VictorianPlumbing.co.uk

For me, the mark of a good company is how they respond when things go wrong. On this basis Victorian Plumbing are appalling. I purchased two ceramic sinks with taps, however one of these was no longer required so I initiated a return.
As this was my fault I had to arrange and pay for the courier costs, which I accepted. I used a reputable courier, recommended by Victoria Plumbing, and ensured I had suffient insurance on the package.
The package was delivered on schedule and I received an email from Victoria Plumbing confirming receipt. However five days later I received an email informing me of a partial refund in respect of the taps but nothing about the sink. I immediately contacted Victoria Plumbing and was advised that the sink arrived badly damaged. This was the first I was aware of this. Additionally I was informed the sink had been disposed of. I later received an email with four photographs showing a damaged sink in a large box.
I contacted the courier to initiate a claim however part of the process required the courier to inspect the damaged goods and packaging, therefore they were unable to process the claim. I have tried to reason with Victoria Plumbing but they will not admit any culpability in this leaving me considerably out of pocket.
I cannot believe I took every precaution in returning these goods only for Victoria Plumbing to state they arrived damaged and they had to dispose of them without notifying me and leaving me with no alternative route to compensation via the courier.
I will never deal with this company again and I would urge you to think twice before using because the words 'good customer service' are absent from this companies Terms and Conditions.

I bought several items from VP (totaling £1,434.56). Unfortunately the radiators and toilet were not suitable so I arranged a return at my own cost (UPS charged £127.57) but I thought this was worth spending to recoup the £819.75 of non suitable goods. However VP only refunded £150.90 stating the goods were damaged. The radiators made up the bulk of the non paid refund and VP claimed that the unopened items made from steel that were returned in their original packaging were non salable and no refund would be given. They supplied photos of the radiator on concrete floor in their warehouse and I struggled to see any damage apart from the lack of care taken to open and inspect the items. I sent their 'evidence' to the courier to make a claim and they responded on the day to say more info, better images and an inspection of the items might be needed. All of this information has been passed onto VP and no one has responded - I am contacting them daily without any response. All items were returned to VP in their original boxes (which were only opened to insert the return slip). In addition to this, UPS are now investigating the claim and found that the items were heavier than I had booked and are charging me an additional £56.27. This is very frustrating as I used the weights provided on VP's website to booked the courier. I even added a few kgs to be on the safe side but the shipment was 25kgs over! I raised this with VP immediately to check the weights as I have a few days to appeal the charge and again they are not responding. Both issues are being ignored and I have advised them on more than one occasion that I need to resolve these issues promptly as I am heavily pregnant and expecting within days but. They don't seem to care that I am now £852.69 out of pocket and would have been financially better off giving the items away for free.

If VP are willing to investigate, respond and come to a reasonable resolution I would be willing to amend my feedback but based on the customer service experience so far it's been extremely stressful and difficult.

The WORST customer service I have ever experienced in my entire life. As someone who has worked and trained in customer service for many years - I can't believe businesses can legally get away with treating their customers as poorly as I was treated by Victorian Plumbing.
I purchased almost an entire bathroom suite from them back in July 2020, I was pleased with the items and the cost. They did arrive late which I put down to the covid pandemic and it didn't affect my installation. They refunded half of my delivery fee which I thought was a bit poor considering it didn't arrive when promised, but for the sake of a few pounds I didn't complain further. If only I knew that was the start of a complete sh*tshow with them!
I had a cabinet and basin fitted by my fantastic, qualified and experienced plumbers who have done work for me in the past with no problems. Within 3 months, the cabinet had cracked all along one of the doors at the top, and alone the worktop. I had looked after the cabinet as per manufacturers advice and wiped it down daily. As a clean freak, this comes naturally to me. I complained to VP who apologised for my faulty item and agreed to send another. The cabinet arrived in October and I have only been able to get it replaced this week due to the ongoing pandemic. They had sent only the cabinet and not the top. So I complained once again and they agreed to send the top out. I have requested they pay for the installation as it is through no fault of my own I am having to replace it. They have refused, told me it is my fault as I have allowed the damage to happen, I haven't looked after it properly etc etc. I was informed the cabinet should have been fitted a metre away from the bath. No where on their website, the information provided with the cabinet or the downloadable instructions does it state this information. My plumbers could not believe the item had cracked in such a way.
I am disgusted and appalled that VP are now costing me money because of a faulty item they refuse to take responsibility for, and are choosing to blame me as the customer. I will never use them again.

