what a terrible day I'm having

[faithhealer]

tell more rob

 

[SandyFloor]

John, I feel your pain. I just went swimming and the recent heat wave has warmed the pool water to 90F. Optimum temp is 86F. It was inhumane and unbearable!

That must be unbearable. You should come over here and take a dip in the North Sea. I guarantee your bits would shrivel to how they were when you were five years old :yikes::yikes:

 

[Rob Z]

Who's Johnny Knoxville? Nah, don't bother telling me...

G, most definately...Johnny Knoxville IS NOT your type of humor.

 

[Rob Z]

That must be unbearable. You should come over here and take a dip in the North Sea. I guarantee your bits would shrivel to how they were when you were five years old :yikes::yikes:

Sandy, I've never been to the UK, but the North Sea sounds very very cold to me! BRRRRR!:yikes:

 

[Colour Republic]

tell more rob

it's a tiny thing really, the bathroom i'm fitting has a larger version of this vanity unit

Now the basin sits on top of the carcase and 'locks' into place on some grooves, but the basin is too small to fit on to the carcase even though it is specifically made for the unit! Now I know ceramics have a tolerance but if the two don't fit together then in my mind it's faulty.

I have three options, I either shorten the carcase by 5mm in width so the basin drops in (the doors will still close and align)

I modify the top of the carcase so it no longer has the grooves but then leaves cut edges which I’ll have to seal

or I send the damn thing back, it's not a cheap import, it's £400 worth of vanity unit, I paid for something which hasn't been delivered and I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend 2/3 hours of my time putting it right.
More than likely i'm sending it back, I wouldn't expect my customers to accept defects in my work so I don't expect to have it done to me.

Trouble is the last three bathrooms I’ve had off these people there has been something wrong, on each occasion the manufacturers have put their hands up and admitted fault, but it still makes me look like a moaner if I then go moan about this. I know it's not the traders fault as I know the source of the goods have been from different distributors and different manufacturers... I'm just very unlucky at the moment
:rant:

 

[Rob Z]

Rob, two years ago we did a bathroom with the same kind of vanity/sink combo, and we had the same problem. I ended up spending my time to alter the carcass of the cabinet in the way you describe and just got on with the job. I was :incazzato: but the vendors don't really give too much of a care about stuff like this. They just think I'm too picky. They usually say "Rob, we've sold xxxx of these things and no one has ever said there was anything wrong with them...."

Right.... :69:

 

[Colour Republic]

Rob, two years ago we did a bathroom with the same kind of vanity/sink combo, and we had the same problem. I ended up spending my time to alter the carcass of the cabinet in the way you describe and just got on with the job. I was :incazzato: but the vendors don't really give too much of a care about stuff like this. They just think I'm too picky. They usually say "Rob, we've sold of these things and no one has ever said there was anything wrong with them...."

Right.... :69:

Yeah heard that one before!!! I know he thinks i'm picky as when I was choosing the thermostatic valves for the towel rail I wanted to name them, he rolled his eyes and just smiled at me, i'm sure most people just say 'and a pair of valves' not really caring if they go or not.

TBH I know he would sort this for me, he is a decent bloke. In fact I only use him because I like him, I can get my gear cheaper elsewhere but from the very first day I met him he gave me credit without even checking out who the hell I was, he did it on a hand shake and that is very rare to find nowadays

 

[user123]

Sigh ..... lovely.... I do love perfectionistic work standards....I really do!:hurray:

 

[Colour Republic]

ok :rant: on

So today I turn up and look at the vanity unit again, I know in my heart if I send it back it's only going to cost me in lost time, so I decide I shall modify it, but as stubborn as I am I decide I shall leave it till last as it's still grates on me.

So I go to fit the shower valve, in fact there is nothing wrong with the shower valve but I still can't help to notice that the build quality has drastically dropped over the years, this is a brand I have used a lot and have championed to my customers, I can't help but think what I’m now holding in my hand resembles a cheap Chinese import that I could have bought for a quarter of the price.

