Better Bathrooms.com complaint

wealdroam

Guns wrote: »

Hi folks,
we are having a major issue with better bathrooms and their "No Refund" policy if purchased in store.
I feel we were mislead as we used the wall mounted touchscreens in their Slough showroom to look at their entire product range before walking around the store and placing our order.
We noted the 14 day money back guarantee on every screen and took it that we would be entitled to this if we ever needed it.
How wrong can you be?
Having read so many negative reports on Better Bathrooms, we contacted them to cancel the order.
They have flat refused statin that they have a no refunds policy on store placed orders!
So far the are sticking to their guns but thanks to the MSE website, we have a possible out in the form of the Section 75 of the consumer credit act and we are actively seeking a refund through the credit card company we used to pay for the purchase.
Should that fail, I have found a little section of legislation that may help us and others.
Please look up "Unfair terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999"

You haven't said, but do you have a problem with the goods, or are you just wishing to cancel the order because you have 'read so many negative reports'?

If it's the latter, then Section 75 won't help you. Section 75 just gives you another avenue to seek a refund if you are legally entitled to a refund. In your case I cannot see that you are entitled to a refund just because you have 'changed your mind'. Did you use credit to make a purchase?

Are you suggesting that their online offering of a 14 day refund guarantee should be allowed in store because they have an online screen in store? An interesting thought. I guess that if you can get that point of view accepted, then a S75 claim might well be successful.

jaxxxxx

Having purchased taps and paid for next day delivery with a plumber waiting - the goods didnt arrive. The following fiasco took on ludicrous proportions (which I wont bore you with) being shoved from pillar to post between Better Bathrooms and their courier - with the courier telling me at one point ....:"you must destroy this phone number, its illegal for you to phone me on it".......who are these people?

After numerous wasted hours and phone calls listening to MUSak, the taps were located and are allegedly to be delivered today, only two days late and two days Ive had to pay a plumber to stand around drinking tea. Having looked at the other reviews, I have no confidence whatsoever, that these items will be fit for purpose and firmly believe, I should have simply gone to a BETTER BATHROOM SUPPLIER!. BUYER BEWARE, BETTER BATHROOMS ARE NOT BETTER!:mad:

wealdroam

jaxxxxx wrote: »

Having purchased taps and paid for next day delivery with a plumber waiting - the goods didnt arrive. The following fiasco took on ludicrous proportions (which I wont bore you with) being shoved from pillar to post between Better Bathrooms and their courier - with the courier telling me at one point ....:"you must destroy this phone number, its illegal for you to phone me on it".......who are these people?

After numerous wasted hours and phone calls listening to MUSak, the taps were located and are allegedly to be delivered today, only two days late and two days Ive had to pay a plumber to stand around drinking tea. Having looked at the other reviews, I have no confidence whatsoever, that these items will be fit for purpose and firmly believe, I should have simply gone to a BETTER BATHROOM SUPPLIER!. BUYER BEWARE, BETTER BATHROOMS ARE NOT BETTER!:mad:

Your biggest mistake was arranging the plumber's presence before you had the goods for him to work with.

cazzicat

We bought an over bath shower screen from these cowboys at Betterbathrooms and it continually leaks out water onto the floor and it has ruined the wooden bath panel. The product was supposed to be universal but on examination it looks like it is actually not and that they misrepresented it as such.
We have stupidly thought it was unavoidable and put up with wiping up a pint of water after every shower but now we realise that it is a poor product from an appalling company.
As we have had it a while I am not going to bother trying to get redress which is a departure for me because I am a very successful complainer having won most complaints I have made, but reading these comments it just aint worth approaching this firm.
Can I therefore suggest a better tactic? You guys will all have your order numbers so you can post reviews on Trustpilot advising others to NEVER use Betterbathrooms, tell everyone you know not to buy from them and ask them to spread the word. This is real people power, share your good and bad experiences. I would do this but I have not retained my order ID. I have reviewed the product on the BB website but I doubt they will publish it as all their reviews are probably five star fakes, not a single low start review among them.

Tyskie

Hi, I'm new to this forum.


I felt compelled to add to this thread as I too had a terrible experience at the hands of this 'company' at the start of the year and despite receiving a measly refund as compensation I'm still not satisfied and feel I need to get the word out there about my experience. I'm so glad that this thread comes up 5th in Google's search results when you type "Better Bathrooms".


You can read my review on the Reviewo website: w x3 [dot] reviewo [dot] com / reviews / w x3 [dot] betterbathrooms [dot] com / 24187 (sorry, I get that you want to stop spammers, but I genuinely need to post a link)


I also sent an email of complaint which spans 4 pages in a Word document (standard font size!) to the CEO and - surprise, surprise - I never received a reply. I won't bore you with the details but it starts off like this:


"Dear Mr Stevens,

"It is my promise that you, the customer, will be treated with respect, courtesy, honesty and integrity."

I read this line on your website and felt compelled to contact you. I know that it is your vision to make this happen and to build a company that will serve the interests of your customers so that they will recommend you to all of their friends and family.