Missing parts in my order that they won't replace as over 30 days! Terrible service and poor communication

Bloody headache with everything that is bought from this store. Cheap materials and no contact number.

I have had a similar experience to all the one star reviews on this site. Product Ok, after sales service appalling.

Ordered 1 pack (14 x pieces) of wall tiles and towel heater. These items were delivered on 2 x wooden pallets fixed by the solid wood poles of 2 mtrs high. The packaging was so much bigger and heavier than the ordered goods that it makes no sense for any reasonable retailer even for more expensive and fragile commodity. Customer service refused to take back the 'packaging' even for additional 'diamond' service I was ready to pay for, and their email responses as well as the telephone customer service can be rates as only below zero. It looks like the company who considers themselves as a 'reputable' company cannot put the burden of it's packaging issues on the customer. They know really well that for the customer to get rid of such 'packaging' will cost more than the customer paid for the goods (such is in my case). I cannot call their customer service anything but bullying and deliberately causing additional cost for the customer to get rid of their unreasonably huge and heavy packaging. The excuse that their customer service used is that by confirming the online purchase the customer agrees on their T&Cs means receive the goods on the wooden pallet... in my case 2 pallets and wooden poles. This company does not care about its customers or their opinion about it. How can such company be on the market? The worst thing is that VP cynically covers its anti-customer policy by its Terms and Conditions which are not providing the size or weight of the packaging (wooden pallets) and imposed on the customer who could not even imagine that 1 piece of tile (in my case 1 missing tile) can be delivered on the wooden pallets 2mtr size by 2 mtr and weight of 30-40 kg of weight...

Victoria Plumbing LTD is one of the worst companies in which I have ever dealt with. They do not have a contact number so if you purchase from them and have any issues you have to contact them via a web chat for them to contact the resolutions team (who by the way do not work weekends) - so if you have a problem on a Friday, you wont get a response for until at least Monday.

I have spoken with 6 separate operatives:
Pete Seddon
Neve Doran
James Lyons
Rebecca Pickering
Melissa Gaskell
Tilly Stevenson

I contacted them on the 12th November - now it is the 23rd November and still no replacements of the FAULTY and NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE goods. I have explained to this wonderful company that I am left with no toilet due to their faulty goods and now shower yet again down to their faulty goods. P. s I'm 16 weeks pregnant - I have also told them this. I have no toilet facilities - no showering facilities! I am having to use the neighbours. THEY DO NOT CARE!

They have told me that an item has been sent out - they said this last week then it didn't show up so I chased them again and they said it would be here yesterday/today. Still not here! They lie and they breach consumer act!

P. s They made over 21 million profit last year but cant replace some faulty items.

DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY! THEY MIGHT BE CHEAP BUT CHEAP IS AT THE EXPENSE OF SERVICE AND QUALITY!

Being 8 months pregnant... YES 8 MONTHS.

BUY FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE! YOU WILL BE LET DOWN AND DISAPPOINTED!

They've delivered my bathroom suite via a crapped out old white van, that threw my suite out of the van at speed and might I add soaked wet through. Definitely not palletways couriers but the lovely coopers carriers. The guy dug everything out from underneath mass amounts of heavy items.

After inspection... one cracked bath and one heavily soaked electric shower. The guy disappeared quickly.

I phoned up and was told the company was having major problems with palletways subcontracting out the jobs. The poor guy was very apologetic and got another bath on order asap (as we have no bath or shower now). This was Friday.

