Warning: Rants and moans ahead.
- The Bike Thing
- The Ankle Thing
- The Carpet Thing
Well, I’d like to say that the end of last week was a pleasure and a delight, but it wasn’t. In fact, it flat out sucked.
I’m glad to say that this wasn’t because of the New Job, which I started on Thursday. The people at New Job are all friendly, and I’m already enjoying the technical challenge and working in a completely different problem domain. But circumstances outside of work conspired to put a major downer on the last three days.
The Bike Thing
First of all, there’s the Bike Thing. I ordered a bike from a (nearly) local bike shop last week. It’s only three miles from our house to the New Job. Richard B very kindly lent me his bike a couple of weeks ago so I could see how long it would take me to cycle the distance, and the answer was 15 minutes there, and 20 minutes back. Given that the alternative is a 35 minute trip by bus and on foot, I’d almost be crazy not to cycle to work.
Anyway, when I ordered it, the bike shop confirmed that their distributor had the particular model in stock, and that it would be delivered to them on Monday or Tuesday. My plan had been to take Alex into town in Wednesday, pick up the bike, buy a bunch of accessories (including a child seat and helmets for us both) and then to cycle back home. Big adventure, lots of fun for us both.
No go. Tuesday came, and I called the bike shop to see if it had arrived. It hadn’t. They were still pretty confident that it would arrive soon, and they promised to call me as soon as it came in. On Wednesday, Alex and I took the bus into town anyway, did some shopping, and visited Scott and Ange and baby Kyle. All the while I was hoping that bike shop would call, and that we’d be able to cycle back after all, but it never happened.
Thursday morning came, and I had to take the bus-and-feet to work. As it happens it was a splendid autumn morning, crisp and sunny with plenty of dry leaves to kick through, but I was still disappointed that I couldn’t cycle the route.
On Friday afternoon I called the bike shop again and asked what was up.
“Oh,” they said, “it went missing. It looks like the distributor sent it to the wrong shop. These things happen from time to time.”
Any hope of it being re-routed so I could pick it up at the weekend? Er, no.
“The distributors have sent us out another one. It should be here Monday or Tuesday of next week…”
Great. Because I’m now working a full five-day week rather than four days part time, that means that even if it arrives when they say it will, I probably won’t be able to pick it up until next weekend. My faith in suppliers delivering goods on time is not running at a particularly high level right now, so I’m not confident of this scenario actually playing out. If they don’t have it in on Tuesday, I’m pulling my order, and I’ll get the bike somewhere online.
The Ankle Thing
My mood on Friday wasn’t helped by the fact that I was limping around with a painfully throbbing bruised ankle. The Ankle Thing happened when we were re-assembling our bed on Thursday evening. Our bed is huge and heavy, made out of fifty whole pine trees and held together with bolts and studs made from pure neutronium. Stick some tracks on it and you’d mistake it for a Challenger Tank.
Long story short, as we were putting it back together, Alex took too close an interest in the proceedings. Abi and I both yelped and pounced to stop one half of the bed from falling on his head. Doing so, we allowed the other (heavier) half to fall on both our left ankles. I think we were damn lucky it didn’t break any bones.
The Carpet Thing
Personal injury seemed depressingly appropriate for a day that had otherwise been dominated by the Carpet Thing.
Last month we ordered new carpets for our upstairs. We bought them from the CarpetRight store in Edinburgh’s Seafield area. We got a good deal on some very nice wool Berber carpet, and also on some Odor Eater underlay (padding). This particular underlay was attractive to us because Alex is prone to fits of vomiting whenever he is even slightly ill, and we’re going to have another baby to deal with in a few months’ time. When it comes to keeping the house free of smells, we need all the help we can get. Plus, the Odor Eater underlay range was being discontinued, and we got it at £4.99 per square meter.
Things started to go wrong the week after we had ordered the carpet, when a rep was supposed to come out and measure the upstairs rooms for fitting the carpet. We were told he would be there on the following Thursday morning, when Abi was at home. Well, the Thursday morning came and went. Abi called CarpetRight to ask where the rep was, and was told that he wouldn’t be out until the afternoon (at an unspecified time), and that we must have been mistaken about assuming he would be there in the a.m.
We weren’t pleased with this. Alex doesn’t like being cooped up in the house all day, and Abi had no intention of staying around to wait for the rep to show up. We told them to reschedule the measuring visit for the next Thursday, when Abi knew she would have to be at home all day anyway to supervise our joiners, who would be fitting new stair railings, banisters, and cupboard doors.
The second appointment went okay. The rep showed up eventually, as did the joiners (whose idea of a working day seems to extend from 11:00 to 15:00, or 14:30 on a Friday). About a week later we got a call saying that our carpet had arrived at the Edinburgh CarpetRight warehouse, and that we could arrange a fitting date. We did so, requesting a date several weeks ahead: Thursday 6th November. This would give us plenty of time to paint all of our door frames and skirting boards, varnish the new banisters and doors, and to move the upstairs furniture into the garage. Getting booked in for fitting date that far ahead was no problem. Would it be in the morning? Yes, it would.
