have something that I can be proud of;  unlike my old Trex deck which after a lot of elbow grease was equivalent to polishing a turd. I hope this blog has been informative and entertaining.  I certainly hope that if you are looking to install a new deck, or replace an existing one, that you weigh all your options carefully before making a decision.  I wish I would have. Cheers!

The circle completes itself.

So the crew that is working to replace my deck has saved several of the Trex decking boards for another person who is interested in repurposing it for his new deck.  Normally I would balk at this and try to talk the guy out of it.  However, since I am not in contact with this gentleman I view this as another way to cheaply get the word out about this poor product.

This poor, unfortunate soul is going to take this free decking and lay it down thinking that he is getting something for nothing; and truly he is.  He's getting a maintenance nightmare for free.  The mold spots are already forming on the deck boards that are in my driveway.  After these boards are installed the mold will continue to increase its presence.  The deck owner will take a couple immediate steps to clean the deck (perhaps a cheap bleach-based cleaning solution) and think that his problem has been solved.  In this case, after about 6-8 weeks his problems are just beginning.

The new deck owner will research, clean, re-clean, and eventually get fed up with the product.  Hopefully telling many people along the way about the troubles he is having with his free Trex decking.

And then the circle will have been completed!  Best of luck new deck owner.  May your word spread faster than the mold on your new deck.

Putting Trex in its place.

Well, today was a monumental day.  Last night I loaded up the last remaining pieces of my Trex deck into my truck.  Let me tell you something, that stuff is heavy!  I had no idea mold weighed so much.  My pickup truck was completely weighted down by all the posts and railings for the deck.

This morning, despite the heavy downpour that was blanketing most of Wisconsin, my day was bright and full of promise!  I was headed to the dump to finally rid myself of Trex product once and for all.

I took a picture of my truck fully loaded at the dump.  You know, a little memento of all the great times my Trex deck and I shared together.  Like that time I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed mold vigirously for a half hour with a bleach and soap solution per the Trex sales reps recommendations.  Or the time that I spent four hours cleaning the entire deck off with Expert Chemical Cleaner which got my deck clean (temporarily) but ended up killing all my grass around the deck.

Ahh, yes, good times indeed.  But as we all know, everything good must come to an end.  Which brings me to my next picture.  It took about 10 minutes of unloading all the Trex product into a dumpster at my local landfill.

I so badly wanted to say "burn in hell" to my dear four-year-old Trex deck, but you may or may not know that Trex does not burn very easily.  Believe me, I tried.

My next parting line was going to be "rot in hell".  Unfortunately, this composite is comprised mainly of recycled milk jugs and other plastic material that will not decompose in our lifetime (or our children's children's lifetimes for that matter).

So in the end I bid a very simple "if I ever see you again in my lifetime it will be too soon, Trex."

While the Trex may be off my property, it will NEVER be off my mind.  Not a discussion about decks or decking material will go by without me sharing my story of Trex decking, the persistent mold, and the poor customer service provided by that company.

With so many other positive products out on the market there really isn't a reason that I can think of for selecting this product.

Cheers to moving forward and some Trex-free living!

Trex and the Social Media Conundrum

Today my neighbor stopped by and eyed up the large pile of Trex decking that was sitting in my yard. Her husband is a DIY kind of guy and she thought that maybe he could use the decking material for a new project. She suggested perhaps he could use the Trex material for a chair. I informed her of all the problems that we've had in the past with our deck and the persistent mold. She mentioned that it was unbelievable that in today's market that a company would not bend over backwards to make right by the customer.

She had heard great things about Trex in the past that they were supposed to have a really good product. I said that might be true now. I too have heard good things about their transcends line of product. So congratulations to Trex for putting out a good product. But what about all the unfortunate customers who purchased one of their inferior products. Don't you think that the best course of action would be to admit you have a bad product, satisfy the customer and move on?

Before social media avenues such as Twitter and Facebook came into our lives a company could get away with upsetting a handful of customers and not having to care. That was so last century, however. In this century consumers have the power to tell hundreds of thousands of people exactly what they think of a companies product via social media. Gone are the days when a company can turn a blind eye to an unhappy customer.

I read an excellent book titled: Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business in Today's Consumer-Driven World by Pete Blackshaw.  It discusses this very subject about the powers of social media and how, if a company wants to see the next century (or decade even) it must listen to the voice of the customer and respond appropriately to make things right.

When a group of unhappy customers confronted Trex on their Facebook page, Trex took the 20th century approach and blocked all users posting negative comments from their page.  Essentially burying their heads in the sand; thinking that maybe if they close their eyes the problem would just fix itself or go away.  Bad idea.  Instead what this did was it moved the anger against Trex outside a forum which was under their control.  Customers created their own Facebook pages and website.  They have gone into material supply stores and if they see someone even looking at Trex they will share their story.  Yes indeed, happy customers tell three friends, angry customers tell 3000 strangers.

The power of social media:  listen to your customers and act accordingly or you won't have any customers to listen to.