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!!