Sydney Taps ( Designer Bathroomware ) — Local services in Sydney

I am baffled by the bad reviews because this store is fantastic for tapware - just phenomenal.

In summary - this is the place to go for tapware, especally if you need to speak to knowledgeable staff for advice. Our long-standing tap problem was solved quickly and easily - we just had to wait for the taps to be made to order. I wish we'd found them sooner.

Our experience in detail - the previous owners of our house did a high-end reno in the 90's and they went with some hard to source / non-standard items and uncommon finishes. We started having problems with the taps in our main bathroom over five years ago. Plumbers couldn't even deal with our old taps as a non-standard tool was required to get them off without scratching them up (!) So... since forever we've been looking at replacing our taps with something similar because we like the look, and the finish matches an enormous towel rail in the bathroom.

Once or twice a year we've trudged around all the usual places in a plethora of mostly inner Sydney suburbs and shown them one of our taps, asking if they know of anything similar and stumped them all... until this last time back in August someone at another store in Alexandria recommended Sydney Taps. We walked in, looked around for a bit and became hopeful when we saw two things that were promising in terms of the finish, but not the exact style (as that had never happened before).

We asked for help. The saleswoman agreed we had a difficult to match taps and asked for time to think about it... then thought of a particular tap that turned out to be a fantastic fit for style. She didn't think we'd get an exact match for the finish as she said no-one did that kind of finish in Australia. We looked up the finishes together and there was one that was close enough / would work. A salesman joined in the discussion and it turned out they're married and own the business. They are both super-helpful and knowledgeable. They explained that our uncommon order meant that the tapware would be made to order and take two or three months.

Sydney Taps called last week to let us know the order had arrived so I went and picked up the tapware. OMG it is just beautiful and really well-made (bonus - it's actually made in Australia by Sussex Taps down in Melbourne - they even have their own foundry!) We installed everything ourselves yesterday and it's gorgeous! The tapware wasn't cheap but it wasn't punitatively expensive either (it was 'ouch'-level expensive and I like a bargain, so...) Anyway, we think we got our money's worth - we've got a stunning result that should last a long time (the tapware has a 15 year warranty).

I told a friend about how great the staff and the range was at Sydney Taps since her husband had helped us when the taps last played up (this couple has been doing renovations for the last couple of years and he had a tool he thought might help us). They visited the store yesterday as they need a new tap and they were impressed too.

I just googled Sussex Taps to check the warranty period for this review and I now realise other stores do carry their stuff, but not all the ranges. Sussex have lots of finishes though (the esoteric ones would all have to be special orders I guess) but no-one else in all these years put two and two together the way Sydney Taps did to help us solve our tapware problem.

Many thanks to everyone who helped us at...

This is the first review I have ever written good or bad. Having been told to look up the price on the internet when inquiring about some taps I was then hung up on. So rang back and coped the same result. So I decided to ring the manager a women answered the phone and said send a email and will look it then hung up. I rang back got another women who said she would get Raymond the manager to ring back. I asked if he was the owner she said no. Raymond rang me back and told me he was the owner and that he was there all the time and he has no problem with his staff as they are exceptional. So I decided to look at the reviews WOW. The staff from the manager / owner down are rude unhelpful. I suggest you do not use Sydney Taps as they could not careless about anyone. The young bloke Jason who I have always spoken and ordered through is a genius. But he is always out/on leave or with a client. So so long Sydney Taps me and my 217 clients will...

I'm torn on how to write this review. The final product I ended up with was pretty good and I'm happy with it, but the process of getting there was fairly frustrating, and took substantially longer than I expected. I've seen many people in the other reviews complain about failed promises to call back, and I agree... I had that problem at least 5 times and it's super annoying. Raymond was very helpful when he was there but he's often busy. If i could make a recommendation, it would be to share the customer service workload between staff to minimise the single point of failure. Other staff member were often there but unwilling to help each other's customers. Maybe a case management system or CRM might solve the problem? Anyway the bottom line is they have a great shop, and produce pretty good results, but are potentially too busy with their current workload so their customer service has room for...