OMG Homebase turned it around!

Eels100

So after seeing a really cheap garden bench on Tesco Direct, then having no response from them despite several attempts to contact them by phone and email, we decided that they didn't deserve our money. So we had a look in Homebase instead (I know, after my nightmares with Argos in the past I should have known better but read on ...)

We found a perfect bench - bit more than we'd meant to spend but much better quality and so we bought it and drove home (an hour's drive, as we live in quite a remote area). We unpacked it and realised there were no fixings and no instructions! Cue lots of sighing and cursing. I phoned the store to explain the problem, but I didn't shout or yell, I just asked nicely if there was any way they could please post me out a few bolts and washers (that was all it needed, nothing specialised).

The woman on the phone was appalling! She firstly asked me to bring it back - I explained that it would cost us more in petrol than it would cost me to buy the parts myself, not to mention an afternoon out of my life, although had I lived closer to the store I would have gladly returned the item for an exchange. She then said it was my own fault for not checking the contents of the box before taking it home. I got a bit narked at that point, because that was an admission of widespread ineptitude on Homebase's part! When I suggested that it was Homebase's problem, not mine, she said it was nothing to do with Homebase but to do with their supplier. I pointed out that my sale agreement was with Homebase, not their supplier, and as such it was Homebase's problem to rectify.

She then said she would go and check to see if there was another bench to exchange for me, despite me saying I wasn't able to come in to exchange anyway. I asked again if they couldn't just pop some bits in the post at which point she started ranting at me that the nearest Post Office was 4 miles away and they didn't have an 'Out Tray' and they didn't do postage and it would be a huge hassle because they'd have to bubble wrap some bolts and then get them weighed!

I got properly peeved at this, because despite her insistence that it was all my own fault for buying their incomplete goods I was fairly sure that my statutory rights said different. Eventually I was transferred to a very polite man who said although they wouldn't normally do it he could see my problem and so one of 'the lads' would find out what parts were needed and get them posted out to me. Bingo.

I've put this in '5 * Service' although the more I think about it I'd really have been better putting it in Vent because that customer service woman was truly rotten. I think I shall compose myself a polite letter ...

hjb123

Ah well glad it looks like you are getting it sorted now, i had almost got to the end of the post and thought that you must have put the post in the wrong section - ie should have been in the vent then saw your note about why!