As planned, we spent most of last weekend and much of the days at the start of this last week painting, varnishing, disassembling beds, and shifting bookcases. By Thursday morning the upstairs was completely empty, our garage was completely full, and our living room had turned into a three-person bedroom. Making your way from the kitchen to the front door involved ropes, climbing harnesses and the assistance of highly trained Sherpas. Also, the presence of sharp, pointy gripper strips on the stairs and in some of the rooms meant that it wasn’t safe for Alex to be upstairs any more.
Needless to say, Abi was looking forward to the carpet fitters arriving early and finishing within the estimated half-day, so that she and Alex would be able to get out of the overcrowded living room for a while.
The morning progressed. No sign of fitters. At about 10:30 Abi called CarpetRight. They seemed surprised (again) that we were under the impression that someone would be out to us in the morning. They told her that the fitter would be out by about 12:00 or 12:30. They eventually showed up at 13:30.
This in itself would have been bad enough, as it had ruined the plans Abi had for the rest of the afternoon. But towards the end of the fitting, Abi happened to notice the underlay the fitters were putting down. It was not the Odor Eater underlay we had ordered.
Naturally annoyed, Abi called CarpetRight to ask what was up. After speaking to a variety of underlings, she eventually spoke to the manager, who said that they had run out of the Odor Eater underlay, and that was why they were installing an equivalently priced product. He dismissed her with a trite apology, and the claim that there was nothing they could do about it now.
Abi was in tears when she called me. I was pretty damned upset about it, too. First of all they inconvenience us by not showing up on time, and then they replace part of our order with something completely different without notifying us. Okay, so the underlay isn’t visible, but it doesn’t have the odor-absorbing properties we ordered. It may be equivalently priced, but it is emphatically not an equivalent product. Would they have bothered to tell us if the colour of carpet we ordered wasn’t in stock, or would they have just come round and tried to install some old lime green rubbish they happened to have in the back of their warehouse?
When I left for work on Friday, I forgot to bring the receipts and contact names and numbers for CarpetRight with me, and Abi and Alex were out of the house for the whole day. It wasn’t until this morning that I was able to call CarpetRight to press our complaint further. And this is where the whole situation gets even more annoying…
I spoke to the manager, and reminded him of our situation. I asked him what he was going to do about it. He said there wasn’t anything he could do, and besides, they had installed an equivalent product, so what was I complaining about?
I explained that the underlay that went down may well be equivalently priced to the Odor Eater underlay we ordered, but it wasn’t an equivalent product. He said that we should have been called to tell us that the Odor Eater material was no longer in stock. He even said that he had a list of names of customers who had ordered it, and who had been called to notify them. Our name was on that list. Our name had been checked off as having been called.
We never received any such phone call. We have had no written or other communication from CarpetRight about the fitting, other than our copy of the initial order receipt. I told the manager that this was the case. I also said that if we had known that we couldn’t get the Odor Eater material, we would have ordered cheaper underlay. It’s possible that we wouldn’t even have ordered the carpets from CarpetRight at all, but from one of their competitors.
The work order and receipt the carpet fitter gave us states “Odor Eater” underlay. If Abi hadn’t noticed that the wrong material was going down, we wouldn’t have known of the switch at all. Am I overreacting, or does this look like a deliberate deception?
It was only when I started talking about Trading Standards and Small Claims Court that I seemed to be getting through to the manager at all. I asked if he would be willing to give us a partial refund or discount on the underlay. He said that he can’t give any discounts on underlay. (Never mind that the underlay only makes up about a quarter of the total bill.) But here’s what he did come up with:
If we go back to the shop and select a cheaper underlay material, then he will arrange–at his cost–for the fitters to return, lift the newly laid carpets, take up the current underlay, replace it with the cheaper material, and then give us a refund for the difference in price between the two types of underlay.
Is it just me, or is this not quite sane?
We paid £4.99 a square meter for the current underlay. The cheapest underlay they have in store is £3.99 a square meter. The fitter laid 45 square meters of underlay, so we could expect a £45 refund.
Assuming (charitably) that they can reclaim 80% of the more expensive underlay that went down, that’s 9 square meters of £4.99 underlay down the toilet. That’s a £44.91 loss right there, before you even look at the cost of the fitters. They took about three hours to set down some new gripper strips, and lay down the new underlay and carpet. They wouldn’t have to replace the gripper strips, but they would have to lift up the carpet to get at the underlay. Let’s say that it would take them three hours again to do the job. I don’t know how much carpet fitters cost, but I doubt if they’d work at anything less than £20 an hour. So that’s another £60 gone from CarpetRight’s books.
