Carpetright Installation failure!

RandomGuyRandomTime

Hello!

I ordered £1600 worth of hard vinyl tile flooring for my lounge & hallway & kitchen recently and the installation date was last Friday

The first issue!

I waited in the whole day for them to come and install the flooring and my son had even taken a day off work to help move the appliances when they needed to be moved and as it was approaching 4pm I decided to give them a call to find out what was going on, they called the fitter and apparently it hadn't been added to his calendar of jobs to do...

I obviously made a bit of a complaint about this and they offered me £100 off for the install costs, I did waste my entire day and my son had to use a day of his holiday but we felt £100 was an acceptable amount.

The second issue...

The fitter contacted me and said he would be around at 10am on Monday to start installing the flooring, we get to monday and it gets to 10am and no one turns up, it gets to 11 and still no one has turned up. I decided to wait 30 more mins and after I had found the contact details again for carpetright I was just about to call bare in mind this was 1 hour 45 mins late... when he finally turned up and started installing the flooring.

We had emptied all of the rooms with exception to the fridge freezer, oven, dishwasher and washing machine but remember that there was two of us available to help move these if and when they needed to be moved.

The third issue...

The flooring is all installed and we thought it looked a bit of a mess last night but assumed it must just need a clean... today it's very clear it doesn't need a clean, rather it is actually a mess!

1. The flooring isn't fully glued down, some of the tiles are lifting up.
2. There are gaps in between some of the tiles
3. The amount of silicone around the edge to hold it down is just absurd, compare it to the silicone in the kitchen or the bathroom and it's very easily 5 times as much silicone used! It's like a sausage of silicone all around the edge.
4. The silicone isn't smooth or flat, it has ridges, bumps, indents and looks like an 8 year old has put it down.
5. The glue is stuck all over the hard tiling and is stupidly hard to get off, if I was to have to remove all of this from the top it would take me days to remove... It looks like a blind guy or a 5 year old glued it
6. There is glue stuck to a few bits of skirting board, some on the fridge and some on the washing machine.
7. The floor transition strips are all over the place, one of them looks good, one looks a bit scratched and the last one is as straight as a round about! It starts straight but then it ends up overhanging the frame of the door and looks like a drunk has installed it!
8. The fitter moved the appliances back on his own and as such because they're hard to move on your own he has scratched the flooring that he had just laid... It has 5-6 scratches, four of which are well over 30cm long!
9. Some of the edge tiles you can actually see how poorly they've been cut to size

What next...

I've called them up this morning and am awaiting a call back from the lady I spoke to at first offered me a refund of £50 which I am quite honestly offended by, I chose a well known name to get a good service not a nightmare service!

I rejected her offer and requested that it got escalated, I am beyond unhappy with the installation.

Even if they were to offer me a full refund I would not be happy because the floor looks way worse than it originally did... I don't think it's unfair for me to "demand" that it get re-installed by a different fitter and this time correctly without a ton of silicone, glue everywhere, scratches, gaps, lifting... etc

On top of that I don't think it's unfair to also demand some money to be refunded for yet another day wasted (and likely to be 1-2 more days for the removal & reinstall) as well as the added stress and hassle!

I'm assuming they can't reuse any of these tiles? That means the first fitter has ruined a ton of product!

What's the best sort of solution I can expect for this? I personally don't think it's unfair to expect a full reinstall and at least a 50% refund... Am I being too harsh with my expectations?

I'm 99% sure that even I, with zero floor laying experience could have done a better job!
:mad:

Aylesbury_Duck

RandomGuyRandomTime wrote: »

Hello!

I ordered £1600 worth of hard vinyl tile flooring for my lounge & hallway & kitchen recently and the installation date was last Friday

The first issue!

I waited in the whole day for them to come and install the flooring and my son had even taken a day off work to help move the appliances when they needed to be moved and as it was approaching 4pm I decided to give them a call to find out what was going on, they called the fitter and apparently it hadn't been added to his calendar of jobs to do...

I obviously made a bit of a complaint about this and they offered me £100 off for the install costs, I did waste my entire day and my son had to use a day of his holiday but we felt £100 was an acceptable amount.

The second issue...

The fitter contacted me and said he would be around at 10am on Monday to start installing the flooring, we get to monday and it gets to 10am and no one turns up, it gets to 11 and still no one has turned up. I decided to wait 30 more mins and after I had found the contact details again for carpetright I was just about to call bare in mind this was 1 hour 45 mins late... when he finally turned up and started installing the flooring.

We had emptied all of the rooms with exception to the fridge freezer, oven, dishwasher and washing machine but remember that there was two of us available to help move these if and when they needed to be moved.

The third issue...

The flooring is all installed and we thought it looked a bit of a mess last night but assumed it must just need a clean... today it's very clear it doesn't need a clean, rather it is actually a mess!

