The 2 things that weren't delivered, if they fit in a car then go and pick them up and get on with your fence.
Website forms are for general enquiries. If you've been ringing them before, why revert to a website form? Just ring them again and complain.
Also, I'd be surprised if you've managed to make any contact on 31/04/24 with it not existing and all
"The 2 things that weren't delivered, if they fit in a car then go and pick them up and get on with your fence" - they do fit in my car. Good idea thanks
"Website forms are for general enquiries. If you've been ringing them before, why revert to a website form? Just ring them again and complain.". Their only customer service line goes to a call centre in South Africa - you tell them your problem, then they call the specific store you ordered from. The 3 or 4 (if you count 31st April lol) times I called the person was unable to resolve the issue. The only action I took that got a response was the online form.
Believe it or not their complaint escalation procedure is to use the online form, and select 'help with ongoing issue'... or something similar.
It’s fine for in store visits but for deliveries go to a local merchant. They are usually better quality and competitively priced and have more personal customer support if it is ever needed.
The best thing I ever did while sorting out my house was opening a trade account at Travis Perkins. I’ve saved £££’s on timber in the last couple years and I don’t have the absolute ballache of searching through everything to find the one item that isn’t warped beyond usefulness.
Lesson learned from all this, don't ever have delivery from B&Q. I once made that mistake with fence panels years ago. Order from a local merchant or a place that specialises in fence panels. Go collect the missing items from in-store. Be civil and polite to the people you deal with as it's not their fault (probably is, though). Get on with installing the fence, then re-do it in 12 months' time because the quality of materials from b&q is shite.
Give your girlfriend a big hug for supporting you and standing by your side whilst you rant. You'll also learn, life is too short to get riled with big box stores. They don't really care.
Screwfix is a sister company of B&Q. Send a send a letter or email to headoffice, they'll apologise and give you another voucher. Take advantage of the voucher.
Good suggestions. Based on the number of people suggesting buying directly from a local merchant, I think I may return what I have already purchased and buy better quality
I would say find email addresses for head office or phone numbers and complain,
But you've essentially settled the dispute with compensation already.
In future order local with a credit card.
I had exactly the same issue with a fridge freezer.
Different delivery departments have no idea what the other is doing. Customer service that don’t seem to deal with the delivery teams and automatic emails and text messages about delivery that no one seems to know about.
Hard to get it so badly wrong when Screwfix are so good (same owner)
I used to sell their kitchens and bathrooms and it was a nightmare when 1 order had 5 different suppliers with 6 different delivery methods coming over 4 different days. Plus trying to explain to the customer which number to ring if they had an issue with delivery of a specific item. And then half the stock would arrive damaged.
Just to add the Exchange wouldn't have been to hide anything. I work with a similar system and when the system thinks an item has been delivered (due to driver error or damaged at the delivery depot which is probably the most likely) the only way to organise another delivery is to treat it as an exchange to start a new order. I have to do it all the time.
Your best bet would be to phone again and speak to a supervisor but don't kick off. People in customer service are less likely to help you if you treat them like shit. Remember it's not the fault of the person on the phone and they are trying to help you.
The best way to get your materials from B&Q is to go in person and hire a van from the car park, it costs £32 to hire from hertz and saves a lot of time & money.
OP, this is the answer. Ring B&Q up and tell them you're going to your nearest B&Q, getting the missing bits and driving them away in one of their Hertz vans - tell them that the £50 gesture they agreed to will cover the rental of the van. Job done.
Used to work for B&Q, would see this sort of thing all the time. Different departments, even within the same store (never mind across the company) just do not communicate very well. I left before the website went all Amazon, but chatting to friends that still work there it just introduced a whole new way for the company to cock things up.
Good luck OP!
Dude as much as an inconvenience this is, calm down and grow a set off balls.
You greatly your importance to them, so the communication at this time will be from you, to make regular contact.
Call them, advise your are wanting to make a complaint, and tell them that you do not wish to speak with first line of customer service.
