B&Q Ruined My Wedding, Cost Us Thousands, Damaged My Husbands Health But Don't Care

asharon

Sorry to hear about this. I hope you get a good conslusion

ADAM001

Well-thats put me off b+Q im in the market for a kitchen aswell!!!

bylromarha

Have to say I smiled and thought of you when I saw 2 adverts on TV last night advertising peace of mind with a B + Q kitchen.

Maybe you should complain to the Advertsing standards agency as well...

janjan

We are currently in the middle of a similar row with B&Q as they installed a ensuite for us and made it totally unsafe with double electric live sockets next to the bath and basins! The ones by the bath are just at head height when you sit in the bath. In fact we have photos of a lamp in the bath with the lamp on to show the socket is live!
B&Qs respose so far has been to come two weeks late and cap the water taps so we cannot use the bath...like we were going to?! B&Q are members of the qualitas concilation service so we are going through them at the moment so i will let you know how that goes. We also were told we had to pay up front however there was a deal to do it with a store card an get buy now pay later so we did that so in effect I have not paid any money as yet but the first installment is due in November. As I believe the credit company can be held jointly liable in these matters I have copied them in on the correspondence to see if this provides the kick B&Q need to get them moving.
Please feel free to contact me if you want to shout rude things about B&Q as I will happily join in.
PS I also contacted Watchdog but have not heard anything as yet.
The only reason we went with B&Q was we thought big companies would have good customer service, a reasonable guarantee of good workmanship and we would not get this kind of nonsence...How wrong we were!
Hope you get a good responce if you go to the press, I would if i was you as your story sound terrible and they may finally offer you a good compensation package...maybe a honeymoon!
Good luck
Jan.

LizzieT84

Hi Folks,

It's the same for us as with Jan... we paid that little (lot) extra for peace of mind. Of course it doesn't cost £3,500.00 for a joiner to come in for 2 days and a plumber and electirician for half a day... but you are paying small (huge) premium for the reassurance it's going to get done on time and to the right standard.

Anyway, to the point...

My husband received a phone call from B&Q today and here is the summary:

- The £384 'goodwill gesture' they've paid us already is in line with what a court would pay us and it is more than generous apparantly.

- As we are disabled and have incurred no loss of earnings our time, however much of it, is meaningless and worthless to B&Q. We tried to explain that as my husband has a limited life expectancy due to illness that time our time was not worthless to us.

- No more would be paid because you cannot measure stress or upset. We tried to explain that the fact my husband has high blood pressure and I suffer from depression and both of these were worse during this period that you could measure stress or upset... she wasn't interested in the slightest.

- Everyone is treated as an individual... provided of couse that that fits in with company procedure and the guidelines they must follow which include taking money up-front meaning B&Q can relax and take their time to deliever.

- If we went to the effort of providing proof we would be entitled to an 'award'... you hear that an 'award'!!!!... up to a maximum of £15 (total) for the hundreds of hours we spent hanging on the phone to B&Q.

- They couldn't pay the rent we had to pay while we couldn't live at our address thanks to B&Q because nobody put it in writing at the time of sale that if B&Q didn't install the kitchen near to the agreed date that they would be willing to pay rent... now isn't that convenient? The reason it wasn't put down in writing is because if we'd thought there was even a possibility that it wouldn't be fitted within a couple of weeks... let alone several months... WE WOULD NOT HAVE SHOPPED WITH B AND SPEW!!!

- They stated that they were 'completely willing to re-assess the situation' if we were to send in evidence of our 'out-of-pocket' expenses (ie the £15 phone calls and taxis) but that any compensation for upset had already been paid. To me the compensation for our trauma is far more important than out-of-pocket expenses. B&Q have robbed us of time and happiness and we will never ever be able to get that time back. Despite this they stated that there was absolutely no chance we'd get anything close to the figure we're looking for. We paid for an installation 'service' and B&Q didn't provide that 'service' so we feel it is only fair they take the money that they swindled us out of. We know people who can fit kitchens and would have happily done it for us for free but it would have taken several weekends meaning we would have been without a kitchen for 2 or even 3 months and we didn't want to face going to that inconvenience... seven months later we feel like absolute idiots for turning down our friends help.

Just when I thought they couldn't cause more upset... they have! They made us feel like because we're disabled we're worthless to them and that our time and happiness doesn't matter to them and that the only thing that matters is that they can generously pay a maximum of £15 for phone calls in-line with company procedure.

B AND SPEW MAKE ME SICK!

LizzieT84

That's us just reported them to Advertising Standards... next step trading standards. It's a shame that we're unlikely to hear back from Watchdog due to the high volume of material they receive.

Wig

citizens advice bureau
Trading Standards
After these two and depending on what they say try:

A good solicitor, consultation free, (make sure you take everything pertaining to the case, and you have the series of events jotted down in order. And you have your questions written down so you don't forget to ask them. Then depending on what they say pay them to act on your behalf.

LizzieT84

Unfortunately we don't have dates and documents. B&Q will have that all the info. Can they be forced to give it to us under the freedom of information act?

Lizzie

Wig

Once you engage with them in a legal battle they have to supply the information they have.

I don't know if you can use the data protection act to get what you want now, you could ask the information commisioner's office that question.

Freedom of information act I suspect is to do with government & local government departments only.

Poppycat

You can ask them to supply information related to you and they have to by law, however they could be a nominal charge, last time I used it, it was around £10.

If they refuse I am sure its an offence and should be reported to the Information commissioner