J A Bathrooms

cautionwordsofwarning

Words of caution if deciding to purchase from JA Bathrooms in Westcliff.

Firstly i wish i had read this forum first and should have taken note of the customer in the store complaining of a failed delivery whilst we were making a purchase.

We ordered a bath, toilet and sink from a helpful salesman (not the owner by the way). Promised delivery in 2 weeks time and we would be called the day before to confirm delivery time. No phone call so we phoned them only to be told the toilet wasn't in and would be additional 2 weeks but they will put a similar version on the delivery incase we like that one instead. When it arrived, the toilet was nothing like the one we ordered, the bath panel was damaged and the sink was a size smaller than the one we ordered. Therefore refused delivery. (of course they already took our money in the show room).

Despite another 2 delivery dates promised but no-one turning up, i demanded an explaination on the phone (once someone eventually picked it up) what is goingon where eventually admitted the toilet would not be made by the supplier for another 2 months due to high demand. This was now already a month past the original delivery date. Went down there to complain, where all fairness the manager made the suggestion of delivering the display model in 6 days time. Of course as expected, no delivery van turned up. (result = 3 failed deliveries with no phone call to advise us of this situation).

Enough was enough so went back down the showroom expecting a fight to get a refund having read the issues on here. Only thing i can say (guess i was lucky) was that he gave me a refund straight away. Asked for additional compensation due to losing 3 days off work waiting for failed deliveries and lack of customer service but of course he said he couldn't.

In conclusion, you might get your items delivered on time and everything is fine but through our expereince they are a nightmare. You can never get through to them on the phone, they provide nothing but lies and missed promises. They will not contact you if something is wrong, you just sit on your sofa all day till 5pm comes with no delivery.

gibbsy

Wish I had looked them up first. My total order was for just under £3k

Catalogue of lies, deceit, ive had to miss going into work, partner had to come back from work (25 miles each way), wrong bath delivered, missing items, wrong shower screen, lies lies lies.

So. I got on their back and hounded them every day, I sent them a new letter before claim every day and confirmed exactly what I would be claiming against them for....... Time off of work, storing a bath for 3 weeks rendering my home gymnasium unusable (£20 per weeks storage charge).

They tried telling me that they had up to 30 days, I explained that they didn't due to pre contract agreement, also their failure to supply terms and conditions of purchase and advised that they were in breach of contract and also breaching sale of goods act and distance selling regulations.

One driver broke down 2 miles from our house, poor guy, joe gave me the drivers number so I could speak with him and see if I could collect the items. We are a good hour and a half from JA. So my partner spoke to the driver, found out there he was, collected our stuff and asked if he had rac cover, the chap said he was waiting for a call out, so we left him to it. Poor man was still there a couple of hours later when we drove past, felt sorry for him but Joe wasn't exactly helpful to us, so I didn't see why we should spend our Saturday trying to fix one of his vans.

It has taken just under a month, I have been pleasant, officious and downright insulting but I have got my goods. Shame of it is, if joe had said up front, what he could get and when I would have been fine with it, it's not as though you usually need a bath on a 24hr delivery. If joe had called back and updated with truth I would have been fine. The products are good quality products.

My favourite quote during the whole thing:

JA: joe is hopeful that your showers will arrive this week.

Me: I'm afraid that Joe hoping to arrange something is not good enough - we have been full of hope in relation to joes organisation skills and communication skills for a number of weeks now. !In fact the only skills that we have seen from joe is an ability to not respond to calls, to tell outright lies, failure to apologise or explain and of course he is particularly skilled at processing credit card payments to take people's money. !He could win a gold at the upcoming olympics if the event were to get to the credit card processing machine, Usain Bolt wouldn't stand a chance against dear old Joe.

I then advised them exactly how much my claim was for ( almost £300). I had used 2 credit cards, as items were missing on both orders then they would get claims from 2 credit card companies, I would turn down any offer for JA to deal with it directly and advise the credit card company to do the same. I would also have my full refund for the bath and continue to charge them storage for the wrong one, I would be charging him that up until the point that he sent 2 people to collect and remove from My property - or issue the £100 refund. I even told them that I was really going to enjoy suing such a bunch of lying, cheating theives and to expect my money claim online. Every day I gave them instructions like GET JOE TO PHONE THE SUPPLIER AND CONFIRM THAT MY GOODS WILL BE IN YOUR DELIVERY ON THURSDAY!

