B&Q Who to complain to?

ahs1982

Hi everyone,
I worked for B&Q (briefly) in their call centre. The address in Erskine is the one to contact with any complaints eyc. HOWEVER, don't expect too much from them. B&Q get so much wrong on a daily basis it's extremely difficult for them to keep up.
There is a freephone number as well (rather than the 0845 they give out).
Not sure this helps at all.
But they are thoroughly useless and all they want is money regardless of whether their customers are happy or not

leestanway

If you want a decent kitchen then B & Q can provide it HOWEVER........ whatever you do AVOID THE INSTALLATION!!

we recently spent 7,000 on a new kitchen including installation and the organisation, communication and everything else can only be described as poor.

They promised the installation would take 7-10 days and it took nearly a month despite the fact we paid to hire a local cottage for a week to leave the house free for the plasterers. They charged £108 to remove a radiator during replastering and then resite it afterwards. We ended up having to call British Gas out as the Installer made a mess and didn't bleed the system properly. We were left without hot water as a result until a British Gas engineer turned up and rectified the problem.

I've enclosed a letter we sent by e-mail by way of complaint and after over 2 weeks B & Q have finally responded offering us just over £100 for weeks of inconvenience, shoddy workmanship, uncovered electric wires, stress and delay. We expected that having a kitchen fitted would bring some inconvenience but this has been ridiculous. We have 6 children living at home, 3 of whom have a disability and we made B & Q fully aware from the start that a minimum of stress was vital if we were to go ahead with the fit.

Interestingly B & Q are NOT compensating us for the radiator as we had a contract with British Gas and they fixed it.

AVOID!!!!!!!!


Email sent to Catherine Mcadam@ B and Q

Dear Catherine

I have been asked to contact you with deatils of problems we experienced with our recent kitchen fit with units, appliances and fitting purchased at your Widnes store and with installation starting on the 3rd August 2009. Our address is

xxxxxx

We are very happy with the quality of the kitchen units and the eventual finish of the kitchen. The issues related mainly to the length of time it took to fit the kitchen, the quality of communication, some health and safety issues, the quality of the fitting and most importantly the stress and inconvenience to the family.

Prior to the fit we explained we have a large family with 6 children living at home ages 20 down to 6. Three of our children have a disability with autism and aspergers syndrome and a key feature of this disability is a lack of ability to cope with change in routine or environment. This can cause extreme stress and anxiety in some one with autism.

Having being reassured that this wouldn't be a problem and told that as a rule the kitchen fit would take around 7 - 10 days we continued with the purchase and arranged fit date.
To facilitate the fit we decided to go away for a week in a nearby cottage so the house would be empty for the fitters who had the old kitchen to rip out and kitchen and dining room to replaster.

When we returned on the Saturday we found the plastering had proceeded well, however insufficient plinths and cornices had been sent and although the base and wall units had been fitted, work seemed to progress slowly over the following days with the fitters seeming to average short working days and having not enough to do due to wrong delivery of the hob which had been specified as gas and turned up as electric. The spotlights in the ceiling were left hanging down for several days as the fitters had assumed we would want to paint the ceiling. This is fine but as electric light fittings these represented a H & S problem as well as the electric power sockets left unfastened and away from the wall. Our children with autism the youngest being 8, have no sense of danger and could have been at risk of electrocution especially from the light switch were access to the wires could have caused injury.

The next issue arose when the radiator was reinstalled after being taken off for plastering. When the fitters left we found we were without hot water, a major inconvenience as our older daughter with autism has continence problems. We called out British Gas with whom we have a service contract and the engineer told us the fault was the due to the kitchen fitters as they had not bled the system properly. He should have charged us for the call out and repair because this wasn't covered under the contract but took pity and didn't charge.
The cost on our B & Q schedule showed £108 pounds for removing the radiator and refitting. For a start we shouldn't have to pay this.

Other issues related to us noticing the worktop had been scratched prior to fiiting in one place and the fitter allowed 2 and 1/4 inches to extend over the end panel causing a gap between the fridge and the units. The worktop also sloped down over 1/2 inch from the sink to the end of the units because as one of the different fitters told us, the end panel had been cut too short. Ultimately the worktop had to be removed and replaced because it couldn't be cut shorter ot the scratches be removed. setting the job back another day and rendering the cooker and hob inoperable.

Further delays occured when it transpired the tiles and flooring hadn't been delivered. In the store at the time of purchase we clearly stipulated we wanted the whole of the kitchen to be fitted and the price to include the tiles and flooring. This was agreed to and a final budget of £6500 agreed as the most we could afford. We chose the tiles in store along with the flooring and the final account we were given was just under £7,000.

At the point of fitting it became evident that the installation of the tiling and flooring had ben paid for but NOT the materials. The job then stopped until we agreed to pay for the relevant materials. We felt at the time this was unfair as our understanding had been everything was included and the sales asistant apologised when I called him but passed the blame onto the person who had typed up the account as they had obviously forgotten to include them. He did recall us having chosen the materials. We felt this was unfair as we were £500 above our original limit of budget but were going to have to pay for flooring and tiling on top.

