Oh my goodness, where do I begin? Firstly we did read the negative feedback on eBay, and had our reservations, although most issues seemed to relate to delivery problems. With this in mind we remained hopeful and went ahead with our purchase.
We ordered two worktops and the first problem we encountered was the delivery options. I rang the chipppyshop’s number and asked when delivery would be, and I was informed delivery could only be week days and we would have to pay £30 to have a Saturday delivery. So I had to take a full day off work as the details given by email were: The courier will arrive approximately between 12:07 - 15:07 on 27/10/14.
On the delivery day 27/10/14 their internal couriers delivered two worktops, and one was clearly damaged which the delivery man noted whilst here. But I could not get to check the worktops due to their size and weight, and had to sign one as damaged and one unchecked. What I didn’t appreciate was the delivery man hovering over me when I came to write anything and repeatedly coaxing me to sign ‘might keep’. He was blasé about the damage and did say ‘it doesn’t matter if it is on one side as you can put that side down and you will never see it.’ But that dubious advice is redundant if the damage is to the A face. As I was informed on the phone to customer services that there is in fact an A and a B face to these worktops.
Once we opened them that same evening together, the larger of the two was fine, but the smaller one was quite badly damaged in several places. We took lots of photographs and immediately informed customer services. When we received a response we were offered a replacement and given week days again for this delivery. I was so upset by this as it wasn’t our fault that the worktop was damaged and I had already taken a day off work. Anyway after reluctantly agreeing a date for replacement we waited in hopeful anticipation that the next one would be in new condition with no damage.
On the 29/10/14 we received a message on our answer phone to say the replacement should arrive before 12pm the next day. So I told work I would be in after lunch time that day. But on the 30/10/14 the delivery driver turned up at 2pm, I had sent a message to ask when they would turn up as I was going to lose that half day, but I didn’t hear back.
The delivery driver from DX struggled to lift the worktops, he did drop the replacement on one corner in the garage. Again I had didn’t have time to check, so signed unchecked. When my husband came home from work he opened the replacement only to find it was worse than the first one, with damage and bad pieces of wood throughout. We immediately took photographs and sent these to customer services. At that point I did say I wouldn’t want to keep replacing if the third one was not right. We were offered a Saturday delivery this time, which meant no more days off work, but no compensation for our troubles, time off work and stress through all this was offered at that point.
On the 08/11/14 the third worktop arrived and my husband helped the DX driver off the van with it, again this had to be signed unchecked. The driver did say at the time he was not booked to pick up the other worktop so we were left with that one in our garage, making it very difficult for us to move in there. When opening the third worktop we uncovered much damage including a bashed corner and dents on both sides. We again sent an email with photographs to customer services, but on Monday when we had still had not heard back. We escalated the case to customer service as we were left with two that we could not use.
On the 11/11/14 I spoke to them on the phone and expressed my absolute unhappiness with the situation and that I had lost two days of work over this, which meant two less days over the Christmas holiday period. I was so fed up and stressed at this point I did not really want any more worktop deliveries. He then asked if we would be able to get what we needed from the two and offered this as a solution. I agreed to this as it as least meant an end to the problem, it really had become quite an ordeal for us. I also asked for £50 in the way of compensation for all the trouble, which we felt was only fair given the time off work and lost holidays. He said he would look into that for us.
On 13/11/14 hesaid the £50 good will gesture would be credited to our account. He apologised for the problems we had, and said thankfully these situations are rare.
Unfortunately eBay had been as useful as a chocolate tea pot during this, and completely messed us about and came up with a different solution off the top of their heads after we had already settled the matter. This confused things quite a bit, and as the refund did not arrive promptly we queried as to whether we were still going to receive this. On the phone I asked for the person I had been talking to and was told by a woman that he was on another line and would get him to ring me back. She then told me it usually takes 14 days to receive a refund and it would be in our account early December. I then received an email  from the sales manager at the chippyshop, she said he was on annual leave and refunds usually take 7 days to process, but she said it would be done as high importance. Just confusing information from customer services! And strange seeing as one person told me he was there, but on another call.
Ebay are almost completely pointless when things go wrong, they come up with a standardised response which translates…send item back for refund…sorry if you don’t get shipping costs back…it might as well be a computer. When you speak to them, they have not one clue what they are doing! Thankfully the chippyshop were trying to put things right for us, but it took weeks and weeks, the stress and state we were left in with our garage being full and the work not being completed on time was just awful, I certainly wouldn’t volunteer for this again.
Would I recommend the chippyshop, well I'm not sure, they did try to put things right for us and we were perhaps just very unlucky to receive three worktops with damage. But it was at times difficult to get through to the right people, certain customer services people were unfriendly and unhelpful.
Things to consider when buying from the chippyshop: Worktops are manufactured relatively cheaply outside of the UK, and have an A and B face, this is not something you know before you buy.
They are unfinished, rough in places. But they only need a light sand.
Deliveries are free unless you work all week, in which case you will have to pay £30 for a Saturday delivery, or take time off work…like I had to.
Also customer services don’t seem to be in tune with any given situation, they also don’t seem to have good communication with ebay.
When things go wrong I believe the chippyshop will try to put things right. But do be patient and stay as calm as possible. Avoid too much communication with ebay and let the chippyshop rectify matters. Keep ebay informed, but I believe it is best to speak over the phone to sort matters out. Emails get unread for days and you only feel worse when you don’t get a response.
Advice I would always give when buying goods and things go wrong. Take lots of time/date stamped photographs, contact the seller immediately. Put things in writing, then on the phone record all conversations. Stay calm, but be very precise with the solution you wish to put forward, whether to replace or return for full refund.

I bought some solid oak worktops from The Chippy Shop. Really low prices, FREE delivery, very helpful staff and the quality of the worktops was excellent. I would definitely recommend them to anyone!