Monday passed and nothing. I had to phone up multiple times that day and got the same excuses ah there's a glitch, oh someone has processed it, there's a mistake etc. The list goes on.

Tuesday comes and goes and again same thing. Another $#*! up and my stress levels through the roofs. I might be able to get it delivered on Thursday says the women.
I'm 8 months pregnant and it's nearly a week without a bath due to this $#*! up and no offer to reimburse the fees for the plumber, plasterer, tiler, etc. Just you accepted terms and conditions. Clearly pregnancy and stress means nothing to this company.

Then I got told I'll phone you back in 10-15minutes after speaking to my manager. I want to complain and told she'll phone back. It's now 40 minutes since she promised the callback.

It is beyond disgusting to leave me without a. Suite and mess up a delivery so many times especially when pregnant. Try the bathstore or Victoria plum for a reliable service.

0stars would be given if possible

I am writing this review for a friend of ours, as I was also the installer. She bought the entire kit and caboodle for both her main bathroom upstairs and the small toilet downstairs. The amount of damaged items was staggering:- 2 WC units damaged waited 9 working days for them to be replaced. Shower tray scratched not able to be seen until polythene and so called protective edging removed. Shower enclosure had door sealing strip badly damaged which has been packaged this way at the factory, top part of frame not able to be screwed together due to 1 screw not able to be unscrewed. Concealed cisterns, one packed ok with all the cistern components but no lid for cistern, other cistern no fitting components at all, again these have been packed like this in the factory. Cannot call customer service only contact via live chat or email which takes them ages. Upload photos and they want more again another delay. Send emails they don't respond. Live chat totally useless. It is no wonder the staff don't respond as their CEO Ms Judge doesn't call or email you back even after explaining the situation you are in and submitting photos. She should resign as she is meant to lead by example. Sent a complete replacement shower notified CEO we wanted the other one uplifted and they haven't bothered to collect it so it is cluttering up my friends hallway. She has now had to pay £67 to have this collected and sent back. They replaced the WC Units eventually and the larger one again was damaged, again let CEO know about this and still waiting for the replacement. This has been an absolute nightmare for Nicola dealing with these people. No sincere apology from them, you ask to speak to a Manager on the live chat they tell you 24 - 48 hours what planet are these people on they tell you the same thing time and time again on the chat is there some sort of script they have had to memorise. No offer of compensation for all the time and effort she has put into this to get the matter resolved. Items not collected or replaced. One or two items damaged is I would say bearable but to have as many as this, with items being packed damaged in the factory serious questions need to be asked of the suppliers. Ms Judge I hope that you read this as both you and your company are a disgrace shame on you.

Absolutely shambolic, at every turn they failed to resolve their error.

Ordered porcelain 300mm x 300mm tiles for the hallway at the beginning of September they sent 333mm x 333mm ceramic tiles, this was clearly labelled on the boxes they sent, I sent them the pictures to prove it. They then sent EXACTLY the same wrong tiles back to me again, and then, incredibly, they did it AGAIN... exactly the same WRONG tiles, not once, not twice, but THREE times. It is now the beginning of December, 3 months later and our hallway has not been tiled, I've had to take time out from work to receive their 2 x subsequent wrong orders and to send the original wrong order back, we've had to put off our tiler so he's lost work too, not to mention the numerous emails I've had to send to them as well as phone calls.

And to cap it all on the 9th November they emailed me to say they've discovered what the error was (wrong tiles stacked where the tiles I'd ordered should have been) and that they could now send me the all correct tiles after Nov 24th, I emailed them back to say that was acceptable... NOTHING HAPPENED... I've had to call them today to demand my money back (which they've had for more than 3 months now) and demand some compensation for all the time I have lost. They refused any compensation, offered me a hollow apology and said they will refund my money. No doubt they will make a hash of that too.

