Help!! Carpet fitter has just stormed out. AIBU?

[whenskiesaregrey]

Sorry for rambling state of this post, I am a bit upset about the way I have just been spoken to. Also, sorry for the length of the post, I just want to include all the detail.

I ordered some carpet last week to be fitted today. It is a local small carpet shop, not part of a chain. They offer a 'free fitting service', but you pay 75% of the price in the shop, and the remainder once fitted. I presume this is because they sub-contract out the fitting. In my case this was £150 in the shop, and £50 once fitted. I have bought carpet and fitting from this shop before, and the fitting service wasn't great, but they said they were using a different company that day, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and ordered from them again. In the shop, I mentioned the problems I had had last time (punctuality, not taking old carpet away) and asked for reassurance that the service would be better this time. I was assured it would be.

Carpet was due to be delivered at 9am. At half past 9, no-one had turned up, so I rang the shop asking where they were. I was told they had has a couple of problems this morning and only had one fitter on instead of two, and they might be able to fit me in a 2pm today. I can't do that time as DS has a party 2-4pm, and I work Wed-Fri, so this morning really was the only time this week that was suitable. I explained to the man on the phone that I has problems last time, and was told it would be better this time. So he said he would move some things around, and fit me in about 10am this morning.

At 10, two men arrived to fit the carpet. In the bedroom, the furniture we had left in there was a double bed, a wardrobe, and chester of drawers and two little side units. We had been told in the shop not to worry about moving any furniture out of the room, that they would move it around the room to fit it. DH had taken the mirrored doors off the wardrobe to make it lighter to move, and we had moved all of the other usual bedroom stuff out of the room. The chest of drawers were half empty, just had underwear in them. The bed still had the bedding on it because I didn't think it would make any difference. The little side units did have things in them, but they really are very small, so I thought they be okay. I am 27+ weeks pregnant with PGP, so it is a bit difficult to move things around.

He went to the bedroom and looked around and sighed. The said, you're going to need to get those clothes out of that wardrobe. There wasn't very much in there because we are getting new wardrobes, so it was just a few things to keep us going until the new stuff arrived. I said I would move it, but it shouldn't make much different to the weight. He said if he tried to move the wardrobe, it would collapse, which I said wasn't true as we have just decorated, and have been moving the wardrobe around so we could get to the walls. But I still carried on moving the clothes. He then started opening the drawers in the chest of drawers, which have my underwear etc in. I said the drawers are almost empty, so the underwear shoudn't make any difference to the weight. He then picked up the small unit and dragged it around the room in a way that the drawers all fell forward and the unit nearly tipped up. I said to him that I would move it if he was going to move it like that, and moved the other unit out of the room. He then said 'look love, I'm doing you a favour here, I could leave you to move it by yourself if you want'. By the point, the other lad had turned the double bed up on to its side and was leaning against the window. I said to the first lad that I understood that he has obviously had a busy morning and he didn't have much patience, but I had been waiting for the delivery too. He said 'no patience?! I shouldn't even be here. I'm not staying here and taking this. Do you want me to go'. I said to him if he wanted to go, he should go, but it's his job to fit the carpet. He shouted to the other lad, 'right, we're off', stormed down the stairs and got in the van. The other lad looked a bit sheepish, and I said 'so is he just going to go, leaving the bed on its side and all the furniture like that'. I am quite obviously pregnant, and DS was playing downstairs and shouting to me, so it was obvious that I would not be able to move the furniture back. He said he would have a word with him, but once he had got in the van, they drove off. So the bedroom is left with the very heavy oak double bed on its side, a unit in the middle of the floor, and they left the door open as they stormed out.

I rang the shop and explained that I thought the fitter was very rude, and what was going to happen now. He said that they had done me a favour by moving the other appointments round to fit me in at 10am, and they were wasting time on the phone at the moment, and other appointments needed to be done. He then said it is in my best interest to be flexible with the delivery time, because I wont get my £150 deposit back, because they have ordered the carpet. I then tried to reiterate how rude the fitter had been to me. Apparently the fitter had told the lad in the shop that I refused to move anything out of the room, and that is why he left. Now, if the shop had explained to us to make sure wardrobes were empty, drawers were empty etc, then we would have done it. We told them when we ordered it it was for a bedroom, so you would know the type of furniture would be in there. But we were told that we did not need to get any furniture out of the room, the fitters would work around it.

