B&Q Appalling Service via their call Centre 0333 014 3357

Phil_Mill

Horrific experience....  several calls to sort out an order.  It was my mistake as they had two products on their marketplace website, same wardrobe, £37 price difference though.  I use to run a call centre so appalled by this service.

Calls in order...

Call 1.  Had to keep repeating myself, the operator confirmed he was in South Africa... he didn't speak the best English!!!!  several times on every bit of info, had to put me through to 'market place' as was a seller of B and Q online.... after 10 mins of confirmations, put me through.... phone cut off 5 mins later.

Call 2.  Called and explained the issue was cut off, operator was much clearer and understood me first time, she then put me through to market place... I was waiting and waiting, with annoying music... 30 mins into the call I got on my other phone and made a call to same line to call to make complaint (leaving this call running)

Call 3.  Called and spoke to operator, asked to be put through to complaint manager... or just a manager... said could not do this without me going through everything, I was frustarated and advised I just with to speak with Manager please... he said ok... and put me on hold (what i thought was hold).. then another operator answered, I asked if she was a manager, No she replied... so he just put me back in queue system.  I asked to go to manager and also advised my call was recorded, she said she could not take the call if it was recorded and hung up on me...  (but it is ok for them to record calls)!!

I then received this email

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Mushfika (B&Q)

29 Sept 2025, 10:23 BST

customer called regarding a complaint, discontinued the call due to customer confirmed that he is recording the call

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Meanwhile, call No 2 was answered (about 45 mins waiting).  I advised I wish to cancel the order and I do not want to do business now with B&Q online... NEVER AGAIN!! .. she could not personally cancel my order (why I waited 45 mins unsure)  and said she has sent an email to the seller to cancel and to keep eye on emails.  Will I receive an email?  who knows.  So as of yet, my order is still not cancelled.  She advised my call should NOT have been cut off as I was recording (as they record also).  She could not process a complaint and advised I should go onto B&Q website and submit (which I will / have done).  How long for a reply, who knows.


SUMMARY

B&Q have sellers on their website, its like Amazon, but horrifically poor service. Their call centre and staff are not up to the par and I would be personally embarrassed if I were running an outfit like this.

I am going to send a copy of this link to management

visidigi

Thread needs moving to https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/praise-vent-warnings

MyRealNameToo

Phil_Mill said:

 Had to keep repeating myself, the operator confirmed he was in South Africa... he didn't speak the best English!!!!  

In fairness thats far from a unique problem with overseas call centres. At the end of the day its generally a horrible job to have and most contact centres in the UK have a real problem with short term tenure and so can't be overly selective on who they bring in because no one enjoys 45 minutes waits as you went on to point out.  Most can speak English just fine but may have strong regional accents but thats what happens when you build contact centres in Newcastle, Liverpool or Cape Town. 

Phil_Mill said:
Called and spoke to operator, asked to be put through to complaint manager... or just a manager... said could not do this without me going through everything, I was frustarated and advised I just with to speak with Manager please... he said ok... and put me on hold (what i thought was hold).. then another operator answered, I asked if she was a manager, No she replied... so he just put me back in queue system.  I asked to go to manager and also advised my call was recorded, she said she could not take the call if it was recorded and hung up on me...  (but it is ok for them to record calls)!!

Most contact centres, did a decade in them, won't put callers through to a manager simply on request. In the worst you can have 20 staff to each manager and if you're running a complaints or enquiries team 20%+ come on the phone demanding a manager... logistically that simply doesnt work, the manager is there to manage the team not take calls themselves. 

A large supermarket had a novel response though, all their agents in their contact centre were customer service managers but paid identically to the customer service advisors in store. This was done so if the in store CSM wasnt available the agent could call the contact centre and legitimately tell the customer they were speaking to a CSM; it also meant any call could be passed to another person and that person legitimately state they are a manager. 

Phil_Mill said:
Meanwhile, call No 2 was answered (about 45 mins waiting).  I advised I wish to cancel the order and I do not want to do business now with B&Q online... NEVER AGAIN!! .. she could not personally cancel my order (why I waited 45 mins unsure)  and said she has sent an email to the seller to cancel and to keep eye on emails.  

Not overly surprising, the vendor will have their own systems and processes and the level of integration to be able to sell on a market place is often next to none. Having built websites for drop shippers its no different, you may be able to request the cancellation on the marketplace website but behind the scenes all its doing is sending an email to the company that'll actually be dispatching the goofs.

