Advice please regarding Wickes

Lea37

Hi,

This is quite long so please bear with me.

We ordered 45 boxes of tiles from Wickes on the 16th of feb. There was a pallet on display at the time with well over 45 boxes on it and the CS lady did a check to make sure they were in stock when we ordered them also.

We ordered them to be delivered for the following friday (22nd) as this is the only day they deliver and were told they'd come anytime between 8am and 8pm.

On the friday the van arrived and dropped off a pallet of tiles at around 9am. I noticed that there didn't seem to be 45 boxes and queried this and the guy said that my store hadn't got enough stock and that there were only 22 and the rest would come later that evening. I was tired from a nightshift and didn't think too much of this at first.

The second lot arrived at about 3pm and the guy seemed confused that we already had some tiles. I explained it to him and he helped bring them in the house and left.

When he'd gone we counted the boxes and there were only 42 and it was at this point we noticed that there were at least 4 different batch numbers so we weren't very happy as they might not match up properly.

My partner rang CS and the man told him that the guy in charge was 'chasing up' the other 3 boxes and would bring them later in the day. My partner told the CS man that he was unhappy about the range of batch numbers and he replied that it would take 2-3 weeks to get some more from the same batch and that he could speak to the delivery manager about it when he brought the 3 boxes. My partner said that would be preferable to having a mix and would have liked to have been given this option in the first place.

Come 7 O'clock the guy had not arrived so my partner rang again. He spoke to a manager who denied that the delivery manager was ever supposed to be coming and admitted that they had not managed to get the other 3 boxes yet. He reiterated that it would take 2-3 weeks to get the tiles and suggested that we 'mix them up a bit' instead. My partner was obviously not happy with this so the manager said he would leave a message in the CS book about it and said he would get back to us.

We never heard anything so yesterday my partner rang them and retold the story as the CS lady knew nothing about it and was told that the tiles are out of stock at the suppliers and they may be unable to reorder them again. She did say that they have the other 3 boxes now and that they hadn't gotten around to letting us know yet and they could deliver them tomorrow (today) if we wanted which my partner declined.

We are supposed to be getting back to them to let them know what we want to do (although no options have been offered) but are unsure how to proceed. The communication has been terrible as has the delivery (2 in one day and expected to wait in for them again?) but the tiles were a bargain (20% off promo) so we don't really want a refund.

Any suggestions on how to handle this would be most welcome.



Thanks.

hjb123

do the tiles look totally different shades to look at when you compare between the different batch numbers?

Hope something gets sorted soon for you

hollydays

Is it wrong to mix batch numbers? In fairness,there could still have been different batch numbers on one pallet couldnt there?

Lea37

hjb123 wrote: »

do the tiles look totally different shades to look at when you compare between the different batch numbers?

Hope something gets sorted soon for you

Not had a proper look as they are all piled on top of each other and the nature of the packaging doesn't show much anyway but you wouldn't really be able to tell properly until they are on the wall by which point it's too late and we don't really want to risk it if possible.

Thanks, me too. I hate it when stuff drags on.

Lea37

hollydays wrote: »

Is it wrong to mix batch numbers? In fairness,there could still have been different batch numbers on one pallet couldnt there?

It is in most cases eg. wallpaper, that's mainly why they do batch numbers (I think) and they are prominantly displayed on the box so I'd assume that's the case with these tiles also. Could be wrong.

You're right about the batch numbers on the instore pallet, we didn't check them but you expect a pallet in a store to be straight from the manufacturers and subsequently from the same batch. We at least thought they'd be coming from one store rather than at 3 or more as they were in stock at the time but they sold them off despite us ordering them and not having enough elsewhere which is pretty rubbish imo.

Lea37

Any more advice?

hollydays

Check with a tiling forum whether batch numbers are relevant or not?

pulliptears

My thoughts..

They may have been a bargain, but is it worth lying in the bath for the next 10 years picking out the odd different colour tiles on the wall?

Personally, I'd send them back and get new tiles, all from the same batch.

Before fixing tiles check all tile boxes have the same batch numbers as tiles can vary in shade.

That quote is from a tile warehouse.

pulliptears

Edited as spam post to which it refers has been removed.

Thanks mods