If anyone wants a good story, I can tell you the shit show that is me getting a new accessible bathroom. Because I don't write shit this unbelievable. I've been having meltdowns because of it.
This starts back in August 2021. We had sold the house and were looking to move, but our "new" place had a survey done on it and the list of red flags included: asbestos, faulty electrics, a badly installed upstairs bathroom, a leaking roof, backed up sewage pipes, and potential structural issues. Way more than we could deal with, but we need an accessible bathroom.
So we contact our local council. Submit our finances and apply for grants. We get told originally that we didn't qualify for aid and it'll cost around £15,000 for them to do the work. Then I get a phone call saying they got it wrong and it'll only be £1,500.
February 2022. The installer comes out, and tells us that we're responsible for the full £15,000. We have a conversation and turns out the person who told me that it was only £1,500 had no right to be telling me that. Of course, she phones me and tells me that there was just a misunderstanding. Absolute bullshit, but sure duck. Whatever let's you sleep at night.
June 2022. I have a degradation in my health. I have to relearn how to walk and using the toilet, and I have to defer my master's.
October 2022. Me and the husband take the plunge. We're getting private quotes and various companies out. We settle on a national company and pay the 10% deposit. My Mother-in-Law has a broken toilet and needs a full new bathroom, and we both use the same company.
December 2022. There's been a problem with our paperwork. Because my full name and contact number is on two consecutive orders, but with two different addresses, then the installer who was assigned to my address picked up the order for my Mother-in-law and has gone out and agreed to do her bathroom. But customer service seems to think that it's my job he's agreed to. So they send us out a delivery agreement for our bathroom suite, but don't tell me that it's for mine. They just arrange for a delivery that I think is for my Mother-in-law since we've not even had the installer out yet to agree to the job.
I call up our designer because we've had no installer, and the same installer who came out to my mother-in-law came to our house. He climbs the two flights of stairs and gives us a start date and the paperwork before going home.
I get a call the next day from the installer. He can no longer do the job because he needs a hip replacement.
I call Customer services to complain and find out what delivery is coming because it's got no order number. But they can't understand what's going off and tell us that the orders have gotten mixed up and we need to go to the store.
So I have to take my mother-in-law down to the store with all our paperwork after having our installer pull out on us and all this faff. I'm fuming. I don't know that they can do the job at this point. The design team confirm our orders, and show us on the system that the orders are assigned to the right addresses.
I complain about the installer. What the installer didn't tell them was that he gave us a start date and then pulled out. But the person I need to complain to on that doesn't work in store, and it's internal emails only. I explain about how this is all very poor looking and get some watery apologies.
Our second installer comes out, agrees to the job and looks at the stairs and then the design. He says that he has doubts about the shower screen getting up our stairs, but that's a design issue and he'll raise it with the store.
Our start date for work is the 30th January. Our delivery date for the shower suite is 26th (tomorrow).
Yesterday on the 24th, I get a knock at the door. The shower screens are being dropped off. Which I knew nothing about.
The swivel screen is delivered not a problem. But the main one won't fit up the stairs. He has to take it back on the van.
I phone the store. My designer isn't in, and it has to be him that I speak to. I tell them that I am going to be the first call he makes when he gets in. I call Customer service. Their hands are tied. It's a designer issue. I am so furious that I end up having a meltdown, and not eating my dinner. I don't even cook. My husband has to shove cereal down my throat followed by my medication.
This morning is the piéce de resistance.
Designer: Hi! I'm calling about the shower screen.
Me: yes. It didn't fit up the stairs. What are you going to do about it?
Designer: I'm going to phone your installer and explain the problem, and ask if he can use cardboard on Monday to measure up the size of screen that we can get up your stairs. I would do it myself but I'm not very good with tools and that sort of thing.
Me: This is the fourth problem I've had with this job. Am I actually going to have a new bathroom at the end of this or do I need to get my deposit back?
Designer: we've never had two consecutive orders with the same full name and phone number before. So it's all going pear shaped because we're used to each order having its own name and contact. Even if it's just first names being different. If I had known it would go this wrong then I would have put your husband down on one of them instead of you on both. If the installer hadn't grabbed the wrong packet at the start then I don't think we would have had this many conversations. But I'll speak to the installer and call you back to let you know. We'll get the shower screen out to you before the job is finished.
I get a call back from the designer. The installer is actually going to come out tomorrow or Friday after his current job. I call the installer and thank him. He understands I'm furious with the company and not him. He's going to call me and let me know what day it's going to be.
I couldn't write this shit. I couldn't make it up. You'd say it was unbelievable.
I'm hoping that I get a finished bathroom by the end of next week.
Oh, and I have dental work booked in 2 weeks time. Turns out my painkillers are working overtime and I have three cavities I had no clue on because they're working so well.
