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Topps Tiles - advice please
Reggie75
Posts: 1 Newbie
Hi all,
I would appreciate some advice from the forum please, on a dispute I’m having with Topps Tiles.
We’re renovating a house and bought 85sq.m of tiles from Topps Tiles in Kidderminster for £3,800 in July - paid for on a credit card.
Fast forward to the last week of August when the tiling started. We were uncontactable and our builder had just suffered a sudden family bereavement. Quite soon on the tiler noticed an issue with the tiles in that they were not all the same size. They were supposed to be 600x600, but ranged from being 596mm up to 599mm and none were square. He did his best but they quickly started to run-out of line. Rather than stop the job, he carried on until he could get in contact with us. By this time, he’d laid about half of the tiles. I know what everyone will say about this, but in fairness to him he knew we were on an incredibly tight timeframe and genuinely could get hold of anybody.... oh the benefits of hindsight!
We quickly raised the issue with Topps customer services, and also the local branch manger. The branch manger came to the property, acknowledged there was an issue and took a sample away to be checked. Customer services then came back to us saying they’d tested six tiles and all within tolerance limits. They also stated that the branch manager had told them he didn’t see a problem when he was at our house - a blatant lie and we have addressed this with him!. This was escalated and it was agreed that the regional manager would come out to inspect, which he did this morning...
His response centred around why did we lay so many tiles if the issue was known... fair enough with the benefit of hindsight. He then started on about tolerances and that tile tolerances are to each other, not a tolerance on the size variations of each tile! Ultimately he offered to refund the unused tiles of c£1.5k and ‘could’ make a gesture of goodwill, if we buy more tiles from them!
Our argument is that the tiles are not fit for purpose (random/odd sizes) and that their tolerance is completely inappropriate when the room is circa 40 tiles by 30....
As a point of reference, Porcelonsa state their tiles are all the same to the millimetre given the process they go through before going out....
Ideally we’d like a full refund plus compensation for costs of laying/removal. However, a full refund would suffice and we’d just suck up the costs incurred.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
TIA
I would appreciate some advice from the forum please, on a dispute I’m having with Topps Tiles.
We’re renovating a house and bought 85sq.m of tiles from Topps Tiles in Kidderminster for £3,800 in July - paid for on a credit card.
Fast forward to the last week of August when the tiling started. We were uncontactable and our builder had just suffered a sudden family bereavement. Quite soon on the tiler noticed an issue with the tiles in that they were not all the same size. They were supposed to be 600x600, but ranged from being 596mm up to 599mm and none were square. He did his best but they quickly started to run-out of line. Rather than stop the job, he carried on until he could get in contact with us. By this time, he’d laid about half of the tiles. I know what everyone will say about this, but in fairness to him he knew we were on an incredibly tight timeframe and genuinely could get hold of anybody.... oh the benefits of hindsight!
We quickly raised the issue with Topps customer services, and also the local branch manger. The branch manger came to the property, acknowledged there was an issue and took a sample away to be checked. Customer services then came back to us saying they’d tested six tiles and all within tolerance limits. They also stated that the branch manager had told them he didn’t see a problem when he was at our house - a blatant lie and we have addressed this with him!. This was escalated and it was agreed that the regional manager would come out to inspect, which he did this morning...
His response centred around why did we lay so many tiles if the issue was known... fair enough with the benefit of hindsight. He then started on about tolerances and that tile tolerances are to each other, not a tolerance on the size variations of each tile! Ultimately he offered to refund the unused tiles of c£1.5k and ‘could’ make a gesture of goodwill, if we buy more tiles from them!
Our argument is that the tiles are not fit for purpose (random/odd sizes) and that their tolerance is completely inappropriate when the room is circa 40 tiles by 30....
As a point of reference, Porcelonsa state their tiles are all the same to the millimetre given the process they go through before going out....
Ideally we’d like a full refund plus compensation for costs of laying/removal. However, a full refund would suffice and we’d just suck up the costs incurred.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
TIA
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Comments
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Hi all,
I would appreciate some advice from the forum please, on a dispute I’m having with Topps Tiles.
We’re renovating a house and bought 85sq.m of tiles from Topps Tiles in Kidderminster for £3,800 in July - paid for on a credit card.
Fast forward to the last week of August when the tiling started. We were uncontactable and our builder had just suffered a sudden family bereavement. Quite soon on the tiler noticed an issue with the tiles in that they were not all the same size. They were supposed to be 600x600, but ranged from being 596mm up to 599mm and none were square. He did his best but they quickly started to run-out of line. Rather than stop the job, he carried on until he could get in contact with us. By this time, he’d laid about half of the tiles. I know what everyone will say about this, but in fairness to him he knew we were on an incredibly tight timeframe and genuinely could get hold of anybody.... oh the benefits of hindsight!
We quickly raised the issue with Topps customer services, and also the local branch manger. The branch manger came to the property, acknowledged there was an issue and took a sample away to be checked. Customer services then came back to us saying they’d tested six tiles and all within tolerance limits. They also stated that the branch manager had told them he didn’t see a problem when he was at our house - a blatant lie and we have addressed this with him!. This was escalated and it was agreed that the regional manager would come out to inspect, which he did this morning...
His response centred around why did we lay so many tiles if the issue was known... fair enough with the benefit of hindsight. He then started on about tolerances and that tile tolerances are to each other, not a tolerance on the size variations of each tile! Ultimately he offered to refund the unused tiles of c£1.5k and ‘could’ make a gesture of goodwill, if we buy more tiles from them!
Our argument is that the tiles are not fit for purpose (random/odd sizes) and that their tolerance is completely inappropriate when the room is circa 40 tiles by 30....
As a point of reference, Porcelonsa state their tiles are all the same to the millimetre given the process they go through before going out....
Ideally we’d like a full refund plus compensation for costs of laying/removal. However, a full refund would suffice and we’d just suck up the costs incurred.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
TIA
No chance, what's your tiler intending to do about it?0 -
600x600 will be the nominal size but the working size will likely be less and may be printed on the box. You then have the manufacturing tolerance so those sizes could well be within the BS limits.0
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How very magnanimous of you..;)Ideally we’d like a full refund plus compensation for costs of laying/removal. However, a full refund would suffice and we’d just suck up the costs incurred.
I think you'll have an almighty battle on you hands to get even a full refund, let alone compensation.
Don't you think your tiler takes some of the blame for the "issue"?0 -
With the tiles being stated as 600x600 and actually being between 596mm and 599mm means that the difference is only a maximum of 0.67%, something that will probably be well within the allowable spec.0
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Sorry, I think you’re onto a loser here - and a large amount of the blame lies with the tiler for carrying on.
I know it’s no use now, but I always make sure I’m 100% contactable when any work is being carried out. What happens if he damaged a pipe, started a fire etc?0 -
IMO no chance of a full refund.
You would have If you hadn’t used half of them.
Tiler has to take some of blame and also yourselves for being uncontactable during a build, if you had been contactable the tile would have stopped laying tiles and you wouldnt be in this mess0 -
Tiler should have sorted them by size and used as many as he could of the same size and replacements sought for those not used from Topps Not difficult solution to think of for a competent tiler.0
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On a 600mm tile, the variation is within a reasonable tolerance.
If laid out carefully this should not be noticeable.Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)0
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