Damage to new fireplace

akvileyes

We had our fireplace installed a few days ago. It’s a limestone fireplace and I believe the fitters have damaged it on installation (although I cannot guarantee this as I didn’t see it fully before it was fitted). The fireplace now has quite a few chips on it. The place where we bought the fireplace from seem helpful so far and have offered to come back and resolve this (I imagine it will be filling the chips with some filler). That’s all good but the problem I have is that we paid over £3k for the fire (gas fire, surround and the fitting) and in the end, instead of getting what we paid and for ie brand new fireplace, we get a damaged one that had been repaired. We are in Scotland. What would be our options in this case? Thanks

Bradden

Are the fitters from the same company you purchased te fireplace on or are they 2 seperate businesses? A "supply and fit" purchase would  be preferable otherwise you may be stuck between the fitter and supplier taking responsibility.

akvileyes

Bradden said:

Are the fitters from the same company you purchased te fireplace on or are they 2 seperate businesses? A "supply and fit" purchase would  be preferable otherwise you may be stuck between the fitter and supplier taking responsibility.

It is not the same company but our contract is only with the fireplace sellers. They issued us an invoice for £3k (£2.5k payable to fireplace sellers and £500 payable to fitters) but all under one invoice issued by “fireplace ltd” lets say. I suppose fitters would be contractors to the company.

akvileyes

My understanding is that its still a supply and fit service because we didnt have to find fitters ourselves?

Manxman_in_exile

If your only payment and contract was with the seller, and they arranged the fitting, then I'd agree it's all the seller's responsibility.

As I suppose the fitting was a "service" then I think (although I'm not sure) that you have to give them an opportunity to do it properly, which I suppose is a repair attempt.  I think if I were you I'd be wanting some sort of discount reflecting the substandard fitting and inconvenience of arranging an appointment for repair etc.

I don't know whether, in the circumstances, you are entitled to reject the fireplace for a refund.  Presumably you would not want to do that, so you are stuck with a repair or a replacement.  Really depends on what outcome you are looking for.

I'm sure other posters can give better advice then me on this sort of situation

akvileyes

Manxman_in_exile said:

If your only payment and contract was with the seller, and they arranged the fitting, then I'd agree it's all the seller's responsibility.

As I suppose the fitting was a "service" then I think (although I'm not sure) that you have to give them an opportunity to do it properly, which I suppose is a repair attempt.  I think if I were you I'd be wanting some sort of discount reflecting the substandard fitting and inconvenience of arranging an appointment for repair etc.

I don't know whether, in the circumstances, you are entitled to reject the fireplace for a refund.  Presumably you would not want to do that, so you are stuck with a repair or a replacement.  Really depends on what outcome you are looking for.

I'm sure other posters can give better advice then me on this sort of situation

Hi thats helpful, thank you. I agree that asking for a discount is the way forward because like you say a return or refusal of the fireplace is not an option unfortunately. It’s very frustrating, the place where we bought it from are saying “we will make it perfect” which is obviously impossible, once something is dented and scratched the most you can get out of it is “repaired and working” but never “brand new”. 

greyteam1959

How on earth do you dent limestone ??

akvileyes

greyteam1959 said:

How on earth do you dent limestone ??

I’ve no idea, i’m the customer, not the fitter or seller. I sent pictures to the place where I bought it from and they have agreed to come back and fix it so I’m probably not just making it up?

MattMattMattUK

akvileyes said:

greyteam1959 said:

How on earth do you dent limestone ??

I’ve no idea, i’m the customer, not the fitter or seller. I sent pictures to the place where I bought it from and they have agreed to come back and fix it so I’m probably not just making it up?

I do not think that Grey was insinuating that you were making it up, but that perhaps the fact that limestone has been dented throws up some other questions. There are limestone tiles in the kitchen here at work, I am not going to go and hit them with a hammer, but I am fairly sure if I did that they would crack or chip rather than dent. The main question might be, is it actually limestone, or "limestone effect"?

akvileyes

MattMattMattUK said:

akvileyes said:

greyteam1959 said:

How on earth do you dent limestone ??

I’ve no idea, i’m the customer, not the fitter or seller. I sent pictures to the place where I bought it from and they have agreed to come back and fix it so I’m probably not just making it up?

I do not think that Grey was insinuating that you were making it up, but that perhaps the fact that limestone has been dented throws up some other questions. There are limestone tiles in the kitchen here at work, I am not going to go and hit them with a hammer, but I am fairly sure if I did that they would crack or chip rather than dent. The main question might be, is it actually limestone, or "limestone effect"?

Apologies I’m not an expert in this, it is called a “limestone fireplace” on their website and our invoice says the same thing so I don't think it’s limestone effect.

Manxman_in_exile

I suspect the OP probably means that it's had a chip or chips knocked out of it rather than it's been "dented".