It would be nice if everything was fully integrated with straight through processing but that would be a massive ask of any new vendor wanting to join the marketplace and most appreciate the range of goods at an affordable price than having less goods sold at a higher price to cover the cost of integration. 

Its a very different proposition to their own goods and so not too surprising its a separate team, Amazon split on the basis too though the standard team can do the most basic questions. 

Phil_Mill said:

SUMMARY

B&Q have sellers on their website, its like Amazon, but horrifically poor service. Their call centre and staff are not up to the par and I would be personally embarrassed if I were running an outfit like this.

I am going to send a copy of this link to management

Surprised you didnt realise that they had a market place offering as well as selling their own products.

I believe B&Q outsources contact centre operations to Ascensos who have contact centres in several different countries.  I've personally always believed that if you want top tier service you dont outsource your staff however not everyone wants to pay the premium for top tier service and outsourcing can be a cost effective solution and meet a mid level of service. 

born_again

Manager in a call center is there to manage their team, not customers. In my experience managers, know less about the actual job their team are doing than anyone. So being passed to a manager, will just get a parrot of what their team member has said.

ButterCheese

This is a terrible experience but one I'm very used to, and I'm afraid it's just life these days.  You've got to weigh up how much your time and sanity is worth against what you're willing to go through to make your point and try to enforce all the correct practices (which is very hard to do when you're the customer).

I have given up on trying to educate these companies in basic customer service, etiquette and consumer rights.  Some of them just don't care and adopt a "fob them off until they go away" attitude.

I had a similar problem with B&Q marketplace; luckily I got through first time and they just told me to deal directly with the seller.  Which I did, and they were very helpful

Undervalued

ButterCheese said:

This is a terrible experience but one I'm very used to, and I'm afraid it's just life these days.  You've got to weigh up how much your time and sanity is worth against what you're willing to go through to make your point and try to enforce all the correct practices (which is very hard to do when you're the customer).

I have given up on trying to educate these companies in basic customer service, etiquette and consumer rights.  Some of them just don't care and adopt a "fob them off until they go away" attitude.

I had a similar problem with B&Q marketplace; luckily I got through first time and they just told me to deal directly with the seller.  Which I did, and they were very helpful

Indeed.

I think it is just a small variation on how and why many companies seem to put all their recourses into getting new customers and not in any way valuing customer loyalty and retention. I assume in hard economic terms it is more cost effective?

Phil_Mill

Thanks for your feedback guys,  I didn't expect so much, so quickly!!

I did type in a bit of a rush.... but in summary (with a little more time ), the service doesn't need a lot of tweaks to make it more customer friendly...

1.  Call Flow Process (Analyse types of calls and call flow using IVR, resource adequately) - When getting through to B&Q front line (which was only a few mins wait in fairness), to then wait 45 mins to get through to Marketplace (40 mins wait) and they could not action my request (to simply cancel my order as had to go to vendor), is unacceptable (a) from a waiting time POV (if cheaper to use these call centres, at least adequately resource them) and (b) why could first line of contact have not just sent email to Vendor to cancel.  What is the point of IVR (press 1 for XYX) on front  end, if it doesn't get you to correct destination!!

2. Call Quality (To check hardware / line and soft training for operator) - The issue with the quality of the operators English, I could work around that however. I could hear and understand him.. but he could not me.  I had to repeat basic confirmation / security info about 3, 4 and 5 times on some points... even the initial basic order number (everything said very slowly and using phonetics).  Could have been a hardware or line issue on his side.

3. Complaint (B&Q to sort out published process and advise staff according) - If you search on B&Q, to raise complaint, they advise (a) to call this very line or (b) use the B&Q form online.  So they advise this is a complaints line, yet its the very staff and process I am complaining about who are answering my call.  In rare situations before I've had to ask for a Manager (with other companies), they usually pass through to another dept, who call you back in hour or so.  Very often as its a higher training level required, its an outbound dept in UK.  (the stated number below goes to same IVR line as 0333 014 3357

"Our Customer Services Team are best placed to quickly resolve your complaint and are available from 8am-8pm Monday – Saturday and from 10am-4pm on Sunday. You can either call us on 0333 014 3098 or if you don’t need an urgent response please email us using our 'contact form' selecting the option your reason for contact relates to."