But wait! Here’s another wrinkle. While I was trying to get the manager to explain to me how this scenario works out cheaper than just giving us a simple refund for the difference in price, he said that the carpet fitters don’t cost him anything.
This might be true if the carpet fitters worked directly for CarpetRight. In that case, he could press them into service when they didn’t have any other jobs on. Their manpower would be already accounted for on the monthly payroll.
But this is not the case. CarpetRight subcontracts carpet fitting to independent fitters. This allows them to indulge in the slimy business practice whereby if you, as a CarpetRight customer, have a problem with the fitting, you have to take it up with the fitter yourself. As far as CarpetRight is concerned they wash their hands of you as soon as they supply the carpet to the fitter.
So how can CarpetRight say that they can get the fitting services for free if they have to get an independent contractor to do it? If this is true, then they must have some kind of agreement in place that I’m sure the Inland Revenue would love to hear about. This kind of practice is precisely what IR35 legislation was brought in to prevent.
And I haven’t even touched on the question of what we’re supposed to do in the meantime. Are we supposed to live with our house in disarray until the fitters can come back and do the job? Or do we move all the furniture back, only to have to shift it all when they return? I can give the answer to that one: we’ve already put everything back in place, and we have no intention of moving anything again for some time. I reckon it took us the best part of 7 hours to get everything back to (almost) normal. And that’s not including injury time.
(Compared to all of this, the fact that the fitter didn’t even take away the fitting waste with him, but instead left strips of carpet trimmings and underlay all over the upstairs, is almost small a factor to mention. But hey, I just did anyway.)
Am I pissed off? You betcha. Has this ruined my weekend? Damn close. When I called CarpetRight this morning, I was looking for a partial refund in compensation for giving us the wrong underlay. Something in the region of £50 on a total order of over £800 would have been reasonable. But now they’ve got me angry, and I’m going to lay the smack down instead:
- It’s time to Turbo. The Managing Director of CarpetRight PLC is John Kitching. The phone number for CarpetRight’s head office is 01708 525 522.
- Edinburgh Trading Standards will be getting a letter explaining our situation and our complaint. I’ll make sure to send a copy to Mr. Kitching as well as the manager of the Edinburgh Seafield branch.
- I think the Inland Revenue ought to know about the cozy little arrangement CarpetRight has with its subcontractors. In case it’s just the Edinburgh Seafield branch that’s in potential violation of IR35, I’d better send a copy of the letter to Mr. Kitching as well.
- Did I mention Small Claims Court? I think I did. I believe the fee for filing a claim is £27. Cheap.
- Hey, CarpetRight PLC is a publicly traded company! I could buy some stock and then go and make a nuisance of myself at their AGM!
- The road outside CarpetRight Edinburgh is a public byway. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me standing outside occasionally with a sign and leaflets warning people not to buy their carpets there, would they?
- I wonder how high up the Google search rankings for the word “CarpetRight” this blog entry can climb? It’s a shame Google doesn’t allow negative advertising, because it looks like “CarpetRight” might be a relatively cheap keyword to buy advertising space on.
I’ve got the time, and I’ve got the resources. CarpetRight has got it coming.
Go for it, Martin. CarpetRight (or perhaps more appropriately, UnderlayWrong) have clearly behaved abysmally – if not illegally – and clearly couldn’t care less about their customers. Unfortunately this scenario is common these days, but that certainly doesn’t make it right. What ever happened to putting the customer first?
I’m also sick of companies claiming to have got in touch with me when they patently haven’t. Don’t they understand that we have 1471 and answering machines?
The worst thing that any company representative can say to me when I’m complaining about something that’s their fault is “there’s nothing we can do”. That’s bullshit. It simply makes me more determined to get them to put it right.
If you want to really go for the jugular, I’d also suggest getting in touch with the Watchdog guys at the BBC. There’s nothing like a piece of bad publicity going nationwide to get the customer schmoozing juices flowing in an errant company.
Just thought I would mention that I work for Carpetright after reading that!
At least you got your carpet.
Carpetright seem to be into credit card fraud as well.
We ordered a carpet from them early this year, paid the full amount on credit card and waited for the call that the carpet was in the warehouse and ready to be fitted. However, the call never came. I queried when my carpet would be fitted and was told it would be another couple of weeks. Two weeks passed and I phoned again and was finally told that they had no idea where the carpet was. I decided that I would go elsewhere and demanded my money back.
Unfortunately the stores can only refund £50 onto a card and it had to be dealt with by head office. Having put the amount into dispute with barclaycard the amount was finally refunded in May after about 3 months.
BUT 6 months later they have just taken the full amount from my credit card without notifying me.
They would seem to be a totally crap company – never answer the phone and have no concept of customer care. We too were very disappointed that their responsibility ended on delivery and not after fitting.
