"PoP" wrote in message
...
Others can make up their own mind about the following, and whether
Screwfix are a company they feel happy dealing with. I'm reporting the
facts only.

... pointing out that their screw-up had cost me time and
money. Most companies would respond with an "oops, sorry about that"
as a minimum. Not Screwfix.

I got a refund about a week later. I've never had an apology or any
other goodwill gesture at any time.

At the same time I registered domain name screwfixsucks.co.uk,
intending to publish the factual information about this and other
matters which their company screw up - apparently frequently -
according to what I read on this newsgroup and elsewhere.

Since that took place my attitude has calmed down and I've forgotten
about the matter to the extent that I was about to place another order
with Screwfix. That was, until this mornings post brought the
following threatening letter from Screwfix:

http://www.anyoldtripe.co.uk/Image1.jpg

Well to be fair I can see their point: I guess if you had a dissatisfied
customer* who registered 'handymacsucks.co.uk' you'd be a bit defensive!
From what I can see they're saying "we know about it and whilst we're not
very happy about it we're not going to get heavy unless we consider we have
to".


* with the best will in the world I'm sure we all have them - sometimes for
whatever reason a job goes pear-shaped and we rub the customer up the wrong
way and they end up convinced we're the rogues/cowboys they've been warned
about


... these
monster companies .. have forgotten about how costly it is to run a
small business ...

Was Screwfix ever a small business or was it born fully fledged out of some
larger group? I'm sure whoever in that organisation originally bust their
guts getting the primordial small business going has long since retired to a
sunny paradise (or at least from day-to-day running of the business).

I think Screwfix's (and B&Q's) policies towards customers (no-questions
refunds etc) are driven by hard-nosed commercial considerations rather than
any inherent moral position or sympathy for the small trader. Where they
mess someone about the way they have with you it's the business not working
properly, not how it's supposed to work. If they thought it would be more
profitable overall to rip off and shaft customers at every step they'd do
that 99% consistently and efficiently, and we'd only hear stories of
"Screwfix did such-and-such right" instead. (There may be businesses like
Marks&Sparks, John Lewis & the Co-Op whose business practices are driven by
ethical criteria, but if non-ethically based businesses do so it's simply
because it makes commercial sense.)

I agree Screwfix's customer relations practice has (evidently!) f**ed up in
their dealings with your order as you described. FWIW I've had a day's work
buggered up by their (or rather ParcelFarce's) failure to make an express
delivery. (In my case they did refund the delivery surcharge without any
problem.) Now I use them when I don't need stuff in a hurry (arranging my
diary accordingly if I want stuff from them).

Having said all that I haven't been back to Safeway since one evening in
January last year when a Security primate accused me of being a shoplifter
(not of shoplifting there and then - I'd only just walked into the store -
but of being someone he'd seen being arrested for shoplifting at another
Safeway's store 10 miles away). The fact that the manager backed him up and
said he was barring me from the store without listening to me, and that when
I wrote to the MD I got a letter back from some admin nobody saying they
couldn't be arsed to find out what had happened but I was welcome to go back
and spend my money in their store, ****ed me off so much I've just avoided
using them since. So I think I understand your outrage about SF!