Carpetright - are they any good?

[Sandgroper]

Hi

Am very tempted by their massive sale as we have to carpet the whole of the upstairs! However not sure if they are ok with fitting etc.

Good part is we can afford a much more expensive wool mix carpet (80/20) as we are on a budget after a big build project.

Does anyone have any experience with them? Good or bad would be appreciated..

Many thanks

[TWvirgin]

I used them before and thought they were good, fitting 2 squarish empty rooms very quickly in under an hour. Just used a local, more expensive shop for our new house and they took almost all day to do 2 double rooms and a single room. That said, the rooms weren't square, they trimmed cabinet doors and all doors as new carpet/underlay was thicker and cleaned up everything. Don't recall the carpet right fitters hoovering and in retrospect I got a feeling taking doors off hinges and trimming them - should they ha needed it - would not have been included.

[PigletJohn]

I did very much better with an independent local supplier. He mostly supplies shopfitters, hotel and commercial renovators, but is in the yellow pages and supplies and fits retail. In my case he was recommended by a friend who has a family business in the furniture trade.

He has a warehouse rather than a showroom but plenty of samples. I spent £10k in 15 minutes which I expect is the sort of business he likes. I needed my kitchen floor fitted in a hurry and he called in on his way home to measure, and had it laid on Saturday morning.

[MOSagain]

In my opinion, they are shite.
I had carpet on the stairs/landing and one bedroom some years ago. When they started laying it I realised it was the wrong shade, a darker version of what I'd ordered and they basically said if I didn't accept that it would be at least 4 weeks before they'd get replacement carpet. As I was having bedroom furniture fitted the following day, I felt I didn't have any choice but to accept it.

Two years ago I foolishly had them do laminate flooring in my lounge and study. Within a few weeks the floor in front of the desk in the study area starting cracking and splitting. I requested them to come out and inspect it as it was clearly faulty and their claimed there was nothing wrong with it, they implied the damage was caused by a chair sitting on it. I foolishly thought it was the done thing to put furniture on flooring but clearly I was wrong. Despite months of complaining letters they basically told me to piss off. I will never buy anything from them again as a result. Their product is crap, their service is crap and their after care is non existent.

[GuinevereOfTheRoyalCourt]

I've bought carpet from a local independent, John Lewis and then most recently, CarpetRight.

I'll admit that I was nervous of using CarpetRight, but chose them because they were the supplier that worked best around our needs. We ordered, gave a deposit and then they stored the carpet until we needed it. This was a godsend as they could then be booked in with only a few days' notice - ideal when we were having major renovations with slipping timescales.

I bought 80/20 wool, and the price was fine. We bought at the peak of their "sale". Their "sale" prices bring their carpets into line with the prices of any other carpet supplier but don't kid yourself that they are bargains.

Where CarpetRight surpassed the others for us, however, was with the fitting. They don't fit the carpets themselves, but farm out the work to independent fitters who the customer pays directly. We may just have struck lucky, but the fitting was cheaper and vastly superior to any we've had before. The fitters didn't clean up or take home any of the rubbish afterwards, mind, but then their price was rock bottom - so I wasn't complaining. I'm sure they'd have done so at a price!

[FairyPenguin]

We've used them a couple of times and happy both times. The second order was a large job, and they accommodated us having to fit one half of the order first, then second lot after the furniture had been moved. The salesman did us a deal as we spent so much, and the fitters (independent from carpet right) were very good.

[queenofthepirates]

I had awful problems with carpetright in Abingdon last year; they fitted carpets in my flat that I rent out, there were lumps under the carpet so I asked them to come back and have a look which they did. To do that I had to send them a key because I don't live locally.

I asked them to mail the key back to me but it just didn't arrive. I kept calling to see where the key was and got all manner of excuses. I had asked for it to be sent back recorded delivery so I asked for the tracking number. The manager get VERY angry and told me he wasn't going to return the key, I would have to come and collect it, it wasn't his problem.... I ended up having to call the head office to get them to ask THEIR manager to return my key after they'd badly fitted my carpet. To their credit the head office were pretty shocked and apologised on his behalf.

Personally wouldn't touch them with a big barge pole.

[PigletJohn]

where do you live? someone might have a local recommendation.

[happygilmore]

My sister calls them carpetshite (obvious one I know).

Local company is always a good idea (keep saying that tonight).