Thanks Martin, I was going to browse their site, but I don’t think I’ll bother now!
Well considering Carpetright are the largest carpet company in the world, they are obviously doing something right, and i am sure the companies who you work for have made some mistakes once in a while.
Andrew, in your first comment said you work for CarpetRight. This second comment you made reflects exactly the same kind of attitude I got from the Edinburgh branch: “it’s not our problem.”
Yes, the companies I’ve worked for have made mistakes. But what do those mistakes have to do with CarpetRight’s screwups? And so what if CarpetRight is the largest carpet company in the world? Does that somehow grant them the right to ignore their customers’ complaints?
Wish I’d read this before I ordered my carpet from Carpetright!
I paid in full for my carpet at the beginning of December,from the Chesterfield Branch of Carpetright with the assurance that it would be fitted well before Christmas. Guess what? I do have my carpet, but it is rolled up, taking up space in my spare room, not down on the stairs and landing where it should be. I have been lied to and fobbed off by fitters, staff at the store, and hey, guess what again, Customer Services at Head Office is conveniently now closed until the 29th Dec – and the store doesnt open again until Boxing Day, so I cant take my complaint any further before Christmas. What a totally crap company!
Hi
What a surprise to find such a load of complints. Only today I rushed into my Shrewsbury branch of of CR as they had a further 20% off their Xmas Sale Prices.
I had been told of this the day before by a CR sales man when I was purchasing a bulk quantity of carpet. As it was near closing they agreed to give me the extra 20% on that purchase to save me comimg in today (New Years Day). Excellent I thought. So toaday with calculator in hand I worked out I could afford to do some more carpeting at that priceand rushed off.
Got there, ordered the carpet, agreed it would take a week or two (now very worried after reading others comments) then when I went to sign the credit card receipt and I saw it didn’t include the extra 20% as promised!
The lies poured forth. “That’s not available on lines with a 50% discount!” “No B**** hasn’t worked here long you shouldn’t have got it on the other carpet yestrday (or on this mornings order!!)but we won’t change now as it was his mistake not yours!”. It was now 4.58. I was surprised but thought been here before I’ll check it out later. On the wall outside there are posters clearly stating that there is FURTHER 20% OFF ALL SALES PRICES. TODAY ONLY!
So it seems they will bluntly lie and steal to extract money from customer – legalised theft or what!
The details are given above for the Managing Director John Kitching. In the past I have got the personal home address from Companies House, Cardiff. (don’t know if this is still possible) and then sent my County Court Summons in naming the Mananging Director (Wellington Motor Policies) at his Home address and the Company at H/O. It works wonders because he opens it over his breakfast and you can be sure that his legal department know of it beofre they’ve finishned their toast at home too! Usually they try the old “We disagree with your view… We’ll bring the case to a Court near to us (i.e. far from You!) stuff. Just say “fine, I’d love a day trip out, see you there.” Don’t take a solictor but tell them you’ll represent yourself cheapeer and better.
Within a week you can usually expect a cheque in the post. Plus the satisfaction of knowing that the MD has personally seen to it that that the wally dealing with your problem is seen too!And that you’ve been heard and given him (the MD) a wonderful start to the day just as your day was ruined.
Good luck. Remember these companies don’t like to go to Court any more than you do especially asit will cost them for representation. Get your facts clear and short if they do and keep it simple and to the point and I can assure you a magistrate will look on you favourably.
I found the local Trading Stands less use but mention of their name does sometimes works well.
remember that a solicitor for them will be expensive even to look at the case and then to turn up (£1000 probably) they’ll gladly settle for £500 or under just stop the case proceding. Hit them where it hurts, in the pocket. Only the MD has ears. Apologies come cheap.
Hi
My troubles with carpetright started the day my lounge and bedroom carpets were supposed to be laid. Although we had an a.m fitting booked at 12 noon there was still no sign of the fitters. We phoned the store in st albans and were told that the fitters wouldnt be here til 2pm.
With that in mind we went to the shops. While out we got a call from CR telling us there was a problem with the carpet and could we come to the store (not telling us what the prob is!). We finished in the shop and 10 miles later we arrive at the store. It turned out that there was a fault in the carpet where a strip of pile is shorter than the rest and it should never have left the factory (so much for quality control) and the fitters were worried about fitting it. They were not aware that this carpet was for 2 rooms and had to be cut prior to leaving the store. If the carpet had been ok then where would they have cut it to size? Outside in the pi##ing rain? cos there was no room inside to do it! Carpetright cant even tell the fitters how many rooms they have to do. (and yes the fitters are sub contractors, i beleive that is common for all their stores).
Eventually after giving sizes for the rooms the fitters said they could cut to size and the fault would be barely visible. And giving CR some (undue) credit I did get a £50 discount after pushing the “you have messed me around and given me the bloody hump” point, and the only help was spearheaded by the only member of staff whose IQ is bigger than their shoe size, thank you Linda of CR St Albans.
