Wessex Teak - Merged threads

soolin

Also, I'm not sure my definition of 'great condition' is the same as yours. Required sanding, had splinters..had mildew..yuck.

jane19_2

It's my first post because I only just discovered the discussion.
If I had read the comments before ordering, I never would have, so I just wanted to reassure people who might be considering them, or is this forum only for negative reviews?

As to the condition, I said good, not perfect. As with everything in life you get what you pay for. This is a bargain, no-frills service price and for that I don't mind having to spend 10 mins with a bit of sandpaper and a washcloth. If you want to spend 1500.00 more elsewhere and have it polished on delivery then you're free to do so.

dead_loss

Here's my experience.

Bought oval table and 8 chairs for £637, August 08. Took 5 weeks to deliver after 6 phone calls. Table not what was ordered - too big. Number of phone calls made requesting exchange. WT offered (in an over assertive manner and told my patio could take it) to let me have table for price paid. Two weeks later correct table delivered. The quality of the goods is fair. Quality? Two 40 mm splits have appeared in the table top. Manufacturing is clearly piecemeal and therefore pieces differ slightly. This wouldn't happen in a fully set up and automated factory which is one reason sets are so cheap. One brass head screw snapped as it was tightened (head too thin). One of the screws was too short to enable effective clamping. The "parallel" rail connecting the table leg crossrail has warped 10mm out of true. Bolt holes, out of true, and small deficiencies made the chair frames bind, thus making it awkward for the chairs to open and fold easily. There is a tendency for the bolts to become unscrewed, particularly the armrest, and fall out. Be that as it may you get what you pay for. I've rectified all the faults bar the warped parallel rail and the splits. A comparable set costing over a thousand would not have these faults and associated aggro. I feel for those who have lost money, I guess I was just lucky and, wait for it, I'm going to buy 2 more chairs - cash on delivery of course. Daft or what?

Danieljl65

Dear All,

This is a Nightmare company, I am still waiting for a replacement Chair. After it had been delivered broken. I contacted the company straight away. Sent pictures as requested and they agreed to have it replaced when the next lorry was in my area. 5 times now, dates for that replacement have been cancelled. Not to mention taken days off work to wait for these cowboys. Many many emails and telephone calls later, we are still waiting.
After reading many many bad things about Wessex Teak on the Web. I just hope no one else is fall hardy enough to purchase anything from this company. I really do hope that the Policeman who is going after them, does the business and gets what this company deserves.
In short I wouldn't recommend this company to anyone on this planet. TAKE THE WARNINGS and stay well clear.

killacam_2

I bought a garden bench cover from them last spring. They were selling them under the name wessex teak on eBay for £1!! I suspect this was in order to gain a large volume of sales and in turn a large volume of positive feedback. Becasue i saw they were in Essex i thought i might as well just drive down there and pick it up (i was living about 15minutes from their warehouse). When i arrived i was quite suprised to see what i thought would be a large well organised company, as an absolute wreck. They had a couple of old barns which looked like a bomb had hit them. A skip which was over flowing with knackered old teak furniture and 1 thing that did catch my eye....a Bently GT Continental with a private number plate! Maybe that's where everyones money has gone!!

I beleive that there was two brothers or friends that were running it. Another little fact i found out whilst digging about was that for a short while a small courier firm called MUI Logistics were doing delivery work for them but Wessex Teak's organisation at loading vans and arranging deliveries were so poor that MUI backed away from doing business with them and ended up out of pocket to the tune of £15,000. MUI subsequently also went bust!

These people are complete crooks they should be locked up i cant beleive in this day and age this sort of thing can carry on un-noted.

bigboy9i

That's all this thread seems to be about. For sure some of you have valid complaints. God knows they can't always get it right but for all the thousands of satisfied customers (and yeah they do exist) who don't say a lot, a search on Google brings up this thread with a load of grumpy old men whinging about wood.
That's not to minimalise genuine issues as I have always sympathised with people with genuine problems.

But cracks in wood. !!!!!! wood cracks, its a natural product, if you cant work that out then buy the plastic stuff and moan about chasing it round the garden when its windy, or the metal stuff and moan about your bum being burnt when (rarely) we get some sun.

Or buy some furniture from the garden centre and watch it fall to bits.

I know the furniture that is supplied to companies like wessexteak, and most of it is absolutely fine. But when you have a bunch of workers in indonesia (and the like) who are not the best paid in the world, some will be less inspired to do a good job on absolutely every last item.

Re Killacam.

So you went to the warehouse in Brentwood and it was a bit untidy, !!!!!! has that got to do with anything. Working short-staffed due to a recession, having to keep up with delivery schedules, and yes I used to work for them from 5am sometimes through past midnight, the last thing I want to do when I get back is tidy a damn warehouse.

Being on the sharp end means that you turn up at someones house who was expecting the delivery only to find out that 'they've gone shopping' 3/4 hour later they turn up with some lame excuse that their kids delayed them...or customers who insist that you construct the table before they pay you...Try that with IKEA.

To your comments regarding the couriers. I had occasion to deal with several carriers for wessexteak, all of them very forgettable...most of them smashed up furniture with their inept forklift work at the transit hubs...In addition a ridiculous number of consignments went 'missing' so perhaps you should keep the crooks comments in perspective.

