B&Q Kitchens!

nick_080880

Hi,

I've been having a big problem with my B&Q kitchen and wondered if anyone else has had similar problems, what they did and what the outcome was.

I ordered the kitchen in June, to be delivered in September. When it eventually turned up, about half of it was missing, "out of stock" they say. They were supposed to contact us to arrange a new date, but they still haven't, we're making all the calls to them. The nearest possible delivery date for the missing parts was about a month away, but we had kitchen fitters coming the next week.

So, we returned to the store where we bought it, staff were pretty heplpful on the face of it, they gave us what parts they could find, and promised to call in a couple of days when the new delivery came in. A lot of stuff follows, lets just say we've had no phone calls and no delivery by the time the kitchen fitters left for their next job. Spent a lot of time on the phone to B&Q, who are pretty helpless, "nothing I can do", "not my fault" kind of callcentre cliches.

We arranged to have the kitchen delivered to the local store, couldn't take another day off work for it. When the delivery date comes, we get a call from the driver saying he's going to deliver it to our house in about an hour. My fiancee tells him that we're supposed to be getting it from the store, and he goes nuts, abusing her for wasting his time etc. We later confirmed with the (un-)fulfillment centre that he was supposed to deliver to the store (which is about 2 miles away) and it was noted on his delivery script. He refused to deliver the parts that day when they contacted him, (having "left the area") and the next delivery date they could give us was 2 weeks away.

Eventually we managed to speak to someone in the callcentre who can get things done and the remainder of our order turns up, and I'm left fitting the rest of the kitchen by myself. Parts were broken when they arrived, so I couldn't finish, and I'm now having to wait another month for replacements.

I just wanted to get some advice really, what are my rights in this situation, have b&q broken the rules by repeatedly failing to get my kitchen delivered? Or is it just my tough luck? We have written to them on several occasions, and replies are along the lines of "we'll investigate this". Is there any more we can do?

Did you have any luck with them? I'd love to hear back. Incidentally, I do know a few people who have had no problems with them at all, so don't let it put you off if you're thinking about using them. And don't forget they are very very cheap really.

BrandNewDay

It doesn't matter how cheap they are - if they agree to deliver a certain thing for a certain price, they are to be held to that.

I have no advice for you, I'm afraid. Have you considered seeking compensation for your troubles from a small claims court? I would. Have you documented everything all along? If so, I think you'd stand a good chance of getting a judgement. B&Q should, at the very least, refund your money, IMO.

SammyD_2

We had the same probs with them 4 YEARS ago...can't believe it is not resolved. Not even an apology.

If you want to bring a claim in the Courts, you need to point to tangible loss, don't bother if you can't actually point to money you have had to fork out (not saying this to be unsympathetic, but the reality is you will pay filing fees to get it before the Court, and you wont get a penny unless you can actually point to a loss).

I think the best you can do is to write a stroppy letter, and tell everyone you know. On the plus side, our kitchen (once everything actually arrived) was great.

mbailey

I had big problems with them earlier in the year. It didn't help the fact that one of their warehouses burnt down, but there were also lots of other problems!

The only way I eventually got it sorted was to get in touch with B&Q headoffice in Eastleigh. I tried various methods, but I think it was one of the email addresses I found on http://www.kingfisher.com/ that did the job.

The put me in touch with the B&Q Chief Executives office and from here I was assigned someone who I could call any time and they would check anything and call me back. This was much better than speaking to a call centre where you never speak to the same person twice.

When everything was finished I managed to get a decent cash compensation from the B&Q chief exec office as well - it took a little while to get a good price, but I just kept tell them what money I wanted and refused to accept anything less and in the end they agreed!

Good luck!

firstfootontheladder

I too had all the problems mentioned above i.e parts missing, or should i say 9 yes 9 kitchen doors! (this was after waiting 7 weeks for it to be delivered), i phoned the call centre after going through the delivery only to find lots missing, there response was the other items will be available in a month... i dont think so!. so nearing the end of the call i say "why cant i go and collect the missing parts from my local b&q" oh! you can if you like . anyway i go to the store and collect the doors for the whole kitchen instead all 14 :j , needless to say no records of me taking the doors was made instore & i still got the original doors which i had to wait a month for, so off they went back to b&q for a refund, or should i say my compensation for all the hassle. as for the delivery drivers... well never again. i certainly will never order another kitchen from b&q.
i dread to think what would have happened if i had the kitchen fitted by them aswell.
oh and dont forget the warehouse had a fire.. just how long can they use this excuse for?:mad:

emilyt

Sorry to hear you had problems with M.F.I nick.
We ordered our kitchen from them.
They arrived when they said they would.
We recieved the correct units and all screws e.c.t were there including a few more. We found them to be absolutely brilliant.
Have advised my auntie to buy her new kitchen from them in the january sales.
Having second thoughts after reading this thread.

Nile

Hello nick_080880

I think that your thread will be better placed in 'The (Consumer) Vent' board, so I'll move it across.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

kerrya

I've had exactly the same experience Nick!! My partner and I ordered a new kitchen from B&Q in May of this year. We went for their full planning, delivery and installation service (despite it costing almost ten grand) because we wanted someone who would do the whole thing for us and minimise the stress and hassle. How wrong were we?

We were promised a 9 week lead in time to fitting, and got a date through of early September (about 15 weeks!) which we couldn't do. Tried to rearrange the date 5 times but they still tried to deliver our kitchen while we were away. We then got a new fitting date, had the delivery scheduled in for a few days before and like you they only delivered half the stuff.

So... we had to rearrange fitting for this Monday, with a delivery yesterday of all the remaining items and guess what? We're still missing 5 items, including an oven and hob, sink (fairly critical) and we were informed this morning the cooker hood we ordered over 6 months ago is now discontinued. Not quite sure why they waited until today to tell us that?

We have written to the chief execs office twice now, and I feel another strong letter coming on today. It doesn't seem to do any good though - they keep promising us various things and not following up on it. I've been outright lied to on at least 6 occasions now, it is outrageous.

We are a bit stuck as to what to do though - we can't detail out any specific losses (how do you account for leave that we had to take to take deliveries and have now lost?) so have little hope of a decent compensation claim I think. It is just such a nightmare when faced with such a big company!

Sounds like I am not hte only one though, since we started with the problems I have heard of a lot of similar problems. I am tempted to go to the media to see if we can get any media coverage of the problems we have experienced to warn other people to think twice about it.

janice_macdonald

sorry about all the problems you are all having but may i sugget you document everything thats happened and phone to make an appointment with the store managers to sort things out.better to face them than write a letter.

djl

b&q are crap i had my kitchen from them and ended up getting nearly £500.00 in compensation my tip, call another store speak to the manager and get the area manager of the problem store to call you, thats what i did and it got results, best off luck

Pink_butterfly_3

Oh don't get me started on bloody b&q kitchens!!!

I won't go into the details but suffice to say i spent many hours on the phone to their useless call centre and four separate days waiting for deliveries that never turned up.

I was pregnant at the time and my waters broke whilst i was getting very worked up writing a complaints letter to them!!! I blame them fully for making me go into labour, lol!!

The end of it was that we cancelled our order and they sent us a cheque for £265 for our 'troubles'.