Buy my woes do not end there. I also had my hall and stair carpet on order (the same fitters would be doing this job also and suggested that the stair carpet should be “whipped” at the outer edge to stop it fraying and it looked nicer, stay with me I’ll explain soon) which couldn’t be fitted before xmas so we waited.
The fitting was booked for the 8th of Jan in the morning. 10:30 came, then 11 and 11:30, by now my wife is really pi##ed off and she called the store. “The manager should have called you yesterday to tell you the fitting has been cancelled” is what she was told. Thats a lot of help to us isnt it! Again it was linda who tried to help and find out what went wrong. Linda called us back and explained that she was off the previous day and the manager had not bothered to call us, and that the fitter was off sick, she re-scheduled the fitting for the 14th of Jan and we were first on the list. So yesterday the carpets were due, Yipee! we thought. when at 10:30 they had not turned up my wife again phoned the store to aks why are we waiting. The manager, a Mr Mike Beck, answered and told my wife to “call the fitters yourself” and gave her the number. No answer there though. So she called the store, Mike Beck again, politely trying to explain our misgivings when he interupted “you are the last CR customer to have their carpet whipped by us. You have sealed their fate, the fitters are going to be sacked”. When told that he was rude and arrogant, and customers should not be told things like that he replied “thats just the way I am and you are the one who complained so it’s your fault”. Asked if he would just wait in silence for his carpets to be fitted he said “no. I would complain. Double standards or what!. Asked if we complained to his boss about him and he was threatened with the sack, he said “I would sue you”. Well, what more was there to say than goodbye to this jumped up little git. Well done Mike Beck you have just won customer service jackass of the year award.
So CR head office was called, the previous conversation was relayed to them, the reply “you are taking this literally”. How else are you supposed to take it when some moron with all the charm of a house brick tells you it’s your fault someone is to lose their job?
my wife told them that their customer care really wasn’t very good and she was told “who are you to tell us how to run our department”. This is what you get for being polite and civil. Sod em all.
i know one thing for sure, I will never use carpetrwrong again, and I think I will write to their MD and see where that gets me.
Congrats on being the first entry on google when i searched fot CR head office address.
After having boards, underlay and ivory berbour carpet fitted by Carpetright, within a month dark blotches started appearing randomly all over my carpet, all round the edges, under the bed and even on the vertical parts of the stairs.There is no explanation to this, so I called out freinds at CR who duly sent round a member of staff to inpect it.
He too could offer no explanation and consulted the manufacturer. I then got a phone call from the assistant manager who said there was nothing the manufacturer could do and I was to get it professionally cleaned at my expense! Needless to say I was not going to be fobbed off by him so I am now in the process of dealing with the manager who is due to come and inspect it himself. Their attitude at CR is one of denying all responsibility and once they have got your money they don’t want to know. Next stop the MD!
Heard it all amillion times before and it is all true.The staff in crapetright are on such low pay,they will tell you anything to sell you the crap they pass off as carpet.Would you believe a carpet salesman on advising you on the laying of carpet?Of course you would,thats the trouble,for instance if you buy a carpet for your hall stairs and landing,look at you bill.If it is a minimum charge for the fitting(£35)that is what the fitter gets despite the fact he has to fit all the gripper rods,underlay and doorbars,this usually takes 2-3 hours on your own,also the fitter has to cut up the carpet before he gets there usually outside in the carpark.This works out to roughly £6 per hour and they use their own vehicles tools etc.Now look at your bill again,hhow much are the gripper rods ?are the made of teak or something at that price?Delivery charge?carpetright keep that,Hall stairs Landing charge?guess what?They keep that too!So £80 for your stairs to be done,well it actually only costs you 35,they keep the rest the bastards.By the way i no longer do any work for them.I once fitted a remnant in Slough that had fag ends and furniture marks on it and was told by the manager to hide them from the customer.Also as subbies,carpetright policy is not to pay the fitters for any replacements whether or not it is the fitters fault or the shit that they supply full of faults,trust me i did it for long enough but i’ve had enough.All it is that all the staff are scared witless buy the area manager,you should see the commotion that goes on the day before the big visit and if one of them turns up unannounced then all hell lets loose,hilarious to watch though!
I ordered my carpets and laminate flooring from CR in November for my new house due to be fitted 16th December. The job was to take 1 day. The fitter arrived on Dec 15th (a day early)on our moving in day. He told us what he was going to do and we told him it was wrong. He thought we were having wooden floor in our living room and cloakroom which should have been carpet and lino. Cr phoned me and said they had got the order wrong but after looking in their warehouse there was an almost identical carpet there which they will lay and if we didn’t like it they would re order the orignal carpet after xmas. The job took 3 days and we had the wrong carpet.
