B&Q – Another Attempt
Posted: Sat 14 April, 2007 Filed under: B&Q, Customer Services, House Work 11 Comments »I forgot to say at the time, (although I did mention it in the summary of the week) but when we were checking out quotes and costs for getting floor tiles for the house – a large task, but one that makes a lot of sense in the long run- we decided to brave B&Q again. After all, I’ve slagged off their home delivery service and website, and the comments from various B&Q employees on there have all made out that the people in the store are a lot better.
Now bear in mind I didn’t go in with the attitude “B&Q are shit” or any preconceptions – and also bear in mind that we’ll be going back later for some of the things we do want, which we’ve seen there for decent prices.
Anyway, we’re looking for (at the time – the specs changed slightly later on) roughly 126m² of floor tiles. That equates to One Fuck Of A Lot of tiles. About a thousand tiles, depending on the tile size (obviously) and when you take into account the amunt of tile adhesive and grout we want as well, we’re talking somewhere around the £2-2,500 mark.
We see a tile type we like, and (when we eventually find one) ask a member of the staff team whether it’s possible to buy one tile to take home to check we like the things when they’re in situ.
“Oh, I dunno, snomydeparmen. I’llgoantryanfinesommunwhoknows” Roughly translated, this works out as “Oh, I don’t know. Sorry, it’s not my department. Wait here, and I’ll go and try to find someone who does know, and may be able to help you“. I think.
We wait.
Eventually he comes back with someone else.
“We don’t do sample tiles. It’s not policy”
“We’re not wanting to just take one, we’re quite happy to pay for it”
“We don’t do sample tiles. It’s not policy. You can buy a complete box, and bring it back for a refund”
“We don’t want a box. We just want one tile so we can see how it looks. Look, here’s one that’s seperate, so you don’t even need to break open a pack”
“We don’t do sample tiles. It’s not policy.You can buy a complete box, and then bring it back for a refund”
“Look, we’re going to be buying a hundred and twenty five square metres of these tiles. We would like to buy this one seperate tile, so we can see how it looks in the place before buying two grands worth of tiles, plus adhesive and grout”
You guessed it.
“We don’t do sample tiles. You can buy a full box, then return it if you don’t like them”
“OK, so for want of this one seperate tile, you’re prepared to lose a sale of about two thousand pounds?”
“We don’t do sample tiles”
“Can I speak to your manager please? I’d just like them to know why they’re going to lose this amount of business”
“I am the manager” (Aye, right)
“OK, then. You’ve just lost our business, because you won’t let us buy this one tile, because it’s ‘not policy’. That’s two grand (roughly) plus all the adhesive, tile grout and so on. Nice work.
He did let us have the tile in the end, once we’d started walking away. Amazing what that’ll do, just demonstrating that actually yes, you can find other places, and that B&Q aren’t the be-all and end-all of the business. I’m not quite sure what the ‘policy’ is that he was quoting, but I suspect it’s “B&Q have a policy of not wanting large dollops of business. Piss off to a proper place instead”
Unsurprisingly, we won’t be going with them for the tiles. And yet again it gives the lie to all those commenters who say that the staff in-store at B&Q are really helpful and do their best to help anyone who asks.
Aye, right. 200% of fuck-all is still fuck-all.
I will never, ever, set foot in a B&Q again, and haven’t for the last 10 years. I bought a kitchen from them – it wasn’t cheap, it was a complete rebuild of the old one, cost around £5,000, and this was 10 years ago. It took them 9 months to actually get the kitchen finished, plus the nightmare of it not being measured right in the first place.
We got £1,500 refund in the end, but that was only because we had paid via credit card and not the poxy finance they offer. It took them another 3 months to realise that we had put £3,500 in dispute, and it was affecting them, not the finance company. Only then did they actually do anything about it.
So, no matter how cheap, how good the offers are, I will never give them another penny of mine. Ever.
Vote with your feet!
Comments about B&Qs tile department. I used to work for a supermarket giant and there average anual spend on carrier bags was £7 MILLION POUNDS which we charged the customer back in higher prices. The average price of a box of B&Q tiles is £20 with a customer foot fall of over a million customers per week,just think of the cost if only 1% of the customers took a sample.
