Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Investor Club

I have been a real estate investor for nearly 20 years now with a mix of commercial properties plus 50+ SFR properties in my current portfolio. I joined this group approx. 10 years ago when I decided to add SFR and this group has been helpful to me. When I joined this group I began using IDeal Floors and was quite happy with them until 2 years ago. It seemed to me that either their managment changed or sales rep. changed, or a combination of factors; but I quit using them and took my business elsewhere. Recently, I decided to give them another try as I think it's best to have a few different vendors/options for flooring for flexibility in scheduling and product. I called Tony Corral who it was good to hear was handling the Fort Worth area again. Tony has always been helpful and prompt when I needed him. Tony came out to the property I needed caprpet in  and measured. He then provided a written quote which I accepeted and we set up the install for 2 weeks later. The property is located in the N. Fort Worth/Keller area and IDeal's store location is in Arlington. On the quote there was a trip charge because the job location is more than 25 miles from the store. I thought this was odd and asked Tony about it and reminded him that IDeal has closed their NRH and Ft. Worth locations that were much closer to the the majority of my SFR properties. Tony explained that he also had to drive further as he lived near the N. Ft. Worth area. I accepted his explanation and let it go. It wasn't worth pursuing as the overall quote was fair. I received an email from IDeal Floors office with the quote, their terms, and a CC authorization form which I promptly completed and returned to them. The next business day my CC was charged for the entire job even though the install was nearly 2 weeks away. I texted Tony and inquired about why was I being charged the full amount in advanced and reminded him that the job was nearly 2 weeks away. Tony stated that only paid for jobs are scheduled to be installed and if I wanted he would call the office and have a refund issued but then the job would be removed from the install schedule. I went ahead and left it as it was because I had moved on to other properties and didn't want to circle back for other flooring quotes. The carpet from IDeal is not a special order,  it is a stock item. I would understand prepaying for the material if it was special ordered but it's not and I was charged for the entire job.

I have 3 questions:

1. Is my most recent experience with IDeal Floors the same as others are having?

2. Do you have any vendors who must have payment in full before the job begins? This has always been a red flag for me and usually stop the conversation when that demand is made but I don't believe IDeal Floors will ghost the job and that is why I still moved forward.

3. Do you have other suggestions for flooring companies in the DFW area that sell the product AND do the install themselves? I have lots of vendors where I can buy the flooring wholesale but I need to coordinate with installers. Not having to do that is what I like about IDeal and a few others I use. I want a turnkey job.

TIA

Howard