We bit the bullet on refitting our family bathroom and ensuite in Feb’20 before the arrival of our first baby. We went with CSJ after a positive review from a relative, but on reflection this has felt like a massive mistake with a lot of grief over the past six months. For clarity I’ve listed the issues faced in an itemised list, as it is rather extensive!!! Whilst problems have been created by contractors and sub-contractors, the buck ultimately stops with CSJ who have not been forthcoming or proactive in resolving despite several recent phonecalls and opportunities. Reflecting back to the initial consultation, the salesman clearly overstated what was achievable on the project - for example, promising to conceal wastepipe in wall, making shower tray flush with floor and expected timescales. This has left us with bathrooms not in line with what was initially designed and paid for. Additionally, the salesman advised of the sq metres of tiles required and did not calculate enough excess leaving an imperfect finish in places (see point 17). The CSJ team should not overpromise, especially when I challenged the ability to do this, and was met with a ‘double down’ on the promise. The salesman's technique of selling the finance option has left me in two minds to report CSJ to the FCA for mis-selling. Part of the original attraction of CSJ was the availability of finance as fitting two bathrooms isn’t cheap! But we were always intending to pay some money upfront to reduce the amount of finance. Your salesman however was pretty insistent we shouldn't be paying anything upfront... a tactic that suggests to me your sales team are paid commission on (mis-)selling finance. Thankfully as I have a background in finance I was able to see through this. CSJ need to make sure their sales team are trained to sell this service and act with integrity. I have major concerns that other customers are being mis-sold finance. CSJ then repeatedly requested payment even though we hadn’t agreed to the final bathroom specs. This felt incredibly pushy and awkward and not a great way to enter customer relations. After agreeing a start date and two week timeframe, we got a call 5 days before the start date flagging that CSJ had changed supplier and we needed to reselect our full suite for both bathrooms. Initially it was said it would not lead to a delay, and then were told it would. This delayed our fitting by a week. I don’t believe changing supplier is a spur of the moment decision, customers should be given far more lead time to reselect furniture (if this needs done at all!!) Despite agreeing to do one bathroom at a time (and not both simultaneously) the Contractor turned up on Day One expecting to rip both bathrooms out. With a pregnant wife, the prospect of having no working bathroom for a week plus was never an option, and thankfully I was working at home that day and was able to intervene. And it really would have been a disaster, as the country went into COVID lockdown at the end of that first week (hindsight is a wonderful thing!). We sourced tiles for our en-suite and were told the Contractor would pick them up. With significant concern about an inevitable COVID lockdown, we were acutely aware it was urgent the tiles needed collected ASAP, but they never were. We later found out the trader sold on our items which led to a couple of months of inconvenience, tracking down our order and waiting for them to restock. Whilst the resale of our tiles wasn't CSJ's fault, it was still frustrating being told the pick-up was under control and another example of over-promising and not delivering. COVID - At the point of lockdown 80% of the family bathroom was complete, and the en-suite not started. No one could have foreseen the locktown that followed, but our job could have been finished if it wasn’t delayed as mentioned in item 4. We were left with a number of heavy boxes upstairs that, due to my wife's pregnancy and visitor restrictions, we weren’t able to move easily. When lockdown restrictions were lifted we contacted CSJ via email to get an update, eager to get our house back. We were frustrated not to receive a courtesy response to our email and the Facebook chaser sent a few days later. The Contractor then got in touch, suggesting our messages were seen, but a simple acknowledgement of enquiry would have been appreciated. We agreed a date with the Contractor to resume work, but were disappointed on Monday morning to get a phonecall to say it would need to be postponed because a number of furniture items were found damaged and smashed in the warehouse (specifically a shower tray and shower screen were mentioned in passing). After all this time how was this not noticed beforehand? I find it staggering in a period of limited work taking place that stock could get damaged! Ten days after the expected start date the Contractor phoned to say he was coming the following day (two days ahead of the new schedule) to rip out the en-suite. We later learnt this was to get a jump start on work due to holiday deadlines. Whilst bringing forward the work was better news than another delay, the lack of project management was a concern and started to mess us around. When the Contractor arrived for the rip out, he asked us to sign CSJ's Satisfied Customer Declaration there and then without the work being done. This should have raised a massive RED FLAG, putting me and my wife on the spot. We, arguably, very naively signed the paperwork in good faith thinking the worst was behind us. We recognised lockdown had been difficult and may not have been paid for the work completed so far. From that point onwards the completion of the ensuite went from bad to worse and our good nature felt severely taken advantage of. At the rip out, several furniture items were put in our garage, where we realised CSJ or the Contractor sourced the wrong colour radiator. Another radiator had to be ordered, to date this has not appeared with any other subcontractor or been fitted and is yet another example of the poor management of the project. During the designing in Feb, we agreed to bulkheads in both rooms to hide toilet cisterns. At no point back in Feb was there a mention of worktops for these, we assumed these would be finished with the tiles/panelling used for the walls in each bathroom. If it had been mentioned, we would have asked to see samples of colours/materials. When ripping out the ensuite, the Contractor told us we needed worktops. We then had to make a quick decision without samples (just one grainy close-up photo).The worktop that