Boots Kitchen appliances can't deliver my dishwasher!!

tonyivb

Sorry to hear about everyones troubles but I guess I must be the only person to have a positive experience with BKA...

I ordered a fridge on the 29th October but specified that the delivery must take place on the 22nd November (the day after we complete on our new house).
They tried to call me several times over the next two days but couldn't get hold of me... they left messages each time.
When they did manage to contact me they confirmed all the details and I then got a call on the evening of the 21st to confirm delivery the next day between 1 & 5pm.
The fridge turned up at 1:15, guys unpacked it, moved it into place and checked that it powered up. They advised that it should stand for 8 hours to let the refirdgerant settle.

All in all, a very positive experience and I would certainly consider using them again

Andy_S_London

I would say it is definitely DRL who are to blame. My partner and I had an awful experience with Sainsburys Kitchen Appliances early this year - and it was basically entirely the fault of DRL whose logistics appear to be completely hopeless.

We ordered a washing machine and dishwasher from them.

They failed to deliver entirely the first time (which was already ages past the order date). (After I'd taken a day off to receive a delivery).

We complained and made it very clear that we were not happy with their service - as we still had no washing machine and pretty much no clean laundry. There are no launderettes near to where I live either.

They credited the delivery charge of £20 at this point, and agreed to redeliver on Saturday so we wouldn't need to take another day off.

They then failed to deliver again - and credited us £40 to get our washing cleaned in the time up until a Saturday delivery slot was available.

Eventually that Saturday slot arrived, they delivered - no washing machine and a broken dishwasher with a huge dent in the front of it. We obviously rejected this - I was fed up by this point - as we desperately needed clean clothes and had to go around to a friends and beg access to their washing machine.

At this point I downloaded a copy of DRL's financial statements for the 18 months ending 31 March 2005 and annual return from the Companies House website - to get more information on their useless business and the contact info for their directors. The accounts made interesting reading as they were qualified by their auditors for going concern. They'd made a net loss of £4.4m in the period and had net liabilities of £3.4m. So not a company in a good financial position it appeared.

Anyway come Monday morning, my other half rang them again to explain the unacceptable 2nd delivery failure and how they had to redeliver this evening after work. Eventually they agreed to do a special drop and in view of the crappy service we'd obtained - to credit us a further £100. So fair play on the credits - but the stress was far too much and I wouldn't use them again.

The evening delivery was done by 3rd party courier who said basically that DRL's warehouse staff were incompetent. They themselves arrived to pick up our stuff, but noone was their to help them so they had to pick the stock themselves for the delivery. And this was something they often have to do apparently.

Hardly surprising DRL's financial position is shot. We chose them (under Sainsburys brand) because they were the cheapest, they had to pay a courier for delivery and credit us £160... so they definitely made a loss on our order...

BTW: If anyone else is dealing with them and wants a copy of DRL's accounts/annual return - PM your email address.

teedy23

teedy23 wrote:

yes I ordered a fridge,was told would be 2 weeks b4 delivery, but to ensure I got one they would take money now, silly me.I cancelled 2 weeks or more ago, I,m so fed up I cant even be bothered to look it up now. Still no fridge no money back and no word from boots. They have largely ignored all my calls, I,m also trying to get my money back from optical express £200 as I changed my mind about laser treatment. utterly sick of zero customer services in these big companies.

finally got my money back from boots, but I hadnt noticed , they paid it back into my account without informing me. I sent them another email in the meantime and recieved a very short and unapoligetic reply. Today I recieved a gift card for £25 from boots, as I had written to M.D. who, the letter states has no time to respomnd to me in person.I would still rather have had my fridge, or at least some decent customer service, but I did spend the points I recieved for the origional order too the lady who replied was Claire Singlehurst, Customer manager Executive,s office.@ Boots Group plc. Executives office, D94 building , Nottingham, NG90 1BS

isayoldchap

Hi Pinkpinkfizz
Real sorry to hear of your bad experiences with Boots and the incompetent delivery company.I was wondering whether your cashback from www.quidco.com is going through.Surely they never cancelled your order and had to reorder,so hopefully you will get the %.

I would be intrested if the delivery company have a customer charter.
Have you had a thorough explaination from Boots explaining why the delivery company messed up?

