B&q kitchen complaint - compensation

Squirrel85

Hello, 

I  hoping someone can advise or may have been through a similar experience. We bought a kitchen costing roughly 3,500 back in January. It arrived in March and we have had nothing but trouble. So many items arrived damaged and we have totalled about 33 returns now. Many replacement items also arrived damaged. On top of this our design had faults and some items arrived incomplete or with the wrong instructions.

My husband is self employed and lost a lot of work time and I waited in time and again for deliveries. We finally completed the kitchen in September (6 months after receipt) due to these problems. B&Q said they themselves consider 10 exchanges to be a 'bad case' so this is extremely bad and used an expletive to emphasise how bad! 

I made a complaint and b&q are offering a measly £200 voucher for the inconvenience which I have declined. They want a counter offer but I have no idea what to say? The kitchen may have been only 3,500 and my husband has done the work so we are not paying builders but how do i put a price on our time and inconvenience? We didn't keep records on time missed from work and being self employed this would be difficult to prove. What's realistic to ask for? I certainly won't accept vouchers. Thanks in advance 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Squirrel85 said:

Hello, 



My husband is self employed and lost a lot of work time and I waited in time and again for deliveries.

If you have quantifiable losses that you can demonstrate then put these to B&Q as part of the figure you are requesting. 

There is an obligation to mitigate loses (make them less severe) so such claims would need to be reasonable and unavoidable. 

In terms of further compensation there isn't a right to this, consumer rights wold allow you to reject the goods after1 failed repair/replace (plus, as is my understanding, general contract law to seek any loses or damages in respect of where you would have stood had the contract been concluded). 

Personally if I'm haggling with companies I'd go over what I expect and hope they'll end up where I want to be. So if you asked them for £500 (around 15%) and ended up at £350 (10%) in cash that might be acceptable to you. 

One thing I have learnt is that no matter how far you take your complaint companies will generally offer you a little as they think they can get away with regardless of the validity of your position, something as simple as declining their "final" offer and asking them to reconsider and get back to you the next day can make the difference between them giving what they want and you getting what you want. 

Best of luck in haggling  

Squirrel85

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Squirrel85 said:

Hello, 



My husband is self employed and lost a lot of work time and I waited in time and again for deliveries.

If you have quantifiable losses that you can demonstrate then put these to B&Q as part of the figure you are requesting. 

There is an obligation to mitigate loses (make them less severe) so such claims would need to be reasonable and unavoidable. 

In terms of further compensation there isn't a right to this, consumer rights wold allow you to reject the goods after1 failed repair/replace (plus, as is my understanding, general contract law to seek any loses or damages in respect of where you would have stood had the contract been concluded). 

Personally if I'm haggling with companies I'd go over what I expect and hope they'll end up where I want to be. So if you asked them for £500 (around 15%) and ended up at £350 (10%) in cash that might be acceptable to you. 

One thing I have learnt is that no matter how far you take your complaint companies will generally offer you a little as they think they can get away with regardless of the validity of your position, something as simple as declining their "final" offer and asking them to reconsider and get back to you the next day can make the difference between them giving what they want and you getting what you want. 

Best of luck in haggling  

Thanks for that. I'll be honest, I did hope I might have a chance for more than even 500. My husband definitely lost more than that in working time. But how I could prove that I don't know. We lived without kitchen facilities for 6 months too which was dreadful as a family of 4. I kind of feel it shouldn't matter how little or much we paid for the kitchen itself. But I get the impression thats not how it works.

Brie

I'd be looking at the number of times you have had to wait in for a delivery.  Once is ok but the subsequents, not.  And what does that equate to?  2 hours x 33 replacement items?  At £10 an hour?  That's £660.  Did you need to have more than the usual number of takeaways or ate out due to not having a kitchen??  4 people x £10 each x 4 weeks in 6 months = £960.  Work time lost by your husband?  This year's income versus last years?  Call it £1000???

So I'd be explaining this to B&Q and asking for £2500.  And maybe be ok with half that.  

Squirrel85

Brie said:

I'd be looking at the number of times you have had to wait in for a delivery.  Once is ok but the subsequents, not.  And what does that equate to?  2 hours x 33 replacement items?  At £10 an hour?  That's £660.  Did you need to have more than the usual number of takeaways or ate out due to not having a kitchen??  4 people x £10 each x 4 weeks in 6 months = £960.  Work time lost by your husband?  This year's income versus last years?  Call it £1000???

So I'd be explaining this to B&Q and asking for £2500.  And maybe be ok with half that.  

I totally agree with you and those are the kind of losses we did indeed experience, I would just love to know what my chances are of getting even half that. It shouldn't matter whether I spent 3,000 or 20,000 - the suffering is the same. Everytime I call b&q the staff member is shocked at the number of times I have called and they have arranged exchanges. I was going to request 1,000 with the intention of accepting 800 but I'm getting the impression even that is unrealistic. 

turnitround

Speaking as someone who used to work for a kitchen company which suppled B+Q and actually had to deal with delivery issues and compensation and who also has a son who was a showroom manager on kitchens there (although this is 7 years ago) I can give some insight.

