Nationwide Bathrooms

Took my money but no delivery

In essence:
I ordered a Twyfords bath from Nationwide Bathrooms on 5th December expecting delivery in 7-10 days as advertised on their website.
They told me AFTER taking my money that they didn't have the item in stock and so could not deliver until the manufacturer supplied more; further that the manufacturer had none in stock and needed to make more. This story turned out to be untrue and I am now worried that this may be a company with serious cash-flow/credit problems.
In essence they took my money at the point of ordering, for an item that they did not have, for delivery in a time-scale that they could not meet, and then gave me (at best) misleading information.
Long version below:
Their charming telephone assistant suggested delivery would be on 18th December, but would 'see what could be done' to speed things up. I heard nothing more.
On 18th December another charming assistant responded to my enquiries about delivery time with a promise to call me back with an update. No phone call received. (Meanwhile the plumber has had to be sent home.)
On 19th December I phoned again and was told that Nationwide Bathrooms 'are still waiting on Twyfords'; that the bath now won't leave Twyfords until 21st December and that means Nationwide Bathrooms can't take delivery until 2nd or 3rd January because they (lucky people) have a week off at Christmas.
By now my confidence had gone, and I phoned Twyfords direct, to be told that this is a stock item and Twyfords haven't been out of stock for weeks; further that their standard delivery is 7-10 days. Twyfords also advised that this is a standard stock item for most plumbing supply companies.
So I called Nationwide Bathrooms back this afternoon (19th December), to speak to yet another charming assistant who investigated, then called me back to say that they order directly from a distributor and do not have an account with Twyfords, (I wonder why?) so cannot expedite the bath any faster than their existing offer of the first week of January.
And, to top the experience; guess what? There is no way to escalate this within the company because 'there is no supervisor' and 'no manager is available'. Surprised? Sadly by now I'm not. If they manage to deliver to their new timescale I'll post again to update, but I'm not holding my breath. Expect to hear more...

Karen Dungate found this review useful