Toto Drake Cracked on Arrival

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Basik

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We just received our Toto Drake toilet from HomeClick and the bowl was damaged. In the pictures below you can see that inside the bowl (looking down through the large hole where the upper tank meets the bowl, there is a crack. This area is to be flooded upon flush so I assume this can’t be acceptable.

What do I do? I have an email in to HomeClick. Anyone dealt with their CS before?
 

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WJcandee

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Well, this is one reason we don't advocate buying toilets online in this forum. I have never bought anything from that company, and don't think they even usually have the best prices of those merchants. You're going to find out now what kind of customer service they have. Maybe you should try to CALL them. Presumably, you will ship the cracked bowl back to them and they will send you another one. They deal with this issue every day, because porcelain shipped on package carriers CRACKS every day. It's a part of their business model to deal with this issue.

Oh, and prepare for a lot of abuse from the moderators and members for buying online. Maybe now that I have told you what I have told you, they will leave you alone. But I doubt it. In any event, next time try buying the most excellent Toto though a local person. Look at me giving a guy advice on how to get a good local price in this quote from another thread:

"What I personally recommend, and have received a lot of good feedback for, is the following: decide on the exact model and color that you want. Open the Yellow Pages (remember them?) to the section called Plumbing Supply and pick out at least FIVE nearby sources. Even if they don't advertise Toto, virtually all can get it from their suppliers, and many don't advertise it even if they carry it because they think only plumbers have heard of Toto. Call them and ask what their price would be if you came in today and bought/ordered/paid-for that exact model and color. At least one will be rude. At least one will be nice. At least one will have some stupidly-high price. At least one will have a very good price. And at least one will be nice and have a good price. Then you can decide who you want to do business with. Advantage: when it comes in if it isn't in stock you can look at it with the guy right there in the shop and make sure that it's not cracked or broken. And you have a place nearby to return it to if you discover a problem when you get it home."
 
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Basik

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Yeah, honestly wasn't super excited to order it online either... Historically we've purchased Kohler toilets from big box stores, but after all the positive reviews Toto gets on here, I talked the wife into the Drake since HomeClick had it for $200 shipped. We plan to call them Monday of course, they just aren't open weekends.
I was nervous to go into a "dealer" store as none of them post pricing online and looked way too high end for our budget.
 

WJcandee

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Yeah, honestly wasn't super excited to order it online either... Historically we've purchased Kohler toilets from big box stores, but after all the positive reviews Toto gets on here, I talked the wife into the Drake since HomeClick had it for $200 shipped. We plan to call them Monday of course, they just aren't open weekends.
I was nervous to go into a "dealer" store as none of them post pricing online and looked way too high end for our budget.

You're right about most "dealers". I totally understand. Been there. But that's the beauty of the phone and yellow pages. You figure out what you would order online, and then call five or more places (just "plumbing supply" places, as most can get all brands, not just "dealers" in Toto) with the exact model and color numbers. You just ask what their price would be if you came in today to purchase/order it. Most will be horrible people, but you will find a prince or two if you call around enough. Several times, members have posted that when they called around, they found a place with a price even better than online. In one major city, I thought I had the name of a great company, then one user following my system came back and named an even better one. That's a nice outcome.

So, live and learn. I will bet that this seller will have a straightforward procedure about what to do, and will be nice about it, because they deal with it every day. If not, let me know, either here or by private message above, and I will give you some ideas about how to proceed.

When you finally get your non-broken Toto installed, you're going to love it. We have two Drakes, and couldn't be happier with them. Good luck!!
 

Basik

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Thanks for the input. I'll keep that in mind next go around. I'm just surprised it was cracked at all... It was packaged very well, and since this crack is central to the entire toilet, it sure seems like a defect vs shipping damage. I was hoping Toto QC was going to be better than the cheapy toilets I've put in before. So needless to say, I got the eyeroll from the wife when she heard it appeared to be defective. You would agree at least that this crack is enough to warrant replacement yes?
 

Jadnashua

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FWIW, I've bought 4 toilets from them, one was damaged along the way, and never delivered...I found out when it didn't arrive, that the shipper realized it was damaged and contacted them, and they were in the process of sending a new one - I'd just noticed it hadn't arrived when scheduled. They do try to package them well with the added foam-in-place they add to the OEM boxes, but after all, it is brittle porcelain...and, especially at this time of the year, lots of packages moving. Most of mine ended up coming common carrier verses UPS. The last ones came on a pallet, and were fine. It's the single pieces that are more liable for damage. When shipped by the factory, they normally are all strapped to a pallet and rarely have problems...it's when they get shipped individually where the problem occurs unless it is the guy who is installing it, then he really cares.
 

WJcandee

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99.999999-percent likelihood it cracked in shipment. Toto QC is the best in the business; Terry gets waaaaaaaay less than 1% defects -- and that's after it has been freight-shipped on a pallet to the local distributor, and thus could still suffer some shipment damage.

No matter how well-packaged, just the forces of deceleration -- when some holiday-time-temporary-employee drops it off the back of a truck at the terminal even though it says fragile -- would be enough to cause some kind of crack inside. Given that Toto tests them before they leave the factory, a crack like that would have been caught by QC and the unit recycled.

You can build a car with a strong steel cage that resists crushing, but the protoplasm inside is going to be harmed in a significant deceleration regardless of whether the cage stays intact. Same thing with shipping your toilet. In any event, let us know how it goes.
 

Reach4

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Do you really think that this is an instance of shipping damage?
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Basik

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Personally I don't think it is... I've never seen damage to something only on the inside, caused by shipping. This to me looks as if the ceramic wasn't done drying prior to firing.
 

Basik

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It is a production crack, but in that location I doubt that it has any detrimental effect on the performance of the toilet.
I was worried the water would soak in leach through the ceramic to the floor.
 
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Yes, this is a production issue, not shipping. It doesn't look like a problematic crack unless some stress on it causes it to propagate later. Since it was ordered new, I would reject it.

Toto QC does a good job overall, but some defects get through. One of the three Drake tanks I ordered and installed years ago was deformed/twisted. It wasn't obvious. It was difficult to align it square with the bowl and wall and never seemed right. I didn't understand why until I put the tank lid on it wobbled on the tank. Since I had other lids I tested them on the tank and found the same problem. Took a few measurements and confirmed twist of the tank (IIRC two opposite diagonal corners high, two low and shifted a little forward at top on one side and a few degrees back on the other.) I rejected the tank and the local supplier had another one shipped in.

Most recent Drake II had no problems. After trying it I tried to buy the second one the local supplier had, but its tank was an opened box (I had noticed that when I bought the first) and there was something missing or wrong...possibly from being opened or cannibalized. They sent it back, so I'm waiting for a new mate for the bowl.
 
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