Unfortunately, for me, this is not the case. I feel let down by your company. I am sorry to have to tell you this and I am sure you would rather be reading something positive but I do not feel positive about my customer experience with Better Bathrooms............ "


I tried to capture the guy's attention even though I did not know if he personally would be reading my email, if it even got read at all! It goes on (this happened after I posted on the Reviewo website):


"...I am sorry to also inform you that a new chapter has opened in this saga - I finally took delivery of my tiles, which was again claimed to have been delayed due to the container being seized at Customs for checking (true, or not?), on Friday 6th March. I had a ask a friend who was only working 1/2 a day that day to wait in for me, which he kindly did. However, although the border tiles were listed they were not included in the shipment and on the list their stated weight was 0kg. They were missing. I rang up and was advised that the border tiles would be delivered the next day and I would receive an email confirming my 2 hour timeslot. I waited on the Saturday for my tiles to arrive and they did not. When the timeslot lapsed I rang and was again offered 'sincere' apologies by Michael Harrington for the error because my tiles had not been loaded onto the van that morning for whatever reason and that the tiles would be delivered on the next day, Sunday. I waited in again for my border tiles. Can you guess what happened next? Unfortunately, you are correct. I spoke to Carl Woods and he told me that again no tiles would be delivered on Sunday. By this point I was extremely frustrated but maintained my composure - I quipped, 'Do I have to pay a ransom to get my tiles, or what?' and he said, "No". After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing trying to get an honest answer from Carl I asked him to tell me when I would definitely get my tiles delivered and he finally said that he was advised by the relevant department that if I ask for them to be delivered the next day (Monday 9th) they might not come again but if I order them for Tuesday (10th) they will definitely be delivered.

I did not receive any emails confirming that the shipment is being picked for delivery or advising of my timeslot for today and as this rang alarm bells I sent an email last night back to Carl, and copied Kate Thompson and Tom Hamnett into the email, asking for an update. I did not receive a reply so I used Live Chat to enquire as to my delivery. I have now been informed that, following a conversation with the Warehouse Team, it turns out that the border tiles are not in stock in the local warehouse, nor are they available in the 'other location' where they had allegedly been stored and that this could be due to the fact that they had been damaged and disposed of, stored somewhere in the warehouse and not logged properly or that somebody had simply miscalculated the amount of tiles in stock and they were not, in fact, available.

I know that I have been lied to throughout this process and am absolutely horrified at the inability of your staff to deal with my problem and bring the matter to a reasonable conclusion. I feel a sense of warmth that I finally have the majority of my tiles in my house, ready to be installed - but cannot even be sure if what I was told about them being freshly manufactured and sent from Italy is true - I feel that this too was a lie by just having seen the amount of dust that must have settled on the tiles in the warehouse, suggesting they had been there for a long time, but I do not have any concrete evidence to support this............."


But as I said, no reply! In the end, I gave up and cancelled the order for the border tiles after I'd found a much nicer looking, more suitable border tile in another bathroom shop in Leicester (Al Murad - can recommend 100%!). I'm so glad I did and I'm grateful to my friend for pointing me in the direction of that store! BB refunded the cost of the border tiles and gave me a little extra to make me go away (£30 odd quid!). I guess that's better than some people got and better than a kick in the teeth and my advice to anyone reading this would be: keep at it. Demand compensation and see where you get. If you have genuinely been inconvenienced by these people go on the offensive and get them on the defensive and you're more likely to get what you want! Had I employed a solicitor to do the complaining for me, with the amount of time I spent on the phone and writing emails I probably would have been out of pocket in the £1,000's! My time may not be worth that much but losing a portion of your life to something like this is just unbelievable and I never expected it to happen when I walked into that showroom.


I could go on, but I'll just say: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:


Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!!!


I'll end on a lighter note: my house renovation is finished! :beer: I have a completely new bathroom, new kitchen tiles, all old wallpaper stripped and walls replastered and painted in pastel colours, with some interesting designs, which my friend came up with (looks lovely!) and new pictures hung, new coving where it was needed and ceilings touched up and painted, all woodwork in the house painted in Dulux Pure Brilliant White 'Once' Gloss (can recommend 100% - also bought at Al Murad's at a reduced price and no he isn't paying me commission :rotfl:!) and new chrome Victorian Scroll style handles on all the internal doors. I had 2 doorways turned into archways downstairs which look great! Loft boarded. Also had expanding foam put in around all the windows to seal the gaps. I've had new wood Venetian blinds put in by Hillary's - all made to measure - look great! All windows were cleaned inside and out and look brand new - tip: use acetone (nail polish remover) on uPVC frames. New fuseboard and electrics upgraded. All floors professionally cleaned. It was worth it and glad I can put all of it behind me and enjoy all the hard work I put in. Oh, and I had some of that gloss left so my friend cleaned up and repainted the wooden fascias, and I'm really impressed with the finish. Next year: garden!


Thanks for reading.

Tyskie

I had to reply when I saw this post, and well said, unholyangel!