Jan 2nd the new carpet was ordered and due to be fitted in Feb 6th. We were to be the first job of the day as we weren’t staying in the house and could only get there in the morning. At 1.30pm we phoned CR to ask where the fitter was and was told to phone the fitter. He told us he wasn’t told we were to be first job of the day and we rearranged for Feb 9th. Again first job of the day. The fitter arrived at 10am and we left him to it. 5 missed calls later, I phoned CR to see what they wanted. They told me the carpet wasn’t big enough for the room and they would rush a new order so we get the carpet asap. As we weren’t staying at the house we didn’t mind too much until this week when we were due to go back.
This week and a phone call every day to CR they cannot tell me where my carpet is. It has been despatched but is lost in CarpetExpress (whatever that is) due to computer failure and is untraceable and am told by Banbury store there is nothing they can do and that it is MY problem.
We are now staying at my parents house because our furniture is blocking the kitchen and dining room and the carpet thats too small is still unrolled in my lounge.
A phone call this morning to customer services (whose number I found on this web site) to complain about the problem and I was once again told it was my problem and there was nothing that can be done. I was told they have had nothing but complaints for 2 weeks and she wasn’t putting up with it any more and hung up the phone on me.
Another phone call to customer services and I was told to put a complaint in writing as they can’t do any more than a store can do. When asking for the girls name iwas told, “customer services”. On asking again, “Carly”. On asking for a surname, “I don’t give that information”.
What a company. I’m going down to the store in a minute to put other customers of of buying there. I only want some carpet.
Very inretsted to read the comments from Mr Round,i worked for that shop,they used to be ok until they went through the usual high turnover of staff,what has happened to him happens at every cr shop i’ve done work for,they really,really don’t give a toss about you or the fitters,they just want your money!Don’t ever believe a thing they say,how can some spotty under paid sales person possibly advise you on the fitting of carpet?In all the time i fitted carpet(21 years)i think i only met aout 5 or 6 sales people that were ex carpet fitters who knew what they were on about,don’t trust a carpet salesman!A free bit of advice is don’t buy your gripper rods from them or the underlay,phone a fitter first it wil be a lot cheaper.
Thanks for the lowdown on Carpetright. I am in need of a new living-room carpet following an insurance claim. The company is on a list of approved retailers from “Independent Inspections Ltd” and are listed as “retailers we have had dealings with and who we would consider reputable enough to provide you with a favourable service”. Doesn’t sound like it!
regarding ‘telling on carpet fitters’with the ir 35 legislation,all, yes all the carpet fitters that do work, not work for carpet shops are independent sub contractors who usually only do a few days a week for different shops or for themselves.
Has anyone actually taken Carpetright to court and won. I am in dealings with ‘Carpetwrong’ at the moment who have proclaimed that the yellow stains that have apperared all over my beige carpet( which has been down two months) is due to dust migration through the floorboards.
When I asked the question as to why it is yellow they replied that the dust mixes with the dye and creates yellow!!!!
Not quite believing this I looked into it further with The Advanced Material Technologys and surprise,surprise it can’t be dust migration because that would be black like dust is, but they are insisitent it is. To get this cleared up and confirm what the staining is an independant inspector will have to view the carpet(at a cost of £250) to tell me what it is, so I can go back to carpetright.
Has anyone had a good experience with them !!!!!!
all shops have complaites
charlie,are the stains running in lines across the room the same way as the floorboards?
In reply to disgruntled ex carpet fitter:
The stains are in patches around the edge of the room but they do not run across the room in line with the floorboards.They are about 3inches in from the edge and are completely random.
charlie,dust can appear around the edge of carpet that has come up from around the skirting board(actually against the skirting) but this usually happens after a few years,not months and it is also black and continuous and only about2/3mm wide,i think carpet right are trying to pull a fast one, i don’t know why because it won’t cost them a penny,it is just that the fitter will have to re fit it again for free.good luck
did you know that any carpet fitter doing work for crapetwrong have to pay £5.00 per week to the mananger for an ‘administration fee’?
Regarding Carpetright, I wish you all the luck, you will need it.
They inspected, estimated, supplied and fitted carpet throughout our house. after only 11 months we started to find problems. dirt was coming up through joins in the underfelt where it had not been sealed. the carpet is badly marked and will shortly need replacement
Carpetright’s first reaction was to admit that we did not receive their their normal level of service and to apologise to us, but to refuse to do anything about it.
I then wrote direct to their chairman who promised an investigation. that was 3 months ago and while I have written to them several times they do not even reply. Phoning their customer service is no help at all.
In my experience their after sales service is terrible.
It now seems that the only recourse is to take legal action
I would certainly never buy anything from them again.
