Doing Things Again - Part 2

I have mentioned before about my dislike of having to do some things again - see this entry from June.  One of those items was the framed, ledged and braced internal door bought from b****y W****s which was fitted in the new extension as the toilet door almost two years ago.  The problem is that it no longer fits in the door frame, even with force; the vertical hinge edge (a bit of planed 4 x 2) has twisted, so that it went one way at the top and the opposite way at the bottom compared to the vertical boards.

Well, I've finally got round to doing something about it by complaining to the retailer whose customer serices firstly tried the excuse that it was "too long ago": no, it's not, as the door is not "fit for purpose" (Sale of Goods Act).  Then it was "you'll need the receipt", hoping that I didn't have it - WRONG (it took me one minute to find it in my file)!  Then they seemed to hope that they could bore me into submission by disagreeing within the company about who should look after my complaint.  When that didn't work (it is the branch's responsibility, btw), the chap in the branch lost my details on his desk (!), so I had to remind him.  Then they asked me to send photos so that they could pass them on to their supplier, which I did the same day, despite the problems of taking photos to show the twist in a fitted door in a small space.  Finally, having had no answer a couple of weeks later, I sent an e-mail to the chap in the branch, reminding him that under the Sale of Goods Act, my contract is with his employer, not with the manufacturer.  At last, he caved in and offered me a refund, if I would "like to bring the door back, and the receipt", which I did by 10am the next morning. It was good to be able to show him the defect, as then even he had to admit that it was pretty poor.

I declined his offer of another door - "we now have a different supplier" - and went back to my favourite reclamation yard (Burgess Reclamation) where I bought a much nicer door at a much increased price. This one is just ledged, with just four vertical planks from reclaimed floorboards. Then I thought I would treat the knots, so at T----- P-----, I found some knot sealer and asked the obvious question "does it allow me then to stain the wood or will I see patches?"  To my surprise no-one knew, so I bought it anyway.  The answer is that it does, but I overcame this by treating the entire door with the stuff so it is all the same colour (a quite attractive dark-ish pine).  It is now fitted, with bolt and a pull handle (the handle part of a rusted original Suffolk latch) on the inside, plus a door knob on the outside; I still haven't worked out how to fit a latch to a ledged door with no frame. Perhaps I should buy another hand made Suffolk latch, but then I would have to change all the moulded architrave... sigh.