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Original poster

Bathstore.com - any good?

38 replies

Madigan · 01/03/2010 21:52

has anyone got any experience of the products from bathstore? are they good quality?
Need to kit out 2 bathrooms (shower, bath, sink, loo) with about £3k to spend on each - any suggestions where else I could try for good quality stuff if Bathstore not recommended?

OP posts:
nappyzonecantrunfortoffee · 02/03/2010 07:56

We just got ours kitted out with walk in shower, vanity unit and bath - was as cheap as anywhere else if not cheaper as was a sale on - that said that was back n septemeber and the same sale appears to be still running! Happy with quality

TabithaSmith · 02/03/2010 08:00

Same as nappyzone. No complaints.

Original poster
Madigan · 02/03/2010 08:55

great. thanks

OP posts:
Lolbilly · 02/03/2010 09:02

We've had our bathstore toilet, wash basin & bath for 4 years now & still looking as good as new.

MadameGazelle · 02/03/2010 11:04

We have just put bathstore bath, shower, wc, basin and showerscreen in - very happy with the quality. Like nappyzone we also bought in the sale and saved around £7-£800. Customer service and delivery were also great; the delivery driver didn't deliver my WC cistern although I signed to say the delivery was complete, bathstore ordered me another one in with no probs and it was in store within 48 hours. HTH

PanicMode · 02/03/2010 12:35

We have had problems with our things from them - basin was chipped when it arrived and we had a big row with them about it as they accused our plumber of breaking it. Our thermostatic shower (cost us about 280 quid) has just failed after only 2 years and my plumber said it's due to the calcification - the cheaper brands can't cope with it. I don't know whether that's true but we do live in a very hard water area, and the plumber said that the quality is very variable as they buy from China and the Far East, and he doesn't advise his clients to fit it. He recommended buying Aqualisa or a well known UK brand because they last longer, so we've just forked out a fortune to replace a two year old shower with an Aqualisa in the hope it will last longer....

MrsJohnDeere · 02/03/2010 12:50

I found their customer service really good. We redid 2 bathrooms a couple of years ago and got all the stuff from them. There was one damaged something or other (out of hundreds of boxes) and they sent a replacement within 24 hours by courier.
They were far, far better than a local bathroom place we'd used in our previous house.

The stuff is OK quality - better than B&Q but not high end, imho.

101damnations · 02/03/2010 13:20

We used them about 3 years ago-everything is still ok and they were very good about us returning something we'd changed our minds about.

notasausage · 02/03/2010 14:40

Try Travis Perkins - they have by far the best range we could find and service etc was good. Can't go wrong with ideal standard if you're on a budget. Plumbworld on the internet are also good.

Pannacotta · 02/03/2010 16:55

Have heard about some bad experiences with Bathstore.
I use Plumbworld or local suppliers and agree that its worth getting a brand name shower with a 5 year guarantee.

We had a Trevi shower in our previous house and they were very helpful when he had problems (plumber hadnt supplier the right valve). Mira and Aqualisa are both very good too.

3K per bathroom is a good budget so I'd look around and see what is available.

RubysReturn · 02/03/2010 16:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Madigan · 02/03/2010 20:20

Thank you for all advice. Think will have a look at Heritage Bathrooms - recommended by plumber. And then compare to Bathstore.

I must say I thought that the shower enclosure in particular was very good quality at Bathstore - 8mm toughened glass, and it looked v smart.

Thought the loo did not look so good. The freestanding bath was ok but think could probably do better. The sink looked good to me
.

But still having a good lokk around. brisa is another name I have heard for showers (want an old fashioned looking one with rigid riser and large head in chrome) [

If anyone has any other ideas for me then I would love to hear them.

Many thanks x

OP posts:
midnightexpress · 02/03/2010 20:23

The only person I know who bought hers there had terrible problems with customer service. Can't remember the ins and outs of it, but we worked together at the time and I remember loooong conversations and much tearing out of hair.

Slambang · 02/03/2010 20:30

We got bathstore stuff. Basin and shower screen fine.

