New iPad (3rd Gen) Review

Very disappointed with both workmanship and service

Artisan seem to claim they are the best, this is why we decided to use them. But our long awaited fireplace was rushed and poorly finished. Plus we feel they twice tried to get more money from us.

Artisan had not told us that we would need a flue check when ordering the fireplace and paying the large deposit, so on the site visit when we were told this it came as a shock as they charge £150. But we were advised that we could find someone more local to us to do the flue check, unfortunately no one wanted to check a flue for another company to fit a fireplace, and we feel Artisan know this will happen a lot. Now Artisan use a company called Fluetech, but they did not refer us to them, only tried to book us in for an expensive flue check with them when I rang. It was only when I rang again and asked about having a flue check and the girl on the phone didn’t realise it was me, she instantly referred me to fluetech and from memory we paid about £40 plus £15 fuel costs as we were out of their area.

When Artisan turned up on the day we were promised a courtesy call before they arrived, but we did not get this. The same has to be said about the site visit, we did not get a courtesy call as promised. Anyway three men turned up at the door and the fitter greeted us by saying “what didn’t you know we were coming?” and just pulled a face. No hello we are Artisan fitters, we felt uneasy from that point.

Now the worst was to happen. We went through the details for this fire twice with the sales man, first when we had a quote in store, and secondly on the site visit, even showing him the bracket for our TV which was to sit inside the recess. Our fireplace is an inglenook design with beam and inset for a television. When the fitters turned up they said they knew nothing about the inset for the TV and one even remarked it would usually cost about another £200 for that.” Funny as they had an invoice already written out with another just over £140 added to it! Needless to say we quibbled this with the salesman and paid what we were quoted. But we feel they twice tried to squeeze a little more out of us.

Either the salesman didn’t tell the fitters, or they all knew that Artisan wanted more money from us. Either way we knew someone was being dishonest.

The actual fitting of the fire was a nightmare. One fitter was on his first day and didn’t do much, but could actually bring himself to be polite. Another fitter was off straight after fitting the flue badly. We have since had to tape this flue as it spins around in the wind.
They didn’t bring a ladder long enough to fit the new flue, although knew they were fitting it to a house not bungalow! So it was lucky that we had ladders. Our beautiful new limestone hearth was used to down tools and walk on with no cover. It is now filthy as the fitter got grout dirt all over it and he was sweating…this grout dirt has stuck…we can even see a partial footprint. Artisan made no apology, they didn’t ring us in the New Year as promised to come and clean the hearth.

The main fitter moaned about putting lights in and said they will not last, he just didn’t want to bother. He had to use some of our tools and we had to buy the hole cutter for the lights, even though we specified this when ordering the fire. We even supplied some of the wood to build the framework for the TV mount, because they just didn’t have what they needed to fit this fireplace fully as specified. The fitter moaned about the bracket we bought for the TV and although we offered to show him the bracket at the beginning he said he wasn’t interested in seeing it. This fitter was rude throughout, only the young trainee had any manors. The vermiculite boards were badly cut, leaving awful rough edges. The two openings were supposed to be the same size but one is an inch bigger…this rude fitter remarked “that is what you are getting” when he cut them at different sizes. The top of our lovely Broseley fire was scratched, and he left one front leg of the fire with a 5

mm gap. Also the door of the fire did not close, so the fitter had to grind some of the door to make it fit. It was Broseley who kindly sent us a tin of spray paint for us to use to make sure this bare metal would not rust in the future.

So we have a fireplace that apparently no one else could fit like Artisan…well we don’t agree.
We have badly cut vermiculite, a badly grouted hearth ‘chipped’ and partly ruined by grout marks we cannot remove. A fire we had to re-sit a foot properly ourselves with a scratch and a bit of bare metal we have to spray. Shoddy plastering! Our plasterer just laughed at when he saw it. Apparently the fitter used to be a plasterer, well he was out of practise! The false chimney made up with some of our own wood because Artisan didn’t bring the tools and materials needed for the job. All this and the fitter didn’t make any effort to clean up. He began to sweep and then just said it would be better to hoover up that dust, and he went and packed the van instead.

We feel ripped off. We could have got a local builder to build this fire with brick at a cheaper cost. We were told it would be built using breeze blocks to support the very heavy beam, but it is all held in place with a metal and wood frame. We don’t know if this fireplace will stand the test of time, we hope so, but we sure as hell won’t forget what a horrid experience it was using Artisan fireplaces. They do not take complaints seriously, I feel it must be run by a narcissist outfit who could never be in the wrong. Watch the adverts, but don’t be fooled, not everyone will be a happy customer. They would never show the negative reviews on their site.

Many thanks in advance for your help.