First-time house renovation

lisal0u

Hi Everyone,

Sorry to hear about all your problems! Whats wrong with customer service in this country! Its shocking! I'm fed up of getting grunted at over counters and people sighing at me when they have to do what they are paid to do!

Latecomer - I really hope you manage to sort out your skirting! We're just about to buy some so I hope we don't have the same problems!

TomsMom - I hope Wickes pull their finger out, if not a letter to the managing director usually does the trick! Ive stopped complaining to customer services now becasue they couldn't care less, I just go straight to the top ha ha.

I'm hoping to have a more productive weekend this week. My Dad has promised that the electrics will be finished and the plasterers should have finished the the hall and landing this weekend! I'm planning on doing some painting and hopefully Stuart will be able to tile the bathroom.

Does anyone know anything about thermostats? I have a ideal mini combi boiler that I have bought a seven day timer for but it doesn't have a thermostat. I was thinking of getting a wireless one but does it have to be a particular kind? Any reccomendations?

Hope you all have productive weekends!
Lisa x

TomsMom

lisal0u wrote: »

TomsMom - I hope Wickes pull their finger out, if not a letter to the managing director usually does the trick! Ive stopped complaining to customer services now becasue they couldn't care less, I just go straight to the top ha ha.

The promised (again) delivery for this morning didn't happen. This time it was the courier's fault. Nightfreight had the pallet of tiles ready, then damaged them :rolleyes: , so they phoned Wickes to tell them they would return them and Wickes phoned us to say don't expect them today. All this before 9am so at least they are taking it seriously. Latest information is that there is no more in stock, they are expecting a delivery tomorrow, they will pick them on Monday and we should receive them on Tuesday. Anyone want to place any bets :rotfl:

At the moment, I think we'll be going for 100% refund once the tiles are delivered . That will shock 'em but hopefully get the ball rolling for some dialogue over a gesture of goodwill.

Does anyone know anything about thermostats?

Sorry Lisa, can't help you there. I'm sure somebody will know and come along soon.

jamtart6

TomsMom sounds asbolutely awful im so sorry for you (

Our bathroom which was ordered 7 weeks ago ( 2 week delivery alleged time) is still waiting for the bath as there is apparently a big backlog. We are not in a rush for it, but I do feel that B&Q are somewhat taking the mickey now!! Is there anything we can do in terms of compensation for our wait?

latecomer

@jamtart - I would phone them up and say that if they cant deliver it within the next 7 days you want an immediate refund so you can buy from somewhere else? Might work....

@TM - sorry to hear you're still having issues. Definitely not going to buy our tiles from wickes.

@Lisalou - try checking the instructions that came with the timer to see if it gives a wiring diagram or instructions for using with a thermostat. I suspect most of them will be universal as they will simply control the heating demand circuit.

Personally I'm writing off this week compeltely. I have not yet spoken to the timber yard today but will be doing that shortly. I'm planning to go and visit him tomorrow and explain the issues in person.

To cheer myself up I ordered some bits to upgrade the PC and they courier has failed to deliver them quoting "unable to gain timely access". Its extremely rare that a vistor/courier has any problems getting in to our office (we get a lot of deliveries) and there is no delivery card so I cant use the automated system to request another delivery. I'm off to phone the retailer to see if they can chase it up but it looks like I'm not going to get them today either.

On another issue, regarding our oak furniture, we have the manager from the retailer coming out tonight to look at our wardrobe as its still not 100% right and after they sent a replacement chest of drawers which were worse than the one it was meant to replace we've just about had enough and are on the verge of telling them to take the entire lot back and give us a refund as its just been a disaster from the day it was delivered.

jamtart6

Thanks latecomer - it is annoying (I love that bath and price though:D so don't really want to cancel!) Sounds like a bad week for you

We are getting a new fuse box fittedthis weekend. I expected it to cost £300 but my OH's mate who is a spark is doing it for £75 including the parts

latecomer

Thats a cracking price! :j

Wish I knew some people in the trades, would make life a lot simpler.

I hadn't thought about B&Q for bathrooms despite the new one near us having a big display area. Will need to have a look over the weekend.

latecomer

Finally a very small ray of sunshine. Just as I was about to phone the timber yard I got a call from them to say they've ordered some more to replace those that are split. We agree'd I would go in and inspect the wood once the replacements arrived.

On thinking about it for a while I phoned back to ask whether they could send a sample of what we expected to make sure it we didn't get more duff boards. the guy I dealt with is now on holiday for a week but it turns out i'm speaking to the manager and he's not very happy to hear about the problem, particularly that split boards were delivered to a customer. So he's going to phone the other guy at home to get the details from him and I'm going in tomorrow morning so we can inspect the wood together. He seemed to agree with pretty much everything I said so we might finally be heading in the right direction. :j

Fingers crossed.......

jamtart6

we are just lucky to have builders, electrcians etc. in the family or in our friends. I know someone for everything except for a plumber!!

b&q were doing half price bathrooms plus 15% off until 29th december so we bought our bathroom 6 days after we bought the house

TomsMom

Jamtart - is the bath a design you can get elsewhere? If so the two bathroom suppliers we dealt with are absolutely superb and I would not hesitate to recommend them. If you can see another design, shout out and I'll give you details of the suppliers we used.

Latecomer - sorry about the PC bits, especially as that delivery was meant to cheer you up. What a nightmare about the oak furniture. Who are you dealing with? We have some oak bedroom furniture on our list of needs so don't want to end up with the same problems as you've had. Good news that the manager is on side regarding your skirting boards. Fingers crossed that everything goes OK tomorrow and you get it sorted.

We ordered extractor fans this morning for the en-suite and the bathroom. Came home this afternoon to an e-mail informing us that they have been despatched with next day delivery :j , only downside is that it's City Link who don't have the best reputation and managed to "lose" my son's computer and post some flash drives to a house in the wrong road . After this week I'm a bit worried but will remain optimistic.

latecomer

Well the manager of the showroom came out and immediately said that he would order a replacement wardrobe first thing on monday as it wasn't right. We had a bit of a conversation and while I take what he said with a pinch of salt he said that he's told the manufacturer's rep that if the situation doesn't improve then he will stop stocking their product as we are not the only ones with this kind of trouble. He also appologised profusely for all the problems we have had and has said that if they dont get it right this time he will offer a full refund, credit note or alternative from the ranges they stock. Cant really say any fairer than that. :j