Ferguson Home — Local services in Santa Barbara

After a less than stellar experience at Santa Barbara Plumbing where I was completely ignored today, I went to Ferguson Home. The two experiences could not have been more different: the staff at Ferguson's was pleasant, knowledgable, and effecient. In a way I am very happy about the poor service I received at Santa Barbara Plumbing as it resulted in my going to Ferguson's where I had a stellar experience. Of course Ferguson's will be receiving all of my future business when it comes to plumbing supplies.

Well, I have to take back every good thing I said about Ferguson's customer service. My faucet came - without a handle. I called and was told they would send me a return label, I would have to take it to UPS (or wherever) and wait for the warehouse to get it before they would issue a credit. I said nevermind, I will take it back to the showroom myself - which I did. It turns out that that faucet is available with or without a handle and the salesperson ordered the wrong one. So I purchased the right one and was supposedly issued a credit for the one I returned. When I got my credit card statement there was no credit, so I called the store - again. I was told that I have to wait for the warehouse to receive the item before I will get the credit and that the store has to figure out what happened to the faucet after I brought it back before they can send it to the warehouse. They said I cannot get the credit now because I "ordered it on line" originally. I did not order it on line. I went to the showroom and a salesperson at Ferguson's ordered it. They may have done it on line, I don't know. All I know is that I returned it. The way their system works, no matter who returns it, the customer or the showroom, is that a return label has to be generated, the item has to be sent off, the warehouse has to receive it and note that in some system, and then the credit is issued. To me, that is totally messed up, especially when the initial error is made by a Ferguson's salesperson. Yes, after several phone calls they agreed to "make an exception" and expedite my refund, but that doesn't change their system. Because of that system I had to put way too much effort into the purchase of a simple faucet to want to deal with this...

I spent the past several days trying to identify the brand and part that I needed to fix a leaking shower. I thought for sure that I was going to have to tear out some bathroom tile and spend a lot of money having a plumber install a whole new shower valve. Fortunately this wasn't the case. I went to Santa Barbara Plumbing Supplies first and they were able to identify the part I needed, but they didn't carry that brand. They pointed me to a nearby competitor, Ferguson, knowing these guys carried the Danze brand. I thought that was pretty classy.

So then I visited Ferguson based upon Santa Barbara Plumbing Supplies' recommendation and Ferguson was able to locate the obscure shower cartridge assembly that I needed and order my part within minutes. I expect to have it delivered tomorrow.

I was really impressed by the professionalism of the staff and the fact that they didn't talk down to me as a "non plumber". Between Ferguson and Santa Barbara Plumbing Supplies, I felt like these guys worked together as a team to help resolve my problem and I am very grateful.

So if you need help with plumbing services or supplies, I highly recommend Ferguson....

We had a problem with Smarden-Hatcher regarding a warranty replacement so I called and spoke with Larry at Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting in Santa Barbara who super helpful. They didn't have the part in stock, but offered to honor the warranty replacement with the auth # we had from AO Smith, without having to charge us for the replacement up front and then getting reimbursed, and without paying for freight or service charges. He was willing to be the go-between for me and the manufacturer to make sure they got the exact model we needed. AO Smith ended up shipping our replacement to us, but I appreciated the amazingly helpful response I received from Larry...