Victoria Plumb or Bathstore?

[CJMommy]

Looking to purchase x2 bathroom suites for our house renovation. Victoria Plumb appears to be so much cheaper; is there a reason for this?

Do people have experience of either?

Would be great to save money but don't want to scrimp at the cost of poor quality. Also need prompt delivery and no hassles with customer service. We have our own plumber.

Thanks

is there a reason for this?

They are shit, our plumbers hate them, all of their products are banned from all of our sites, shoddy goods, shoddy service.

We got two basins and two toilets from Victoria Plumb a couple of years ago. Good price, delivery was on time, and no problems fitting for the plumber.

We also bought cheap taps from them, which are fine for the price.

quote do you have any recommendations then for good quality but not too expensive bathroom suites?

One for and one against........ Any more??

I had a double shower door from VP - delivered on time - quality product at the same price as my local retailer told me he buys them for ! He wasn't impressed !!! But I was !!!!

we have bathstore bathroom upstairs and Victoria plum downstairs. i would say quality is the same. i would go with victoria plumb if they r cheaper.

Thanks

We are definitely getting the shower from the bath store as cant find anywhere else that does that specific size and shape we need, but undecided about the rest of the stuff. We are talking £600-800 difference in price

I haven't used either but there are some past threads on this and I am sure the VP get a slating, worth checking the archives.
Look at Plumbworld.co.uk too, they are well priced.

Hi

We have just done 2 bathrooms and downstairs loo (rebuilt whole house) Our plumber recommended VP and it's not the best quality. In fact we have had to replace a lot of stuff that was cheap and nasty. The wall hung loos look great and thats about it, push buttons seem really flimsy. Same with basins its the little things, the waste hole has corroded only 4 months old. We went with them because they were cheaper.. Cheap,is not always the best!!!!

We ended up going back to Bathstore, more expensive but by far superior quality to get replacement items. Our old bathroom in last house was all from there and fab quality even after 4 years was good as new. Even if our builder told us they were crap (they aren't right about everything).

So my vote would be don't use them or proceed with caution!

Hi I've used both and I prefer bathstore. The quality is better but I think the design is too. Just feels a lot sleeker and nicer.
Had no issues on service with either of them
Bathstore always quite responsive to haggling too.

Take care with Plumbworld - in my experience if anything goes wrong you can't phone them and their customer service email response is slow and sometimes contradictory.

Cheap bathroom places are much of a muchness - if it's all in stock and you don't mind the quality, it will be fine. If anything goes wrong, it's a nightmare. Personally I prefer to have someone local I can look in the eye if necessary! And I bought Grohe taps from my local independent for £8 more, but they arrived the next day and it was much less hassle.

No experience with VP but I bought brand new Bathstore stock off Ebay at about 60% off RRP and was really pleased with the items, lovely quality and super stylish. obviously check the seller's feedback but all the people we've used for DIY supply off Ebay have been great and we have save loads doing that. So by all mean pick out the main items from Bathstore but do compare-shop on those same models of products.

I have bought direct from Bathstore too and all those items were good but availability was an issue (everything one to two days later than promised which can be a pain if you have trades waiting on parts).

Victoria Plumb are shit - I'd never use them again. The part of the order we got was fine, when it eventually showed up. Customer service was beyond terrible though. Hours of phone calls to sort out missing stock.

Thanks everyone. I think I will go with bath store. We have a local branch so will be more convenient. I will look on EBay too, thanks for the tip! I did ask my builder and he said all his stuff is from bathstore and to haggle with them too

They never sent the incorrect fittings for my toilet to flush, so using a bucket of water for now , they won't send me the correct fittings free, because I had it delivered more than 31 days ago. So no recommendation from me.

Should have read "Correct..."

I would advise anyone to shop around and consider carefully before committing themselves to a Bathstore order. Frankly, when you look at the quality of the carcasses that make up the cupboards they are, at best, indifferent. melamine faced chipboard at insanely high prices. In my opinion, anyone who has a 'sale' as often as they do as got to be overcharging in the first place. The fascia prices are even more ludicrous - my daughter paid £280 (even after a third off sale price) for two pieces of veneered/painted chipboard for her basin unit.
Secondly, Their technical support is poor. That's ok if you get their fitters to do the installation but now we're talking mega bucks. If you DIY or get an independent fitter, be prepared for little help. The instructions we received were incomplete and some of the YouTube videos were confusing and contained conflicting advice/guidance. You have no central expert technical team to call - instead you have to rely on the local store staff and, in our experience their knowledge on installation matters was almost non-existent.
So, I suggest you shop around carefully and think long and hard as to what you are being asked to pay is really good value for money.

Just done 2 big projects. Find local
Plumbing merchants. They do not have fancy high street premises to pay for but you can see them and talk to them. I bought in line , was on hold for 50 minutes by phone when something was broken, then had to courier it back and am still waiting 10 later for refund. On line is cheaper but a pain if anything goes wrong.

Agree with last post. Local merchants are good when it comes to sorting out issues. My complaint about Bathstore is their very poor technical support. You have to deal with the local store and the staff we spoke to really didn't have much of a clue. Those big showrooms have to be paid for and so when you compare quality to price you have to ask yourself why their furniture is so expensive. Cheap chipboard mass produced units costing a fraction of what you pay for. My advice is shop around and don't be seduced by Bathstore and their seemingly never ending price reductions.

Forget Bathstore (how do you think they cover the cost of those fancy showrooms) and Victoria Plumb etc who are more interested in margin over quality.

Get yourself to your local plumbers merchant with your list of items and they will source you infinitely better quality items, will probably end up saving you money and are a fountain of knowledge.

I have a bathroom from bathstore and tbh I would never buy from there again.

Shower hinges have been replaced twice
Shower thermostat failed within year but never got round to sorting it out.
Tap on bath - shower attachment failed too.
Bath has gone a dull colour not due to using wrong cleaning products.
Radiator has completed rusted and needs replacing.
Extractor fan is useless.
Cupboard has also rusted.

Have bought a shower door from Victoria plumb for an ensuite and prefer the quality of the door.

We've ordered from Victorian Plumbing and Soak and would use either again. Soak were very good about replacing a basin that had a hairline crack when we came to fit it, even though delays elsewhere in the project meant it was several months after it was delivered.