We eventually agreed to pay for the materials as it was clear the job was not going to continue until we had. Different fitters were then appointed as the origianl fitters had been assigned to another job. The new fitters on several occasions promised to turn up on a given day and then didn't meaning my wife was stuck in the house with all the children having to use microwave meals to feed everyone.

Overall the washing machine wasn't reinstalled until day 9 of the fit (Tuesday), we were left without being able to use the hob and oven until week 3 because it took time for the gas hob to turn up after the wrong one had been sent (electric not gas) and no instruction books were left for some of the appliances including the integrated dishwasher.

In the end the fit finished on the 28th august well over the 7-10 days we were eventually given as a deadline. This has caused us a lot of inconvenience and inevitable stress particularly to our children with autism as anticipated. This was due in the end largely to the fitters being on other jobs and the time we spent trying to get someone to take responsibility for moving things forward. On several occasions we were reminded by the fitters, "that's a B & Q problem" whereas the store were keen to place the blame on the fitters. As customers it shouldn't have mattered that the fitters were subcontracted, it shouldn't have been something we had to worry about.

We purchased a B & Q kitchen as we have bought many things from you in the past and been satisfied. You have a good reputation and this is the main reason we bought our kitchen and installation knowing that we had some redress as opposed to getting the fit done a lot cheaper with less chance of redress.


We have been reassured we will be compensated for the stress and inconvenience we have experienced, the delay in completing the fit within a reasonable time period and some of the quality of fitting and potential H & S issues.




Kind regards




Lee Stanway

TBeckett100

write to the company secretary
[EMAIL="Sally.Clifton@b-and-q.co.uk"]Sally.Clifton@b-and-q.co.uk[/EMAIL]

mention my name and you may get a free dishwasher thrown into your kitchen.

Takoda

There's no point complaining. B&Q are carp. They've always been carp. They never change - you only have to search for B&Q problems on the internet and there are loads!

Esqui

TBeckett100 wrote: »

write to the company secretary
[EMAIL="Sally.Clifton@b-and-q.co.uk"]Sally.Clifton@b-and-q.co.uk[/EMAIL]

mention my name and you may get a free dishwasher thrown into your kitchen.

When you say "thrown into".....

magicdamo1984

Takoda wrote: »

There's no point complaining. B&Q are carp. They've always been carp. They never change - you only have to search for B&Q problems on the internet and there are loads!

type (any company name) problems on the internet and there are loads,

Takoda

magicdamo1984 wrote: »

type (any company name) problems on the internet and there are loads,

Not true.

Certain companies just scream 'rubbish customer service' at you. Everyone knows someone who has had a completely negative experience with B&Q and who would never use them again.

Plus it is obvious from one of your other posts that you WORK for B&Q so you are going to defend them aren't you! :rolleyes:

magicdamo1984

Takoda wrote: »

Not true.

Certain companies just scream 'rubbish customer service' at you. Everyone knows someone who has had a completely negative experience with B&Q and who would never use them again.

Plus it is obvious from one of your other posts that you WORK for B&Q so you are going to defend them aren't you! :rolleyes:

i used to work for b&q not anymore and i do agree that they make mistakes and are not the best at dealing with them,but there also a multi million pound company which is probably why everybody knows somebody who has had a problen.
i also dont see how you can say that not every company has an unhappy customer or two.

Becas1980

My B&Q bath just crack, it’s never been used and still has the protective film around. I bought this bath 1year and 6 months ago... (retail price bath: £620)

and this is where my problem stars. Its out of the 12 month warranty but accordingly to the Consumers Direct and the Sale of Goods Act, B&Q is still responsible for giving me a replacement if it is proven that it wasn’t us that made the crack.
So far so good.

But for that to be proved B&Q is charging me £180 up-front for the manufactures to come and check. Now I don’t think I should pay for anything and the Consumers Direct think the same, that B&Q should be responsible for that and not us.

We are in the process in writing a formal complain letter to B&Q customer and cc the company Secretary.

Just wonder if anyone can help with this matter or maybe just share their bathroom problems and lets name and Shame B&Q customer service and poor quality products they offer.

isplumm

Becas1980 wrote: »

My B&Q bath just crack, it’s never been used and still has the protective film around. I bought this bath 1year and 6 months ago... (retail price bath: £620)

and this is where my problem stars. Its out of the 12 month warranty but accordingly to the Consumers Direct and the Sale of Goods Act, B&Q is still responsible for giving me a replacement if it is proven that it wasn’t us that made the crack.
So far so good.

But for that to be proved B&Q is charging me £180 up-front for the manufactures to come and check. Now I don’t think I should pay for anything and the Consumers Direct think the same, that B&Q should be responsible for that and not us.

We are in the process in writing a formal complain letter to B&Q customer and cc the company Secretary.

Just wonder if anyone can help with this matter or maybe just share their bathroom problems and lets name and Shame B&Q customer service and poor quality products they offer.

My understanding is that after 6 months it is upto you to prove that the fault is a manufacturers .,... so I believe B&Q are well within thier rights to ask for this - of course if it is an inherit fault, then you should get your money back.

Mark