Sheridan Worktops Awful Service - Wickes Kitchen

GHA

My wife and I bought a Wickes kitchen last year, with a worktop supplied by Sheridan.


Sheridan were booked in to fit the worktop on Tuesday, December 5th, but the fitter claimed the worktop was damaged in transit, which we found odd as we assumed the worktop would be packaged up and the fitter wouldn’t need to open the packaging until he arrived. He said he would come anyway to check the undamaged pieces were the right size, but he never showed up, which we only found out when we chased him at 5pm. We rang Sheridan the next morning, and they re-scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, December 8th. I said I was wary about the afternoon slot due to our experience the day before, but they said that wouldn't happen again. We then had to cancel our kitchen fitter and rebook him for the following Tuesday.


Again the Sheridan fitter didn’t show up, only letting us know by text at 6.30pm, claiming that he didn’t have the right glue with him. Again this seemed odd, as in his text he suggested he’d been at the previous job for a number of hours trying to work with old glue. They finally arrived the following Monday, December 11th at 12.30pm, leaving at 2.30pm for another job before returning at 4.30pm and finally finishing off at 7.30pm.


My pregnant wife was on maternity leave at the time, and she waited in for three hours for the first no-show. We were both at home for four and a half hours for the second no-show (as well as having to cancel evening plans), and my wife was at home for 7 hours on the day the fitter finally arrived, 2 hours of which were spent waiting for the fitter to return from another job. Her waters broke 7½ hours later and now we have an amazing baby boy.


I have contacted Sheridan to outline the situation and tell them how disappointed we are with the dreadful service we received. They said that they don’t offer compensation (which seems convenient) but would be happy to reimburse any out of pocket expenses subject to us providing invoices. I then asked for fair remuneration for two days of my wife’s time (whilst on maternity leave) as well as one day of my own annual leave, but have been told there is nothing Sheridan can do. I have looked into trade associations and ADR but Sheridan keep saying I should speak to Wickes as they were the ones I entered into the contract with.


Does anyone have any experience with Sheridan, or have any advice?


Thanks,


GHA

neilmcl

As mentioned, your contract is with Wickes, so any complaint and claim for compensation should be against them.

GHA

OK, thanks Neil

Fosterdog

Even with wickes any compensation is going to be goodwill rather than legal entitlement. Your wife is on maternity leave so while it was inconvenient there was no financial loss for her time spent at home (and be honest, that close to giving birth it's not as though she would have been planning a day trip or being away from home for any prolonged length of time so just how inconvienient was it?) your day off was firstly a paid holiday day so you have no loss, and secondly if your wife was already at home there was no actual need for you to be there. You cannot deliberately create a loss just to claim it back, you chose to lose a days holiday to stay at home when there was already a perfectly capable adult at home.

If you had actual losses then yes you would be entitled to claim but in this case your financial loss is £0 so your valid claim is £0, speak to them nicely and maybe you'll get a goodwill gesture, but don't be too disappointed if you get nothing.

Congratulations on the baby

GHA

It was more the stress and denial of time - we had to stay in at certain times but no-one turned up. I think I disagree with the 'perfectly capable' comment as well considering Sheridan apparently damaged the first worktop - I took the day off as I thought they might need a hand moving it from the van into the kitchen. Hardly a job for a basically 9-month-pregnant woman.


Perhaps I should go through my phone bill and get invoices for the 35 minutes of calls I had to make to either chase or re-arrange...


Cheers

Fosterdog

GHA wrote: »

It was more the stress and denial of time - we had to stay in at certain times but no-one turned up. I think I disagree with the 'perfectly capable' comment as well considering Sheridan apparently damaged the first worktop - I took the day off as I thought they might need a hand moving it from the van into the kitchen. Hardly a job for a basically 9-month-pregnant woman.


Perhaps I should go through my phone bill and get invoices for the 35 minutes of calls I had to make to either chase or re-arrange...


Cheers

The phone bill is something you should be able to claim for so go for it, choosing to be at home in case they needed help carrying it is still a choice you made and not something that needed to be done, you cannot argue "what ifs" when claiming compensation, only what actually happened. You are claiming they damaged the worktop when all they said is that it got damaged in transit, they are not he same thing at all and even if the second worktop had been damaged in transit, you being there to help carry it wouldn't have made the slightest difference.

I don't think they've treated you the best or been particularly customer focussed but that has no relevance on your right to a claim.