Of course things can happen but you were being messed about badly.
Alot of company are proud of their 90%+ record in supplying service.Railtrack and Royal Mail come to mind.
What some of them don't learn is being a customer for the day and having to be on the receiving end of the problem.If it's a few % then the incompetence must be in the staff customer services not able to chase and harry up who messed up.It's the 5-10% that are fumming.
I'm sure that alot of customers will be unhappy at not receiving their delivery,however until the same companies train their staff and treat a complaint as important as a sale,the problems will always be there.
What we do want is then a person who can deal with the problem and fast track your query.Hopefully then they blackmark the individuals responsible
and if necessary get rid of them from the company.
Failing that boots would then need to review why they are still using such companies.This may then come down to price against % or non deliveries.
I do hope that one day the someone on the Boots board of directors have the same troubles you experienced.It might then get through.

P.S One thing that really gets my goat is Dixons.They decide they want to be internet based with great prices.Well the washing machine we wanted was the
standard Bosch for £315.99 before Christmas,only to be out of stock and they didn't know when they were going to be back in stock.Madness

pinkpinkfizz

My feelings on this are that the actual customer service staff (the ones who pick up the telephone when you call.. ) are very well trained, genuinely interested in customers being happy.

The lady I had to deal with was wonderful, she offered timed deliveries in an attempt to resolve the issues with the delivery company not being able to deliver when they were booked to do so, also to allow inspection of the goods, however the delivery company repeatedly changed the delivery to suit themselves and never waited to allow inspection of goods (they couldnt even leave delivery paperwork!!) Due to the time that had passed from my original order and the delivery of damaged goods my dishwasher had gone out of stock. There is a complete breakdown of communication between Boots and the company that deliver the goods. Until they have this issue resolved they will continue to let customers down.

I did receive my quidco money and my BOOTS advantage points, but I put that down to luck more than anything else.

ginvzt

What are the latest experiences with Boots Kitchen Appliances? We are supposed to be moving into our new house in 2 weeks and I need to buy dishwasher, washer dryer and fridge freezer. The models I want to get are cheapest in Boots and I would like to use them. Can anyone say that they improved? Or are there only more bad experiences?

zorber

firstly dont be fooled this is nothing to do with boots, its just a company boots have partnered up with and which boots take a small commision from, the company who operate boots kitchen appiances also operate on behalf of serveral other retailers. I wont use them again as they failled to order by cooker twice and to cap it off my quidco cash back was declined!!!!

BBC

good luck to all of you and I hope you get your refund.

Hotsocks2

Had same problem with Boots kitchen Appliances a year or two back.

Ordered Washing machine. Due for delivery monday, got phone call 8.00pm friday night saying it was delayed and to phone on Saturday for new date. I phoned BKA on their 6 day/week delivery-info number, they said we don't know anything on saturdays about deliveries. Then 7.00AM monday morning got call saying 'are you ready to receive delivery?'! They said no idea who it was who told me it wasn't coming. Anyway they bring machine up to my kitchen, look at the paper work and decide it's the wrong machine. The ***WORST BIT*** he wheeled it back to the van and literally threw the machine off the trolley onto the van lift (massive crashing noise!). I phoned BKA didn't mention this because he looked like a nasty psycho and thought he might shoot me <ahem> . They say it could have been stolen from warehouse but will let you know later in week when another is coming. I think about it for 20 minutes, and decide I don't want a machine delivered by these people! So I pay a few hundred quid more to John Lewis instead (5 year guarantee and they use their own delivery people too).
Anyway, a month later still no refund from Boots on credit card, and ended up phoning them 5 times, being told the person's on other phone and will phone me back (didn't), and twice that I'd be refunded immediately, and wasn't. In the end, told credit card company to go into dispute and about then they refunded. Wouldn't touch them again with barge pole. Makes me shiver thinking about it.

Funny thing, I now need a gas cooker for mother, and want it connected and old one taken away in one go. Few people seem to do this other than BKA, Sainsburys, and Tesco-Direct. I've gone for Tesco; just hope they don't use the same people as the other two for the job. Anyone know(?).

jennynoo

ginvzt wrote:

What are the latest experiences with Boots Kitchen Appliances? We are supposed to be moving into our new house in 2 weeks and I need to buy dishwasher, washer dryer and fridge freezer. The models I want to get are cheapest in Boots and I would like to use them. Can anyone say that they improved? Or are there only more bad experiences?

Hello, I ordered a washing machine from Boots Kitchen Appliances in January. It worked out the cheapest on the net when you take into account boots advantage card points. I had no problems at all, they delivered on time and even took it up to the second floor which I have heard some companies refuse to do. Good luck with the new house!