Poor customer service

[N!ck]

Just thought I would let you know about my experience with wallsandfloors.co.uk, so you will hopefully think twice before using them. I have refrained from posting this until my issue was resolved.

I ordered a load of adhesive, primer, a few tools etc from here on Sunday 2nd Oct as the website stated "fast 2 day delivery". As I am in the Armed Forces I am fortunate enough to be home every weekend at the moment (which makes replacing a whole kitchen a V slow job). I assumed that the latest I would have the order delivered would be Wednesday (3 days) which would be adequate for me to start work on Friday.

I received an email on Tuesday telling me my order would not be delivered until Thursday. No problem I thought, as I do not plan on starting until the following morning.

I receive a further email Wednesday evening (1800 to be precise and so out of business hours) telling me my order would not be delivered until Friday. Obviously now a little wound up I replied by email explaining my situation - I get no response the following day.

Friday morning I phone and ask for an estimated delivery time, I am told they will phone me back with one. Obviously they dont. I phone again an hour and half later and I am given a time of 1530 thus meaning I lose the full day (time is very precious when you can only work on your project 2 days a week). Obviously wound up I sarcastically state "1530?! well that is absolutely no use at all to me, thank you very much" and promptly have the phone put down on me. Excellent.

1630 my order arrives. The delivery driver asks me to help him get the (very heavy) order out of his lorry and round the back of my house. I duly oblige as Im not a little lad and he was friendly enough but I do wonder what he would have done had I not been there and instead he was faced with my 7 and 1/2 stone mrs.

Keen to crack on and make up for lost time I (try to) dig out the primer which of course is missing. I go bolting up the street after the delivery driver and manage to catch him "not my problem pal" is his response. "they just give me the pallets and I deliver them". Fantastic.

I phone W&F and go mental ( I am now seriously wound up as the primer is the first thing I need) and while I am on the phone to them realise other things are missing. The bloke on the phone will not accept verbally that things are missing and tells me I have to put it in writing and he will get them delivered for next Tuesday. I dont quite remember my response but I know it warranted my mrs having to leave in a hurry for fear of me spontaneously combusting and ended with me having to go and retrieve my phone from the end of the garden.

Almost 20 days later through some strongly worded emails I have finally received my refund. From start to finish absolutely shocking customer service from wallsandfloors.

On a more positive note I also placed an order with Colin at Kwiksplit around the same time, and I wont go into detail as this is turning into a bit of an epic, but I received fantastic customer service from him, and bizarrely, a free bag of haribos :smilewinkgrin:

 

[Bathfix Bob]

Still, good news about the Haribo's!

 

[doug boardley]

this is one of the reasons why I source my tiles and materials locally, (if I'm supplying)

 

[DHTiling]

I have used Walls and floors last year and i received fantastic customer service.. I ran short of some RE and REX quarries and some Skirting tiles.. i ordered them one day and they came carrier the next..


Orders etc can be sent out wrong, nobody is perfect.. but if you phoned me ranting etc then i wouldn't have been forthcoming either.. politeness costs nothing and gets you things sorted quicker.. maybe the offer of a carrier to get them quicker, who knows..

but i had no probs using them..

 

[Gazzer]

I have just ordered some sample tiles from them and they arrived quickly and very cheap too.
My local stockist has a delivery from them almost 5 days a week and never heard anything really bad.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Whereas I'am sure there will be someone interested in your 'experience', I find that there is usually 2 sides to a issue and as you were sorted within 20 days my view is :hurray: Happy days.

 

[N!ck]

Dave, I did not phone anyone ranting.

The one and only time I lost my temper was on the final phone call. Bear in mind this is after the order had been delayed twice, an email expressing my concern was ignored, two phone calls from myself to chase up the order, a failure to return my phone call despite a promise, one of my phone calls being terminated by the bloke on the other end when I got sarcastic, an incorrect delivery time and 25% of the order missing. Despite this I phoned wallsandfloors, expressed my displeasure calmly and politely asked the sales rep if he could get me the items for next day delivery. He point blank refused and told me there was nothing at all he could do except get me them by the earliest Tuesday. That is when I lost my temper quite spectacularly. I am not stupid and know full well he will be more willing to help if I remain calm and polite. He didnt.

Yes it achieved nothing, and yes nobody is perfect. Which is why I am sure you have also lost your temper before and so may understand why I did.


The purpose of my post was simply to warn people that when things go wrong with this company (like they often can do) they are very unwilling to help and have extremely poor customer service.

 

[Mike]

sounds like they took your money hoping that the stock will come in. a lot of companies do this, not fair on the consumer

 

[Colour Republic]

Whilst I understand your frustration at things going wrong, they sometimes just do! I've used W&F a handful of times and never had a problem BUT and here's the big BUT, with any internet retailer you are always taking a calculated risk.

As a tradesman I can sometimes source materials cheaper online than I can locally, having some personal experience in selling online I can tell you margins are cut right to the bone. These companies rely on big turnover of orders to make their profit and sometimes in your case it goes wrong. There simply isn't the margins in it to drop everything and make sure you are a satisfied customer at any cost.

As a tradesman I sometimes take the risk of saving some money but it may not turn up when expected and then I can lose money. Do I pay slightly more at my local trade supplier who has higher running costs, less turnover but his margins mean he can offer a better service? or take the risk with the internet to save some money? I often do both but have to live by my choices.

I only say this because i've used W&F and had no problems, I also researched them before I placed my first order and found that whilst not perfect the feedback in general was good.