Carpet Court - Newmarket / Flooring Contractors in Newmarket

In December 2012, I engaged Carpet Court to supply and install vinyl in my toilet and bathroom. As I was still to renovate my… main bathroom, the work was to be done in two stages. First, the toilet, and the vinyl was installed about this time.

The problems began not long after. On 22 July 2013 I emailed the sales rep Colette with my concern that the vinyl in the toilet had bubbled near the edges quite significantly, and asked whether someone was able to come and take a look to see if it could be fixed. That issue and query was missed and/or ignored. I emailed again on 22 October 2013 apologising that the main bathroom was taking longer to renovate than expected, and again noting the issues in the toilet. I asked whether the installer could come and assess the problem.

Carpet Court’s response was that the installer would look at the issue when the remainder was installed in the main bathroom. Heaven forbid the installer has to make a special trip to fix his work.

The main bathroom finally got to a stage where the floor could be laid. On 24 June 2014 I emailed Colette asking to book in the second, and final, stage of installation. Following a discussion, on 2 July 2014 I again emailed Colette asking for the next three available dates so I could try and book annual leave at work to be there to let the installer in.

I didn’t hear back. I tried emailing follow ups on 21 July and 30 July 2014. Eventually someone from Carpet Court got back to me, and we arranged to book in a time on Wednesday, 6 August 2014. Apparently Colette was on leave, however no one had bestirred themselves to set up an out of office to let customers know, nor did it seem anyone was checking her emails for queries/concerns etc from customers. In the intervening period, I was left wondering whether I was sending emails in the abyss and/or being ignored (which, as you will see later, becomes a common theme).

I was unable to get annual leave for Wednesday but it took so long to get a response from Carpet Court to my request for an appointment that I was unwilling to let the date go. So I managed to convince my Dad to step in for me so that someone would be at the house to let the installers in when they arrived.

It is not simply a matter of my Dad popping down the road at his convenience. He works long night shifts in South Auckland. He came to my house around 6am that morning (shortly before I myself had to leave the house) and napped on the couch next to the front door so he could awake at a moment’s notice to let the installers in. He waited. And he waited. Unable to leave the house or do anything until the installers showed up, he waited some more.

By around 4:30pm when nobody had showed, I had had enough. I contacted Carpet Court Newmarket to ask where the installers were. The person who answered the phone was unable to assist me, but assured me that someone would ring me back shortly. Some 45 minutes later, someone did. All they were able to say to me was that the ‘wheels had fallen off the bus’, they weren’t sure what had happened, and that someone would contact me tomorrow.

That sort of response without any practical solution was a slap in the face after the day that my Dad had – particularly as he then needed to again work his overnight shift, having slept fitfully on an uncomfortable couch waiting for an installer who never showed.

I emailed Carpet Court’s head office the evening of 6 August 2014 to complain about the above. To date, head office has not responded.

Despite Carpet Court’s assurances no one called me to explain (or apologise!) on Thursday, 7 August 2014. I again emailed head office to complain. Yet again there has been resounding silence by way of response.

After chasing, we finally got the installer to come round to fix the toilet floor and install the vinyl in the bathroom.

The story does not end here.

On Saturday, 16 August 2014, we rang Colette at Carpet Court to raise our concerns about the workmanship in both the bathroom and the toilet, and emailed her some photos of the problems. These included: the ends of the metal bit that goes on the carpet-vinyl border in the doorway to the main bathroom were not cut straight and it had scratched the paintwork; and along the toilet wall the vinyl was wonkily cut, with bits where we could see right through to the underlying material underneath and even a tag sticking up that the installer hadn’t cut off. We also raised our concerns with her that Carpet Court had laid MDF underneath the main bathroom floor, and queried whether MDF on the floor was normal in a wet area.

(I have since spoken with a highly recommended vinyl layer who told me he would never put MDF – or what Carpet Court call ‘Bison Board’ – down in a bathroom because it swells if there are any leaks. He said he would’ve put a waterproof membrane at least around the edges to stop water going down)

Colette promised to get back to us in the week – Monday from recollection. Characteristically, she never did. In the end, fed up, we had to physically go down to the store the following Saturday so that Carpet Court couldn’t possibly ignore us any longer.

The manager, Richard, promised that he would sort out the problem. He later emailed in September rebuffing our concerns about the MDF under the bathroom floor, but advising the installer would fix the issues in the toilet. I responded on 16 September – leaving aside the Bison Board/MDF issue, I noted that after a very short amount of time, the vinyl in the toilet was bubbling AGAIN i.e. after the installer’s second attempt. I asked for a refund and for Carpet Court to remove the vinyl taking me back to where I started.

That request for a refund was ignored. The installer rang me a few days later saying Richard had left him a message to call to fix up the metal strip in the bathroom. I said I would get back to him as I was not sure what was going on (and was home sick at the time), and emailed Richard on 29 September 2014 asking for an update on my request for a refund.

Richard rang back the following day. No refund and Noel the installer would be coming back to fix his work.

Let’s give him one more chance I thought. It will be fixed this time.

Well eventually the installer did come back to redo the toilet on 22 November. Not before further chasing on our part, and the usual promise that he would get back to us when he cancelled which went unfulfilled. During the installation we raised our concerns with him that again it seemed the vinyl did not line up with the skirting (i.e. a gap of some 0.5cm between the edge of the vinyl and the skirting). But he was confident that he could stretch the vinyl and glue it in place. For a couple of weeks it seemed that it was finally fixed.

That would be too easy.

The vinyl has sprung back into shape. Again, there is clearly a gap between vinyl and skirting. I emailed Richard on 8 December with photos and expressing my disappointment over the poor quality of work. As Carpet Court had had three goes at the toilet now, I asked for a refund.

Naturally, my email has been ignored."