"When I decided to put in my own hard wood floors instead of the crappy

carpet builder gave me, I asked him to roll up the carpet and padding
and just leave it there, instead of giving me the $100 credit for the
WHOLE first floor... I later used this carpet in the basement. "

That's actually a very good idea, assuming you have somewhere else to
use it. It is amazing how little credit they give for leaving out
stuff. For something like this, you think they could at least give you
$500, which is still dirt cheap.