I can name countless brands in kitchens, bathrooms & tools that seem to have devalued their brand by re-branding cheap crap over the last 4/5 years! It really is starting to nark me.

I then proceed to fit the bath shower mixer (same brand)... open the box and see one of the levers has fallen off, I roll my eyes and go to put it back on, I look at the grub screw that has failed and notice how badly machined it is, cheap metal, bad tapping... I'm now convinced this is crap (amazing what you can decipher from a grub screw) if you aren't prepared to spend 3p on a decent grub screw what the hell is the rest of the mechanics like. I then notice that due to the lever knocking about in transit, it has gouged the chrome on the tap body.

So now I’m defiantly sending back the bath tap and the vanity unit, I inspect everything else, I notice the basin tap has a blemish, ok it's small and hard to notice but it's is brand new gear, if it were clothing it would be sold as a second. The list is now 1 x vanity unit, 1 x bath shower mixer, 1 x basin tap.... I check out the toilet... it too has a blemish, one that they knew about at the manufacturing stage as I can see the filler, I decide that I'm gonna let this one ride as when the cistern lid is placed on it will hide 95% of it... but still this is a £200 toilet that has the quality of a B&Q £80 special. Now on to the shower rail kit, the rail is made of quality stainless steel, the shower head out of 'chromed' plastic', ok... but the outlet elbow (it's a concealed shower valve) is also plastic and is almost impossible to fit! The only way to fit this elbow is to cut a hole in the wall, have a flexi sticking out, cut a hole in the tile, fix the elbow to the tile, then connect the flexi to the elbow and tile, then stick the tile in place! so every time somebody pulls on the shower hose it is also pulling on the tile, so for £120 of shower rail I’ve got 1 x stainless steel tube about 600mm long and not a lot else.

Have I moaned enough yet???

No? Ok... So I check out the mirror unit, all seems to be alright, so I hang it on the wall (this unit is part of the vanity unit)

I install it, then notice a chip in the laminate on one of the shelves, ok so the shelves are inside and I can turn the shelf upside down so it isn't visible but still...

WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO QUALITY CONTROL!!!!!


So there you have it, my rant for the day, £1,900 of bathroom suite and the only thing that has been delivered as promised is the bath and towel rail, all £400 of it.


Thank you for letting me bore you:smilewinkgrin:

 

[faithhealer]

no slug on my strawberry today rob anyway lol

 

[user123]

That's one of the reasons why B&Q is so successful - people notice that there is less and less high qulity about, at least not reliably and think, what the heck, go for cheap and replace cheaply... the throw away society is born.....

 

[DHTiling]

G, most definately...Johnny Knoxville IS NOT your type of humor.

Maybe we shall post some knoxville vids in the arms for G..:lol:

 

[Colour Republic]

no slug on my strawberry today rob anyway lol

If you want to help me then send that slug my way, they work similar to a stress ball right

 

[Colour Republic]

That's one of the reasons why B&Q is so successful - people notice that there is less and less high qulity about, at least not reliably and think, what the heck, go for cheap and replace cheaply... the throw away society is born.....

G I think you're right, and that is what's hurting the most. The only thing that was delivered as promised was the bath and I know B&Q can't compete, many people with see a bath as a bath but I can tell the difference between a cheap 5mm jelly mould and a quality 10mm acrylic bath but as for the rest of it i'm struggling to now believe my own words when I get my customers to go for 'quality' materials

 

[user123]

Hmmm, about the hurting bit, you can instead point out your quality workmanship to them, -(even to yourself, an internal posture type thing)- that you are able to make the best of even those products who unfortunately aren't the same any more. Globalisation and the cheap labour market has thrown quality assurances like 'Made in Britain' let alone 'Made in Germany' not exactly to the dogs but at least into disarray, which means good and bad workmanship has to make the difference now, as it will be even more obvious. Just a thought....