First Bathrooms [vent] basin issue

TiTheRev

Fellow MSE'ers I am struggling to get any help or advice from First Bathrooms about a situation that I find myself in after buying a new bathroom suite from them in December.

PLEASE HELP!! :mad:

The story goes;

Bought a new suite from them on the 13th of December, it was delivered a few days later. No issue with delivery or quality of the suite. The units were fitted by myself and my father and looked great! In January we noticed a pin sized hole in the hand wash basin along with 3 hairline cracks in different directions coming from it.

I rang the supplier and expected some sort of replacement or at least some goodwill. However, we basically got a resounding 'tough' as it was (just) outside of their statutory 28day damage returns period. I was then directed to their supplier (RAK ceramics) and told to take the issue to them. They were more amenable but unfortunately said as they could not see that it was a manufacturing defect that the selling dealer would have to organise a replacement if they saw fit.

Having now bounced quite a few emails, spent a couple of hours on the phone to them and generally been wound up, I am looking to get this sorted somehow - and need your advice!

I have, unfortunately, admitted that the damage may have been as a result of nail clippers being dropped in to the basin, but surely a 'decent' new unit would not be damaged by such a lightweight item? In reality I have no idea how the damage happened. The ceramic looks no more than 1 or 2mm thick at best - is that REALLY the norm for manufacturing standards these days?

I can get the exact same basin from another online supplier for £39 including delivery. However, they are suggesting the 'best' that they can do as goodwill is £97 including delivery as the basin is £60 and they need to palletise it so it doesn't arrive broken, which costs £37???

Any traders out there that can offer advice? Any legal beagles that can suggest a course of action I could take to resolve this issue?

TiTheRev

** Update **

Spoke to a 'line manager' this afternoon, who stood by the company line and despite another firm being able to half their delivered price for EXACTLY the same basin, they are unwilling to budge :mad:

She must have said "more than my job's worth" 4/5 times...jobsworth is about right!

What ever happened to customer satisfaction? Pride in your product?

When they say that an unsatisfied customer will tell 7 times more people about their experience than a happy one, I can see why...I just want to warn everyone I see off that company!!

Anyone got any suggestions?

keystone

TiTheRev wrote: »

Anyone got any suggestions?

Yes don't use First Bathrooms or any other online shopfront for bathrooms. They are all drop shippers, don't give a to$$ from a customer support perspective as they work on extremely tight margins in order to be able to offer their wonderful deals on what is largely cheap Chinese tat anyway. Having said that RAK manufacture in the desert.

First claim to have a "showroom" but, FGS, they are still showing Xmas and New Year opening times on the website.

Your best bet is to run away and source the alternative at the cheaper price you have already identified.

Sorry for the rant but I'm very jaundiced about these operations.

Cheers

ListysDad

Keystone +1 but at least RAK glaze their pottery properly!

Unfortunately OP you get what you pay for.

It is quite likely that it is only 2mm thick and it is also possible that the nail clippers might have caught a weak spot. By paying more for a named brand such as Roca you definitely would have bought better quality.

Buy a replacement and walk away putting it all down to experience. Otherwise you'll simply expend more energy that you can ever hope to recover.

TiTheRev

Unfortunately I was limited in the options I had as we have a very small bathroom. I literally searched for weeks in Wickes/Bath store/Homebase/B&Q et al, plus a lengthy online search and yes some were just too expensive, but FB had the size suite we needed at a 'reasonable' price.

Live and learn

keystone

and yet by "shopping around" when its got difficult you have managed to source an equivalent basin for a fraction of the price. So it follows that First may not have been your only alternative. Why bother with the sheds. Tell your loocal merchant what you want need and get him to source it for you often at very competitive prices.

Oh and BTW how small is small?

Cheers