Story on Lumber Liquidators

[Jerome Stanek]

Perhaps you haven't been following the news on Lumber liquidators. There's a significant number of suits that have been filed against the company. It's possible that the company won't survive.

Mike

Just because there are law suits against them doesn't mean that they had a case against them. Lawyers will try to get a quick settlement to keep it out of court.

[Scott Shepherd]

Perhaps you haven't been following the news on Lumber liquidators. There's a significant number of suits that have been filed against the company. It's possible that the company won't survive.

Mike

Sure I have. I drive by their headquarters about once a month. Filing a lawsuit and winning one are two different things.

My point was, with all the hype about how dangerous it was, I have yet to see one single actual story of someone with it in their home where the readings were bad. "The sky is falling" was the mentality, and people talked about having to rip up their floors and replacement immediately and I just haven't seen or heard of that being done nationwide.

Remember the early posts in this thread? They were going to have to rip up the floor in millions of homes, immediately, to stop all this poisoning immediately.

Yet no one's come back to this thread and posted "We have it in our house, had it tested, and it was bad, so we are replacing it". Not a single person. That doesn't mean I don't think it's an issue, it's just a curious observation on my part.

[Mike Henderson]

I'm sure you're aware that we went through all of this earlier in the thread. The issue facing LL is whether their product met the standards, not what readings were in any homes. Please review the earlier threads which cover this in great detail.

Note that LL stopped selling Chinese product. While you're certainly correct that there's a difference between filing a suit and winning it, there's great cost in defending suits, especially the number of suits that have been filed.

And LL has already been tarred by the allegations, which is going to affect their ability to prosper and grow. The news of the CEO quitting was received by the market as negative news.

I see a long and difficult road ahead for LL. I wonder if they will survive. It's clear that a lot of investors wonder the same thing. It's unlikely that anyone would acquire them with the suits hanging over them.

Mike

[If any of you think this is all just air and is going to blow over, put your money where your mouth is and buy some of the stock. If you're right, you'll make a killing.]

[Scott Shepherd]

I seriously doubt they'll survive. If they do, it will be because someone comes in buys them, rebrands the entire company and starts with a fresh face (that's actually what THEY should do).

I'm just still skeptical that this was about anything other than someone trying to destroy the company's stock price, since there's been zero claims that I can find, where anyone's actually getting positive readings in their actual homes.

[Phil Thien]

I seriously doubt they'll survive. If they do, it will be because someone comes in buys them, rebrands the entire company and starts with a fresh face (that's actually what THEY should do).

I'm just still skeptical that this was about anything other than someone trying to destroy the company's stock price, since there's been zero claims that I can find, where anyone's actually getting positive readings in their actual homes.

What they should have done from the start was attack the standards.

They should admit they screwed-up, but then demonstrate it doesn't really matter, that the testing indicates that within months, the floors are fine and safe and actually are higher quality and longer-lasting due to the superior adhesive quality BECAUSE of the formaldehyde.

The thing is, to inflict any damage via a lawsuit (other than driving the stock price down), you have to prove damages. If the air in the homes is fine, where are your damages?

So I would have gone on the offensive early-on, just rip the standards apart.

[Peter Kelly]

Their CFO, Daniel Terrell, will also be out on June 1.

Crappy Chinese flooring aside, Lumber Liquidators also sucks for a whole slew of other reasons; generally low-end products, poor customer service, hidden fees everywhere, etc. Won't be sad to see them go.