Yaddaha yaddaha yaddaha, yawn yawn you all want a cheap kitchen,bathroom ,garden shed or decking where do you go B&Q again and again and again dont say you dont because your fucking lying if you do. Most of you on this site grumble ext have all been repeat serial complainers who still insit on going back for more why ? let me tell you why its cos of the payments you all have had the made up extra meals days off work travell to Guatamala what ever you can get your grasping greedy sweaty ( mostly welsh ) hands on > Ohhh you cry i never did bollocks YES YOU HAVE and as for never setting foot in there liars liars liars yes you do cos the complaints still come i bought a mower 11 months 29 days ago it dont cut grass properly yes because you have never changed the blades but B&Q ( love love love Em) will give you money back credit note or new one you are\ all grasping greedy asrse licks and still you shop there why becuase its the biggest nearest and the best priced DIY store on the UK get a life and complain about something that really matters you are so boring ,customer services try to please but cant please a greedy moron who whole life revolves around a free lunch so just all fuck off
If your language was as bad when you were speaking to the member of staff i am not suprised you did not receive satisfactory service! Could you also consider the fact that the average B&Q store has 15,000 customers a week and if only 6,000 of them wanted to take a sample tile that is still a horrendous ammount of boxes to open regardless if you were paying for a sample. What this will also effect is if they give sample tiles then when you come in to purchase your tiles they have given them out as samples. Therefore they cannot provide them in sufficent project lines. Are you an unsatisfied customer or an unrealistic one who whinges every time they don’t get their own way?
X, what kind of crack are you smoking? Where was my language bad in the conversation detailed in the post?
Anyway, with regard to your points, if B&Q has (as per your figures) 40% of their trade per week asking for sample tiles then while I fully agree that the current system would be a pain in the arse, if it were my business I’d try to figure a way of making sure that many customer got samples, so that I got the full sale when they came back, and didn’t alienate them and send them off to my competitors. Hell, even if it just meant getting some boxes in and selling them at trade price (so I didn’t lose money on them) – perhaps with that price then knocked off the full sale value when they came back with a full order ?
As it is, all the tile-selling specialists we went to at the same time – all of whom, I would suggest, have a much higher percentage rate of requests for samples – had no problem at all with letting us have a tile to check at home in situ.
And I’m an unsatisfied customer, rather than an unrealistic one. I simply don’t understand the logic of store ‘manager’s who want to send business elsewhere. Maybe I’m weird like that. *shrug*
The amount of bullshit i get from customers every day is disgusting! im critised by most of the customers for being young and being a girl!. I KNOW that my store aims to give 100% service but theres always some selfish prick that thinks he doesnt have to pay for this stuff so he starts complaining over nothing ! i dont appreciate having half of the stock chucked into my face! you wouldnt think of checkout operator gets that but we do. ive been called really nasty names by customers in the past. Its MY fault when they read the wrong bloody prices i take it?. If your not happy then fuck off to homebase! we try to do our job but its nothing to customers, they think we lazy cunts that just walk around doing nothing. No we are actually stuck there for 9 hours , having to cope with all the queues and there is alot to do in the stores. i do get some good customers that are grateful, but the selfish ones should learn how to control themselves in general public, you want other shoppers to see that your not happy by shouting at every member of staff. shouting doesnt get you anywhere apart from being asked to leave. the worst is wednesdays by far !! some old people dont have respect for staff whatsoever, they shouldnt be allowed to shop atall. So to be honest i dont care if i get slagged on here the people that have written on here that dont work in B&Q, you dont know what its like !! you assume things , i tried to see the customers side of things but i end up getting bullshit for it! give us a fucking break like lol
this place is full of shit! did your mum and daddy not teach you fucking manners? try being in our shoes for a day then you’ll know.
My God your such a Prick! – I feel sorry for the person who had to listin to you – A baby with a shitty ass would be more tolerable then you
your like a geriatric in tesco who can’t understand why he can’t buy 1 grape
At the end of the day
You where wrong –
You handled the situation like a selfish child
you decided to be a prick when you could have resolved it like a man
John, pray do tell how a “man” would’ve resolved it?
The difference between “wanting to only buy one grape” and “wanting to check the colour-match of one tile rather than spending £20 on a box of 8” (which then wouldn’t be accepted for return as the pack had been opened) is significant. If the person had wanted to try a grape before buying £2000-worth of the grapes, I reckon even Tesco would’ve seen the common sense in writing off 1p of grape for £2000. (or, in the case of a tile, ).
Now go back to your baby with the shitty arse – it’s certainly more tolerable than your bollocks.
Actually, B&Q will refund an open box of tiles. Or give you a credit note, whichever you wanted.
Well that’s great – try telling the managers at the Norwich branch that then.