[[email protected]]

Just one for the record, a review of my experiences at B&Q.

I have spent, over the past 2 years, in excess of £3000 with B&Q.
Recently I have found staff to be more knowledgeable and was beginning
to get complacent; a mistake as I was to find out. This evening I dealt
with a female manager, who was ill informed, ignorant and downright
obstructive.

On the first point. I was seeking advice on fitting a slimline
dishwasher. She first asked me if I obtained the appliance from B&Q
then used the fact I did not to claim that "All B&Q slimline
dishwashers are 500mm wide and that my problem was because my unit was
not bought from B&Q." It's 450mm wide, as I believe are ALL slimline
dishwashers - please correct me if I am wrong.

This manager seemed to know absolutely nothing about the task I was
requesting help with. She furthermore seemed to be more worried about
abmitting this fact or being sued than she was about helping or giving
good customer service.

When I requested to speak to a member of staff who would be able to
help, this request was refused on the grounds "there are no kitchen
fitters in the store." When I asked to speak to a staff member with
whom I had dealt on a previous occasion, who is an ex-fitter and who
had been able to offer first class advice, I was told "He is not
employed in this store as a kitchen fitter."

I suspect, though cannot confirm, this is the same member of staff who
caused problems when I was buying the main part of my kitchen. I was
standing directly under your "15% off all kitchens - yes including the
sink" banner whilst the till operator went to get a manager to
authorise the discount. The till operator returned with the message
from 'two managers in the office' that there was not 15% off kitchens,
certainly not the sink that I had in my trolley.

[Phil L]

wrote:
Just one for the record, a review of my experiences at B&Q.

I have spent, over the past 2 years, in excess of £3000 with B&Q.
Recently I have found staff to be more knowledgeable and was beginning
to get complacent; a mistake as I was to find out. This evening I
dealt with a female manager, who was ill informed, ignorant and
downright obstructive.

On the first point. I was seeking advice on fitting a slimline
dishwasher. She first asked me if I obtained the appliance from B&Q
then used the fact I did not to claim that "All B&Q slimline
dishwashers are 500mm wide and that my problem was because my unit was
not bought from B&Q." It's 450mm wide, as I believe are ALL slimline
dishwashers - please correct me if I am wrong.



1) they are not obliged to give you any kind of advice regarding fitting
2) shop staff aren't trained in kitchen/appliance fitting
3) I can't believe you would throw a strop when you didn't even buy the
dishwasher there, although you are being somewhat coy about what you said...

This manager seemed to know absolutely nothing about the task I was
requesting help with. She furthermore seemed to be more worried about
abmitting this fact or being sued than she was about helping or giving
good customer service.


sued? - for not helping someone with products they'd bought elsewhere? -
she's not obliged to help you even if you'd bought it there

When I requested to speak to a member of staff who would be able to
help, this request was refused on the grounds "there are no kitchen
fitters in the store." When I asked to speak to a staff member with
whom I had dealt on a previous occasion, who is an ex-fitter and who
had been able to offer first class advice, I was told "He is not
employed in this store as a kitchen fitter."

I suspect, though cannot confirm, this is the same member of staff who
caused problems when I was buying the main part of my kitchen. I was
standing directly under your "15% off all kitchens - yes including the
sink" banner whilst the till operator went to get a manager to
authorise the discount. The till operator returned with the message
from 'two managers in the office' that there was not 15% off kitchens,
certainly not the sink that I had in my trolley.

There's more to this story than meets the eye, you won't get any sympathy
off me until you give more details on what you said / threatened....why a
store manageress should fear being sued for being unable to help someone
with a product they'd purchased elsewhere is a mystery to me, perhaps you'd
like to shed some light first?

[[email protected]]

There's not really any more to this than meets the eye.

I didn't threaten anything - I was merely asking for _advice_ on how to
fit an integrated slimline dishwasher into a kitchen which I _had_
bought from B&Q. I fully understand that they are not obliged to offer
advice, but to my mind knowledge and a helpful attitude are what set
good stores apart from the rest. I also fully understand that this
lady knows nothing about DIY, but that's not why I'd been taken along
to speak to her. My points a

1) There are experienced staff in the store who are very helpful when
on duty - I'd been taken along to her by another staff member not
because of a dispute, but simply because he was not able to help and
could not find a member of kitchen showroom staff. He thought she
might be able to help / find the relevant staff member.
2) Rather than defer to someone who knew something, she waded in with
wholly inaccurate information on products - 500mm slimline dishwashers.
3) She refused, quite unreasonably in my view, to make any attempt to
find a member of kitchen showroom staff with whom to discuss my query
about a B&Q kitchen: bear in mind this store provides a kitchen
planning service.
4) No sympathy expected but I believe the relevance to uk.d-i-y is that
if someone is deciding on where to buy a kitchen, my experience may
sway their decision.

[Weatherlawyer]

wrote:
There's not really any more to this than meets the eye.

I didn't threaten anything - I was merely asking for _advice_ on how to
fit an integrated slimline dishwasher into a kitchen which I _had_
bought from B&Q. I fully understand that they are not obliged to offer
advice, but to my mind knowledge and a helpful attitude are what set
good stores apart from the rest. I also fully understand that this
lady knows nothing about DIY, but that's not why I'd been taken along
to speak to her. My points a

1) There are experienced staff in the store who are very helpful when
on duty - I'd been taken along to her by another staff member not
because of a dispute, but simply because he was not able to help and
could not find a member of kitchen showroom staff. He thought she
might be able to help / find the relevant staff member.
2) Rather than defer to someone who knew something, she waded in with
wholly inaccurate information on products - 500mm slimline dishwashers.
3) She refused, quite unreasonably in my view, to make any attempt to
find a member of kitchen showroom staff with whom to discuss my query
about a B&Q kitchen: bear in mind this store provides a kitchen
planning service.
4) No sympathy expected but I believe the relevance to uk.d-i-y is that
if someone is deciding on where to buy a kitchen, my experience may
sway their decision.

Why do people buy kitchens? You only need the plumbing, worktop and the
doors. All the rest can be made up out of 2 x2 PAR and boards.

Even the worktop can be made up by an half competent DIYer.

And of course the plumbing and doors can be made up by fair to middling
DIYers. But the carcase is a joke. You get a set of weetabix panels and
some crappy trims and get charged a fortune for them.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article om,
Weatherlawyer wrote:
Why do people buy kitchens? You only need the plumbing, worktop and the
doors. All the rest can be made up out of 2 x2 PAR and boards.

Even the worktop can be made up by an half competent DIYer.

And of course the plumbing and doors can be made up by fair to middling
DIYers. But the carcase is a joke. You get a set of weetabix panels and
some crappy trims and get charged a fortune for them.

Depends. Often cost less than you can make them for. But I did make mine -
purely because it would be a difficult area to fit properly with stock
units.

--
*Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses*

Dave Plowman London SW
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