Reviews by Wistow

This review is for Renovation Boys, Camperdown NSW

verified email - 01 Feb 2013

As you will see from all of the reviews, Renovation Boys falls into either the "Excellent" or "Terrible" category - with not much in between. If you use Renovation Boys you will have to hope they fall into the "Excellent" category.
Here's a little of my story (a long one and still continuing!). We purchased all of our bathroom products through Renovation Boys. We were told they would be available in 3 weeks. That was ok, as we needed them in 5 weeks, so we had thought that was plenty of time. We were wrong!
Things were going smoothly for the first couple of weeks. We received a phone call to let us know that everything was "on track". The following week I called to arrange for delivery of the items we had not picked up ourselves in the meantime (8 items were outstanding) and was told they had not received the vanity. I asked if I could lock in a delivery time for later that week anyway and they said they don't arrange delivery until all the items have arrived. I asked if they could find out when their supplier would deliver the vanity to them. They said they would call me back that day - they didn't. I called the next day with the same result. The following day I decided to go to their warehouse to try and collect the outstanding items, including the vanity (we termed this "pick up by stealth"). After a one hour wait at the warehouse I was told they received the vanity the previous week, but have "lost" it and would need to reorder it. I told them it needed to be reordered that day as I had my renovators waiting for it.
I called them that afternoon to ask if the vanity had been reordered and they said they needed management approval before they could reorder. After a couple of days, and calling 2 times a day, I was told the vanity will be reordered that day.
Later that afternoon I received a call from one of the sales people stating the supplier had a question about the vanity - "Which vanity did I order as the supplier doesn't make the vanity you want in the size you have ordered". WTF, if the vanity had been ordered, made and delivered to Renovation Boys the week before, how could the supplier have such a fundamental question? My only conclusion is the vanity was never ordered in the first place!
I expressed my concern about how long it was taking to receive the vanity and asked when the "replacement" vanity would be available. I was told it has been placed on an express order and would be available the following week.
In the meantime my partner and turned up for our second "pick up by stealth" to see if we could collect any other items. We managed to get a few, however, I was told the toilet was out of stock and they will be receiving more stock the following week. That Saturday my partner and I were in the vicinity of the warehouse and decided to attempt another "pick up by stealth". We managed to get the toilet (the one that was out of stock a couple of days before and wouldn't be in stock until the following week - go figure!).
A week and half after the "replacement" vanity was reordered I had not heard from Renovation Boys and decided to see where the vanity was. I was told it would not be available until the following week (I'm not sure how that was an express order given it was going take 3 weeks - the same time as the "original" order). The lady I spoke to was quite nice and appreciated the amount of time I had spent on the phone and the time I had waited for the vanity. She said "Instead of continuously waiting on the phone, I'll give you my work email address and you can email me next Tuesday and I will confirm the time for delivery of the vanity". Very nice I thought.
The following Tuesday morning around 9am I emailed requesting an update on the status of the vanity. By 4pm I had received no response and decided to call. I was put through to somebody else and they said - "she no longer works here". No wonder she was willing to give me her email address!!
Despite this, I managed to get a time they would be receiving the vanity. I turned up to the warehouse the morning after the vanity was expected at Renovation Boys and it was wheeled out! I couldn't believe it, it was finally in my hands!! I do have to admit, we love the vanity and it is exactly what we wanted, it is just a shame the process of getting it was so stressful.
After getting the vanity home we were happy to never have to deal with Renovation Boys again.
Unfortunately, we were wrong again. When we unpacked the mirror we noticed that it wasn't the mirror we ordered; however, we decided not to return it so as to avoid having to, most likely, wait another 3 weeks while they waited for the correct one to be in stock, so we had it installed.
About one week after the mirror was installed we noticed what appears to be the wall sealant appearing between the reflective surface and the glass in a number of locations across the mirror. I called Renovation Boys and they asked me to email a description of the problem with some photos and they will submit a claim to their supplier. I did as requested and after not hearing anything following one week I called. I was told the claim had not been submitted as it was "too hard". The guy I spoke to said he would submit a claim that day and I would hear from the supplier shortly afterwards.
He did submit the claim and I received a call from their supplier; however, after a week of communication with the supplier, the supplier advised me that the mirror is not one of theirs (another WTF moment - how can Renovation Boys get is so wrong? - all the time!!). Another 3 weeks passed and I didn't hear anything from Renovation Boys and I emailed requesting a refund in 14 days or I would lodge a complaint with Fair Trading. After 10 days I did not hear anything and emailed again asking about the status of the refund. That day I received a reply apologising for the delay and stating that the refund would be processed the following day. Needless to say, the refund was not forthcoming and I have lodged my complaint to Fair Trading.
The process in dealing with Renovation Boys reminds me of the Seinfeld car reservation episode:
Jerry: I don't understand. Do you have my reservation?
Rental Car Agent: We have your reservation, we just ran out of cars.
Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
Rental Car Agent: I think I know why we have reservations.
Jerry: I don't think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.
Renovation Boys know how to take your money but consistently fail to deliver!!

Approximate cost: $3500