I’ve had some interesting conversations this week. The first with a client who had purchased his Corian worktops via a retailer, not an internet retailer but a bricks and mortar showroom. A problem was discovered by the client two years after purchasing the tops and as Corian arrives with a 10 year manufacturers warranty, he attempted to contact the seller to request a call out to determine whether the problem was covered under the warranty. Disappointingly for the client, the retailer had since gone into administration and in his desperation he contacted me to obtain my advice. Unfortunately there was little I could offer other than to inform him that if the issue was a fabrication fault and if the company who installed the Corian were a DuPont approved Network Fabricator, then he should contact Corian UK. I went on to try to discover if indeed the worktop was a Corian Worktop and not some thin “Corian Like worktop”, as some sellers like to define cheaper alternatives.
As I write this I’m uncertain of the outcome and will speak with the unfortunate buyer to discover what the result of his efforts are but it did make me think how many other buyers could end up in the same predicament with no certainty that issues normally covered by the warranty might be resolved. My advice is to do your research on the companies who provide you with your quotes before considering them for your project. How do I go about this you might ask?
Most importantly, you must first discover if the fabrication and installation of Corian is aproved by the manufacturers so always check that your chosen Fabricator is Authorised directly by DuPont. Secondly, discover more about the companies reputation, research them on the internet, pick up the phone and ask them the questions that will help you in making your decision. Ask them how long the company has been established, ask if they are the fabricators, ask questions about the surface you wish to purchase and determine their knowledge from the response they offer. Buying over the internet is now perceived safer than ever before yet I know of two recent internet sellers who left cyberspace with customers losing deposits – how? The unfortunate buyers contacted me to ask my advice on getting their deposits back.. On the question of deposits and payment these also vary and here at TFI a 10% deposit secures a worktop order. Truth is that the poor householders who handed over the deposits, in these cases, have very little chance of getting back their deposits unless they had made the purchase with a credit card – another option on all the surfaces we offer.
How easy is it to become a seller of bespoke worktops? Extremely easy and any company can go bump overnight only to reappear using another name. For instance, anyone can buy a domain name related to worktops and can set up a nice looking website with content designed to convey their knowledge. If they are internet experts with little knowledge of the products they sell then it’s a far easier task to reach the top internet listings where you are most likely to click on when you begin your search. All the more reason to ask the questions and do the research before making the purchase. Remember, cheapest is not always best and it’s a far safer bet to purchase at a competitive price from an established and reputable company than to purchase a little cheaper from a retailer who came in overnight and who may also disappear the same way. Of course my last statement could well be perceived as unfair to those ethical start ups who do have the industry background and knowledge to set up an honest and trustworthy business but all the answers lie in your own judgement but good research is absolutely essential not just for the purchase of Corian or Quartz worktops but for all large purchases.
My second interesting conversation was somewhat related to the first, but was instead with a representative of one of the surfaces we offer. I won’t elaborate on the surface or on the person but their views are seemingly shared by the many dinosaurs that still exist in our industry. My reason for contact was to request that TFI appear alongside the approved bricks and mortar shwroom sellers of the surface on their website. This would serve to offer our visitors an assurance that as an internet seller, TFI utilise approved fabricators to install the surface. My request was met with a resentful diatribe aimed at internet sellers of the product whose cheaper quotes were, in the opinion of the representative, serving to devalue the product and furthermore buyers did not have the opportunity to feel and touch the product as they would have should they visit a showroom of one of their approved showroom dealers. I was left feeling not only offended but angry that the person who knew of me, knew absolutely nothing about our background, how we trade here and of our commitment to our clients satisfaction. I have since written to the managing director to express my shock at the response but this was probably the best example of someone not carrying out their research before reaching a prejudiced judgement.
Well, given that many buyers read my blogs I will publicly restate my opinion during my little tete a tete with my dinosaur friend and we’ll allow our visitors to make their own judgement when they decide to purchase one of your worktops shall we? To let this outdated rep into some information that they failed to learn before their resentful sermon,.I have served this industry on the frontline boundary for 30 years, as an installer, contractor, consultant and offering free and impartial advice to visitors to our website for the 10 years of it’s existence on the internet. More years than a number of the companies highlighted on their website in fact and my showroom is open 24 hours a day, and I am her to answer client queries day or night long after the shutters come down on a High St showroom.
In that time I have directed many of our visitors to a more affordable source for their products from a variety of ethical, knowledegable and trustworthy sellers who like myself, wished to offer an alternative to those more unscrupulous dealers who were hiking up the price to increase their own margins. That is why, my friend, appliances are no longer the exclusive domain of greedy retailers and the general public have benefitted enormously from those retailer who saw the increasing popularity of the internet and reduced profit margins to compete with other sellers of kitchen appliances. The same now goes for bespoke worktops and I am certain that should you ask one of our visitors to pay more to assist you in ensuring the product is not devalued, you would get little smpathy for your antiquated opinion.In fact, I will go a step further now and invite you, should you read this, to continue this discussion on our public forum where I’ll wager the same opinion as my own will be in the vast majority.
To end this blog and just for the record, I wish to state here and now that we will continue to offer our visitors the most affordable costs for all our surfaces coupled with the highest standards of service to be found in our indutry. Furthermore I can categorically state that all installations of the surface in question are carried out by our Network approved fabricator unless of course you decide to scupper our ambitions which would be a whole new blog.
My advice to our prehistoric friend is to step into the changed world of business and check out what real buyers are doing in the modern world.
To request a quote on any of our worktop ranges go to www.kitchensfitted.co.uk/request_quote.php