Perhaps some concerned effort from many dissatisfied customers would create enough noise for them to care. If anyone wants to email me please do so
Regarding Carpetright. I suggested that if anyone wanted to email me they could do so. It seems that my address did not appear. just in case it is enid.trevor@ntlworld.com
Trevor,not surprised to hear of your problems from c.r,i’ve done work for them before,basically the 3 reading stores are controlled by one fitter who employs his own fitters to do all his work,he is also best buddies with one of the regional managers,you are right though,the underlay should have been taped along the joins to prevent the dust from coming through,just another example of their proffesional attitude!
After building up my career from warehouse, to salesperson, to Assistant Manager with CR and forfeiting my holiday for years, i had the unfortunate experience of losing my baby daughter, I took 3 weeks off to sort myself out and bury her, they made me take a weeks holiday. Three months later I needed a hernia operation, I had to take sick leave for 2 weeks but was called in to the shop to work and was told I didnt have to lift anything but then they left me on my own in the store to do takeaways etc….The list is endless, i am not a bitter person but here is an example, while everyone was enjoying their Xmas break I had to turn up for an A frame to be delivered, sitting in the store, whilst my family were enjoying their Xmas wondering where their father was. (compassionate company)
Now after 11 years experience I was put in the warehouse as manager to boost/decrease my salary and was told all you have to do is order a few rolls, odd delivery and carry on selling to keep my commission, WRONG…. I am now filling up the skip all day, so that we can put the shutter doors down,. Meanwhile on shop floor we have employed a part time sales with no experience, no customer service, no fitting experience, no managerial experience to advise you the customer on your next CR purchase. Thats CarpetRight Madness for you !!!!! Look forward to hoovering the store, just another day… Only got myself to blame as I now see I am pond life! I still stay behind till 10 or 11 at night occasionally… who is the idiot?
On another note John Kitching has personally always been very fair to me and I greatly respect him.
HAVING WORKED FOR THE COMPANY AT EVERY LEVEL (FITTER-MANAGEMENT) I AGREE WITH ALOT OF THE COMMENTS ABOVE, CARPETRIGHT IS NOT THE MOST CUSTOMER FRIENDLY COMPANY (ALTHOUGH THIS HAS VASTLY IMPROVED IN RECENT TIMES) BUT WHAT ALOT OF PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND IS THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TRADE, ITS NOT AS SIMPLE AS BUYING A T.V, OR A NEW SOFA, THEIR ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT STAGES FROM THE SALES FLOOR TO THE CARPET BEING LAYED THAT INEVITABLEY THINGS WILL GO WRONG, THIS COUPLED WITH CARPETRIGHT BEING THE LARGEST RETAILER IN THE WORLD IS A RECIPE FOR THE ABOVE COMMENTS IE MORE CUSTOMERS = INCREASED COMPLAINTS, SIMPLE FACT. I AM AMAZED TO SEE FITTERS COMPLAINING, HAVING DONE IT MYSELF I AGREE IT IS HARD WORK AND CERTAIN FITTING JOBS ARE MORE DIFFICULT THAN OTHERS (SWINGS AND ROUND ABOUTS) BUT AS A SUB CONTRACTOR IT IS EASY TO EARN £150+ A DAY WHICH I AM SURE MANY OF YOU WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY WITH.
DISGRUNTLED FITTER – MOST FITTERS ARE, REASON, HARD WORK IS NOT MUCH FUN, IT IS LOVELY ON A DAY WHERE YOU DO A HOUSE FULL OF FOAMBACKS, £200 AND HOME BY THREE OCLOCK, NEXT DAY £120 FINISH AT SIX, END OF THE WORLD, FACT IS SOME FITTERS ARE UNABLE TO TAKE THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTH, BUT BE ASSURED THEY ARE ALL WEALTHY!
STAFF RELATED ISSUES AS ABOVE ALSO AMAZE ME, I KNOW THAT WITH THIS COMPANY IF YOU ARE WILLING TO BE ENTHUSIASTIC AND LEARN YOU WILL PROGRESS, YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN AS WITH ANY JOB, ANY SALESMAN WORTH HIS SALT WILL EARN £1500 TAKE HOME PER MONTH, THIS IS ONLY AQUIRED THROUGH HARD WORK.
ANOTHER COMMENT I HAVE TO MAKE IS THAT I KNOW THAT CARPETRIGHT ARE THE CHEAPEST, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU DISECT THE BREAKDOWN OF COSTINGS I.E GRIPPER UNDERLAY FITTING ETC, CARPETRIGHT WILL BEAT ANY RETAILER HANDS DOWN WITH THEIR BOTTOM LINE PRICE, WHEN SHOPPING FOR CARPETS YOU COMPARE WHAT YOU ARE GETTING FOR YOUR MONEY AND 9 TIMES OUT OF TEN CARPETRIGHT WILL WIN BE LESS EXPENSIVE.
