Fake Farrow and Ball

[Rusma]

Hi everyone,

I’m sorry if this is not the right place for this but I was hoping for some advice.
We have just had new wooden windows made at great expense. We chose to have the company spray them with Farrow and Ball paint. The company told us this is the paint they always use. The windows are installed and look great. However, it has become apparent after attempting to paint a cupboard run in our kitchen the same colour that the window company have tried to colour match and have lied about using Farrow and Ball. We have contacted Farrow and Ball and established that the paint we are using is a good batch and tried from two tins just to make sure. The two tins that we bought are identical. The paint on the windows is a distinctly different colour. Farrow and Ball have confirmed that they believe the paint is not genuine.
We have been lied to and this is going to cause colour match issues now and in the future.
Does anyone know how we stand legally?
I have emails stating that we want the Farrow and Ball and we went into their office and picked the colour off a Farrow and Ball colour chart but I’m not sure if it specifies on the invoice what paint they use.
Sorry, this is a bit long. Any advice very welcome.
Cheers

Does your contract or their website specify them using Farrow & Ball?

It may be that the F&B paint wouldn't have been suitable for spraying and as you've said they've colour matched. Unless you have in writing from them that they were going to use F&B you can't do anything. If you have it in writing you then have to prove they didn't use it. What is the outcome you want - replacement windows?

This happened to us. I contacted the company we used and they sent me a few litres of the paint they used so I could paint my other surfaces to match. So it worked out fine. Have you suggested they do this?

You specified Farrow and Ball paint. You have emails showing this. They have apparently not used Farrow and Ball paint. They are therefore in breach of contract.

I would start by writing to them pointing out that you specified Farrow and Ball paint but they have used an alternative which is a near colour match but not exact. Ask them to repaint the windows using the appropriate Farrow and Ball paint as specified. If they refuse to do so you can potentially claim the cost of getting the windows repainted from them via the small claims court. Once you have established the cost you would need to send them a letter telling them how much they owe you, giving them a reasonable deadline to pay and stating that you will take legal action if the money is not forthcoming. If they fail to pay by the deadline you can then take action.

Thank you for your replies. We are going to talk to the company tomorrow and see if they will pay to have the windows repainted in the proper paint, or failing that, if they will provide a load of the paint that they used so we can use that instead.

Depending on how you paid contact your credit card company and they can dispute the payment.,

Have you got it in writing that they were going to use actual F&B paint rather than just paint matched to an F&B colour? This could be one of those things that is difficult to prove and they might argue got lost in translation.

However, if it was supposed to be a specific colour then regardless of which paint they used, they didn't match it well and it's not the colour you asked for so if they have any decency they should agree to re-do it for you.

Last year I had my new kitchen sprayed in the workshop in a paint that was colour matched to F&B then hand painted over the top in actual F&B after the kitchen was fitted. I know the top coat was F&B because I was there when it was painted. The colour match was good enough that the two were indistinguishable but F&B is notoriously difficult to colour match properly.

I then had an F&B colour copied to paint some bathroom panelling (not sprayed first) and it was not a good match at all. I hated it.

I also ordered a bespoke cupboard from Ebay that was supposedly painted in F&B but I am not convinced it's the real deal. Although it matches the swatch when you hold the two together, it just looks a bit too much like a luminous modern paint and doesn't behave like F&B paint in the changing light, if that makes sense.

I thought Fake, Farrow and Ball were solicitors ....