It's been hellish and really shouldn't be necessary, I have had some fun in battering Joe, taking out all frustrations on him, the products are good, they are all quality he has given me a significantly reduced price than I could get elsewhere. I also did get my refund.

Other half is certain that I only got the stuff because I had nagged joe and JA into submission!

Buy from JA if you wish to risk it, but be aware, he is a robbing dog and you will get stuff that you don't want, along with stuff missing, lies, false promises, they won't answer the phone.

I did ask another company to quote too, but they just slagged off JA and didn't give me a quote anyway, they seemed offended that I would be asking them to lower the price if I placed everything with them rather than just the bath!

Anyway, happy days, the shower is in and works fine, just got to start ripping out the bathroom now.

4 weeks start to finish with JA seems to be a miracle.

Olivia is the girl in sales who was helpful and Parris is in after sales, she kept getting upset when I called them liars - she doesn't work Fridays or weekends, but she at least does follow things up.

Cheers

Leif

conway1 wrote: »

I note that someone has succesfully obtained a county court judgement against this weasel. Is this something that is worthwhile pursuing because i am told that the county court does not guarantee recovery and is really a bit of a watse of time.
Criminals like Joe are too slippery to get caught out by a county court judgement, so whats the best way forward?

I sent you a PM, which might contain useful information. Yes a Country Court judgement is worthwhile as you can then instruct bailiffs to obtain funds, to cover the money due and costs including bailiffs fees. Trading Standards seem not to be much use. My contact with them suggests they are very busy.

Steve_Webb_3

CAUTION!! My personal opinion is that this guy is a thief. You judge. Good price identified on the internet. Order placed 19/1/12. Written confirmation received from them and CC debited for £784.20. 3 delivery dates advised to me via email....they made none of them which played havoc with our refurbishment programme! Had to reschedule the plumber and eventually looked elsewhere and cancelled the order via phone and email on 8/4/12. This was fully 12 weeks after the order was placed, as I had run out of time and patience. Have made >50 telephone calls, have left all the details with staff (Sam & Matt) and no call returned. Contacted Southend-on-Sea Trading Standards but they said it’s not their place to help with this and directed me to Citizens Advice. On the 27/8/12 I posted, recorded delivery, copies of all the emails and a printout from my mobile phone confirming number of calls made and asking where my refund is. Open and shut case and still no call back or refund. Mr Garnham hasn't the decency to come to the phone to discuss the situation. Matter is now with my CC company and I will be pursuing them via small claims court. JA Bathrooms is an embarrassment to their profession. I wish we weren't living in rural Perthshire so I could visit the shop and face-down this jerk. Perhaps one day!

conway1

Credit card company are likely to respond the same as Trading Standards especially if you have a sales contract that says 'special orders cannot be cancelled'. as far as County Court is concerned don't get your hopes up here either. You might get a judgement in your favour but that is unlikely to secure a refund from JA. Dont really know what the answer is im afraid but don't put to much faith in justice.

tabithatabby1

avoid them at all costs. we only bought a shower tray from them, thank god, not an entire bathroom.

it was a standard Merlyn one - though when i asked merlyn for help they said they do not supply the company!

it was ordered in April and finally delivered in August. in between time emails, phone calls, daily, weekly, nothing but silence, or delivery dates given but nothing turning up. they just tell you anything to make you go away that is if you can get through at all as often it is on answerphone only.

never return calls, everything passed to the manager, who never calls back and hides behind the telephonist.

in the end the shower did arrive, and the waste cover three weeks later.

it delayed our project hugely, so much so that it has delayed our move.

they may be cheap to start with but they will cost you dear in terms of stress, additional project costs due to being messed around, and all the time it has taken to follow up with them.

i think if i had bought the entire bathroom from them i would be suicidal by now - avoid them at all costs, they are totally and utterly impossible to deal with.

