How Far Should I Pursue B And Q ?

tintin_2

I purchased two wall lights from B and Q yesterday. The lights were properly installed and the correct watage of light bulb was used (60w). This evening one of the lights cracked and a large piece of glass fell to the floor. Unfortunatley my 14 month old daughter was underneath and the large piece of glass narrowley missed her. The glass did not splinter when it hit the floor apart from three very small pieces. I immediatley rang B and Q who siad they would replace the lights. I asked if the lghts wuld be withdrawn for safety reasons to be told they need to be sent away for testing. I would welcome peoples views on this as I have a meeting with the manager tomorrow evening. Do you think I have any grounds to pursue B and Q for compensation or should I accept a refund ?

Bossyboots

What exactly needs compensating for? Compensation is to cover losses or injury. No-one was hurt and I am sure they will give you the option of your money back if you don't want to accept another set of lights. You can't be compensated for what might have been.

I would ask for a refund and look for different lights.

Betty_Boop

What exactly needs compensating for?

Time and energy of installation comes to mind.
Distress caused.

moneysavingplumber

Betty_Boop wrote:

Time and energy of installation comes to mind.
Distress caused.

I honestly don't think you're likely to get much joy out of this. Certain companies will readily reimburse professional tradespeople if a faulty product has to be replaced, Armitage Shanks for example, but it's usually under prior agreement. If a DIY person tries to claim, you will have a difficult time putting a legitimate figure on the cost of your time as it is in your spare time. People take faulty products like computers and other small consumables back for repair and exchange under warranty all the time, but they don't generally claim for compensation and the retailer's liability is generally limited to that of exchanging the product or refunding. Trying to claim for distress is almost certainly a non-starter, maybe in America but not here.

micko2602

This is classed as a "near miss". If something like this happens in the workplace, then a full investigation is carried out.
It maybe a one off and a refund will be the best you can hope for. I would imagine a company with the reputation of B&Q will not just brush this under the carpet. It will be recorded and if they have similar reports then a product recall would then take place.

star1_2

Although distressing (we can sympathise with you) - this sort of claim won't get anywhere in the UK. If it were the US - the legal precidents for risk and near miss claims are far more established.

If were to persue it, you would have to perform extensive "tests" on the product (ie. secretly buy loads of them), test them scientifically to prove the item is flawed/faulty - then you would have to prove that B&Q knowling continued to sell the items, after being fully aware the product was dangerous. Even if people have complained - I'm afraid fragmented complains at various stores may not constitiute B&Q's knowledge and negligence in this matter, you would need copies of internal memos from B&Q to say the knew and did'nt withdraw the item.

As Bossyboots said - just persue a refund - it's about the best you're going to get.... (and perhaphs some vouchers to say sorry - if you are vvvv lucky) and from my experience B&Q customers and HO customer/refunds policy is pretty poor anyway - so, it will be an acheivement to get the refund/exchange !

Good Luck.

:cool:

LittleJo

Hi,
I have always found B+Q only to ready to replace or refund goods defective or unsatisfactory goods. Never any problems at all.
Jo

moneysavingplumber

star1 wrote:

and from my experience B&Q customers and HO customer/refunds policy is pretty poor anyway - so, it will be an acheivement to get the refund/exchange !

B & Q actually have a refund policy on non-faulty goods within a certain time-frame (can't remember how long it is now) provided it's not been unpacked if it's a sealed item and you have the reciept, which is pretty rare.

star1_2

I'm sure that B&Q can be good (on occasion) ... but my experiences of renovating various properties and using a wide varity of suppliers and spending £00,000's with DIY/Trade suppliers has tainted my opinion of B&Q (various branches)...

Just afew examples :-
- Taking orders for goods that were confirmed in-stock, given delivery times that were not met.
- Also part delivery of orders (particularly for kitchen units) then unable to supply the remainer (on one occasion had to replace everything, causing delay, no compensation or appology given for their error).
- Damaged delivery items (eg. MDF flooring that had been stored outside by B&Q pre delivery and was wet/damaged), in-correctly delivered items and short deliveries.
- Inaccurate stock information given over the phone (despite requesting stock checks) and reservations, in correct prices, some products past sell by (plaster etc.) in stores.
- A refusal to match like for like price matching deals - which prompted me to involve head-office, on one occasion - they refused to agree a product was the "same as a competitor" as the SKU/barcode used on a cold water storage take from a competitior was diffrent, but amazinly the moulded manufactures details on the plastic tank were the same (showing they were the same product) and I proved it - they still refused to accept it!!

As you can see from the above - I'm definatly synic when it comes to B&Q customer service - I would rate Wickes, Platform and Selco way ahead of B&Q ! .... Ironically Screwfix (who are also owned by the Kingfisher group (B&Q) beat all the stores for offering fantastic CS when things go wrong) ... but thats just my humble opinion !! :-)

moneysavingplumber

As a tradesperson I agree that B & Q and the like cannot compare with genuine trade outlets, they just don't have the service, much as they try. But in the context of retail DIY, in terms of having a single, sundry item go wrong, their service isn't bad.

I have an ex-associate that is now a B & Q employee trying to convince me to spend money with them on boilers and such but he knows they don't have the range or service for someone like me, but all-in-all the DIY chains don't give bad service compared to much of the rest of the retail sector.