Loo - bloody awful. It doesn't flush strongly enough so there is always something left behind after the first flush (the flush isn't something you can test in store!). We've had plumbers out to adjust the tank capacity but still a pathetic flush and because it's European sizing rather than British the parts can't be easily replaced. Worst of all is the sleek trendy design which has the tank very close to the seat and so there is no room to get a hand under for cleaning. With splashy boys spraying haphazardly there is always a septic unreachable puddle behind the lid. Yuk yuk yuk.

SparkyMalarky · 02/03/2010 20:55

We've fitted a few bathrooms and showers (over 2 houses - we don't have a mansion!) from bathstore.com and they've been great - service has been good (when DH managed to crack the loo seat (we'd got it a few years earlier ) they tracked down a replacement even though they'd stopped selling the same design.) The soft close on one of the loos is knackered, but reckon that's down to DS 'helping' it close faster

The prices always seem reasonable when you compare to similar - there's always a sale on!

taffetacat · 02/03/2010 21:46

We kitted out an en suite, bathroom and downstairs loo last year and used a local supplier, mainly trade, and saved a fortune.

We did our research at some expensive local bathroom places, got all the info of what we wanted, brands etc, ( our showers are Lakes, Bisque towel rails, Roca Urbi basins, Roca loos, Geberit flush systems etc ).

We'd been warned off Bathstore by a few people who had problems with flip plugs or whatever they are called. In fact we heard of so many people that had problems with these plugs, we bought all our own ones separately. They have some really funky ones here

thisisyesterday · 02/03/2010 21:51

my mum used them and was really happy with them, so we did too.

so far, not great!

same probs as a pp with the flush. it's pointless! it hardly flushes and we have to wait ages for cistern to refill anf flsuh again, which makes the extra we paid for the double flush totally pointless

we had a combi bath filler/waste/plug thing, which has already broken (only been in a few months)
taps are wonky already.

also, the prices seem really good, but actually no extras are included.

so, for example, our bath was £99. but we then had to pay for the legs (what bath comes iwthout the legs i ask you?), the plug, the pipe that joins plug and overflow, taps, side and end panels etc etc etc

cost a bomb in the end

Pannacotta · 02/03/2010 22:09

taffeta did you get a trade discount from your trade supplier or did you get a plumber to order for you?

taffetacat · 02/03/2010 22:17

pannacotta - they are mainly trade but have a small showroom ( if you can call it that ) on an industrial estate next to the trade only place. we didn't get a trade discount but found out about them from a plumber friend.

we were going to haggle on price but they gave us between 30 and 40 percent off all list prices anyway. they do so much in volume because of the trade stuff, they get good prices themselves,I suppose.

Pannacotta · 02/03/2010 23:00

Thanks taffeta they sound good, we could do with finding somewhere like that as we need to refit two bathrooms and a loo.
Don't suppose this was in Norfolk?

2old4thislark · 02/03/2010 23:07

We did our bathroom last year and it still looks great but we had to get s new soft close loo seat and our flush is weak too.

Had huge problems with supply too. If anything is damaged, missing or wrong item they won't courier a new one to you. So you have to wait another week and the plumber has to go off the job.

We had the fitted furniture and bits were missing so it took ages to get it finished. Ended up refunding some partts and using local suppliers.

Also the salesman in the shop know little about plumbing and often give duff info.

taffetacat · 03/03/2010 09:56

Pannacotta - Afraid not, Kent.

Maybe if you try googling plumbers merchants and contact the trade ones to see if they do private at all... or do the research at a posh bathroom place, work out with them exactly what you need, and then give brands and exact details to a plumber and see what the best price he can get for them is at the trade only places.

The other thing we did was to use kitchen units and worktop bits from Ikea as bathroom cupboards/to stand sink on. Much cheaper and much more choice.

PestoMonster · 03/03/2010 09:59

We refurbished last year and used them for 2 bathrooms and downstairs cloakroom and are very pleased with the results. The best thing is to wait for their sales as they are always having them, then pounce.

Original poster
Madigan · 04/03/2010 13:14

Well I just got my quote through - and it is £6k for 2 bathrooms. Not cheap. I am going to now get quotes from other brands at builders merchants which I bet will work out cheaper (and just as good quality)

OP posts:
RubysReturn · 05/03/2010 16:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.