B&Q delivery date turned out to be fiction

[jim_hanna]

I ordered a small plastic shed from B&Q online on Tuesday 13th June
The acknowledgement e-mail gave me a delivery date – today Friday 16th June

Recent experience with delivery from other suppliers of large items, Curry and Argos, has been good. The delivery times were either quoted accurately at the start or it was left that contact would be made to arrange a time.

The B&Q delivery dates are fiction, I took a day off work to receive the delivery and got a call at noon today to “book a delivery”.

What carp customer service, if they aren’t going to deliver on the day they have previously said then at least they could notify the customer in advance.

The customer service phone line kept me on hold for over ten minutes, then passed me about from one department to another to finally say “ no we can’t give you a refund today since the item is marked for delivery today – call back tomorrow”

Sorry to sound like a Victor Meldrew but I thought we were past the stage where a major online supplier would quote delivery dates that couldn’t be met. It was adding insult to injury to wait until midday to ring to tell me. A whole morning wasted and a wasted day off work, modern logistics software is better than this, other suppliers can predict delivery to a two hour slot.

Well, hopefully I’ll get a refund tomorrow (if today is anything to go by it will be after a horrendous wait on hold on the customer service line) and will be able to order from a reputable supplier who’ll deliver when they say they will.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I had B&Q price up a kitchen for a rental flat although we did not discuss delivery. We need to get the refurbishment done quickly so it can be re-let. Fortunately my builder suggested Howdens - overall cost similar (possibly better quality), Ordered yesterday, will be delivered next Tuesday.

 

[Spragnut]

B&Q is a company that continually confuses the hell out of me, they make it as difficult as they possibly can for consumers to buy products. From poor delivery as mentioned, timber that is useless, trade points that are so small you can only fit two trollies in the area (the bigger ones feel the need to fill the floor with cheap tat that no one wants).

I was unlucky enough to work in trade point for a while and it was always a struggle to sell anything because local merchants did everything better.

I imagine the public side isn't a great deal better, we wanted 5 different masonry paints mixed up as testers, a service they offer through their new paint range, it was met with reluctance, what the staff don't seem to realise is those 5 pots at 3quid each have just paid a member of staff for an hour!

To be honest the staff seem like the biggest problem!!

I wonder what the company would be like if they improved things.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[Phil Pascoe]

We have a B&Q that I have to drive past a Screwfix and a Toolstation to get to. I also pass three very good independent outlets, plus a first class plumber's merchant and two good builder's merchants. My wife uses the independents and the merchants quite happily - they don't make her feel stupid when she says I know what I want ... it's a bit like one of them, but twice as big and a different colour ... and it's steel not plastic ... Then the guy says yes, over there, third shelf along on the bottom, it's a ...
She's even gone to fetch something and come back saying the bloke I spoke to knows you, and he said these are better and cheaper than what you asked for.
Whereas all you can guarantee in B&Q is a grunt and if you can't see it, we haven't got it.
I don't go there often. :lol:

 

[user22161]

B & Q excellent for odd items need at weekend or, if they have a genuine sale on something you need but, apart from that, I can get next day delivery over the net, usually cheaper.

 

[jim_hanna]

Well, I won’t be ordering from another supplier anytime soon.

Despite being told yesterday (Friday) that they would be able to refund me today, I was told this morning (Saturday) that nothing can be done until Monday.

I was told a long story about how my delivery date had been marked on the computer for Friday because that was the day B&Q sent it out to a third party for delivery. What a useless IT system they have if it doesn’t distinguish between when B&Q deliver directly to a customer and when they give it to a courier as part of the delivery process.

Apparently no action was taken yesterday, no attempt was made to contact the courier to say the customer was unprepared to accept delivery next week and to return the item to B&Q.

Beginning the process of making a sign for standing outside the local B&Q. I have an A2 size offcut of ply which I’ll sacrifice for something like this.

 

[jim_hanna]

Don't think I'll be getting any job offers as a signwriter but hopefully this conveys my message.

 

[jim_hanna]

For some reason I received the book below as a present today.

I felt the sections on shopping and delivery really spoke to me.

 

[powertools]

Your attitude may or not be right that is for you to decide but i have come to the conclusion that if trawling the internet for the lowest price you need to factor in that things may not go as well as they might have if you had paid slightly more to a local supplier.

 

[Uncle Bulgaria]

Your attitude may or not be right that is for you to decide but i have come to the conclusion that if trawling the internet for the lowest price you need to factor in that things may not go as well as they might have if you had paid slightly more to a local supplier.

I think my attitude would be similar to the original poster.

Paying extra to get what should be available as the basic service is Waitrose talk, I'm a Lidl man myself :mrgreen:

I recently bought some stuff from Homebase which was delivered on the specified date. If I'd taken a day off work for nowt I'd have been furious too.

 

[MikeJhn]

I think Steven Fry had it right "I love Tesco's (Lidl) it keeps the riffraff out of Waitrose" :lol:

Mike

 

[powertools]

My attitude may be different to many other posters i ran my own business for over 40 years and i know no matter how hard you try things can and do go wrong.

