Avoid this CARPET AND UNDERLAY SCAM

ballisticbrian

I'm not sure this is the correct forum as I only normally post in eBay section. Here goes:


I wont name the two shops concerned in this post however, it wont stop me doing so later if Watchdog or Trading Standards want to get in touch.


Firstly, as this is a money saving forum, you probably all should know that underlay is very cheap to buy online, you can also lay it yourself very easily. The shops make their biggest mark-up on it.


However, you'll find they may not give you "free fitting" if you don't buy their underlay. Do you see how that works?


Some years ago, I went to a small firm who has just a couple of outlets and bought carpet and underlay with free fitting. It was a very extraordinarily thick rubber underlay which looks like a "slab". Being in a flat, I assumed it would help keep noise down.


I was out and left my lodger to let them in. The job was done, it looked good, and I was happy. For quite some time.


A few years passed and I went to a different company as they had a sale on, and choose a living room carpet and again, the big black thick slab of underlay. I choose it from a display, asked for it by name at the desk and watched as he looked up the prices, did the calculations per square meter and invoiced me for the total.


When the fitter came to put the carpet in, be brought out some rolls of what looked like thin compressed foam, and started chucking them down on the floor.


I explained that these aren't what I bought, and he assured me it was; the product name was written all over the surface of the underlay and this matched what was written on the invoice.


In fact I had the wool pulled over my eyes and I regretted later not pursuing this. It wouldn't have taken more than a phone call to the store to prove I had paid for the most expensive underlay.


When I had been buying it in the store, I had some discussion about the product and whether it acted as sound proofing and the conversation wasn't a brief one. During it the shop assistant told me carpet fitters don't like laying it, and I expect they may blame the fitters if they try to pull this stunt.


***Beware of them blaming fitters; the fact that in the store the samples were laid out with the name of the cheapest underlay on the thick stuff shows the stores are at least complicit with this "practice".***


Skip forward in time to me now decorating the bedroom, I needed to pull up the bedroom carpet which was laid by the other smaller firm... and low-and-behold! - the other carpet which was laid while my lodger was in charge was ALSO THE THIN CHEAP NASTY COMPRESSED FOAM when I had paid for the top notch stuff.


Two completely separate incidents by two different companies in my rooms next to each other.


thanks for listening