B&Q anti-customer policy

RobertinHerts

Just went to buy some emergency repair glue and clouts for the shed roof felt at B&Q, due the damage caused by todays heavy wind. The staff warned me not to return to buy a roll of felt, that I might have needed, as I would be charged £80, for merely returning within 4 hours!

Luckily Wickes is close by.

DVardysShadow

andrew-b wrote: »

Huh? Why would they do that?

OP is not too clear, but I would imagine it is an over zealous parking control contractor

ormus

BQ charge for car parking in hertfordshire?

!!!!!! is next?

Jennifer_Jane

I got 'clobbered' for parking over time in an empty B&Q car park. Luckily, thanks to this forum, I realised the whole thing was a nonsense and just ignored the very nasty letters from the car park administrator.

Hmmm - yes, totally agree with OP that the whole car park thing is very anti-customer. B&Q (and others) should speak to their parking administrators about their heavy-handed tactics. I, for one, have never returned to B&Q. Unfortunately I'm too small a customer to have had any impact on their profits though!

dander

Well, it's not all B&Qs in Herts, my local certainly doesn't charge for parking. I can only imagine it's a store near a football ground or town centre or something.

RobertinHerts

andrew-b wrote: »

Huh? Why would they do that?

I don't know. The signage says maximum stay is two hours and return within 4 hours will be charged £80. A visit to their cafe could prove VERY expensive!!

RobertinHerts

dander wrote: »

Well, it's not all B&Qs in Herts, my local certainly doesn't charge for parking. I can only imagine it's a store near a football ground or town centre or something.

Well this one is in Herts. Wicks is much closer to the football ground and doesn't have such a policy. Neither are near the town centre, railway sation, etc.

RobertinHerts

DVardysShadow wrote: »

OP is not too clear, but I would imagine it is an over zealous parking control contractor

But a pro-customer company wouldn't employ such a parking contractor would they.

ormus

the matalan near me, tried to introduce car park charges a few yrs ago now.
they soon dropped that idea. customers stayed away in droves.

asda in trafford park has a 2 hr policy. and they have wardens too, but its just scare tactics.
(facing the trafford centre).

dander

In my experience, companies only do this in stores where there would be a problem of people abusing their free parking and filling the carpark, preventing genuine customers from getting in. Of course it puts people off using their business, and they know that, so they only do it if they really feel they need to. Sounds like the staff were pretty considerate in warning you and making sure you didn't get hammered with an undeserved fine. It's irritating, yes, by hardly "anti-customer". But then, you seem to be just an angry man here for a rant rather than someone who wants to discuss the whys and wherefores of the matter, so I'm bowing out now.

RobertinHerts

dander wrote: »

In my experience, companies only do this in stores where there would be a problem of people abusing their free parking and filling the carpark, preventing genuine customers from getting in. Of course it puts people off using their business, and they know that, so they only do it if they really feel they need to. Sounds like the staff were pretty considerate in warning you and making sure you didn't get hammered with an undeserved fine. It's irritating, yes, by hardly "anti-customer". But then, you seem to be just an angry man here for a rant rather than someone who wants to discuss the whys and wherefores of the matter, so I'm bowing out now.

Actually I overheard one member of staff talking to someone else on the subject. So I asked for clarification, given my potential return this afternoon.

Clearly you've not read what Jennifer_Jane wrote above.

Yes I am angry, and why not? I'm a paying customer and have the receipt to prove it.