Ordering a toilet online?

[BobJacobs]

say you have done your research and decided on a new toilet to purchase (in my case I would like a Toto CST776CSFG#01), you then called your two local plumbing supply stores and they do not have it in stock, but can special order it - takes a week to ten days, one store quoted me $400, the other would need to check and have not yet gotten back to me.

Big box stores do not carry it either, can also special order it, takes about a week to pick up in store or shipped to your home with free shipping, total $360.

Ferguson.com does not stock it in stores (at least not the three local ones in south Florida) but can ship it to me for $286 + large parcel shipping.

Amazon.com has it and it's $251 with free shipping 3-4 days.

So no one has one in stock locally, but they all can ship. Is there any advantage to have it shipped by Amazon vs say Ferguson?

I have heard horror stories of toilets arriving with cracks or in pieces after unpacking. But if they are all coming by shipping, is there a difference? I assume no matter who you order from, it's going to be dropped shipped from the same Toto distributor right?

 

[BobJacobs]

OK I found one Ferguson store way down in Miami that shows 1 available. However I am not sure if it's the same one I want which is CST776CSFG#01. It's a 45 minute drive one way and so far no one is answering the phone.

When I selected it it is not listed as CST776CSFG#01, but as two separate items:

TC776CEFG01 TOTO Drake® 1.28 gpf Elongated ADA Floor Mount Bowl Toilet in Cotton
TST776SA01 TOTO Drake® 1.6 gpf Tank Toilet in Cotton

Does the two pieces make a CST776CSFG#01? So a 1.28GPF bowl with a 1.6GPF tank? Totally confused.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Weekend Handyman]

OK I found one Ferguson store way down in Miami that shows 1 available. However I am not sure if it's the same one I want which is CST776CSFG#01. It's a 45 minute drive one way and so far no one is answering the phone.

When I selected it it is not listed as CST776CSFG#01, but as two separate items:

TC776CEFG01 TOTO Drake® 1.28 gpf Elongated ADA Floor Mount Bowl Toilet in Cotton
TST776SA01 TOTO Drake® 1.6 gpf Tank Toilet in Cotton

Does the two pieces make a CST776CSFG#01? So a 1.28GPF bowl with a 1.6GPF tank? Totally confused.

I have never bought a toilet over the internet.

I would only buy it from Amazon if:
- The toilet is 'Shipped and sold by Amazon'. Otherwise, returns could be problematic.
- You are going to take it out of the box and install it promptly (i.e. within the return window)

 

[Terry]

When I buy from a local wholesale connection, the entire semi is packed full and the product is on pallets. The people unloading that semi are also the counter guys that you deal with. They know the products and how they should be handled.
When Amazon ships, it goes in a box so large that I can't pick it up. My experience is that toilets that have been shipped that way, breaks one out of five, 20%
It's a big maybe as to whether you receive a good one. I could ship bidet seats, much lighter, and those I could kick to the front door without a problem.
A toilet is 100 pounds and made of glass (porcelain)

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

It looks like what Ferguson has is the toilet you want.

 

[rural_engineer]

It really depends on how the toilet is packaged for shipping. If it's shipped freight on a pallet, it will be much safer than if it's shipped common carrier in a box. I got bitten a few years back when I ordered two Toto toilets that shipped in boxes. They essentially repacked the toilets in expanding foam to ship them. From the top, everything looked fine, but when I was ready to install them and pulled them from the box, I found each one was broken enough underneath to be worthless. And I had waited too long to return them.

I also ordered some large self rimming sinks mail-order a few years ago. Amazon shipped me one, and the rim was bent. Returned it, and got a replacement, also bent. Amazon wouldn't send a 3rd, so I returned it and ordered from build.com. Arrived bent. Ferguson sent a replacment, also bent. Finally I went through a local rep, which charged a lot, but the sink came on a pallet with no damage. Hilariously, we then got a really good deal on granite countertops instead of laminate, and installed the sink undermount, where the rim was invisible.

 

[BobJacobs]

When I buy from a local wholesale connection, the entire semi is packed full and the product is on pallets. The people unloading that semi are also the counter guys that you deal with. They know the products and how they should be handled.
When Amazon ships, it goes in a box so large that I can't pick it up. My experience is that toilets that have been shipped that way, breaks one out of five, 20%
It's a big maybe as to whether you receive a good one. I could ship bidet seats, much lighter, and those I could kick to the front door without a problem.
A toilet is 100 pounds and made of glass (porcelain)

Thank you. That makes sense. I have seen Amazon truck drivers "fling" packages over gates, or roll large boxes off the back of the trucks and let them dropped down to the pavement, so that's a bit worrisome.

