Tile shop scam?

cmalone

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Didn't realise this could happen- thought we were alone- A number of people have told me similar experience with tile shops. When you give in measurements, they give you less of everything! Reason- so you'll return! and then they give you too much extra...

Anyone else have this experience?
 
We had something similar a good few years back.

We went in to buy <X> square metres of tiles, selected the tiles, put in the order and got <X-1> square metres.

When we checked this we got some sort of story along the lines of "Ah sure, Mister, I only know square feet, so when I get an order in square metres I convert it and then key it in, so it's not exact, but sure like it's nearly right."

The ordering system would then take his square feet figure and convert it back to square metres, but using a different conversion factor - leading back to a different number of square metres than requested. The fact that the tiles were shipped, priced and stocked in square metres didn't seem to put this guy off converting everything and getting it wrong.

z
 
In my experience its easy enough to throw a quick check on whats supplied - boxes af tiles, adhesive, grout, etc all have coverage / area printed on them

I usually err on the side of generosity on the understanding (checked with shop first) that unopened boxes can be returned for refund.
 
mathepac - it is easy enough to do a quick check if the quantities are round figures. We ordered maybe 4 square metres of tiles and when we went to pickup thought it was a bit odd that we got 3 full boxes and one opened one. If we had been ordering 3.5 square metres we wouldn't have known until we got home and 90% of the way through the job that we were short.

z
 
We bought tiles for the kitchen walls and floor 2-3 years ago in one of those tubs and tile warehouses. When we found ones we liked we said we would take them and asked the assistant to give us grout and whatever else was needed. We were surprised that the other stuff cost so much, but just paid up anyway.

We got a tiler to lay the tiles. He laughed when he saw what we had been charged and advised us that we could get the stuff for half price in places like Atlantic, Woodies etc,

We also had a bag of cement and some other supplies left over when the tiler was finished. We brought them back to where we had bought them, and we had an argument with them when we looked for a full refund on the returns. They wanted to charge us a restocking charge. We successfully argued with them that as they had oversupplied us in the first place that it was unreasonable for them to try and charge us for taking back the excess.


Murt
 
Didn't realise this could happen- thought we were alone- A number of people have told me similar experience with tile shops. When you give in measurements, they give you less of everything! Reason- so you'll return! and then they give you too much extra...

Anyone else have this experience?

Maybe it is widespread..maybe not..
In the last 6 years I, a woman with the look of someone who hasn't a clue about DIY, have bought tiles for a downstairs toilet in a city centre tile/bathroom shop,floor tiles for a kitchen and wall tiles for a kitchen in two separate but well known and very large tile shops, floor and wall tiles for a bathroom in another large tile shop and floor and wall tiles for an en suite in the same place but a couple of years apart and I have never been ripped off, I have never been supplied with an excessive amount of tiles adhesive or grout.. or too little of any of above either,maybe I have been lucky and I dont doubt that rip offs occur but sometimes I feel in the last few years that we are over anxious in looking for scams etc... we are all convinced that we are about to be ripped off at every turn when the reality may be somewhat different! Maybe we should all chill out a little, Oops this may be turning into a rant more appropriate for lettin of steam so I'll sign off now ...maybe I forgot to take my little pink pill today:eek::D
 
mathepac - it is easy enough to do a quick check if the quantities are round figures...
True - there are seldom tiling jobs that require round numbers, so I round my estimated requirements up.
...We ordered maybe 4 square metres of tiles and when we went to pickup thought it was a bit odd that we got 3 full boxes and one opened one. If we had been ordering 3.5 square metres we wouldn't have known until we got home and 90% of the way through the job that we were short.

z
I'm not sure I fully understand your point here, but I think it means you didn't check that the materials you had been supplied with tallied with what you ordered, and you didn't find out until you had made significant progress with the tiling work?

If my interpretation is correct, then IMHO, it sounds less like a seller's scam and a bit more like an over-trusting purchaser problem.
 
mathepac - nope, you picked me up wrong. We did check when taking the tiles and the amount was clearly wrong so we got them to give us the correct amount before we left. I was just pointing out that when the tiles are boxed in units of 1 square metre and you order 4 then you can clearly tell something is wrong when you get 3 full boxes and a part filled box when you would expect to get 4 full boxes.

I don't think it is a scam, but just poor practice. We ordered 4 square metres of tiles and they tried to give us less than that due to their error.

z
 
...and asked the assistant to give us grout and whatever else was needed. We were surprised that the other stuff cost so much, but just paid up anyway.

Golden rule, never buy this stuff from the tile shops!
Leo
 
In my experience some of the sales assistants in some of these tile shops (and other similar retail outlets for homewares etc) have poor skills when it comes to working out basic calculations like area, coverage etc. This may be complicated by the use of both metric and imperial measurements. I would always have areas worked out and have my calculator with me if I visit such shops; room dimensions alone are inadequate and it's always better to have approximate figures in mind before making a selection and doing a deal. As Leo suggests the grouts, adhesives, trims etc are nealry always cheaper elsewhere and most builder's merchants stock these products now anyway.
 
mathepac - nope, you picked me up wrong. We did check when taking the tiles and the amount was clearly wrong so we got them to give us the correct amount before we left. I was just pointing out that when the tiles are boxed in units of 1 square metre and you order 4 then you can clearly tell something is wrong when you get 3 full boxes and a part filled box when you would expect to get 4 full boxes.

I don't think it is a scam, but just poor practice. We ordered 4 square metres of tiles and they tried to give us less than that due to their error.

z
Sound, thanks for the clarification.
 
its an old skol trick alright and we used to be told to be it when I works at a well known chain of builders merchants
 
I used to work for a tile adhesive distributor - selling to multiples, merchants and tile shops. As Leo said never, ever, ever buy adhesive or grouts from tile shops. You will get better value from multiples - Woodies, Atlantic or B & Q. If you require specialised adhesives then maybe there is a case for the tile shop but B & Q have a fairly extensive range.


S.B.
 
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