showed up matches neither room, looks cheap and old-fashioned, we don’t want it fitted, delaying completion again. The rip out of the ensuite took place over Friday and Saturday, we had to cancel weekend plans to allow access for the work. The tilers turned up on Monday and at the end of the day we realised the tilers used tools from my toolbox and cuts of carpet I was using for a DIY project. I spent that evening trying to rescue the carpet cuts and clean the adhesive that had been dropped/wiped on it. The tilers also chose to dump a load of the rubble in our general waste bin rather than taking the material away with them. It should surely be common courtesy for workmen to ask before using customers’ belongings! After slow progress by tilers over the Mon+Tues, they didn’t show on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. We had no courtesy call with an explanation from CSJ, the Contractor or the tilers. Instead, we were just expected to put our lives on hold and wait for someone to turn up. Having heard nothing for 3 days straight we left several voicemails with CSJ's main office over Friday asking confirmation work would resume on Monday but these were frustratingly ignored. It was the bank holiday weekend, had heard nothing and had plans to take our newborn daughter to see friends. You can imagine how annoyed we were to have the tilers make a reappearance at 10am on Saturday, completely unannounced. We cancelled plans and let them in because we were told by the Contractor before he finished for his holiday that plumbers and fitters were coming in after the weekend, therefore the tiling needed to be complete. At the end of Saturday the tilers flagged that they (just) ran out of wall tiles but still had a small part of the wall to complete. We've ended up needing to use floor tiles (which are a different shade to the wall tiles) for the remaining gap on the wall. Whilst it's subtly different, it is still unfortunately noticeable and a subpar finish! When finishing up on Saturday, the tilers said they'd be back out between 10am-11am the following day. They didn't end up making an appearance until 1.15pm, despite me challenging them the day before on the previous tardiness. Their late appearance meant that the tiler ended up working until 6.30pm on a Sunday evening. Ultimately, the risks of COVID are still very real and physical distancing remains important so over the course of that weekend myself, my wife and baby had to spend pretty much the whole time confined to downstairs! The tilers clearly left in a rush on Sunday night as they have left rubble, tiles, buckets and other kit down the side of our house. This is not something I should be required to clean up! By Monday morning we still hadn't had any response to our voicemails left with CSJ (see item 15). At 9am, a couple of CSJ workers turned up. They said they had come to fit a suspended ceiling and worktop but had been given no other information on any of the other incomplete jobs. In fact, we later learnt that they were joiners and window fitters and had never done any bathroom work before. As a result, they only turned up with the tools and materials to fit the ceiling. It turns out they were even given the wrong ceiling panels (luckily I had some in our garage from pre-lockdown work). To their credit, they did a good job and did hang a couple of mirrors in the bathroom. Ironically that best service we'd had on our bathrooms so far had come from a couple of window fitters. No one at CSJ had the courtesy to phone us first to understand our complaint and outstanding work, they simply threw two employees under the bus by sending them out underequipped. They helped with what they could but it is an entirely inefficient way of working. Before finishing for holiday, the Contractor said that the plumbers would be in on Tuesday but once again we waited all day and no one showed up. Further delays! We phoned CSJ again on Tuesday to highlight that the plumbers hadn't turned up as promised by the Contractor. One of the case administrators phoned us back later in the morning to confirm that they had managed to contact the Contractor on holiday and they would contact me directly. Needless to say I never received a phonecall from the Contractor. Whilst it was appreciated that they escalated the issues with the Contractor, they are at the end of the day CSJ’s Contractor, so CSJ should be taking more ownership of resolving the issues, particularly when the Contractor has not demonstrated themselves to be overly reliable. Whilst I never received a phonecall from the Contractor, the plumbers did appear on Wednesday. They hadn’t been given the right colour radiator, and were expecting to fit the wrong one in our garage. They asked questions about the shower unit as they'd picked up a unit that morning but discovered another one in the garage left prior to lockdown. It turns out the one initially brought on site prior to COVID was the wrong model, again a case of CSJ fitting the bathroom they have in stock, not the one we selected and paid for. I'm beginning to question whether CSJ have a copy of our order at all! The plumbers weren't able to completely install the en-suite toilet because the tiler hadn't bore out a hole for the flusher button. Whilst I'm a little surprised the plumbers didn't have a tool to bore a hole in the tile themselves, this is just another example of the complete piecemeal approach taken to this installation and shocking communication in-between CSJ's contractors. Creating yet more delays and still not a functioning en-suite! The plumbers have installed the wall hung sink slightly off-level. This will need to be corrected (yet more delays!). It’s surely a basic skill for a workman to see this and own a spirit level to check. The evening after the plumbers had been in, we noticed a lot of standing water in the kitchen cupboard under the sink. The team hadn't properly adjusted the stopcock when turning the water back on causing a leak. Thankfully caught before it caused any water damage! We were told an electrician would be out on the Wednesday but unsurprisingly no one turned up the rest of the week (yet more delays!!) The electrician didn't turn up until the following Tuesday, turning up on our doorstep unannounced with no phonecall from CSJ, the Contractor or the electrician. At this point it is the 25th of September, work was supposed to resume on the 10th August and we are yet to have a bathroom completed to 100% satisfaction, numerous jobs remain incomplete and the en-suite is still unusable.