Firstly B+Q will fall behind the same old lines. Probably somewhere in your paperwork you will have something which says  something along the lines of 'Do not remove your old kitchen until your new one is delivered and you have checked all the parts for damage etc'. This gets them round the 'having no facilities to cook/wash etc.
The same goes for waiting in for deliveries,. If you arranged to have those deliveries on a certain day then they will not pay for wasted time unless you actually HAD to take time off work. They work on the reasoning that if you are at home anyway then nothing is lost and also they fall back on the fact that you could have collected the item from store if delivery was inconvenient tp you. They will not pay you x amount per hour for waiting in for a delivery. not will they pay you for takeaways as they will cite the 'check before you remove your old kitchen'.

Costs for fitting will be argued against unless you have had to have fitters return and can produce receipts which will not be the case for a self fit.
They pay for 'costs incurred' not dissapointment, suffering or inconvenience. Very unfair but if you knew the amount they pay out every year in compensation you would understand why they fight against i.

Squirrel85

turnitround said:

Speaking as someone who used to work for a kitchen company which suppled B+Q and actually had to deal with delivery issues and compensation and who also has a son who was a showroom manager on kitchens there (although this is 7 years ago) I can give some insight.

Firstly B+Q will fall behind the same old lines. Probably somewhere in your paperwork you will have something which says  something along the lines of 'Do not remove your old kitchen until your new one is delivered and you have checked all the parts for damage etc'. This gets them round the 'having no facilities to cook/wash etc.
The same goes for waiting in for deliveries,. If you arranged to have those deliveries on a certain day then they will not pay for wasted time unless you actually HAD to take time off work. They work on the reasoning that if you are at home anyway then nothing is lost and also they fall back on the fact that you could have collected the item from store if delivery was inconvenient tp you. They will not pay you x amount per hour for waiting in for a delivery. not will they pay you for takeaways as they will cite the 'check before you remove your old kitchen'.

Costs for fitting will be argued against unless you have had to have fitters return and can produce receipts which will not be the case for a self fit.
They pay for 'costs incurred' not dissapointment, suffering or inconvenience. Very unfair but if you knew the amount they pay out every year in compensation you would understand why they fight against i.

I believe you. Can you tell me anything I can use in my defence? Perhaps my husband should invoice me for fitting 😂😂 we had to rip our old kitchen out because it had to be rewired and plastered and plumbed before we could fit the kitchen. We couldn't check the kitchen parts all in one go upon delivery because of a lack of space in the home to open and then store so exchanges were done as and when we opened each box to build. Anything you think I could say in my favour? 

turnitround

Without knowing what the problems were its hard to be specific about how to argue with them but a couple of points about what you have just written.

Try not to mention the lack of space to inspect. That used to be one of the first things they would jump on especially if they thought you did not have enough room to store the delivery properly. I was always told to ask how you stored boxes. If you said they were stood up against a wall then straight away that would suggest any 'warping' was down to not being stored laid flat on floor and therefore not their fault.
Things may have changed since I was there but there used to be something in the paperwork about checking all items before you begin the fit so the fact that you have kept coming across different problems and needing exchanges will go against your argument about having to wait in for deliveries as they will say they should be notified upon checking the boxes so and issues can all be resolved at one time. Dont forget that it cost B+Q to deliver each time you report a problem so they offset that cost as well.

What were the issues you had?

Gavin83

Squirrel85 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Squirrel85 said:

Hello, 



My husband is self employed and lost a lot of work time and I waited in time and again for deliveries.

If you have quantifiable losses that you can demonstrate then put these to B&Q as part of the figure you are requesting. 

There is an obligation to mitigate loses (make them less severe) so such claims would need to be reasonable and unavoidable. 

In terms of further compensation there isn't a right to this, consumer rights wold allow you to reject the goods after1 failed repair/replace (plus, as is my understanding, general contract law to seek any loses or damages in respect of where you would have stood had the contract been concluded). 

Personally if I'm haggling with companies I'd go over what I expect and hope they'll end up where I want to be. So if you asked them for £500 (around 15%) and ended up at £350 (10%) in cash that might be acceptable to you. 

One thing I have learnt is that no matter how far you take your complaint companies will generally offer you a little as they think they can get away with regardless of the validity of your position, something as simple as declining their "final" offer and asking them to reconsider and get back to you the next day can make the difference between them giving what they want and you getting what you want. 

Best of luck in haggling  

Thanks for that. I'll be honest, I did hope I might have a chance for more than even 500. My husband definitely lost more than that in working time. But how I could prove that I don't know. We lived without kitchen facilities for 6 months too which was dreadful as a family of 4. I kind of feel it shouldn't matter how little or much we paid for the kitchen itself. But I get the impression thats not how it works.

1) Why did missing/broken items prevent you from using any of the kitchen facilities at all?
 
2) Why did you rip out the whole kitchen before ensuring the new one was as expected?

3) Why did your husband have to wait in? What do you do for work and why couldn't you have waited in instead?

Not meaning to sound harsh with these questions but were you to take this to court you'd be expected to mitigate your losses and these are the sort of questions you'd be asked.

IMO I think you could probably push them up to a 10% cash refund (so £350) but start by asking for more. I expect much past that and you'd have to take them to court. You'd then need to consider that court doesn't generally work on compensation but out of pocket costs and questions such as the above would come into play.