[redwellybluewelly]

Got a small bedroom carpeted by them recently. Cost ok ish but sales weren't too awful and the fitter was bloody brilliant.

Cheap, tidy and was careful of all the newly glossed paintwork. Quiet chap and he thanked us for his coffee. Wish I'd taken the fitters number and gone through him to get carpet.

[happygilmore]

A good fitter makes all the difference. Must will be self-employed as well.

[FreeButtonBee]

I used them recently to do hall stairs and landing plus 2 bedrooms. Fitters excellent, polite and efficient, took all rubbish away and hoovered before leaving. Carpet was bought at height of their august sale so as good value as you can get with them. Quality has been fine but we bought to tart up before a sale so weren't looking for massive longevity.

[Tommy]

always been very happy with them - guess it depends on the fitter you get but ours have always been super-quick, efficient and very tidy

[Mrcrumpswife]

We've just had our hall/stairs and landing done by carpet right and dont have a single complaint. We told the salesman we were on a really tight budget so he showed us which bits we could get away without having underlay and even told us where we could buy spray glue from to cut the price down from a tenner a tin to 3.00 a tin when he saw us turn a bit green at the price!

The fitter did a fantastic job and bagged up all the small bits left over and rolled the big bits up for us to keep. My stripes are all matched perfectly from the top of the stairs right down to the bottom hallway. Thats talent!!!

We were on a really tight budget but everyone comments on how expensive it all looks so i would highly recommend our carpet right. I wish they would stop advertising my carpet on the advert as everyone now knows what a cheap git i am

[WocketInMyPocket]

All comes down to the fitters that they employ in your area as others have said, but they are commonly known as carpetshite by those in the trade...

[mamij]

They outsource their fittings to local people I think. We had two guys turn up with a white van (no logo) to to ours recently. They did an ok job and took away the old carpets, but didn't vacuum like they were suppose to have done. And vacuuming new carpets with a toddler and baby isn't fun!

[Mockingcurl]

I know two people who used them. They both had the same bad experience. The carpet wore out after six months and came away from the grippers in shreds by a front door that was never used. Carpet right refused to do anything about it. They said a carpet is only for a year or so anyway.

I wouldn't touch them.

[Sandgroper]

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments, the good and the bad!

I think a good carpet fitter says it all really... We know what type of carpet we want, but if it is fitted badly then its a waste of money! We did use an independent fitter on our old house but we can't find his details (typical)...

We have also been to an independent store locally and they were good on fitting, underlay included, will move furniture etc e.g. no extras like Carpetright but the price of the carpets was a bit higher. I know people who have used them and been pleased with the result.

I think I will give them a call and see if they might be a bit more flexible on the price, to be honest I would rather go with a local business than a multinational one. Just that we have to do 160 m2 and I was trying to keep costs down - you get what you pay for rings true.

[CunningPlan]

The fitting is the key. A bad fitter will ruin a good carpet. In my parents' previous house the previous owners had used CarpetRight. The (expensive) carpet was cut without enough "give" and so it was coming away at the walls and the doors and the edges were shredded.

[cakebar]

We used them for our upstairs carpets. We had no carpet and a baby on the way and wanted quick and cheap. They recommended the cheapest, off the roll for the kids bedrooms and it has been fine. We went for a more expensive one in our room, and again it has been fine, but I have since seen other carpets I have liked more at other shops, their range is not very contempary! The advice at carpet right was good, the prices cheaper than the independents.

I have used local independents and had varying experiences. One I will not be using again, they were expensive, and I thought I was getting what I paid for - I didn't. Another is fine if you know exactly what you want, I had one lovely carpet from them and another that was trashed quickly as it wasn't suitable for our purposes.

[Sandgroper]

Thanks everyone. All agreed a good fitter is worth it. My other thought was to get a good fitter (as Piglet John suggested) and buy the carpet separately taking advantage of the sales maybe!

So does anyone know of an independent fitter in the Surrey area they could recommend?

[anfield]

I moved house a few months ago, which is a stressful without any issues, what I hadnt anticipated was poor service from a company carrying out what is their main business, fitting carpets.

We selected the carpets at a local store, the company came out and measured the rooms ready for fitting, but then the first mistake happened, the person measuring the rooms mixed up the measurements and when the carpets arrived, only one fitted.

The company were very apologetic and ordered a replacement carpet and arrange fitting the following week. The fitters failed to arrive. I contacted the fitters, nothing. I went to the store only to be informed there was a problem with the fitters and could they rearrange fitting for the following week.

