Very disappointing
We ordered 200 railway sleepers directly from KJ Bownes & Sons to replenish our existing stock at our reclamation yard, and have been extremely disappointed with the quality of stock which we were sent, and with the dreadful customer service received since. The vast majority of the sleepers we received are of very poor quality, with big areas of rot rendering many of them unusable. When I phoned the company to discuss the problem, the man I spoke to was incredibly rude, and completely disinterested in listening to what I had to say, finishing off by swearing at me and hanging up the phone! Truly one of the worst trade-to-trade buying experiences I have had during my many years working in the reclamation business - avoid, avoid, avoid!
Reply from KJ Bownes and Sons
Good Afternoon Jeff,
I am sorry to be reading this review, and I have investigated the matter thoroughly, and believe the facts that you have given are wholly inaccurate and are not representative of the situation at all.
You purchased the sleepers in question from us on the 25th of February 2021, this was 84 days before you made any contact with us yesterday (19th May 2021) regarding the quality of the sleepers. As such a large amount of time has passed, as with any product purchase the options available to us at this point are very limited. When they were delivered you stated to the driver that the quality of them was exactly what you required, again not addressing any concerns at the time of delivery.
However, at the time of purchasing the Grade 2/Engineering Grade sleepers, you were sent numerous pictures of them, and these are what you received. As you were advised by the sale staff at the time of purchase, they would not recommend buying Grade 2 sleepers from ourselves at £12.50 each and then trying to sell them at £25 each as a Grade 1 Sleeper. The sleepers we supplied are those advised on your website, so we find it difficult to see why quality was a concern, if you were then advertising them at double the price you paid from ourselves.
