Stuff that's shoddily made

[FredDibnah]

So we have a small downstairs toilet that was decorated when we first moved in back in 2004 but is now a bit tired looking so we decide to get it re-done.

To save a few bob, I arrange for a handyman guy who we know to come and do the stuff I can't do very well (plastering the walls and laying the floor tiles and painting nicely - i.e. everything that requires either patience or skill ) and I do the stripping out of the old sink and toilet, wallpaper and wall tiles off, and will refit the sink and new toilet when he is done.

All goes well - I do the stripping (ooer), he comes in and does the plastering, the tiling and the skirting last week, and then I'm left this weekend to do the simple stuff of hanging the sink, connecting the radiator and putting in the toilet.

The sink and rad are just re-used so they go back on no trouble and the plumbing is easy-peasy.

We treated ourselves to a new bog, however, as 7 year old toilets always look a bit dodgy and toilets aren't too pricey.

I had toddled off last week to buy a new bog and just went for a cheap and cheerful B&Q "Treviso" that comes all in a box and should slot in.

This morning I have just one job left to do - and that's unpack and slot in this new bog. I tell the wife it will take 1 hour, or 2 if I plod along.

I unpack the box and already get a bit worried that the box looks like it's been opened and resealed ...... check the innards and, sure enough, the plastic bag that holds the cistern innards is open and on a quick check I find that the bolts that hold the cistern to the pan are missing.

I drive down to B&Q and tell the guy on customer service and he goes off and comes back with a new sealed bag of innards (I assume he ripped open an existing box - so good luck to the next buyer!!) and I go back home with a new bag of innards.

I start to construct the toilet. All going along ok til I look at the "doughnut" rubber seal that goes between the cistern and the pan. It's about as thick as a washer . Now I've done a few toilets in my time so I know that these leak like a sieve if they aren't big and squishy so you can really get a good seal between the two parts. I chuck the rubbish new one and retrieve the old one off the old bog. Even at 7 years old it's more squishy and substantial than the new piece of rubbish that comes with the new bog.

I soldier on.

Get it all fitted together, connect the water feed, open the valve to fill it, and the water comes into the cistern, fills up to the float bowl.... and carries on inexorably to the top of the cistern. I flush the bog, let it re-fill and again it doesnt stop once it's reached the limit . I strip down the unit, check the valve, check the float bowl - it's basically knackered. Never going to work, no seal on the incoming water so it just fills and fills and fills.

Down to B&Q again, tell the guy that it's knackered, he goes off and brings a new one (good luck again to the next buyer!) and after a few choice words about the "quality" of this stuff I go home.

New one works fine so all done by 3pm. A mere 5 hours start to finish due to 2 trips to B&Q and an hour trying to fix a broken brand new part.

I know it's only 150 quid for the toilet, and I know that "good" ones are probably 250-300, but why bother making something so shoddy that out of the box it doesn't work.

I checked the stack of boxes when I went back the second time and out of 15 or so on the racks, every single one was resealed with clear tape because I assume just about everyone gets canibalized for the sub-set of decent parts that exists across the lot of them.

What a waste of everyones time and money (not least the B&Q staff).

I really, really HATE everything about DIY..... Should have just given the handyman another few hundred quid and got him to do the lot! but it's even more of a pain when the basic stuff you buy is just so cr@ppily put together and checked at manufacture.....

[badgers_nadgers]

I went to a b&q for the first time in ages yesterday. All the packs of loo roll holders I was looking at had been opened and had bits missing. Not only that, but they seemed to be out of stock of just about anything I wanted. Never going there again.

I actually said to my wife that it had the feel of a business that was a week away from going under.

[cue2]

B is for Bad
Q is for quality?
it does seem pointless and wasteful to build stuff below an adequate standard. Still,if the picture on the website or the box looks good enough. Ironic this example is a crap toilet.

