On 2008-05-28 21:01:12 +0100, (A.Lee) said:

I've wrote previously about poor quality bathrooms from B+Q.

I'm fitting another this week for someone. Delivery arrived yesterday of
the 15 items for the bathroom.
Direct from a central warehouse, not the local store they told me.
First impressions were bad, everything is wrapped in cardboard, with
almost all of it sodden.
"Is your van leaking then?" I asked.
"No, the warehouse is full so this was left outside last night.
Charming.
They then dropped off everything in the driveway, and kept saying they
were late and needed to get somewhere else.
"Do you want to check it all before we go, but you'd better be quick, as
we are late, and anyway, if anything is broken, you just ring up for a
new one"
The bit about ringing up for a new one was said at least 3 times, and he
even put a ring around the phone number on the delivery note.
Half an hour later, I knew why - one of the shower screens was in a 1000
pieces. the buggers knew it was broken.
So rang up, OK, we'll get a new one out to you next week. "Well, how
about tomorrow, so I can fit it?" Sorry, too busy, next week is the
earliest.

Then proceeded to check everything else. Luckily, I noticed a pop-up
plug was missing. So rang them again. OK, next week with the shower
screen.

Everything else looked to be in one piece, though the toilet pan was
filthy.
Then this morning when fitting the bath, I noticed a crack on one corner
- it had obviously been dropped onto that corner to cause the crack.
I should have rang them to change it, but luckily the crack could not be
seen when fitted, so I stuck some epoxy round it, and it should be OK.
Then the bath panel - another crack in a corner.

If there was one fault, it could be excused, but these faults have
driven home to me the point of never buying a bath suite from B+Q unless
you give it a really good inspection at the store - I wouldnt trust
their delivery staff at all.

Alan.

There are two problems he

- Using B&Q as a supplier of products for professional use

- Allowing customers to buy products from B&Q that you will fit.

Their operation is like the proverbial curate's egg - good in parts.

They can manage to exchange goods and even compensate customers, as
they should. That's a simple logistics process.

They can't manage anything involving more than simple logistics and
don't have an appropriate customer service ethic - i.e. if you screw
up, you apologise and fix the issue *now*, not next week.

They believe that price can subsitute for poor customer service.
Unfortunately, a significant proportion of customers are not
sufficiently bright or assertive and they can get away with it.