I am going to order it from Ferguson and go pick it up at the plumbing counter instead even though that's $40 more expensive and more trouble for me to do it that way.

 

[BobJacobs]

It looks like what Ferguson has is the toilet you want.

View attachment 89880

I am seeing the same thing on Ferguson's web site. The only concern I have is that toilet breaks into two parts the bowl and the tank,, and based on the description it is a 1.28GPF bowl paired with a 1,6GPF tank so it looks "wrong" to me, but may be that's how it supposed to me that the tank is the same for 1.28 and 1.6GPF it's the inside guts that makes the difference but I just don't want 1.6GPF to run down to that 1.28GPF bowl and cause an overflow or splash.

 

[Terry]

I am seeing the same thing on Ferguson's web site. The only concern I have is that toilet breaks into two parts the bowl and the tank,, and based on the description it is a 1.28GPF bowl paired with a 1,6GPF tank so it looks "wrong" to me, but may be that's how it supposed to me that the tank is the same for 1.28 and 1.6GPF it's the inside guts that makes the difference but I just don't want 1.6GPF to run down to that 1.28GPF bowl and cause an overflow or splash.

The CST776 elongated and the round CST775 are 1.28 bowls, and will take either the 1.28 or the 1.60 tank.

 

[Jeff H Young]

I've never ordered a toilet on line. If it comes and its broken is that a problem to you? or ordering new one and possible delay a bother? I'm all over saving money and buy on line but haven't done it with toilets it may be worthwhile sort of an individual decision based on time and convenience

 

[Terry]

I used to ship from eight locations, Anchorage, Brooklyn NY, Florida, Colorado, Texas, California, Georgia, Washington.
They would be on a pallet and one out of five were broken when they got there.

Locally here in the Seattle area, I would get these strange phone orders for toilets. Do you guarantee it won't be broken? Hey, that's easy, either my 6'4" son or me at 6'2" will hand deliver.
After delivery, we would get a call the next day that it was broken. Wow, considering that the stuff I sell locally is 99% perfect, that seems really strange. They ask what I do for broken toilets, and then they say I sold them one.

That happened a couple of times and then I told my son to, "Open the box in front of the customers and have them inspect."
They didn't like that. They had ordered from Amazon, and they had a broken mess. They were using me, the local guy to do Amazon's warranty program. That all ended though when we opened the boxes and showed them how perfect things were though.

For most toilets, Amazon sells for more than me. Nobody cares, they assume that Jeff is taking care of them.

If I have a customer that says they have one on hand, I tell them to open the box and inspect. I won't drive out, book out the time, so to look at a broken mess. I'm used to the perfect I buy and sell.

 

[Weekend Handyman]

I used to ship from eight locations, Anchorage, Brooklyn NY, Florida, Colorado, Texas, California, Georgia, Washington.
They would be on a pallet and one out of five were broken when they got there.

Locally here in the Seattle area, I would get these strange phone orders for toilets. Do you guarantee it won't be broken? Hey, that's easy, either my 6'4" son or me at 6'2" will hand deliver.
After delivery, we would get a call the next day that it was broken. Wow, considering that the stuff I sell locally is 99% perfect, that seems really strange. They ask what I do for broken toilets, and then they say I sold them one.

That happened a couple of times and then I told my son to, "Open the box in front of the customers and have them inspect."
They didn't like that. They had ordered from Amazon, and they had a broken mess. They were using me, the local guy to do Amazon's warranty program. That all ended though when we opened the boxes and showed them how perfect things were though.

For most toilets, Amazon sells for more than me. Nobody cares, they assume that Jeff is taking care of them.

If I have a customer that says they have one on hand, I tell them to open the box and inspect. I won't drive out, book out the time, so to look at a broken mess. I'm used to the perfect I buy and sell.

Wow … some people sure are greasy.

 

[Jeff H Young]

used to install 150 toilets on a 50 house tract have like one that was broke and maybe a defect or 2 max . I seen a few get broke on job and sent back as recieved broken not right to do.