Vado CEL-128C/SQ-3/4-C/P Shower Mixer
Customer Service
Quality of website
Value For Money
Vado CEL-128C/SQ-3/4-C/P Shower Mixer
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User Reviews
Customer Service
Vado Taps And Brassware
We used them in a bathroom and they were very difficult to seal- I cannot recommend this product. We also fitted an expensive shower mixer with drench head and again the joints were poor.
Customer Service
Quality of website
Value For Money
Poor Quality, Design, And After Sales Service
Vado CEL-128C/SQ-3/4-C/P shower mixer.
I bought an expensive Vado shower mixer thinking I was buying quality and reliability. The 12 year guarantee seemed impressive but sadly I was to learn it is worthless.
When my temperature handle jammed on hot I contacted Vado customer service. I was feeling confident that the 12 year warranty would solve my problem. No chance! The first thing they do when you request an engineer is send you a long list of terms and conditions about how they are going to charge you £90 to turn up and £60 per hour after that. One of the things on the list is that they will charge you if you haven’t serviced your shower annually. Who ever heard of servicing a shower?
Have you ever serviced your shower? Me neither. I had a Mira for 15 years and never did any more than turn it on and off. Vado showers require the customer to service them every year. I was completely unaware of this as 1. Who ever heard of having to service your shower?, and 2. The fitter had thrown the manual away . To do this, you need to go to B&Q to buy special tools you probably don’t own. Then you need to dismantle the whole shower to access the valveinside that requires servicing. The design is so poor that I spent hours trying to do this and had to give up. The grubscrews that hold the handle on are extremely difficult to locate the hex key in. To rub it in, When I managed to get one of the three grubscrews out, the handle that was supposed to pull off easily won’t budge at all!
Vado customer service is not interested in offering anything approaching the kind of service customers might expect when buying a high end shower. My advice is to avoid like the plague!
Vado have contacted me (time dated before I wrote this comment) and stated that there was an administrative error and they will pay my refund. They have also agreed to send me an additional tested diverter valve and if that still leaks they will send me a tested tap.
It looks like they are trying their best. However, the diverter design could still be improved.
I have had a similar bad experience to with a new Vado Celsius Bath Shower Tap CEL-131T-C/P.
The flow is controlled by the left hand handle, forward for the tap, back for the shower and no flow shut-off between the two. I complained (sent a video) about the difficulty of adjusting the tap handle to the stop position. It requires an extremely small angular displacement of the handle to move from water flowing out of the tap, to water out of the shower, making it difficult to shut off.
When I explained my dissatisfaction with the tap, they sent me an exchange diverter valve. Two after-sales representatives both agreed on the phone that I would get refunded for the return call out by the plumber (so I could not be accused of incorrect installation) and return postage of the original valve. No mention was made of them possibly refusing a refund.
To enable a consistent shut-off, my solution to a poor design was to carefully set the shut-off point and use self-adhesive laminating waterproof labels to draw lines across from the rotating handle to the tap body. Ironically, the replacement diverter valve developed a slight leak.
The final insult was a letter off the Vado Quality & Technical Team Manager stating they had tested the returned diverter and it did not leak, so the promised refund was refused. If I had expected this treatment off Vado, I would never have agreed to try a replacement diverter valve.
Lesson1. If an item is unfit for purpose, get a refund from the seller instead of dealing with the manufacturer. Please see "What are your consumer rights?" on moneysavingexpert.com.
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