Absolutely frustrating! Terrible Service
Absolutely frustrating! Can't speak to anyone, only communication is via the online chat,
Firstly ordered on a 5-7 day delivery, chased and was advised that it was only day 6, so I replied so would the delivery be here the next day being day 7 only to be told no! Asked if it would be here for he following week when my fitters started which would be by day 9, again was told possibly not! When would it be delivered I asked, I was told they could not tell me but continued to annoy me further by offering me the next days delivery if I paid the express delivery charge! So this was nothing to do with stock allocation, I was offered a discounted charge for the delivery as a gesture! My product arrived faulty, I advised, sent pictures, received acknowledgments, received a further apology for the delay acknowledgment Was asked for further pictures and a promise of a reply, nothing, chased by the online chat The advisor offered a partial refund which I declined as I needed a replacement, He advised it was faulty, could not offer a replacement even thou I advised I was under pressure on time due to fitting already delayed due to the faulty item.All they say is that they have to pass to the resolution team and I should here within 24/48 hours but nothing!, although they are happy to offer a partial refund they can't advise what that is as again it has to go to the resolution team! I have gone around in circles. So frustrating. Chased again today, eventually offered a replacement which will now arrive too late, I have explained the situation and they now decide to send me an item I can't use as it now can't be fitted in time. All I get quoted is the resolution team have to agreed it yet they don't even reply! The communication has been 1 sided It's faulty we agree but you have to wait. If you are working to a time frame and have fitters waiting don't even risk it, even if you build in additional time you can't guarantee that the issues will be resolved, I advised that if the replacement was not here by the weekend I would not have a bathroom for Christmas and their reply was that they have a process so sorry! Luckily I have all the transcript's pictures and have decided to take the matter further as they just don't care!
Surely if they agree the item is faulty then why do they not just send a replacement rather than doing NOTHING and leaving everything to the customer to chase and still not offer a solution!
I would like to say that my review is not aimed at the staff as I believe they have a script and the script is and don't deviate! Frustrating, so simple to just send a replacement but no one will make a decision! I even said I would place an order elsewhere to obtain the item in time and return the faulty item and the first advisor advised me that if I did that I would have to return the item at my own cost and even then it would most probably be refused! And he was the person that agreed it was faulty! Madness!

Victorian Plumbing are a complete joke! ORDER Number *******
I am a plumbing contractor and helped one of our clients to order her new bathroom suite online and she paid in full. They took the order and sent her an email to say delivery would take place on Monday 16th dec which she paid an extra £45 for 2 man white glove delivery up to her flat over the shops as she would be unable to carry these heavy items herself. The delivery Company DX delivered the goods on the date albeit a few hours late. I went around to check the items that evening only to my astonishment find that it was completely the wrong order! They sent a shower and walk in massive glass screen instead of the bath which she ordered and the vanity unit and W/C were also wrong. They clearly mixed up the order with someone else order! How this can happen is just beyond me!
Anyways I got on the phone immediately to notify Victorian Plumbing and after a 45 minute wait I spoke to someone who didnt seem to know what answers to give me. I was told I would have someone call me back the next day which didnt happen! VICTORIAN PLUMBING do NOT return CALLS. Anyways after 7 phonecalls and around 45 minuets for each one I still haven't got an answer! Its now over 1 week gone and my client is totally distraught and all the wrong goods are still blocking her hallway and living room to her small flat. She has all this mess for Christmas. I was due to have the bathroom fitted and all working for Christmas and this is what she's got! This company should be shut down and I urge anyone that think to Order From Victorian Plumbing please think again and don't touch them with a Barge POLE! This order was due to be delivered to Bricket Wood and they have absolutely destroyed this woman Christmas. They have said they will refund her monies once they have got retuned goods... Also they have left 3 wooden pallets outside her flat at ground floor level. Its a Joke!