Was I being unreasonable to the fitter? Is it true I can't get my money back on the carpet? I don't want that fitter back in the house, he really was so horrible to me. I understand he has obviously had a busy day, and I said that to him, but at the end of the day, that isn't my fault and he shouldn't take it out on me. I also don't like the suggestion from the shop that they are doing me a favour by re-arranging the delivery for me, when I have paid for a carpet and fitting, and that is what I expected.

I am pretty upset at the moment, which is probably all pregnancy hormones. I got a bit upset on the phone to the shop, so he said he would ring me back 'when I had calmed down'. So I am waiting for them to call back now. Where do I stand?

Thank you if you read this far!!

I think you should have moved the drawers out copmpletely and emptied the wardrobe fully and also removed the mattress from the bed.

Oh and there is no such thing as free fitting with carpets, it's just that the mark up on carpet it MASSIVE so they can get away with pretending they don't charge to fit.

Write to the shop manager, explaining what you had expected, what the shop had promised. Could mostly copy and paste from here. I think you could have communicated better with the fitter, but equally he could have communicated better with you.

Ultimately you have paid for a service which wasn't delivered (no pun intended). Get your carpet. If they wont then I'd threaten small claims court.

I didn't ask them as part of the sale to move the furniture and take old away etc, it is advertised on the windows in the shop.

The reason we didn't dismantle the wardrobe is because the new one isn't arriving for another 4 weeks. Most of the stuff is in the loft, this is just a few 'staple' things to keep us going until then.

Ask them to deliver your carpet and pay for your own fitter. Be totally clear with them re how much needs to be moved. Generally, unless you are paying more, it's expected you will empty the room and dispose of the carpet.

I think you were being unreasonable in not clearing drawers, yes the clothes are light but if the drawers fall out the it makes a mess.

I had carpet fitted in my living room and dining room and the fitters moved all the furniture for me (moved stuff into the dining room while they were doing the living room and vice versa). We agreed it in advance and I paid the day rate for him to have an assistant to help. As he had an assistant with him he should have been able to work around your situation, and yelled at the shop later for advising you incorrectly if he had the hump about that. Sounds awful. This sort of thing is why a lot of small independent shops are going down the drain - terrible service and no redress. I'd love to support local businesses but after having been stung a few times like this I go with the national chains now :(

I just wish someone else had been here with me, because it has now turned in to a 'he said, she said' thing on the phone.

I did say to him when he was here that I understand that it had obviously been a busy morning for him. I have worked in customer service, I wouldn't be allowed to take out my bad morning on the next person I spoke to.

hellsbells exactly, I will be just going to the large chains next time.

The shop should not have told you not to bother with moving furniture. The fitters obviously don't know the shop are saying this.

We have lived in 8 houses over the years and had lots of carpets fitted. We have always moved all furniture apart from very heavy stuff. We have then always taken everything out of furniture. You should have taken bedding off bed too.

Just ring the shop and ask them for the carpet or your money back, then get your own fitter.

"In the bedroom, the furniture we had left in there was a double bed, a wardrobe, and chester of drawers and two little side units"

the bedroom is small enough to carpet for £150, so it's a small bedroom, packed solid with furniture.

the wardrobe still had clothes in
the bed still had the matttress and bedding on
the chests still contained the drawers
the drawers still had clothes in.

I'm on the side of the carpet-fitters!

You sound a reasonable sort! I don't think you'v done much wrong here, TBF.

It's your money and I can't believe they're arguing the toss with you about this. Just say you want your carpet today and leave it at that.

Be FIRM!

I suspect he was a sub contactor rather than shop staff so their policy of moving stuff might not be his but that is their problem not yours if they are advertising it as a service

Don't go to any carpet shop find an independant fitter who will bring you samples, look at and measure up your room and will tell you there and then how he needs the room to be.

Places like carpet right also sub contract most of their fitting so no gaurantees with them either

Two options here - 1 get the carpet and get it fitted elsewhere.

Option 2 - guilt them into getting it done and use your feminine whiles! You have to be nice to them and ignore what ignorant pricks they are though.

Be nice when they call back and swallow your pride, say you could have sworn that he said we didnt need to move the furniture but your baby brain may be failing you and is there any way at all they could help you move it as it would be dangerous for you. No blame, no snipey remarks. Just get it done and shut the door on them afterwards with a smile.

Option 2 saves you money in the long run as the problem is unavoidable now.

stubborn I understand your point, and it isn't a huge room, but we had been told we didn't need to move anything.

