Heritage Bathroom Gallery @ Geylang

Heritage Bathroom Gallery, a place where we spent 4+k! Why did we choose to buy from Heritage? What did we buy? Whom did we deal with? How's our experience with them?

Why Heritage Bathroom Gallery?
I read from several forums that Heritage offers rather competitive pricing, so we decided to drop by the place and take a look. We were greeted by Sharrine, whom we felt friendly and approachable. As it was a weekday, she was able to accompany us throughout and showing or recommending products to us. They sell a wide range of products although not all products are displayed in the shop due to space constraint, so just ask them if they sell a particular product or brand. We did not purchase on the spot as we did not bring out our full shopping list. However, we were more or less decided to buy from Heritage as prior to visiting Heritage, we had visited Best Toilet Bowl at Yeley Building (same shop as KS Lighting & Electrical), Bathroom Warehouse, both Bukit Merah and Changi showrooms, and Hoe Kee at Kaki Bukit, and the experience from visiting these shops wasn't as great as compared to visiting Heritage, as shared below.

Best Toilet Bowl - We visited them as we were actually there to get a quotation for electrical rewiring works under KS Lighting & Electrical, and since they also sell a variety of products, we decided to take a look. One thing that I do not like is that they charge extra for delivering of sanitary wares even if you meet the minimum amount of purchase for free delivery. When I asked if there's any discount from the price tag, I was told that it's already the best price as their price is already quite competitive (not really, imo).

Bathroom Warehouse - I first visited Bukit Merah showroom, alone. As a lady, I don't know much about sanitary wares and toilet stuff, so I approached a guy, who happened to be the manager, for help. He's friendly and approachable, and taught me a lot of things. Some of the things that he shared, which I could still remember:

1. When buying a WC, you need to know the distance between the wall and floor trap.
2. Choosing a one-piece WC, e.g. Baron 888, is better than a two-piece WC, as it is easier to clean. 
3. If you're planning to get a Baron WC, only the 888 model is installed with Gerbreit flushing system; other models are installed with their own flushing system.
4. To maintain the shiny look of a WC, do not use any toilet washing detergent, just water will do. The shine will slowly fade off if you use detergent to wash it frequently.
5. When choosing a tap/mixer, put 2 fingers in front of the tap/mixer, which is usually the distance from the tap/mixer to the edge of the basin/sink. This is to assess if your hands would be too close to the basin/sink during washing.
6. There is no 100% stainless steel product for bathroom stuff, so stainless steel product will still rust.
7. To maintain chrome products, always rinse off any shampoo, body wash, etc so as not to let the chemicals in these products settle on the chrome.

I told hubby that it was a pleasant experience to visit Bathroom Warehouse, so he suggested that we tried the other showroom as it was supposedly to be bigger. I was really tempted to buy the Baron 888 WC with a free basin priced at $488, thinking that it's a pretty good offer. However, we only need a WC and basin package, and another WC as we do not plan to change the vanity top in MBR toilet. We asked for the price if we were to buy just the WC and were told that it would be the same even if we don't need the basin. When we probed further, the staff told us that she could only offer 2 sets of Baron bidet. Again, we only have bidet installed in common toilet, so why do we need 2 sets? Since they were not flexible with their promotion/package/pricing, we decided not to make any purchase as we believed we could always find better promotion elsewhere, especially with GSS coming then (it was back in May then). Well, luckily we didn't buy from them as the deal from Heritage was better. :-)

Hoe Kee - I don't quite like Hoe Kee as they have limited choices for WC, mainly is Roz. When I asked about Rinnai hob, the salesman tried to dissuade me from getting Rinnai and recommend another brand instead. He also kept pushing us to put a deposit if we're keen to purchase an item, unfortunately, we didn't like to be pushed in this manner.

Our Shopping List
1x Baron 888 WC with Basin as a package
1x Baron 888 WC
2x Grohe Eurosmart New Shower Bundle Set (includes basin mixer, bath mixer & shower rail set)
1x Grohe Sink Mixer 
1x Joven 35l Heater
1x Rinnai 3Si Hob
2x Toilet Accessories (paper holder, towel bar, 2-tier glass shelf & mirror)
1x Door Bell
1x Bidet
2x Samaire SA493 Fan
8x Lights
*They expanded their business to sell lights and fans as well under Heritage Lighting Gallery.

The Baron 888 WC with Basin as a package was cheaper than the offer by Bathroom Warehouse, more than $50 difference. The pricing for the Grohe Eurosmart bundle set was further reduced from Grohe's promotion price, so meaning it's cheaper than Hoe Kee's selling price. Sharrine also matched the price for Grohe sink mixer and Joven heater that I found elsewhere. There was also price reduction for items here and there. Overall, we spent ~4.2k for the above mentioned items plus some small things like pan collars and exposed brackets. It was a happy deal with Sharrine.

Our "Dealer"

Sharrine is quite popular. When we went back the second time to place order, on a weekend evening, she was serving a couple and another couple was waiting for her. Subsequently when we tried to contact her on weekends, she was often busy attending to customers, but she would follow-up with our queries, with a bit of reminders though... Nonetheless, we did get our issues resolved with her help. At least, she would look into our queries or issues, and try to help us to resolve them, so she does provide post-sales service. Well, if you're expecting immediate reply or wait endlessly for them to call you back, then it isn't going to happen. It's common with many retailers and contractors, you only get a reply after a few phone calls or messages to check with them. If you proactively check with them, the chances of getting your issues resolved are higher, of course. In the next post, I would share more about our experiences trying to get our issues resolved, stay tuned!