PlumbWorld UK www.plumbworld.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

VERY BAD SERVICE

**I ORDERED IN JAN AND I'M STILL WAITING**

On 19 Jan 2009 I ordered a full bathroom suite, radiator and taps. I dealt with someone at PlumbWorld who seemed very pleasant and assured me that it would arrive on time 2 weeks later.

As both my partner and myself work full time and only receive standard issue holiday entitlement I needed the delivery to arrive on time. They called at 11:00am telling me to go to work as the bath had been damaged in transit and there would be no delivery that day. Fair enough. As they had no exact replacement for the bath, they agreed to send me the next one up which made up for the pointless day off work, although this cost me a days wages for the builders as they couldn't start work but billed me anyway.

They arranged for the next week and even called to make sure it was 2 holes I wanted drilled in the bath. My partner drove home (from central London) at lunchtime to accept the delivery (which the delivery man very kindly helped carry into the house) to find that the taps and the bath waste were missing. The contractors started work that day. I called and they said that they could have the correct taps and bath waste delivered the next day and left in a concealed location at our property.

The next day came and no taps..or bath waste. I called, again, to find out why. They said that it was "against company policy to leave packages unattended" so we set yet another date to be delivered, this time to my work as they would be light enough for me to carry home. I specified the precise location of my office which all the delivery driver had to do to find was ask the receptionist for the 5th floor and my name.

It didn't arrive. GRRR! they delivered it to our despatch area of the building which means that it would be near impossible to find amongst the the hundreds of other deliveries. After asking for a few favours we found it but lo and behold the bath waste was missing. Can these people do anything right? (I was to find out that the answer is No) Back on the phone to who got the bath waste sent out a couple of days later.

What was a simple delivery turned out to be a bit of a mess....

When the time came to fit the bath my builder told me that it was the wrong taps that had been delivered. I required wall mounted taps because that bath had a roll top and couldn't accomodate any type of taps. Remember they kindly called to confirm that I wanted 2 holes in the bath? So, I got a bath with no holes and the wrong taps...back on the phone. They told me that the builders can just drill holes in the bath. No, not in a roll top bath you won't. Which is what my builder said so the only thing was to send the bath back. I looked on their site to locate a suitable replacement within budget but there were none.

Apparently to collect the bath itself from us was going to cost me the price of the bath so I wouldn't receive any refund. So I kept the bath, changed the design of the bathroom (thanks to the ingenious builder) and decided to order new taps and send back the other taps that wouldn't fit. I called and asked if they could refund the taps because I needed a set sent out on next day delivery.

Called at 1030am - taps we need are too expensive and he wasn;t going to budge on a deal for anything. Ok fine, I'll just have a refund. Ok but they charge for a refund...25% penalty charge and 10gbp collection charge but he would call the supplier and see if they could get a better price. This is ending up costing me a fortune in lost builders wages! They never called back so I had to pay another days wages to the builder. I decided to just buy taps from another company who could supply them the next day and I would deal with the refund at a later date. The taps from the other company arrived and I called to see what was happening with the refund. They were completely oblivious to what was happening even though it was only the day before we spoke, they didn't even remember me? How very odd. After looking back at notes they said "Well Miss *** I've got good news and bad news which would you like first?" (Was I in some sort of Some Mothers Do Have 'Em show?) the bad news turned out to be that there was going to be a charge and the good news was that they lowered the penalty charge from 25% to carriage charge

Okydoky, collection of the taps on Thursday so I took the day off. No one came (are you surprised?) I chased them and they gave me the suppliers number (which is a no-no in business) so I called horston and spoke to someone who told me that the driver turned up at my work when I specifically told them I had taken a day off and to collect the taps from my house. To top that off the driver, apparently, gave the poor receptionist the height of abuse. By the by I asked them how much they charge for collection...."10% and 6gbp carriage" "Oh really" I said, "Seems like they were trying to rip me off" (I know that this is just business, but at least remember when you've lied and not to give out your supplier's number) They kindly gave me free collection and waivered the charge.

Again I took and day off...in vain. They never turned up and I was in the flat all day with the builder. I called them and they were adamant that they did come, no one answered the door so they left a calling card. NO CALLING CARD! I argued back and forth with customer services about this (yes you read correctly, he argued) then ended up calling me a liar...A LIAR! then said, and get this "Miss *** I'm sick and tired of dealing with you." so I asked to speak to a manager, he said that would be fine as he wasn't interested in dealing with me (*remember to look for customer service best practice reports)

The manager, would be back at 4 and they were closing at 5. I called at 4, the manager was with a customer. "Ok ill call back later".


Then I found that they didn't deliver the radiator valves. They weren't in the box with the radiator which they said they would be. So they are now going to collect the taps and deliver the valves, which apparently incurs a "Swap charge" of 19.65gbp. Bargin.

I specified that we needed angled valves, I made this point 3 times because I was sure he would fluff it up. On the morning of the delivery they called and left a voicemail saying "You never specified which kind of valves you wanted so we just delivered angled ones" This was very lucky, it was 50/50 which way they could mess it up but they messed it up the correct way (if that is possible?) The taps were collected and the new valves were fitted making for a happy builder.

A refund for the taps will be in your account within 5 days. That was on the 24 March 2009 I am still waiting for my money. They may be competitive on price but they WILL let you down once they have your money.