Rainwater Tank 1100 Litre £1498.00now£50.00@B&Q smaller one also avail for same price

Lynsey

TBeckett100 wrote: »

See my site for a new email u can send to trading standards

Great addition. Well worth everyone involved contacting TS. This mess needs looking into/sorting. It will not only help us as customers, but also help B&Q run a "tighter ship" and prevent future problems.
Please support this idea - well done again Tom. :T

Lynsey

TBeckett100

It is telling customers they had no contract that bothers me when a court ruled otherwise. I am asking trading standards to decide if this is misleading and whether b&q should write to all affected and admit that a contract was formed if trading standards agree. Instead b&q are spending more time looking at my site then their own

TBeckett100

Hants as it is where hq is located

Lynsey

Maybe what B&Q T&C's should include:

After you have completed your order you will automatically be sent a conformation email, this indicates the order has been received by our company and does not mean that a contract exists between us, this will only occur once you have received a VAT invoice which is sent by post. (We have included this term to cover us should a problem arise with pricing, underpaid goods or if we no longer supply a particular product meaning the item could have been discontinued or is out of stock.)

Lynsey

taxiphil

There's certainly enough evidence here for Trading Standards to prosecute Blunder&Quibble under the new and rather fantastic Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

Those unlawful T&Cs are a serious enough breach of the Regulations in their own right, but for B&Q to be proactively misinforming and misleading individual customers about their statutory rights under the contract - well that's just the icing on the cake.

B&Q should be aware that conviction under these regulations carries a statutory prison sentence of up to 2 years for any "officer of a body corporate" if the offence is attributable to any consent, connivance or neglect on his part. "Officer of a body corporate" includes director, manager, secretary or other similar officer.

In other words, this is a really serious matter, not just for B&Q as a company but for any individuals in the organisation who've had a hand in this (certain names spring to mind). Those individuals may wish to start doing some serious thinking, unless they have a desire to taste prison food.

And it seems to me to be beyond the realms of fantasy that B&Q could rely on the due diligence defence contained in the Regulations, given the sheer length of time they've been peddling their unlawful T&Cs, and the fact that a court has already ruled against them in a private civil case.

Lynsey

Great stuff taxiphil. :T

It really would put the "icing on the cake" if T/S prosecuted and got a ruling against them.

Well done,

Lynsey

Lynsey

Just had my local T/S on the phone and B&Q no longer have the old T&C's on their site.
Good news.

Update: Original T&C's still available here:
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/templates/content_lookup.jsp?content=/wcn/static_content/help/terms.jsp
Also in the link given with original confirmation.

Lynsey

TBeckett100

Everyone must ask them in court why the change. This is a green light

Lynsey

TBeckett100 wrote: »

Everyone must ask them in court why the change.

Do you think it will get there??
I really have my doubts now, so much against them. They should be now "bending over backwards" to resolve this now that T/S is on their case.

Lynsey

frugalfran

Just checked on the 'alternative source' site - delivery for a tank is a minimum of £45 and could be a lot more depending on where you live, so more 'loss.'

I am very surprised B&Q don't just back down and quit whilst the damage is relatively limited, as a good reputation is very hard to build and extremely quickly lost! The goodwill they would gain (would have gained if they had acted earlier) would have been worth a fortune. Look how M&S made a mistake with costs of bigger bras and turned their U-turn into positive advertising copy.....