4. Contradiction (Policy Training Required) - Operator cut me off as I said the call was being recorded (which you should do if recording someones call), she didn't give any chance but just said she cannot continue with call and cut me off.  (No manners or explanation). Yet when I spoke to the front line again, the operator advised this should not have been done as they also record calls, it is not their policy to cut off should Customer advise recording.  Clearly, the first operator was looking for reasons to not progress the call.  

Its also fair to say I was polite at all times, but assertive! I know what its like for staff on the other end!   And, although I acknowledge it was my fault in the first place, as ordered incorrectly... the reason I was confused was there were two identical products on same listing, but different price.... (two different sellers it looks like).  That is very confusing for Customer.

At the end of day, I am a fair Customer and how I was treated has left me not wishing to deal with B&Q online again.  We can make excuses for them (in the new age of using tech) but at end of day, if they wish to retain custom, then there is an ethical way to deal with your Customer.  I run a business and we pay the price for our telephone staff and UK processes.  I will not outsource as my Customers are the only reason I am in business... 

MyRealNameToo

Phil_Mill said:

1.  Call Flow Process (Analyse types of calls and call flow using IVR, resource adequately) - When getting through to B&Q front line (which was only a few mins wait in fairness), to then wait 45 mins to get through to Marketplace (40 mins wait) and they could not action my request (to simply cancel my order as had to go to vendor), is unacceptable (a) from a waiting time POV (if cheaper to use these call centres, at least adequately resource them) and (b) why could first line of contact have not just sent email to Vendor to cancel.  What is the point of IVR (press 1 for XYX) on front  end, if it doesn't get you to correct destination!!

A lot of these things are subjective and ask a dozen people the right way to do things and you'll probably get two dozen different answers. 

First Direct make a big thing of having no IVR however they also only have one telephone number so when the account opening team calls they tell you to call the standard number and callerID to that number too. Inevitably when you call that number and wait 20 minutes to speak to someone they then have to put you through to the other team or tell you that teams finished for the day etc which was another 20-30 minute wait in my experience. To be thats ridiculous but lots claim to like their no IVR stance. 

Training everyone to do everything is expensive, in my first contact centre job we had several departments who all got a very different length of training and had different access to different parts of the system. The minimum was the "we messed up on our anticipated calls" temps who got 20 minutes training, mainly on how to use the phones and a stack of order forms and a stack of enquiry forms. Generally if we've miss calculated the number of staff needed badly enough to get same day temps in then the order forms would be rekeyed over the next few days and the enquiry forms would all be shredded unreviewed. Next were order staff who did 2 weeks training, then new customers/account opening which was 4 weeks and then enquiries which was 4-6 months. Everyone got orderline training but only the specialist teams got the other. Yes you could have trained everyone on everything but 4 months before someone takes a live call on their own is vast expense to invest on a new recruit. 

I've no idea what else the market place people are doing but clearly there's a reason why it's been decided to segregate them. Its likely systems have equally been segregated, most apply a principle of only giving people access to what they need rather than the default that everyone can access everything and then have to explicitly block access to things. 

A single call taking 45 minutes isnt proof of a systemic problem. All firms can be caught with their pants down occasionally. It also goes both ways as was working the morning Diana died and the day of the funeral and whereas our average wait time was normally about 5 minutes with you bouncing from one call to the next on both those days the average call wait time was 0 and you were going 1hr between calls. 

As mentioned it went the other way too, we got temps in to fill in paper forms when calls were higher than expected or the lurgy was going round so absences unusually high. Not all can respond so quick and some would question the value they added giving forms were intentionally thrown away at the end of the spike anyway. In our company we were more often the source of the problem though as our building had a metal roof and you simply couldn't hear calls in heavy rain so a couple hundred agents get taken off line and the other two locations have to pick up the slack. 

Phil_Mill

Just to complete the B&Q circle of service here.... even after my terrible experience, calling B&Q call centre to cancel my order (only a few hours after I have placed it, due to my mistake as website unclear as they duplicated same product / different prices on same listing), they still delivered the order... I refused delivery!

B&Q - sort your act out!!

Phil_Mill

After receiving a terrible service calling B&Q to cancel my order... and the product still arrived and me refusing delivery, I am still waiting for B&Q to (a) contact me about the complaint I submitted via official channels and (b) to refund my £189.65. No contact from them whatsoever.   I've called my card company to put in a chargeback. 

What has happened to the good old British companies.  No wonder we are loosing them!!

Undervalued

visidigi said:

Thread needs moving to https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/praise-vent-warnings

Indeed it does.

I am sorry the OP had a bad experience but I don't see any consumer rights questions in his post.