Tiles breaking repeatedly when cut

SaY_1999

Looking for advice on what rights I have and how far I can pursue getting tiles refunded. 
We bought some tiles from a Bathroom&tile company in February but as we had a contract with our builder for him to fit our bathroom just opted for delivery. At the time the tiles were imported and the invoice states no refunds on specialist tiles. The order came to a couple of grand. 
Soon into starting to use the tiles our builder's tiler struggled with cutting the tiles without breaking them.

We approached the bathroom company who advised it may be an equipment issue. This was with good quality dry cutters and they tried alternative equipment as well as more expensive equipment but still the same problem.
Approaching them again they suggested using one of their tilers who unfortunately was booked up but we compromised with taking the tiles to him to see if he could cut them, the same problem occurred. 
On speaking with the bathroom company they refused to accept there could be a problem with the tile and claimed that they were delicate and so there was expected higher wastage. This  wasn't mentioned at the time of sourcing the tiles and we worked on the usual ~10% wastage. So far wastage has been around 60-70%.
A month on and myself and the builder need to move on with the extension so I approached the company for a refund, at the same time spending additional money on a new set of tiles to continue the work. 
The bathroom company have stuck with a no refund policy unless the tiles are faulty and currently are unwilling to accept there's an issue with the tiles not being fit for the purpose they were bought. Early on I suggested bringing the tiles to them but they were too busy. On the last message they have suggested trying to cut them in store,  my issue is that over the last month I tried to work with different suggestions they had to manage the problem but having exhausted these and have had to look at new tiles,preferring to get the originals refunded. 
Just trying to gauge how much options I have to insist on a refund and how far I can take this, even if only refunding the unused tiles. 

pbartlett

did you pay by credit card? if so, initiate a s75 claim

if you paid by bank transfer, cash, cheque etc then initiate a small claims court case online.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

If you took them to store and they break the tiles when cutting I think that would give you a good position to show the issue is the tiles.

Issues raised within 6 months are taken to have been present originally unless demonstrated otherwise.

Currently small claims might not be a clear cut case (no pun intended).  

knightstyle

Why not use a tile cutter like this?

inthesticks

By the looks of the photos, those tiles are 'overfired'.....brittle and substandard. It is a well known problem. No amount of different cutters will solve this problem. A good tile shop will know of 'overfired' tiles. Sounds like they are sticking their head in the sand or digging their heels in.

inthesticks

knightstyle said:

Why not use a tile cutter like this?

Unfortunately that tile cutter isnt big enough or good enough to cope with OP size of tiles.

SaY_1999

Thanks for all the replies
Payment was made by bank transfer so sounds like it would be small claims court if I have to take it that far. 
The builder used a range of dry cutters and wet cutters with similar issues. I am going to to take it to the store and hoping they have the same issue which will further the claim.