Condescending and not prepared to admit when a mistake has been made because too busy chasing profit
I am an interior designer and I was working with a client to restore two fireplaces. Upon the advice of our builder we paid £180 for Stonewright's templating service. The builder felt it was then risk free - if there were any mistakes, we wouldn't be liable. Stonewrights explained to me that I could get as many fireplaces templated as I wanted for the flat fee of £180 and there was no mention of a timeframe for the templating appointment. On the day the templater was due to turn up around 10am and I was promised a phone call 15 minutes before he arrived. I'd had no phone call by 11, so I rang to be told he was running late. He eventually turned up at 1pm. The floors were not in place at the time of templating, so several options were discussed to make sure the templates would still be accurate. On the one that later proved to be the problem, the templater suggested we mark out the shape of the hearth and then floor up to that, and then drop the hearth on top into the hole with a rebate to cover the edges of the flooring. There was a skirting around the fireplace that was discussed and agreed that it would be left in place and the templater would work around it. We also agreed for all of the fireplaces that we would get the hearths made first, so the measurements for the slips could then be checked before going ahead with that part of the order. We followed the templater's advice to the word and when the hearth turned up it was too narrow, by 30mm, which is the depth of the skirting. So it was very obvious that the templater had made a mistake. However, when I took the hearth back and explained the obvious mistake, the response of the owner was to cite that he'd already lost too much money on this job because the templating had taken far too long. I honestly don't think the templater was there for more than an hour and a half and he was three hours late because of an earlier appointment overrunning! Plus no time frame for the appointment was ever given. So I failed to understand the relevance of what he was saying to the situation. I found the owner to be very condescending. His attitude was pretty much - I'll have a think but I've made up my mind and we can't lose any more money on this job. He said I had to pay half the fee again if I wanted a new hearth producing. I wrote a series of polite emails pointing out why the mistake was the templater's fault, and why it was unreasonable to bring the templater's meeting into the discussion, asking him to respond to each point. His response was just to say I had to pay 50% again or no hearth, completely ignoring all my points. Presumably because he had no legitimate answer to them. So all in all I was extremely disappointed with the service I received. I suspect I may have had a different experience were I a man. I would suggest other suppliers such as The Stone Man and Henderstone. The Stone Man Kent did a great job of the slips I then went on to order from them.
