Badly Fitted Kitchen Lino

I got good quality lino fitted in my kitchen today by BargainTown. The fitting was really shoddy. The fitter didn't even take up the kick boards to run the lino underneath. Instead he cut the lino to the kick board and it looks very bad.

I phoned up to complain afterwards and was told that unless I removed the kick boards myself the fitter wouldn;t do so, apparently its Bargaintowns policy. A fitter had a cupboard collapse on him a few years ago and they aren't removing kick boards since. The thing is I was in the house at the time and if I had known that the fitter wasn't willing to remove the kick boards, I would have happily done it for him.

There were another few spots where the fitting was really poor with gaps between the wall and skirting.

They also left the place in right mess and didn't take any of the waste lino with them. I also complained about this and apparently this is also company policy they don't clean up after themselves.

Apparently they are sending out an inspector later in the week to inspect the work but I can't imagine we will get much satisfaction.

Any advice, do I have a leg to stand on to get them to replace the lino and do a proper job?

I'd say you should get your cameras out and photo every discrepancy and error they made. They should have handed you or told you what they didn't do or what they do in the course of fitting. If I were you I'd start preparing for a Small Claims Court case.

We got Marmoleum flooring in our kitchen many years ago. We got a design feature around the edge. We ended up with small pieces lifting and curling over the years which we glue back ourselves. The whole thing was badly cut with mixed sized pieces and gaps at joins. We never paid for the flooring. We have lived with this over the years. Looking back I am sorry that we never got the whole thing replaced but as it was glued to the cement floor we were concerned that lumps of the floor levelling compound would also lift when we were taking the Marmoleum up.

I got lino fitted a few years ago in kids playroom (has a road design so was not cheap). It was glued down and we were told in advance if we wanted it to be under the skirting board we'd have to have it removed before the fitters arrived. As it was a new house the skirting board wasnt on wall but thank god as the edge was really hacked at but when covered by the skirting board was fine. The lads who did the fitting even asked me on the day when way I wanted the pattern to run as the room is square.

Id take photos as mercman stated and also sent a letter to Bargaintown (check consumerconnect.ie for layout if you need help).

Did you not get a contract when buying the lino and fitting telling you their terms and conditions, that you had to sign. I know I did when buying my carpets and was made well aware of the fact the fitters were employed independently of the store (which I wasnt happy with at the time).

Sandals said:

fitters were employed independently of the store (which I wasnt happy with at the time).

Click to expand...

So where exactly does this leave anyone with a problem with fitting? The fitters have been supplied/recommended by the store.

Twitter is a great forum for giving a positive review to shops / restaurants / services and equally a great forum for tweeting your dissatisfaction (make sure you use a hashtag such as #bargaintown and/or #fail). I know of people who have gotten a much better customer service response when they made their dissatisfaction clear on Twitter.

Also, and it's a personal thing, but generally if I put a bad review out there I also like to put out a good one (for something else, obviously) just to keep things balanced

If they've a Facebook page also, was recommended here to me a few weeks ago when I had a problem with Groupon, thankfully didnt need to go down that road.

Thanks for your help everyone.
My husband took plenty of photographic evidence today, which we will have at the ready is we need to make a claim to the small claims court.

I drafted my complaint letter this evening and it will go in the post tomorrow.
Sandals- Your recommendation for consumerconnect was spot on, I used one of their templates it was excellent.

I didn't have to sign any contract with regard to the the fitters. All I have is my receipt from Bargaintown for the lino. There was also no info on how to prep the room before the fitters arrived.

I had the same issue with this company last year. I bought good quality lino from them for a small bathroom. They were much cheaper than anyone else at the time for the lino, but the fitter made some mess of installing it. Thankfully he had enough cop-on to not cut it too small, but cut it about half an inch too big which meant is kicked up everywhere. I ended up trimming it myself and sealing it properly at the edges with silicone.

And to top it all off he was a grumpy old sod. It took me about 15 mins to give him directions to my house on the phone as he was "lost", and he spent most of his time when he got here whinging about being delayed because he was lost. Needless to say he wasnt offered a cup of tea!

I needed a carpet for my stairs this year and went to Des Kelly. They came, installed, cleaned up after them and were gone in about 40 mins - no fuss and a good job done.

(no connection to either of the companies above, other than being a customer)

Got lino installed in a bathroom the other day from Des Kelly. Was a tiny bit miffed that they left their messy off-cuts lying around instead of taking them with them. On the other hand, they did a very neat job of the room itself, and at €80 for the whole job including lino and fitting I'd say they need to get from one job to the next in about five minutes flat if they're to make any margin at all.