Ordered a bathroom suite on the 29th of March and now more than 2 months later (6th June) still have not had delivered all the pieces of the suite.
Firstly putting together the order for delivery took more than 3 weeks when 5 days were quoted.
Secondly emails to work out where on earth the goods were weren't answered for more than 14 days, appalling customer service.
Thirdly despite letting them know about accessability difficulties (a country lane) they still sent the goods on a huge lorry which then predictably couldn't reach me, wasting a whole day I had booked off to be in to receive it.
Fourthly when they delivered the suite one box contained a broken item (which I later discovered was an incorrect item- a duplicate of the toilet, meaning they'd completely left out the sink I'd paid for from the order).
Fifthly they delivered the wrong item (again) in replacement.
Sixthly they made promises to deliver the missing sink on a next day delivery to correct their error... but didnt, we're 5 days and counting now
Seventhly they then decided without discussion with me that they wanted to collect the incorrect item first, only then would send out the sink I had already paid for on another day, meaning they would waste 2 full days of my time (AGAIN) with no guarantee of when I would receive the sink. This is a sink I had paid for, it was my property, which they were holding ransom until I'd obliged them with the collection of their incorrect item. It couldn't be done simultaneously with incorrect item replaced with correct item because apparently theft of paid for property of their customers is "company policy" when covering up their mistakes and grossly inconveniencing customers.

What an absolute joke this company is. My second time reviewing them in space of 3 month.
I have been sending them email since May, for them to replace, provide compensation for refitting or refund as they seem not accept their faulty size toilet pan. They have stopped responding now since August despite several attempts. Blaming it on COVID 19 is nothing but an attempt to ignore customer.
Ombudsman for me next. I do hope more people approach ombudsman, this would be the only way this company will improve

3/10/2020:

My 3rd review for this awful company and to update all customers.

I have been doing nothing working with them to resolve the issues of the toilet seat or pan, and for them to replace or send the correct one. I had the response admitting they have let me down on this occasion however nothing happened until I went to PayPal. PayPal agreed with my case and offered the full refund but they want the full unit back. Just to say, the unit is a basin and toilet seat and has been plumbed professionally, not to mention the Tennant in place and original boxing does not even exist anymore. I have also have to insurance the items for return ( now they say they will collect) as well as paying a plumber to replace and dismantle it which obviously nothing but added cost.

I just want to let all customers to understand how Victoria plumbing works and while you will eventually be offered your money back, the added cost and expense is all on the customer which can be very upsetting and hard to fullfil.

This is Victoria plumbing response and I hope everyone will find this helpful on their next dealing with them and avoid them at all cost or inspect your items and return it ASAP:

Good morning,

Thank you for confirming the recent escalation via PayPal.

I can confirm that we do not offer a dismantle and collection service.

Please see an extract from our terms and conditions, agreed by each customer at the time of placing any order with Victorian Plumbing:

'We will not liable for any plumbers costs, consequential loss or compensation in any way.'

We are able to collect this item, however, you will need to dismantle and package ready for transport.

Please note we will not cover the costs to package these items.

Please may you provide a date in which we can collect these items?

Kind regards,

Tilly Stevenson.

Resolutions Team

All seems great on the TV ad and the website with quality goods at great prices... and if there are no issues with your order that may be great.

Fristly, the shower trap and pipe supplied would not fit together due to a non standard fitting. I rang expecting to receive help but was instead told it was my fault as they did not specifically say on their site that they did fit! I asked for advice on what i needed to buy to make them fit and was told "We are not a plumbers & cannot help". I was then told that i could have ordered it with an adaptor fitting for the same price but failed to do so!

Eventually and after pointing out my right to have a product that is "fit for purpose" and an extended debate about a trap where i cant source a fitting to fit to it is fit for purpose or not I was told a replacement would be sent and would arrive in the next day or 2 as a gesture of goodwill! It was a week before it arrived and I had to buy another elsewhere to get on with the job. Just as well as when the replacement arrived it was identical to the first one and equally useless!