If he had come in and said 'I can't fit the carpet in here, there is too much furniture' then I could have tried to sort something. He wasn't on his own, the second lad did tell me on his way out 'I'm just a labourer', so he is obviously employed to do the lugging around?

My DP is a carpenter/builder and i get really irked when customers expect him to move furniture in with the price, he always does it so i make it clear when pricing jobs that the room needs to be adequately cleared before the job starts or that he will do the job on an hourly rate. Otherwise we are losing money - and it mounts up. Moving a cupboard into the middle of the room isn't a problem etc, but moving a whole room to one side then repeating with the other side really is, and not part of the job.

However, these people sound like a shower of shite, you were told not to clear the room by the shop, it was their mistake. It sounds like the fitter was having a bad day but it was the shops fault not yours and he should never had taken it out on you. Time is money and these people are working on a price so an hour moving furniture is an hour they are not getting paid (unless its part of the job then they are). Still no excuse for the way he spoke to you though but i suspect that is the reason.

Ring the shop, make it clear that you want all of yoru money back, fuck the carpet. You paid by debit card so your bank will be able to help you. Tell him you will be involving trading standards etc and don't be bullied by him.

YANBU.

We have just had a new (solid) floor fitted in our through lounge and hall, and in DD's room upstairs. As I am a feeble weakling and DH has just had pneumonia, I told the shop we could not move anything. They said that was fine, and they would take away the old carpets.

Guess what? They turned up on time, moved all our furniture (bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, dining table, sideboard, 2 sofas, bookcases, hall stand), worked through their lunch, put all the furniture back again and took away the old carpets. And were v. polite and lovely throughout

If someone tells you they will do something (and advertises the fact in their shop window) it is NOT unreasonable to expect them to do that and I'm quite gobsmacked at all the people on here who seem to think the OP was somehow naive and foolish to expect it!

OP, I have no advice beyond possibly contacting the local trading standards office. You've paid for a service and not received it.

The shop were wrong to tell you that you didn't need to move the furniture. How were they supposed to carpet a room full of furniture?

My DH is a painter and decorator and it amazes me that some people don't realise to move as much out of rooms as they can. Yes you thought they would move some furniture about and I assume that they are used to working rounds beds etc but you could have at least made it easier for them by taking the mattress off the bed, the clothes out the wardrobe and the drawers out the units

I agree with stubborn thats an awful lot of furniture left in a room. My ex was a carpet fitter and he used to moan all the time about furniture being left in rooms - he was a fitter not a removal man. Also fitters quite often work on their own.

oh and why should she be nice, they haven't been nice to her - they woudl get it with both barrels from me i can tell you.

It's not really important that the furniture was there. He was horribly rude, so was the shop person. Put it in a letter, making it clear what you expect of them to redress the matter. Focus on the verbal insults, but include the inconvenience as minor things.

Basically, you have just paid to be verbally abused.

Don't threaten them with specifics, but tell them that you are willing to peruse all legal avenues of redress to their fullest.

I agree with stubborn, Surely common sense would tell you that you cannot fit a carpet round lots of furniture, even if the shop told you it would be ok.

Especially as the furniture hadn't been emptied completely.

Yes they were rude to you and should have explained that they were not happy to shift furniture if this was the case.

But you didn't exactly make it easy for them.

YABVU. A carpet fitter is there to fit carpets, not move all your furniture around for you.

If the shop told you not to bother moving any furniture, and then the fitter was rude and unprofessional, I'd be sat in that shop, making my feelings very clear, and demanding a full refund.

Although if I was 27 weeks pregnant, I'd be sending my DH to do it instead.

Local business trade on reputation.
Everyone I know would be told about this.

The way the shop handled your complaint after the carpet fitter left is diabolical.

They should be collecting the carpet and bringing your money back in cash, along with an apology for the time you have wasted and the abuse you have endured.

Trading standards should know about this too.

oh bless you, it sounds like you have had the morning from hell, it sounds like the carpet fitters, were very unprofessional, and when you phoned the shop back, it doesnt sound like they were very sympathetic!, they did you a favour??, It doesnt matter that they are very busy, or under pressure, to take it out on a paying customer? and a pregnant lady at that??, It doesnt sound like you were being unreasonable, and had only done what you had been asked to do, so as far as im concerned it is all the shops fault, but I would wait for your other half to sort it out, (presuming you have one) or a friend, as I dont think you should be having to deal with this much stress!, have you a neighbour who could help you move the furniture back?, I think you should get a refund on the carpet, and never ever use them again, at least with a national company there is a head office to go through with any problems. good luck with sorting this out.