FINAL COMMENT, CARPETRIGHT HAVE TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER RELATIONS WHEN THINGS DO GO WRONG, BUT COMPLAINTS PER 100 CUSTOMERS ARE NO LESS THAN BOTH ALLIED COURTS AND MASKREYS – FACT
dear amazed ,why should sub contract fitters have to put up with ‘swings and roundabouts’ with payment for jobs when clearly carpetright ARE blatently RIPPING OFF the fitters with the absurd hsl surcharge that the customer is charged that crapet wrong get for us doing the work.The customer has already paid it ,so why does cr get it?It certainly isn’t for estimating judging by the amount of cock up plans i’ve had to re-do.ta ta and have fun in your pathetic little company.By the way why is carpet fitting the only trade that is liable to have pay to replace the whole thing if some thing goes wrong and why should the fitters do free replacements for dodgy carpet,thats not swings and roundabouts thats being ripped off.
ALL JOBS HVE SWINGS AND ROUND ABOUTS, ALL COMPANIES CHARGE EXTRA FOR FITTING STAIRS, BY WORKING FOR CARPETRIGHT YOU ARE ACCEPTING THAT IF A REPLACEMENT IS REQUIRED THEN YOU WILL REPLACE IT WITHOUT CARGE, AND YOU WILL NOT GET THE EXTRA CHARGE INCURRED FOR STAIRS, BUT YOU ALSO ACCEPT, £2.30 PER M2 IN DIRECT PAYMENT FROM CUSTOMERS WHICH AS YOU KNOW, AND FAIL TO DENY ADDS UP TO A VASTLY SUM AT THE END OF THE WEEK, YOU ALSO ACCEPT NO ADMINISTRATION, NO ADVERTISING, AND A CONSTANT FLOW OF WORK!!!
THE AMOUNT OF REPLACEMENTS THAT IS ISSUED PER FITTER PER WEEK WILL RARELY EXCEED 30M2, A SMALL PRICE TO PAY!
WHEN YOU TOOK THE JOB YOU WERE FULLY AWARE. IN COMPARISON TO THE ABOVE IF YOU WANT TO BE CONTRACTED, WORK FOR MASKREYS EACH DAY ON A BASIC RATE, LET THEM CHARGE THE CUSTOMER X AMOUNT WHILST YOU RECIEVE A FRACTION OF THAT SUM!!
CARPET RIGHT DO NOT RIP FITTERS OFF, THOUSANDS OF FITTERS EARN A WEALTHY LIVING THAT MOST PEOPLE WOULD DREAM OF, HARD WORK AND A FEW REPLACEMENTS FREE OF CHARGE SURELY PAYS OFF FOR THEM. TAKE THE ROUGH (REPLACEMNTS) WITH THE SMOOTH (££££, NO ADVERTISING, NO ADMINSTRATION, NO WORRY OF WHERE YOUR WORK IS COMING FROM, MORE ££££) AND IT PAYS!!
do plumbers do freebies?why should we do replacements for free when it isn’t our fault?the amount of times that a faulty carpet has been fitted just so the customer has a carpet (free fitting)then when the replacement turns up either a.you get to do it again this time with furniture or b.another fitter does it and gets the money.I don’t know if it is because i ‘ve worked in some dodgy shops or c r are alright!haven’t found a decent one yet apart from Banbury but when they changed managers(yet again)all the work went tits up.
reply to charlie
I have got exactly the same problem as you. It appears that dust is migrating through the boarding and underlay and appearing randomly over the carpet around the edges and across the floor. According to BS5325/2001 the company should advise that the skirting boards and floorboards are sealed and an interlay fitted under the underlay. This was clearly not done in our cases.I am in the process to writing to the MD at the head office, and the chairman. Contact me to let me know how you got on with your carpet. CJButlerfish@aol.com
Good luck!
to cbutler,good luck writing to the m.d.,my advice is don’t waste a perfectly good stamp as you won’t get anywhere!Part of the reason that that interlay wasn’t put down may have something to do with the fact that none of the staff know what they are doing particularly estimators,as i’ve said before,how can you possibly know how to estimate properly unless you have had SOME carpet fitting experience.good luck.did you know that c r made £61 million profit last year?All down to hidden charges paid for by the customer and fitters.
WHY IS IT THAT CARPET FITTERS KNOW ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING ABT EVERYTHING, THEY ARE GENIUSES!!!!!
POWER TO THE FITTERS, WOT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT THEM, FROM PROFIT MARGINS TO ESTIMATING TO DRAUGHT EXCLUSION AND BRITISH STANDARDS, SEEMS TO ME THAT UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN A CARPET FITTER YOU CANT GET ON IN ANY JOB, SALES, ESTIMATING, MEAN NOTHING UNLESS YOUVE PARTICIPATED IN THE TRUSTY OLD ROUTINE OF CARPET FITTING!!!!!!!!!
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