1. The flooring isn't fully glued down, some of the tiles are lifting up.
2. There are gaps in between some of the tiles
3. The amount of silicone around the edge to hold it down is just absurd, compare it to the silicone in the kitchen or the bathroom and it's very easily 5 times as much silicone used! It's like a sausage of silicone all around the edge.
4. The silicone isn't smooth or flat, it has ridges, bumps, indents and looks like an 8 year old has put it down.
5. The glue is stuck all over the hard tiling and is stupidly hard to get off, if I was to have to remove all of this from the top it would take me days to remove... It looks like a blind guy or a 5 year old glued it
6. There is glue stuck to a few bits of skirting board, some on the fridge and some on the washing machine.
7. The floor transition strips are all over the place, one of them looks good, one looks a bit scratched and the last one is as straight as a round about! It starts straight but then it ends up overhanging the frame of the door and looks like a drunk has installed it!
8. The fitter moved the appliances back on his own and as such because they're hard to move on your own he has scratched the flooring that he had just laid... It has 5-6 scratches, four of which are well over 30cm long!
9. Some of the edge tiles you can actually see how poorly they've been cut to size

What next...

I've called them up this morning and am awaiting a call back from the lady I spoke to at first offered me a refund of £50 which I am quite honestly offended by, I chose a well known name to get a good service not a nightmare service!

I rejected her offer and requested that it got escalated, I am beyond unhappy with the installation.

Even if they were to offer me a full refund I would not be happy because the floor looks way worse than it originally did... I don't think it's unfair for me to "demand" that it get re-installed by a different fitter and this time correctly without a ton of silicone, glue everywhere, scratches, gaps, lifting... etc

On top of that I don't think it's unfair to also demand some money to be refunded for yet another day wasted (and likely to be 1-2 more days for the removal & reinstall) as well as the added stress and hassle!

I'm assuming they can't reuse any of these tiles? That means the first fitter has ruined a ton of product!

What's the best sort of solution I can expect for this? I personally don't think it's unfair to expect a full reinstall and at least a 50% refund... Am I being too harsh with my expectations?

I'm 99% sure that even I, with zero floor laying experience could have done a better job!
:mad:

I think you can demand a full re-installation, including the replacement of any tiles that are damaged or covered in glue. I don't think a 50% discount is in order though. They have already offered £100 for a lost day which I think is reasonable so it would be reasonable to expect a similar discount for the days you will lose for the re-installation. You have a duty to minimise your losses and you and your son taking time off work isn't entirely their problem. Forget stress and hassle, they're not quantifiable and I suspect that the £100 they've already discounted includes it anyway.

So, £1600 became £1500 already. Take off another £100 or £200 for the 1-2 days it will take to re-install and you should end up with a decent finish for £1300-1400. That would seem reasonable to me.

You may have chosen a well-known name but some basic research on here will show you that well-known doesn't necessarily correspond to well-regarded.

BoGoF

You would have been better sourcing your own fitter. I believe carpetrite subcontract the fitting.....you would expect this to be a competent person but evidently not.

RandomGuyRandomTime

I think you can demand a full re-installation, including the replacement of any tiles that are damaged or covered in glue.

I can only find one tile that isn't covered in glue...

I don't think a 50% discount is in order though. They have already offered £100 for a lost day which I think is reasonable so it would be reasonable to expect a similar discount for the days you will lose for the re-installation.

For an installation that was supposed to only take 1 day... I'm going to have to in total take 4+ days off work including have to ask my son to take another day's holiday to help with moving the appliances again because the fridge freezer is not movable with just one person.

They've got glue on my appliances, on my skirting boards, doors and I've actually found some scratches on one of the doors as well as on the side of the fridge freezer...

I received a call about 45 mins ago and they wanted to know more information so they could raise it to their manager, he spoke to me about timescales if I was to get it reinstalled and told me that it would take about a week for new tiles to arrive and that it would likely take a total of 3 more days to reinstall!

As it's newly installed and glued down none of the tiles would be recoverable and because the glue will be at it's strongest it would damage some of the flooring underneath so it would require to be re-skimmed which would take a day and a half to complete leaving the third day for it to be installed.

So it is actually a full 5 days of my time that will be taken up by something that was only supposed to take up a single day!

Of course taking time off work isn't their problem but it is when they give you a date and fail to turn up + require another 3 days to fix their mess!

As for the stress & hassle, the £100 of course includes it for the first day but as it extends and extends that stress and hassle goes up and up.

You're saying you would be happy to receive just a £300/£400 for a job that will have taken an extra 4 days to complete, has damaged a few of your household items, has prevented you from being able to use four of your rooms for 4+ days, has required you to take 5 days off work instead of 1, requires you to make multiple phone calls, take multiple pictures, send some emails, requires you to waste a further 3-4 hours contacting them and causing you stress & hassle... no you would not be happy with that.

