B&Q poor attitude

pinkshoes

fridge_raider wrote: »

So you paid £7.95 for a lamp which broke after 7 months and you requested a refund after a year? I can't believe you expected a refund, to be honest. If they did give you one, fair play, but it would obviously be as a goodwill gesture only.

Where in my post does it say I asked for a refund? I didn't.

I was ideally after a replacement, but otherwise a credit note or acceptance that the lamp was clearly faulty and not fit for purpose.

Many shops would have happily accepted this, or at the very least been polite/helpful. Manners cost nothing. The manager was rude and abrupt.

Or perhaps B&Q really only do sell cheap junk with a shelf life of one year, in which case I will happily shop elsewhere if that is all I can expect from their products.


If you are happy with products lasting only 12 months before breaking snd managers being rude to you, then fair enough.

There are plenty of other shops who take more pride in their products.

macman

What cut off date do you expect for a cheap product costing £8?. If not 12m, then 18m? 24m?
If you'd acted when it started to fail at seven months then it would have been replaced under the manufacturers 12m warranty, no question. So to deliberately wait until the warranty had expired was somewhat foolish?

London50

I understand what you are saying and I do not disagree with you but I think it is more on the attitude of the shop staff these days with some companies. How hard is it to politely say that due to say the cost against the use or that the policy of the company is xyz??. As I said in my reply to the OP a little give and take can reap rewards, OK yes there has to be a cut off point but being polite to a customer costs nothing and even if a replacement or refund is not forthcoming it can still lead to future sales for a company.

daytona0

pinkshoes wrote: »

1. Since the recession, stores with good customer service have done well.

.... just like Sports Direct! Oh wait....

Stores do well for other reasons aside from just "good customer service" and I imagine that B+Q are no different.


It is your problem here, and the shop are under zero obligation to replace at this stage in time. Sometimes customers forget their rights in stores. That being said, you have SOGA rights so why don't you get an independent fault report which shows that it was faulty/not fit for purpose? If you can evidence it, and rule out the possibility that you were negligent in your use/care of the item, then you should get a repair or replacement (or maybe even a partial refund!).

It is a sad state of affairs when a customer expects a repair/replacement as standard when they are not entitled to that. "Threatening" to not spend 400 pounds on other items is silly because:

1. It potentially inconveniences you (unless it was said as a way to make the situation a bigger deal than it is, and you intended to shop elsewhere anyway) because you have to go to another store and find the items etc.

2. If we extrapolate your exact situation and apply it to a number of customers then only a small fraction of them will act the way you did. Many will just bin the 8 pound product and buy another. Some might get a SOGA report. Some might just accept it and go on to spend 400 pounds in store. I therefore doubt how much you (and identical situations) would make a dent in their overall profit margin, especially when they tend to sell one-off items

pinkshoes

macman wrote: »

What cut off date do you expect for a cheap product costing £8?. If not 12m, then 18m? 24m?

I think at least 2 years is reasonable for a lamp. £8 was the reduced price. Most lamps I have owned have lasted at least 5 or 10 years. It is s lamp - not much to go wrong really!

macman wrote: »

If you'd acted when it started to fail at seven months then it would have been replaced under the manufacturers 12m warranty, no question. So to deliberately wait until the warranty had expired was somewhat foolish?

See earlier post. I moved house twice, and had two miscarriages (followed by operations), so it wasn't a priority. I assumed I wouldn't have any problems with a company like B&Q. My mistake.

pinkshoes

daytona0 wrote: »

It is your problem here, and the shop are under zero obligation to replace at this stage in time. Sometimes customers forget their rights in stores. That being said, you have SOGA rights so why don't you get an independent fault report which shows that it was faulty/not fit for purpose? If you can evidence it, and rule out the possibility that you were negligent in your use/care of the item, then you should get a repair or replacement (or maybe even a partial refund!).

The lamp cracked at 7 months. It was blatantly faulty.

I could easily get an independent report showing it is faulty, but to be honest, I cannot be bothered.

I would rather just take my custom elsewhere, as there are plenty of alternatives.

At no point in my thread did I say that i "threatened" the store with not spending £400. I didn't even mention this in store. All items i needed have since been bought elsewhere, and what surprised me most was that I actually spent about £70 less shopping around!

daytona0

pinkshoes wrote: »

The lamp cracked at 7 months. It was blatantly faulty.

Nothing blatant about it at all! Hence why you need a fault report after 6 months to chase up a SOGA return.

I presume you approached the manufacturer within 12 months (or whatever the timeframe was on any possible warranty) to try and get a resolution? How did that go?

I could easily get an independent report showing it is faulty, but to be honest, I cannot be bothered.

lol. You could be bothered going to another store, making this thread and potentially going out of your way in the future to avoid B+Q. But you can't be bothered getting an easy-to-get fault report which will get you a resolution? Weird.

I would rather just take my custom elsewhere, as there are plenty of alternatives.

True true! B+Q is probably overpriced in all fairness.

At no point in my thread did I say that i "threatened" the store with not spending £400. I didn't even mention this in store. All items i needed have since been bought elsewhere, and what surprised me most was that I actually spent about £70 less shopping around!

My apologies, I meant to use 'threatened' and not "threatened" because I am not quoting you. I used that word because you've made a big deal about how you didn't spend 400 pound based on how they dealt with the lamp. So it is effectively saying 'if you don't give me a new lamp then I won't spend 400 pound in your shop'.

Good to hear that you got a discount on the items you intended to purchase, though!

geerex

It was less than £8. Get over it.

paulpud

geerex wrote: »

It was less than £8. Get over it.

Yes, I think a sense of perspective is needed here.

It was £8 which will usually just about get me a pint and the other half a glass of wine, lasting her nearer to seven minutes rather than seven months. Lessons to be learned - don't expect too much from cheap items and avoid falling for women who can drink you under the table.

szam_

At least you found someone in B&Q to speak to... me and my OH were wandering around the Outdoor and Garden section of our local store for a half hour last week, not a single sighting of a member of staff the entire time, we could have done with being pointed in the right direction for about 20 minutes of that half hour as the OH couldn't find the plant she wanted.