Report Abuse

“Torario 900mm x 900mm - Faulty product not fit for...”

written by cubanpete on 26/02/2013

Avoid this company and their product. They are quick to tell you anything you want to hear in order to get the sale. When you discover you were deliberately mislead, that the product is not fit for purpose as well as faulty all they will offer is a spare part. They expect you should get a tradesman in at your own cost to diagnose and repair the faulty brand new unit, justifying that as 'customer service'.

We purchased their Torario 900mm x 900mm Quadrant Steam Shower Enclosure mid December for just a little below £1,000 all in. It never worked correctly, it cost us loads of extra money to fit and diagnose the fault, and in the end had to be completely dismantled and removed in order to locate the leak it had, as the space we have it in is not sufficient to get a person beside or behind the unit in order to fix it. There is no way of knowing it would need extra space around it for fixing the problems, they didn't tell me that when I called to ask nor have they put it in as a requirement within the fitting instructions. And besides, this is a shower not a table lamp, why would anyone want to spend all that money on something that would need regular access for fault fixing?

They refused to resolve the issues and put it right, are refusing to take this faulty unit back and refund the money we paid for it.

They have ignored our communications and are currently also ignoring a recorded delivery letter I sent them on advice of Trading Standards, who advised this item is not fit for purpose which means I am entitled to a full refund.The Sale of Goods and Services act is very specific on that point.

Not only are we almost a £1,000 out of pocket for the unit we cannot use, but we have also spent close to an extra £1,000 on electrician and plumber costs and a new pump we had to purchase. And we are now having to spend even more money to remove the electrical supply from the en-suite and return the water and waste pipes to the previous position so we can install a traditional shower tray back where the previous one was.
£2,000 later and we are starting from scratch!

I regret ever considering this unit as it has been a source of immense stress, hassle and cost, and not even achieved the purpose. We could have just simply swapped the old shower with the new one and kept the previous pump, which was working perfectly. I think this unit has too many connections which do not appear very solid, as such it is likely they will need attention on a regular basis - and who wants that from their shower!

The next stage will have to be a court claim as it is clear that they will not budge at all so my advice is that, unless you want to take a huge chance on a serious amounts of money plus the hair-pulling hassle and untold inconvenience, AVOID THEM like the plague!

It all started when we first looked at possibly using their 900mm Torario Steam shower cabinet when re-modelling our en-suite 2 months ago. We considered the cost of this unit against the traditional shower tray with shower doors and tiling to see if it was economical and 'on-par'- it was somewhat more expensive but seemed to offer a lot of nice features, we just we needed to know if it was suitable for the room.

Our en-suite is 1050mm wide and 2340mm high and I was unsure if there would be enough room available to install it so I filled in their on-line enquiry form, raising the above questions. They failed to reply so a few days later I telephoned them to ask as we needed to make a decision. I clearly stated the room size and they assured me that this was suitable, explaining that it came in parts to be assembled in situ for this reason, so no problem. I also asked about our existing shower pump being sufficient and was again assured that this was good for the job. Based on this information I then placed the order during the same telephone call. However by the time it all arrived we came too close to Christmas and the unit did not then get fitted until January.

We had to bring in the electrician to supply power to the bathroom for the unit to connect to, which was quite costly, and the plumber had to re-site the water and waste to the specified position as per their fitting instructions.

The plumber found the unit installation quite challenging as the additional space of 150mm was narrow and the installation procedure not easy to do in the limited space, but he took it on as a personal challenge and completed it, taking almost a whole day to do so. However once it was all completed and ready to use, the unit had very low water pressure. So even though all of the functions worked in theory, in reality the pressure was so low that it was just a trickle - a disappointing result after all that effort. We called JT Spas several times over the next week or so and were being promised the technical person would call, but nobody ever called us back.

We carried on calling them and were eventually given an external company's telephone contact but were told to quote a different model number - turns out this is who supplied the unit to JT Spas, who simply re-name it as Torario. We were then told, by this 'technical' person, that our pump was insufficient to run this unit, which needed a minimum of 1.5 bar pressure, and they also detailed some other requirements. It came as a surprise given that I specifically asked about this, and if we had known about needing to change the pump we probably would have decided the extra cost was not worth it. But since we had already purchased and installed the unit we had no choice but to upgrade the pump.

We went ahead and purchased a new pump, which including plumbers fitting charges cost over £500 extra. But once the pressure was there, the unit developed a substantial leak,which we luckily noticed quickly so were able to disconnect the water supply to it and prevent damage to the floor in the en-suite and the ceiling below.
The way this unit is designed, all its connections are either behind it or beneath and beside it. Once in position we only had extra 150mm and this was not sufficient to get to the unit. It is stupid that they haven't even thought of allowing the front tub panel to be removed for access.

By this time this unit had never worked correctly and we were fed up with spending money on it just to get it to do what it was bought for. We asked them to put it right at their expense, but they ignored our verbal and written requests - all they would offer was a spare part, which they would supply free of charge if we sent them a photo of the fault; something we could only do if we paid our plumber to dismantle the unit, and then re-assembly it again after repairing it.

The unit has now been taken apart by the plumber, we found the leak was coming from a pre-fitted connection on the underside/side of the tub base. He thinks it was caused by a faulty part, a rigid metal pipe which looks too short hence coming at an angle to meet the plastic elbow with a fine thread - and so it failed to stay connected.

There was no point in fixing it and re-installing. It has already cost us an arm and a leg, and we are not willing to throw any more money down the drain. I have no confidence that some other fault will not crop up soon enough, and without being able to access the connections we would have to take it all apart again. The unit having been wrapped in parts is now cluttering our lounge floor as they have refused to come and collect it, which I asked them to do. We are now refitting the traditional shower back into our en-suite. I have no idea how long I will have to keep these pieces there before this nightmare is resolved and this needless, stressful saga is over. But we simply cannot let them get away with this, being ripped off in this way is bad enough, let alone that the experience cost us £2,000!

Given their arrogant attitude so far, I guess this will be a long haul battle ending in court, which we will simply have to pursue all the way. I guess they count on people giving up, but the law is on our side and as they deliberately deceived us I am determined to see it to the end. For anyone looking to have any dealings with JT Spas, please read about our experience and ask yourself if it is really worth taking a chance on a company that does business and treats people in this way.