Then when i went to fit the shower enclosure there were missing parts. Firstly the support bar for the side section was missing and also there was no way to fit the side panel to the door trim. Furthermore the instructions which were mainly pictures with a few words of broken English (e.g. "step 3: fixxed the fixxed glass" and "begin to install the seals, then all is okay, pls fix the aluminium") were not for a rectangular enclosure but rather for a recessed door as were the fitting supplied. I rang them to query and was told i had to send photos (of the missing part?) and the packaging. Luckily i still had the packaging as the representative told me that they would otherwise do nothing (clearly a breach of the consumer goods act).

Today (5 days later) I chased and it seems nothing has been progressed. They have still not had any answers from the manufacturer (Victoria Plumbing do not appear to have any product knowledge and can only answer queries by referring back to the manufacturer). Each time i ring there are between 8 and 17 customers in the queue (read into that what you wish). Most staff are not properly educated in the law of the land and many have no concept of customer service. Today i spoke to one who was and she understood my frustration!

This has been an awful experience. I am now at the point of going to Homebase, buying a new screen from a reputable dealer and sending this one back as it is not fit for purpose. I am not expecting that to be an easy thing to achieve either!

Using this company has caused significant delays to the project, caused a great deal of frustration and wasted hours on phone calls and sitting in queues to be "fobbed off".

You make your own choice but I wont be using or recommending them ever again whatever discounted prices they offer.

It gets 1 star purely for the fact there's no option to give zero. We ordered a bath and shower screen and bath panel set. It arrives and we scan it over and it appears to look ok. My other half is a plumber so he goes to put the bath in a couple days later, low and behold there's a crack at the bottom side of the bath barely visible, so we'd missed it. But it's there and it's a crack. So I contacted Victoria plumbing on the Wednesday. Bearing in mind we ripped the bath and the whole bathroom apart on the Monday. After showering at family's houses I couldn't wait to have a bath in my own house. Contacted VP to say the bath was broken and the lady I spoke to was actually really helpful, based on that experience alone I would've given them 5 stars; she said she'd send out a replacement bath on next day delivery to arrive with us the following day on Thursday. Thought ok fair enough, accidents happen! The bath came on Thursday, admittedly we didn't check it over immediately, we naively thought it would be fine because it was a replacement and they would have checked it before sending it. We checked it over in the evening when I got home from work. We ordered a curved bath. The side of the curved bath was smashed, possibly looking like the ratchet strap had been pulled too tight on it in the delivery truck. Either way, the replacement bath for the broken one, also broken. I went to phone them but the offices were closed. Helpful. Phoned bang on 9:30 in the morning, on good Friday. The man I spoke to was extremely rude, he refused to put me on to a manager and s$#*!ed when I said I wanted to speak to his superior and he went ha my superior!?' And refused. He said the best they could do was delivery by Wednesday NEXT WEEK a for another bath. I said that is preposterous. That would make it a week since the first bath was supposed to be in. I said so you're ok with leaving me with no bath or shower for a week, due to VP giving me rubbish baths? He said nothing else they could do. I refuse to believe that. For start he didn't even say he'd do it next day delivery, which the other lady did do, because that would've gotten it to us for Tuesday at the very very least by his standards.
He spoke over me and then called me by the wrong name, which when you're already riled up because the company have shafted you, is a big deal. He told me I could dispose of the baths myself, how the hell do I do that? In the end I said forget it just give me my money back. He said I'd have a refund within 72 hours. It's been 4 days and still no refund.
VP sent me two faulty baths, then were happy to leave me with no working bath/shower for over a week. Seriously do not use this company. All it's done is shafted us! When I get refunded I won't be getting the £25 I spent for the postage, so I'm now £25 down, been messed about completely. Honestly don't waste your time with them.

I bought an electric bathroom wall heater and the element went within 15 months. They replaced it for free. It has gone again after 15 months and they have refused to replace it claiming that it is out of warranty. Each time I have had to employ an electrician to install it so the whole exercise has cost me nearly £200 in call-out charges. They claimed I could not expect the element to last more than 12 months.
What a shoddy service, shoddy company and shoddy product.