DPF41

Same old story regarding JA bathrooms,we waited in all day on agreed delivery date,when I phoned was told that the van was stuck in traffic but would definately deliver that day as arranged. But guess what it never came. Found out a few days later that some of the items were not even in stock and were never loaded on the van in the first place.Finally received the last of our bathroom order after waiting over 10 weeks since paying for it. If you telephone then your call is usually unanswered or you get the engaged tone. If you are lucky enough to speak to someone you get excuses and the promise of a return call which probably wont come. Last few weeks excuse has been that the supplier has let them down again phone next week and so on. So I telephoned their supplier direct who told me that they had had 5 calls in the past 3 months regarding JA from concerned customers. The supplier told me that they will only send out an order to JA bathrooms once they have paid and their cheque has cleared. Their is obviously some history here. My advice is to stay away from JA bathrooms, dont be tempted by the lower price because once you have paid you will struggle to get your goods. If you too encounter a problem, and you probably will, you will have to speak to Joe (Joseph Garnham) who I assume runs this shambles. If possible confront him as we had to on two occasions. The shop seems to have numerous phone numbers so try 01702-343867, 01702-333568, 01702-343703, and you might have soms success.

Leif

Just to restate what I said earlier, it is well night impossible to speak to Garnham if all you do is ring up the numbers given above, and ask to speak to him. All calls go through his staff, and they know he will refuse to speak to you. The way to deal with this person is to ring from a phone you have not used before, and then ask to make a purchase. You will be asked for your phone number, and then Garnham will ring you back. Then you can discuss the issues you have.

I got through to him that way. I told him I thought he was a crook, but he does not seem to care.

If you have a credit card or a debit card, you can get money back that way. Make it clear in the description of your transactions that the items were not special order i.e. they were off the shelf. I got back £420 by a charge back on a debit card thanks to Nationwide, bless 'em.

The fact that this man is still trading tells me all I need to know about the effectiveness of Trading Standards. Underfunded? Probably.

yarrow

I ordered £2000 of goods from them and I experienced everything mentioned in the other posts. A timewasting nightmare.The most worrying thing is that Crosswater advised me that anything I purchased from JA would not be covered by the Manufacturers warranty because they are not authorised dealers and the products would be deemed secondhand.

conway1

I have now been refunded outstanding money from JA and the history is as follows.
Ordered and paid for goods in December 2011 and after many confrontations with Garnham took out a small claims action with (MCOL)Money Claims on Line. At the same time i requetsed 'cash back' from Barclays as the purchase had been made with my Barclays Debit Card. After initially refunding me they ultimately redebited my account and gave it back to Gernham. I made a complaint to Barclays about their lack of diligence as the redebit was based upon Garnhams claim that 'Special orders cannot be cancelled'. I then made a complaint about Barclays to the FSA which was ultimately unsuccessful. The FSA finding was that Barclays were correct and it was a matter between JA and myself. The lesson here was to use a credit card which would have given me much more protection under the consumer credit act and would have almost certainly resulted in my being refunded by Barclays
The small claims action was contested by Garnham a day after the cut off date and so judgement was awarded in my favour. i contacted Garnhan to see if he wanted to settle before the judgement was registered which he rejected. i then applied for the judgement to be enforced by seizure of assets via the court bailiffs. when i contacted the Bailiffs at southend to see how long action would take i was told that the Bailiff had other warrants to serve on the same business and mine was about third in line. The Bialiffs must have visited him and he finally got the message that the matter would not go away. i finaly received payment in two installments from the court (cleared funds from JA) for my initial outlay plus court and Bailiffs costs.
It can take time but anyone in a similar position should not hesitate in applying for a County Court Judgement and when succesfull taking enforcement action at the earliest opportunity.
I have got my money back, but it is staggering that this weasel has had interest free money from me for over 12 months and has not been punished in anyway. He knows what he is doing and relies on people just giving up the fight and letting him keep their money. He is still free to trade with the support of the banks who still offer him card payment facilities for a fee.
Lesson learnt by me.