The following week the store manager contacted me to say the wrong carpet had been delivered and they would need to order a replacement, another week for delivery and fitting.
Past experience told me to phone the company the day before to check everything was ok only again to be informed the fitters couldnt accommodate the date agreed but would the following day be acceptable, it wasnt, but having waited so long I had no option..

I requested a late as possible fitting so as not to lose any more time off work. The fitters contacted me during a meeting at 2 oclock which didnt seem that late so I asked if they could come later and they agreed but no later than 3 oclock, I left work hurriedly and was home by 3 oclock the fitters turned up at 5.15, it took 20 minutes to fit the carpet.

This company should be renamed Carperwrong following the initial mistake, no one took ownership to deal with my issue or to ensure there were no further issues. They offered compensation which I took, even then when I went to the store for them reimbuse me the systems were not working the manager offered me 10% off my next order which I informed him I would never take up as I will never use this company again.

[Msmaunder]

My wife and I popped into our local Carpetright to look at the various carpet options. we wanted a very good quality carpet so one of their members of staff directed us to a section of carpet that was on a 50% sale price (approx £34 msq down to £17msq)
Carpetright came to our property and measured the required areas. The total cost for the select carpet, underlay etc was approx £4,200.00 + £500.00 for the fitting (nearly £5k)
The carpet was ordered and then about two/ three weeks later we was informed that the carpet had arrived at the branch
I went to the branch to pick up a sample to then notice that the backing (hessian) was completely inferior to sales sample. I questioned this issue with one of the managers and asked for a response, something I did not get.
I took the sample home and then attempted to clean the top of the carpet with a wet sponge to check the quality of the carpet. The carpet basically started falling apart with the hessian backing de - laminating from the pile section of the carpet. The top pile started to fluff up, something you expect with a new carpet but not to this extent. Basically the carpet started to fall apart!
I then got in contact with the branch to then spend two weeks trying to get a resolution to the problem
After sending a number of emails and making way too many phone calls Carpetright customer services, I could not get a acceptable conclusion to case. Yes they did put their hands up eventually and state that the carpet was inferior to sample and that they would manufacturer a replacement carpet. The problem was then the timescales, disruptions to my refurbishment program, lack of customer services to my issue and my total loss of confidence and trust with this company.
This lead me to one conclusion, cancel the order
To summaries, I personally feel very strongly about the following -

1. I believe that the sale price of 50% is there to mislead customers that the carpet is on sale as the offer came off and then back on during the month period that we were dealing with the order.
   
2. The carpet is made to be a £17.00 per msq sold carpet, hence the quality of the products manufacturing (quality of the hessian, wool topping etc) is inferior to the sample
   
3. Carpetright customer services team have no idea of how to deal with such a issues as my complaint with one member of staff supposedly having to pass on one of my calls onto a colleague without informing me and then leaving the building as she was "sick" so bizarre and unprofessional
   

I now feel so stupid that I went to a company such as Carpetright.
I have since gone to a reputable smaller carpet company who have sold and installed a much better quality, British made carpet that both my wife and I are very happy with
Lesson learned!

[verystressedmum]

I bought a carpet for the stairs and landing about 4 years ago from carpet right and had no problems. They gave us a card for an independent fitter and he was fantastic he fitted the underlay and carpet in about an hour for £35 and it's still great. The carpet wasn't an expensive one and it's still in really good condition with 3 kids and 2 dogs. I want a new carpet as I'm redecorating the whole house and went into carpet right recently and the salesman there was good though haven't bought one yet. I've no idea if they are more expensive than independent carpet shops as I haven't been to one though I might now go and have a look.

[wowfudge]

We've used them four times over the past five years and have never had a problem. My DP always does the measuring up as he can't be bothered with making appointments for someone else to do that.

The other thing we always do - and we used a local independent earlier this year (they had a special offer on a better quality carpet than CR at the time which worked out the same price overall) and did the same - is to buy our own underlay online. The underlay is where a lot of carpet places make a massive mark up.

[stealthsquiggle]

We have used them with no problems at all for a definitely not square bedroom with "interesting" contours to the floor and awkward doorways (no doors to trim, though - our doors don't fit well enough to be impacted by a deeper carpet ). Price was fine, fitters arrived when they said, generally all fine. We may of course have just got lucky.