B&Q Cooke & Lewis bath faulty

harrysmum08

Cooke and Lewis bath
Hey knowledgeable people!

Debate with my husband...please help.

Recently purchased a Cooke and Liewis bathroom. Took three weeks to arrive and when it did the bath had a really bad crack in it. It was replaced and after much 'discussion' they agreed to deliver it the following weekend rather than in another 3 weeks.

The bath has now been in approx 6 weeks. we have been away for two of those. There are four of us in the house: little ol' me (size of an average ten year old), my three year old and my one year old (both little dots), and my husband (a bit of a bigger boy, 6'3 and less than 16 stone). A couple of showers and baths a day, usually less than a third full for the children (who share the bath), short showers because we don't have time to stay in there! Anyway, my point is it is not overused. It's an acrylic p-shaped bath, and where the bath slopes from side to bottom we now have a deep scratch verging on crack about the size of a ten pence piece. As we have just had the flooring sorted, the bath panel is off and that section of the bath seems very translucent....The children have a couple of toys that are soft squeezy things, our shower gel bottles etc are squeezy bottles. There is nothing that we use that could have possibly caused it. It has appeared in the last few days - I clean regularly and it wasnt apparent last time I cleaned.

Do we have a claim? What are B&Q's responsibilities/obligations regarding quality of goods? What can we legally ask for?

We chose acrylic and I did look to see if it was considered durable - old house, we plan to stay here until the kids have flown the coop, and we didn't want to have to do it again. Thing is, we have tiled, painted etc etc.

Any advice - constructive, not rude and sarcastic - would be gratefully received.

fluffnutter

You've had it less than six months so the onus is on B&Q to prove that you caused the damage/fault not you to prove you didn't. I can't really predict what B&Q will do, but I'd certainly ask for some sort of recompense. Legally speaking B&Q can offer to repair, replace or refund although there's some room for negotiation as to which is the most appropriate solution.

Is the bath cracked in the same place as the one you had replaced? If so, it might be a design weakness. Even if not, it's still worth pursuing. Seeing as it's the second time you've had problems with (I assume) the same model, it wouldn't be unreasonable to request a full refund and to look elsewhere.

Re. the work you've done in the bathroom following installation, I couldn't advise on, I'm afraid. I don't know if B&Q are liable for this kind of thing - probably not.

One last thing, pictures?