You may have chosen a well-known name but some basic research on here will show you that well-known doesn't necessarily correspond to well-regarded.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing... huh.

You would have been better sourcing your own fitter. I believe carpetrite subcontract the fitting.....you would expect this to be a competent person but evidently not.

Yeah he was a subcontractor, they recommended getting it fitted by one of their fitters. For a company like that I expected some competency!

Aylesbury_Duck

RandomGuyRandomTime wrote: »

I can only find one tile that isn't covered in glue...



For an installation that was supposed to only take 1 day... I'm going to have to in total take 4+ days off work including have to ask my son to take another day's holiday to help with moving the appliances again because the fridge freezer is not movable with just one person.

They've got glue on my appliances, on my skirting boards, doors and I've actually found some scratches on one of the doors as well as on the side of the fridge freezer...

I received a call about 45 mins ago and they wanted to know more information so they could raise it to their manager, he spoke to me about timescales if I was to get it reinstalled and told me that it would take about a week for new tiles to arrive and that it would likely take a total of 3 more days to reinstall!

As it's newly installed and glued down none of the tiles would be recoverable and because the glue will be at it's strongest it would damage some of the flooring underneath so it would require to be re-skimmed which would take a day and a half to complete leaving the third day for it to be installed.

So it is actually a full 5 days of my time that will be taken up by something that was only supposed to take up a single day!

Of course taking time off work isn't their problem but it is when they give you a date and fail to turn up + require another 3 days to fix their mess!

As for the stress & hassle, the £100 of course includes it for the first day but as it extends and extends that stress and hassle goes up and up.

You're saying you would be happy to receive just a £300/£400 for a job that will have taken an extra 4 days to complete, has damaged a few of your household items, has prevented you from being able to use four of your rooms for 4+ days, has required you to take 5 days off work instead of 1, requires you to make multiple phone calls, take multiple pictures, send some emails, requires you to waste a further 3-4 hours contacting them and causing you stress & hassle... no you would not be happy with that.

You asked for opinions, I gave you mine.

What would you like me to say? Perhaps that's an easier way of doing this.

societys_child

The glue is stuck all over the hard tiling and is stupidly hard to get off, if I was to have to remove all of this from the top it would take me days to remove

Would this help?
https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-sealant-remover-100ml/88987

Also available from other outlets . .

And Lidl have it in at the moment.

Potbellypig

RandomGuyRandomTime wrote: »

What's the best sort of solution I can expect for this? I personally don't think it's unfair to expect a full reinstall and at least a 50% refund... Am I being too harsh with my expectations?

Not while I've got a hole in my backside will you get that.

RandomGuyRandomTime

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

You asked for opinions, I gave you mine.

What would you like me to say? Perhaps that's an easier way of doing this.

I appreciate your opinions too, don't take me replying as me not appreciating. I just gave counter arguments to your opinions.

societys_child wrote: »

Would this help?
Snip as I can't post quoted urls lol

Also available from other outlets . .

And Lidl have it in at the moment.

We asked CarpetRight if anything like that can be used but they said it would only work on the sealant around the edge but would ruin the tiles because they're porus and it would seep into them making them degrade in both appearance and strength as they have glue in the titles holding it all together. Considering how much sealant is used around the edges... I would need pots and pots of that disolver!

Apparently the glue that's on the top isn't silicone rather it's the glue they use to stick them to the floor which isn't acrylic or silicone sealant.

They've seen some pictures and have agreed that it most definitely needs to be replaced if it is as bad as that as pictures show different to what you see in person sometimes, the pictures actually make it look better than it is... They are sending out two people to inspect it and then they can make a decision, as for the excessive disruption they said they would speak to someone higher up as they had no power to refund more than the full install costs (Still over £500)

Potbellypig wrote: »

Not while I've got a hole in my backside will you get that.

They've already offered to refund the cost of the installation which is not too far away from 50% so it's getting there. Customers shouldn't have things take 5x longer than it should! It's actually going to require a 6th day because they need to come and inspect it in person needless to say they're going to be receiving a bad review for this.

The support rep on the phone also told me that won't be using that contractor again because there is myself and two other customers who have complained about this fitters installation in the last week alone.

Aylesbury_Duck

I doubt they’ll care. As you’ve discovered, there’s no end of potential customers who choose a “well known name” without doing any research on their customers’ experience.

pinkshoes

I had a vinyl floor fitted by Tapi. It was shocking.

I complained and they then spent a half day ripping it up and redoing the over-boarding which they got wrong.

Their second fitting attempt was equally shocking and I then rejected it and made them rip it up and give a full refund.

I then sourced the same floor through an individual floor fitter and it looks fab!

Tell them it is not acceptable and insist any other work is done on your weekend as you have no more holiday to take.

(And NEVER use a high street carpet shop again !!!)

daveyjp

I'd simply demand a full refund, removal of the mess they have left and damage made good, then find an independent flooring company.