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A bathroom purchase is second only to a purchase for a new kitchen, and therefore it needs planning and advice. This article helps you find a route through the complex maze of bathroom sales.
A bathroom purchase involves two key parts, one is the purchase of the goods and the second is paying for the installation. The installation is mostly a plumbing task.
Bathrooms are sold via several key outlet types: showrooms, sheds, plumber’s merchants, and websites.
Showrooms are normally family run businesses specialising in a small part of the bathroom market. This is normally the middle to upper part of the market as sales in that market are more specialised. Most showrooms also offer an installation service. Buying via a showroom is the safest route but normally an expensive one. Showrooms push certain lines for which they have good buying terms, so you will be directed towards a certain product line which may be more expensive. Also the installation fee is marked up.
Bathstore.com, B & Q, Homebase are called sheds in bathroom talk. They are large, they typically employ poorly trained people, and they are box shifting companies. If you ask a sales person for advice, you will probably be told the item is in a box, and it has a price. People frequent those stores because they have good visibility. If you are buying Mira, Aqualisa, or something which literally comes in a box and is self-contained, then they offer good deals. But the bathroom market is so large, that any query which needs special help will have to go via a showroom.
Plumbase, Plumbcenter sell mostly to plumbers. They can get most things in bathrooms but the staff are trained mostly in plumbing accessories, eg pipes, bends, boiler keys. Their knowledge of bathroom products is usually very limited. They have a reputation for being cheap, but to buy there you will need all the product details yourself including part numbers, and supplier details if the product is more up market.
The growth in website sales has been explosive and has stunned the bathroom world. There are a lot of precautions you will need to observe when buying online, as follows. Make sure you check goods before signing as received in good condition, watch for hidden VAT charges, and watch for discounts from inflated prices (a price is increased and the discounted). Also be wary of stores advertising Massive Sales, and Huge Discounts, as they are rarely cheap. They engage in clever sales methods, and such stores are usually more expensive. For the intelligent customer, the Web offers a good route to buying a new bathroom.
This article is written by Trevor Oakley B.Sc. M.Sc., the Managing Director of Merrows Bathrooms, which sponsors a bathroom review site at sayworth.co.uk . That name was motivated from the word newsworthy (sayworthy).
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