 

[iNewbie]

I ordered a small plastic shed from B&Q online on Tuesday 13th June
The acknowledgement e-mail gave me a delivery date – today Friday 16th June

Recent experience with delivery from other suppliers of large items, Curry and Argos, has been good. The delivery times were either quoted accurately at the start or it was left that contact would be made to arrange a time.

The B&Q delivery dates are fiction, I took a day off work to receive the delivery and got a call at noon today to “book a delivery”.

What carp customer service, if they aren’t going to deliver on the day they have previously said then at least they could notify the customer in advance.



Sorry to sound like a Victor Meldrew but I thought we were past the stage where a major online supplier would quote delivery dates that couldn’t be met. It was adding insult to injury to wait until midday to ring to tell me. A whole morning wasted and a wasted day off work, modern logistics software is better than this, other suppliers can predict delivery to a two hour slot.

I understand your frustration - it can drive you insane!

Never bother with what some other companies delivery might be, you're not dealing with them. I always read the websites small print. Thats where you'll usually find a loop-hole.


Powertools point is true too. Stuff happens. I think they call it,..... life!

 

[AES]

QUOTE: Powertools point is true too. Stuff happens. I think they call it,..... life! UNQUOTE:

Yes, true of course. But the real test is what does the company do (or not do) when "life" does strike!

AES

 

[powertools]

As part of my ongoing project to reduce the size of my workshop i needed some items to complete the roof. None of the local suppliers had them in stock but via the internet i found a stockist 25 miles away who assured me that according to the computer they had 5 in stock i needed 2 so with cash in hand i set off.
On arrival it turned out that they didn't have any so arriving home after a pointless 50 mile round trip i have to decide whether to post on the internet what a cxxxp company they are and make signs to that effect or just get on with other jobs and wait the 3 weeks until they they got them in.
What i decided to do is clearly is different to what other members would have done.
Life is short and best not wasted winding yourself up.

 

[iNewbie]

QUOTE: Powertools point is true too. Stuff happens. I think they call it,..... life! UNQUOTE:

Yes, true of course. But the real test is what does the company do (or not do) when "life" does strike!

AES

I agree - I was going to post that in my reply. At which point, some, want/expect the world from them...

 

[jim_hanna]

The saga to get a refund from B&Q for a non-delivery continues.

In brief:
13th June I order a shed, am given a delivery date of 16th June

16th June I take a day off work to await delivery which does not occur, I cancel the order.

17th June I am told by customer services that they will have to contact the delivery chain on Monday 19th June before they can process the refund

20th June No refund having been received I contact B&Q customer services again to be told that it will take 4-5 days for them to confirm from their delivery people that the shed is back in stock and then another 4-5 days to process the refund.

B&Q didn’t deliver on the date they specified and it looks now that it will be at least 2 weeks from that date before they refund.

For those of you above who say it’s not worth getting upset about missed deliveries I would say that it’s such attitudes which permit p^&s poor service like this.

 

[nev]

....
For those of you above who say it’s not worth getting upset about missed deliveries I would say that it’s such attitudes which permit p^&s poor service like this.

I think the point trying to be made is Don't let it wind you up.
Complain to the company, Yes!
Let them know your feelings, Yes! (although polite and firm usually yields better results than raving)

But stressing yourself out over it for days will get you nowhere but closer to the grave.
all the best
nev

 

[AES]

Oh Dear jim.

I do agree with the previous poster who said, QUOTE: I agree - I was going to post that in my reply. At which point, some, want/expect the world from them... UNQUOTE:

But to that I would add that IMO an awful lot depends as much on HOW they handle the complaint as to what they actually do/don't do. Yes, some customers DO expect the earth in the event of a "happening" but that's where people skills come in. The Germans have a very useful phrase - "Das ton macht dass Musik", or for us "It's the tone that makes the real music", or perhaps even better, how to explain to a customer that he's being unreasonable and expecting too much WITHOUT offending him/her.

In Jim's case, personally I think the idea of posting a sign outside the B&Q door is pretty silly. But OTOH, he HAS lost a day's pay because someone, somewhere made a cock up. AND although the retailer may well have a computer system that will not allow a simple refund within less than 2 weeks (why not incidentally - so many "systems designers" seem NOT to live in the real world) someone who had been trained and was skilled at people handling should have been able to explain all that to Jim without putting his back up.

So as the retailer I blame B&Q both for having poorly or untrained staff AND for having a poor, non-customer-responsive IT system. I also blame B&Q for not having enough faith in their employees(obviously because they've trained them properly - NOT in this case!) to give them a free hand not only to explain in a "human" way but to give out, say, a discretionary 30 quid voucher in such "special" cases. That miserly 30 quid or so is peanuts when compared to loss of goodwill.

It's poor training and poor management that WILL give UK a problem once Brexit bites. Even in retail.

IMO that is.

AES

Edit for a P.S. Don't despair folks - it's just as patchy here in Switzerland, although I must say that some (not all!) of the staff in our local DIY Emporium can be a little more responsive than Jim's bloke seems to have been.

 

[Noel]

So Jim, don't forget the pictures of the shed you are about to build...... : )