Whoever 'Zygott' is, he sure seems to like putting dots "......." at the end of his sentences, much like Colin Stevens himself, as can be seen in Emma888's email in the post before! If it is Colin himself, he seems like a real cowboy - very unprofessional towards his customers and with terrible writing skills. It's like he's saying in his post 'don't bull**** a bull****ter' without realising it, except he's the only bull****ter whereas the people posting here (as opposed to many of the 5-star reviews left on Reviewo and TrustPilot, I'm sure!) are real people who have gone through the same ordeal as myself.


He should instead focus on apologising and promising to do his best for them since they've gone through merry hell to try to get what they paid for and the customer service they deserve. It seems that once the products are paid for, he doesn't give a **** what happens and whether his customers get their products, as described, or not and that attitude seems to have trickled down to Management and beyond! It's all about making the highest profit for the least amount of effort and that's fine except when you're talking about scrimping on customer care!!


Is it just me who thinks that this company should be shut down?? They should at least received a hefty fine from Trading Standards as a kick into touch but I don't think even that would work!




EDIT: I've just realised that it MUST have been Colin Stevens who wrote this. I followed wroenaldinho's link to Twitter [h tee tee pee / t.co/Pxjr5MwBJX] and can see that Colin himself replied to his Tweet on 4th March. From Colin's Tweet he seemed very upset and uppity, just like Zygott's and the style of writing is the same. It's got to be him! Well done to wroenaldinho for finding Pauline Higgins' fake customer review about the new shower which he Tweeted about on 4th March! It's all becoming undeniably clear now!

DavidFisher

Better Bathrooms are a thoroughly disreputable company. They have no idea how to do a decent job.
I strongly advise ANYONE and EVERYONE to buy their bathroom fitting and units elsewhere. Better Bathrooms are a complete waste of space. We ordered an Aspen 1200 Vanity Unit in white gloss. See the Better Bathrooms website for the picture. I am a new user of this forum so I am not allowed to post links..


When it turned up, the driver only helped carry it into the house 'because my wife was not the only person present'. Had she been there on her own he would have left it outside. As it was he left the pallet in the road when he went.


When we opened the box it was not white gloss. It was not even white. It was cream. When we phoned to tell them, the person who answered replied that 'they had had this problem before'.


There are very lengthy (30 minutes plus) waits for anyone at Better Bathrooms to answer the phone. They do not reply to emails, despite requesting them,


We have sent pictures of the unit to them, but they say that it is white gloss and white gloss looks different in different materials. Nonsense - white gloss is white gloss, not cream, off-white, matt white or any other sort of white just when it suits Better Bathrooms to claim it.


They now say it is our responsibility to return it because they have supplied something the manufacturer told them was white gloss.


On their website the picture does show a clearly white unit, the same colour as the basin. However what was delivered does not match the picture - the basin delivered is white, but the unit is decidedly different. The best description for the colour of the unit is cream.


DO NOT USE BETTER BATHROOMS. YOU WILL BE BETTER OFF ELSEWHERE.


The description on their website is:

Aspen™ 120cm Vanity Unit

Summary

A 120cm vanity unit complete with 3 drawers and 2 soft closing cupboards. The unit comes pre-assembled and has a white gloss finish.

unpact

Don't touch Better Bathrooms.com unless you can be certain nothing will go wrong. First thing this lot do is assume that the customer is in the wrong. Had 2 items smashed on delivery took weeks to resolve and get new sink. Now telling me it will take weeks to get a replacement of the second item. Don't touch these people unless you want hassle if anything goes wrong.
They expect you to unpack everything as soon as you get it whilst the delivery driver is there!!!!

unclebulgaria

Just wanted to say, I'm currently taking a customer to court for unpaid invoices. She bought the entire bath/shower room ware from these clowns. She didn't listen to me when I told her not to use them. They got nearly every part of her order wrong, delivered late.
I estimated for 8 visits to her house to plumb the whole bath/shower room, 16 visits later I had only managed to complete half the bathroom. Most days I had to leave the house because replacement items were completely wrong or unsuitable for the wares she bought.
She then refused to pay the days I'd booked in and turned up but couldn't work. She got no advice or guidance from the sales guy she dealt with to which she bought a slipper bath with no deck for taps and they sold her bath taps that needed a deck to sit on!!
Go to a local merchants, see the wares, get a feel for the wares and physically stand in front of someone who knows what you can and can't have. You'll pay more but its a personal service.

Tigermark

Having purchased a set of waterfall bath and basin taps I was expecting them to last more than 1 year.
The filters blocked after 10 months and I took the removable housing off to clean them but noticed that the housing mounting had corroded to the point that the taps were unusable. I checked the basin taps, same issue.
I contacted 'customer service' who basically told me to get lost and it wasn't there problem as I had purchased the taps over 12 months ago. I did explain that they were not fitted immediately.
Am I being unreasonable to expect a set of taps to last more than 12 months? Am I also being unreasonable in expecting better bathrooms to replace or refund. According to BB I am. I did ask to speak to the Manager and was told I would get a call within 24hrs. I checked they had my number so no excuses. Surprise surprise still no call 72 hrs later.
I will be pursuing this issue.
Be aware when buying from better bathrooms, once they have your money you are no longer a valued customer.
I can only suggest you spend your hard earned elsewhere.
small claims court?