As a person who carried out many deliveries for wessexteak I found that the only people who were actually any good were the drivers I worked with, no outside agency could be arsed to go the extra mile and I personally find it insulting after all my hard work to be referred to as a crook.

If MUI went bust it had nothing to do with wessexteak, every person is responsible for their own lives and it is misleading to say that wessexteak owed them £15000 and that was the cause of their demise. Firstly it's hearsay and secondly if you are any good at what you do, people will want your services and you will flourish (at least if your business plan is any good it will...except in a recession of course).

Wessexteak are unable to defend themselves on this site as their IP address has been blocked (apparently for posting on this thread) I have no knowledge of what exactly it was they posted, neither do I support anything that was said by others, and the contents of this posting are my opinions based on my experience of my time at wessexteak.

As to the furniture. Mostly it is absolutely fine, you get the odd friday night special come through, or some pillock who thought it would be a great idea to make a chair that had a knot in the leg, but I have to say that there aren't a huge amount of issues given the amount of turnover wessexteak goes through.

Ah...Bentley Continental GT...if the guy wants to buy himself a car and can afford it, well why not...wouldn't be my cup of tea as I have other things to spend money on.


I think this thread may a have become a little more balanced now.

alfredo

I'm afraid I'm going to unbalance this thread again!

Yes, this is a first post but I've been lurking around this site for a while. We ordered a set of six chairs and a table from these guys in early August which, to be fair, arrived in good time and looked to be a lovely set of furniture. Trouble is, one set of table legs had been built too small so they wouldn't fit in the allotted holes.

We rang them and, again quite quickly, they said they'd send a replacement set of legs up within the next week. A guy arrives about a week later and I explain the problem and he starts trying to fit the old legs together. I tell him again they don't fit and ask him to try the new ones he's brought with him. Trouble is, he hasn't brought a new set with him! :mad:

I ask him whether they can just send a new set of legs up by post but he says he has to take the rest of the table away and replace the complete thing. They email to say we won't get it until the end of September, then again to say that delivery has been put back till 7 October. We wait in all day and, surprise, nothing.

Despite a number of phone calls, we still can't get to speak to the main bloke so we can't get this resolved.

We paid by cheque, but this was nearly two months ago. What sort of action can we take?

Thanks.

alfredo

Just an update to my previous post.

The table finally, finally arrived this afternoon. It came in a Wessex Teak branded van, so I assume the guy who delivered it was part of the company. Bearing in mind the issue was that the legs didn't fit the first time, here's a sample of the marvellous, customer-centric conversation I had with him:

Me: Would you mind just putting it up to check the legs fit OK?
Wessex Teak: Nah, they'll be fine. It's a new design.
Me: Look, we've waited nearly two months for this - could you just put it up so I can see everything's OK otherwise I'll just be ringing you up to come and take it away again?
WT: Nah, mate, I've gotta go. It'll be fine - think positive.
Me: I've been trying to think positive for two months now - can't you just check it's OK first?
WT: Think positive. I've gotta go mate!

And with that he climbs in the van and drives off.

The good thing is that this thread is the second hit you see when you search for Wessex Teak in Google UK, so hopefully people will take the time to read through it before buying from them. Wish we had! :mad:

bigboy9i

alfredo wrote: »

Just an update to my previous post.

The table finally, finally arrived this afternoon. It came in a Wessex Teak branded van, so I assume the guy who delivered it was part of the company. Bearing in mind the issue was that the legs didn't fit the first time, here's a sample of the marvellous, customer-centric conversation I had with him:

Me: Would you mind just putting it up to check the legs fit OK?
Wessex Teak: Nah, they'll be fine. It's a new design.
Me: Look, we've waited nearly two months for this - could you just put it up so I can see everything's OK otherwise I'll just be ringing you up to come and take it away again?
WT: Nah, mate, I've gotta go. It'll be fine - think positive.
Me: I've been trying to think positive for two months now - can't you just check it's OK first?
WT: Think positive. I've gotta go mate!

And with that he climbs in the van and drives off.

The good thing is that this thread is the second hit you see when you search for Wessex Teak in Google UK, so hopefully people will take the time to read through it before buying from them. Wish we had! :mad:

First it is not in the drivers remit to assemble your table...If you bothered to check you would know that should they assemble your table and anything goes wrong when you are using it, then they are personally and legally liable for any injury you sustain.
If you think that any driver will do that then you are off your trolley.

Why should you ask them to take it away if there's nothing wrong with it..your use of words is plain blackmail (do what I say or else)

Your table had the wrong legs probably because the indonesians mixed them up from another table at the factory...so tell me, how can wessexteak know that...measure every set I suppose...PLEASE!!!

I've assembled tables for lone women and widows, old people and disabled people...

But any normal bloke should be quite capable of putting one up...and no excuses...that's what blokes are supposed to do...why's it so damn difficult...

You try driving from Essex to Anglesey, Bangor, Warrington, Southport, Leeds, and Hull in a day to do deliveries....struggle with a table weighing more than 85KG while the person you are delivering to just 'looks on'...and after you've carried all the heavy stuff around, has the bare faced gall to say 'I was told you would assemble it'

Its a table...two sets of legs, an 'H' bar and some dowels...not astrophysics...

I'm am seriously disappointed with an overwhelming lack of practicality in the human race.

theonlywayisup

bigboy9i wrote: »

I'm am seriously disappointed with an overwhelming lack of practicality in the human race.

Oh dear, best go somewhere else then.:D