Bad Experience With Universal Union

[candyseah1234 0]

At first, intend to buy Rubine's sink from them since Rubine website states so clearly that they are the distributor. Made a trip down, all staffs are very focus playing with their phones.. none of them approaches us until we asked one of the staff whether they have Rubine sink. She just simply brush us off by saying "eh, no" did not provide us with additional assistance or alternative so I believe they are not Proactive.. haha.. funniest thing is that Rubine labels sticker was pasted at their glass doors.. I won't recommend going to them if you would need additional assistance especially on products, unless you have a clear mind of what u want and customer service is not an issue to you.

[Lavender7799 0]

Compared their prices for Hob and Hood but sadly it's a vast differences from the prices i got from others.

Staff, have insufficient product knowledge, even have to teach them how to differentiate the hood.

Prices is different if you ask different sales people and different day.

[crandf 1]

I just bought 2 toilet bowls from them. Price quite competitive. Sales service ok. However, their plumbers were terrible. For $100 dismantling and installation fee, i get plumbers who cannot be bothered to thoroughly wash away old **** that had somehow fallen outside the collar before installing the new bowl. And treaded ****ty brown water over the entire distance from toilet to main gate. And left the toilet still brown with old ****, debris and packaging material. And they simply injected 2 huge ugly messy dollops of silicone to the back of the water tank to secure it. The gap was 4-5cm, so these 2 silicone dollops were huge and horrendously ugly, so ugly that i have never seen anything as bad in all the toilets i have visited in other people's houses

I kept quiet because i wasn't as concerned about the common toilet. Plus i kinda pitied them for having to deal with such **** jobs in their line, but deep down, i was appalled at their sloppy work attitude.

Also the whole bowl was cemented down along its edges, and he used 2 washers to prop it up first. And he reused the old water hose for the inside of the new water tank. Anyone can enlighten me if this is normal?

[EhBah 0]

I called to ask them if they can quote the price over the phone for a product and the auntie answered the phone with a lecture:

"We cannot give over the phone because of

1. I am not the sales rep

2. it takes time for the sales rep to check the details...blab..blah...blah

But you can send us an email at....blah blah blah...sheesh.. just tell me no and send them an email will do lah... I am quite sure I was not my pesky tone.

First impression sucks.

[sff 0]

My experience was totally different. Good and friendly service. Set aside stuff that we ordered. No stock also inform us upfront. Prompt delivery too. Been using the stuff for 5 months already, still good.

[sierrasg 0]

Universal Union has fallen from grace since I dealt with them 6 yrs ago. Back then, the boss and staff were attentive and helpful.

When I recently returned to the shop based on my previous dealings, the bad experience came as a shock to me. The staff (appears to be from China) was simply disinterested to serve us, looking to make a big bulk sale and kept telling us that the quality of all their goods are equally high (how can that be?). When we spoke to the boss, he told us to talk to his sales staff!

I was intending to make a big bulk sale, but walked away with only a kitchen sink as we needed that urgently.

I would avoid them unless you really like the products they carry.

Alvin.

[labyrinthsa 0]

Ordered our bathroom fittings and kitchen hardware from Universal Union but it turned out to be a horrible experience, where their services were unsatisfactory on at least 5 occasions.

The people we dealt were:

Main sales asst: Kiko

Boss: Mr Tan

Sales rep: Ginny

Time frame: early Nov'10 to now

1. When we ordered our items, Kiko did not inform us of any item that are not in stock. This is after we told her the estimated delivery period. When we went back about 1 week later to order more things, she told us that our Elkay sink is not in stock. Stock will only arrive in early Dec, but may come as early as late Nov. We had originally wanted another sink when we 1st went down, but she convinced us that the Elkay sink was better. Hence, we were rather annoyed that she recommended something that was not in stock. She offered us another sink that is apparently exactly the same design, made from the same factory but of a lesser known brand (and cost the same). But we rejected this option as why should we be paying the same amount for a sink that is from a lesser known brand? Anyway, she told us to call the shop again towards the end of Nov to check on the shipment date.

2. The rest of our items were supposed to arrive on a Tues. We asked her if the delivery could be in the morning as our plumber will be there and he can start the work early. She said that the delivery period for our area was 2-5pm, but she will arrange for ours to be at 2pm. On the day of the delivery, we took a full day leave so that we can be punctual in receiving our items. We waited till 3pm and there was still no sign of our items. We called her and she said that she will check and get back to us. At 3.30pm we still did not hear from her and we called back. A guy told us that our delivery is only coming at 4.30pm.

We were really pissed coz she promised to arrange our delivery at 2pm, failing which she did not even have the courtesy to inform us. When we called her on the actual day to ask about the delivery, she did not return our call as promised.

3. We called the shop again to ask about the shipment of the Elkay sink and was told that it will be on 10th Dec. I don't think 10th Dec qualifies as "early Dec, or maybe late Nov". The implication of this is that our renovation got delayed by 2 weeks.

4. A few days after we were told of the 10th Dec shipment date, the shop called us and said that they have stock for our sink and it will be at the shop on Tues evening. The shop actually called my partner 6,7 times (my partner was in a meeting when they called) just to inform us that our sink is available. My partner kept asking the sales asst (Ginny) if it is the Elkay sink and she insisted that it was. We were unable to collect the sink on Tues evening and decided to do so on Wed afternoon since we were on leave. Thank goodness we decided to call the shop before going down, only to find out that the sink will only be in the shop on Wed evening.

If we had gone down on Tues evening, or did not call before going down on Wed, we would have wasted our time again.

5. We went down on Thurs evening, braving a heavy downpour to collect the sink. When we arrived, Kiko looked surprised and we found out that Ginny had got it wrong. Our sink did not arrive at all, and it is still expected to arrive on 10th Dec.

This was the last straw for us and we told Kiko that we wanted to speak to the boss. The shop has inconvenienced us enough and delayed our reno. Kiko said that she has the cardboard cut-out from the supplier and we can bring the cardboard to our contractor to expedite our kitchen carpentry. Despite her confidence that the cardboard cut-out is accurate, she was unable to promise that she will bear the responsibility if it did not. After much insistence, she called her boss and we explained the situation to the boss, Mr Tan.

6. Mr Tan apologized and promised us that he will check with the supplier the next day to see if there is stock, and he will personally deliver the sink to us at our convenience. There was no stock locally and he offered 2 options for us to choose from:

a) he will give us another sink that he claims to cost more than the one we paid for. However the sink's design is not similar to the one we chose.

b) he will airfreight our sink for us, but that will arrive only on 9th Dec.

We asked him if we decide to go with option b, how will he compensate for all the inconvenience he has caused us and he replied that theirs is a small company and they don't do monetary compensation, they can at most refund our money. We then told him that the sink arriving 1 day earlier that 10th dec is hardly a resolution. He then admitted that if he airfreights the sink in, it will definitely arrive on the 9th. If we wait for the shipment on the 10th, there may be delays to the shipment and the sink may arrive later.

Obviously the "early Dec, or maybe late Nov" is nothing but bullsh*t then.

By this time, we have had enough of the shop's poor service and irresponsibility. We decided to choose option b and have nothing to do with that shop ever again.

Hence, if you are considering getting their products, you might want to be mindful of the way they have dealt with our issue.

Edited December 3, 2010 by labyrinthsa