Apparently, we were allocated a couple of hours for this appointment. When I walked in, I made eye contact with a consultant named Kristie. We briefly spoke with her on the weekend and she gave us a rough estimate for floor to ceiling tiles in all wet areas except for laundry. She seemed knowledgeable enough when I overheard her speaking with another customer and that's why I approached her to get her recommendation.
Anyway, yesterday, there was hardly any warmth at all although she recognised that I had spoken with her on the weekend. Well, that's alright, as long as she does her job well. But the problem is, she didn't do her job well enough to satisfy my requirements.
I gave her our selection and she plugged them into the computer which is supposed to calculate the price of the tile supply and the labour cost. No atempt at small talk. Then, she gave me the pieces of paper that she wanted me to look over and sign. No explanation given. I looked it over and the figures didn't make sense to me. It just had the number of square metres to be supplied (it didn't break down how much was included in the base price and how much extra it will cost to tile to the ceiling). It didn't even have the unit cost. When I asked Kristie to explain it to me, she said they were automatically calculated based on the figures that Clarendon gave them.
Not wanting to sound too pedantic, I just corrected a couple of things and then signed, paid for the extra tiles and left. I was out within 30 minutes. I sat in the car trying to make sense of the figures and when it still didn't make sense, I walked back in, pretending that the reason for my return was the error that I had her correct was still wrong in my copy. She said she had the right one so it's ok but I insisted on having a copy of the correct selection. She grudgingly photocopied it. I asked about the invoice again and she was very dismissive so I left again.
I almost drove out of the carpark when it hit me that I just handed over nearly a couple of thousand dollars and I DESERVED to find out what it was for. I was particularly concerned as I had done my own calculations before the appointment and had an idea of how much each room would cost and I was pretty close except for the main bathroom. I wanted to know what the discrepancy is. I rang Clarendon to ask for the basis of the figures they allegedly gave to Beaumont. The receptionist didn't know who to put me through to but was going to find out.
I rang Von to seek his opinion on whether I was being too picky. He confirmed that I should go back to get answers. I walked in and as soon as she saw me, I could almost feel her desire to roll her eyes. I told her I would like her to explain the invoice to me because it wasn't detailed enough and that mattered because we were being charged way more than we expected for the main bathroom. She said it's a new software and it took four years to develop it but it's not perfect yet. I wanted to say, "I don't care. YOU explain it to me." Instead, I asked her as nicely as I could. She said, "We don't normally have people asking for the details and most people just accept the invoice as it is." I was furious! So I ended up raising my voice slightly and said, "Well, I'm not most people and besides, i find it hard to believe that people would accept that as it is when they have to hand over so much money."
She attempted to explain it to me with a calculator (really quickly) but she didn't come up with the total listed. I could feel her embarrassment growing as she tried to BS her way through it. Then she said, I would get a more detailed invoice in the mail shortly (and showed me an example). DUH! She should have told me that in the first place! I'll just have to wait for it.
Our CSO rang me back as I was going home and said Clarendon had nothing to do with providing the figures for the calculation of tiles. It's true, even if they provide the measurements, I would expect Beaumont to do their own calculation. After all, they're the ones supplying the tiles. Our CSO was very supportive and was wanting to ring Kristie because of the bad service I just received from her. In the end, we agreed that I would wait for the detailed invoice and see where the difference is.
OUR CHOICE: We decided to have those embossed designs with white coloured ones floor to ceiling, but chocolate coloured ones in the shower recess. No borders, dark floors (as I have dark hair and seem to constantly shed hair!)
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