[1of1]

The MFI bathroom I fitted when we moved in here was full of garbage quality components - twice I have had to replace the bath drain due to poor build quality causing leaks, now the base of the syphon in the hidden cistern is leaking, can't source the parts I need, so looks like a whole cistern / syphon will need to be replaced

[Joss]

Seems to be the norm these days. You have to pay a fortune for stuff just to be built right

[GJ]

Gawd I could bore you all with so many similar stories.... but I wont

False economy is the phrase I use now.

I only buy top quality stuff at a premium from a proper plumbers merchant. That's
the way to save time and money.

It may seem expensive but it's a darn sight cheaper than employing a plumber and
if you've bought good stuff it actually goes together properly.

It might even last quite a few years

[FredDibnah]

Originally Posted by GJ

Gawd I could bore you all with so many similar stories.... but I wont

False economy is the phrase I use now.

I only buy top quality stuff at a premium from a proper plumbers merchant. That's
the way to save time and money.

It may seem expensive but it's a darn sight cheaper than employing a plumber and
if you've bought good stuff it actually goes together properly.

It might even last quite a few years

Had I been looking to do anything substantial - I'd be right there with you. Have previously "invested" at the right level in kitchens/main bathrooms and en-suites etc, but in this instance it was basically a refresh of an existing downstairs cloakroom - and what could possibly go wrong with 1 single close-coupled replacement cr@pper where the inlet feed and soil pipe weren't moving........ Of course now I know better....

[Pigfarmer]

B&Q are far more interested in selling you a nice new bathroom/kitchen/bedroom nowadays, and they forget what people use them for.
most staff in B&Q can never be bothered, their stores are laid out like a supermarket (stupid layout to make you browse longer) there are a very very small minority of B&Q staff who care, and actually know their stuff, but they are getting rarer and rarer (they are normally older in fairness)

I hate going there, in a similar way I hate going to Tesco. I prefer Wickes, but then their products sometimes can be frustraiting in quality.

back to the OP, I can completly sympathise with you on this, how many times nowadays is it easy to just buy something and fit it and it actually work without having to take a trip back to the shop for another part, or replacement for faulty parts - I wont even go into my saga of replacing the cistern float in the downstairs loo

[Alfamack]

I knew someone who would go in and buy a shower unit, take it home, swap the parts from his bust one and take it back saying it wasn't suitable.
Don't shop in B&Q Oxford for a shower!

[VO2Max]

For all your baths, sinks, taps, showers, loos, I can thoroughly recommend Plumbworld. They're onlne, check them out. Super-cheap prices and good quality stuff, too.

[Alfa Seltzer]

My local B&Q has gone proper strange recently...

They've got rid of most the older staff and proper tills, replaced by a team of young barmaidish girls who shepherd you toward those dreadful self service things that always go wrong....then you stand there like a prat while they shout for some 18 y/o supervisor type to come along and sort it out.

DIY is for oldies who know about bolts and collect string for pleasure...bring back the sourfaced old crones who used to work there!

[cue2]

Originally Posted by Alfa Seltzer

My local B&Q has gone proper strange recently...

They've got rid of most the older staff and proper tills, replaced by a team of young barmaidish girls who shepherd you toward those dreadful self service things that always go wrong....then you stand there like a prat while they shout for some 18 y/o supervisor type to come along and sort it out.

DIY is for oldies who know about bolts and collect string for pleasure...bring back the sourfaced old crones who used to work there!

quality rantage Mr Seltzer.Nice

[alfapersius]

I think everyone must have a story about B&Q. Generally would prefer to go to local, old fashioned hardware store, luckily two good ones near me, Webbs and Stanley George, both in Tenterden. Staff allways know what they are talking about.

[cue2]

me,I prefer B&O

[alfapash]

So much of this stuff comes from China and the far east and it's cheap and crap on the whole. It's much better to buy something from a decent supplier of quality goods. You will pay more, but it will last years longer and save you time and high blood presure. It is a false economy buying cheap goods, they don't last five minutes.