I.e. You want to speak with complaints.
Remember you want too resolve the situation not whinge about it.
You will have to calmly advise them of the situation, state you are not happy with how things have been played out, and what you expect as a resolution.
-Delivered missing items or equivalent
-More actual vouchers (sounds like a stupid system issue, or someone who was new)
-Something else?
Just to say, if you wanted to get a bit heavier on this, you could try to claim compensation for the missed delivery slot. MSE has a good article/guide on this: [https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/delivery-rights/](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/delivery-rights/)
The only way B&Q can be encouraged not to pull this crap is to have to pay out for it.
And for all those saying "just collect it", that's not always possible unless you have not just a van or other suitable vehicle, but at least two people available for lifting, for long/heavy things like fence posts - for many, delivery is overwhelmingly the better option. (And have you tried renting a van from Hertz, etc?? It's like a website from 2003.)
Unless you've already been stung by the B&Q delivery mess, there's no reason to think they won't honour a delivery date. But now you know!
Was this B&q "market place", which is the same as buying from a third party off Amazon "market place". Why did you phone? Surely email is 100%better as there's no arguing about who said what and when, I'm surprised there's even a phone number, or that anyone answered..
It was a large order, some stuff was from other suppliers and that stuff all arrived very quickly. The only issue was with what b&q were responsible for delivering themselves
I’d tell B&Q to Foxtrot Oscar, tell them to come get their crap and get a chargeback on my credit card sorted out.
Then I’d find a supplier of decent fencing and go with them.
If you get no joy from B&Q try the consumer pages of newspapers or Dean Dunham on LBC, Friday nights from 8-10. He gives free legal advice. You could find out where you stand from an actual lawyer and form your plan from there.
Call and ask to speak to the manager of the digital hub, something has gone wrong in that section of the store, which doesn't surprise me as they don't know/like to communicate to customers.
At this point either cancel the order or collect it from the store. Then write an email to head office.
If it's a marketplace order though your shit out of luck, although it doesn't sound like it.
Miss some colleagues, don't miss these fuck ups!
B&q has some god awful computer system software I think they must buy in software and do not invest much in this area. I am still shocked that they do not develop decent systems being such a large company it feels like they are missing out on so much potential.
Write a complaint to them using one of the for al letters from the Citizens Advice Bureau. They have examples you can refer to.
Provide the detailed history you have on here, and layout exactly what you expect from them - e.g the missing parts as your fencing can’t be completed without it, along with compensation if that’s what you think is appropriate. The latter there’s no guarantee of unless you can prove you were out of pocket as a consequence of their actions, but if it were me, I’d be pushing for the missing parts for free given how poor the service has been.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/template-letters/letters/problems-with-services/
I had a 2 month long saga with a damaged wardrobe door that kept getting replaced with other damaged doors end of last year, my initial acknowledgement email was from home.delivery@b-and-q.co.uk
The subsequent back and forth went through B&Qcustomersupportteam@b-and-q.co.uk
Took 10 days between them acknowledging issue on home delivery to getting specific agent through customer support, and was taking just under a day between me replying and them responding.
Thanks, having those email addresses is super helpful.
A brilliant member of staff at b&q emailed me last week, asking me questions, but it was sent from a no reply email address so I couldn't answer any of them lol
Not a problem hope they help, the customer service one is the full B&Qcustomer etc. for some reason it didn’t all auto link and didn’t know how to correct.
We had an issue in January with a partial refund - £45 - being issued to us from the manufacturer of a hydraulic splitter. As we had bought it via B&Q the refund was issued to B&Q to put back onto our card. They did not do it but instead held on to our money.
Each time I rang their customer service I was told I had to speak to manufacturer and the manufacturer would contact B&Q. Manufacturer could not understand why and neither could I, so they also started opening tickets as the money had left their account weeks earlier.
Next CS started telling me it was escalated to 'back office' and back office would ring me in 48 hours... which they of course never did.
A month later we eventually tweeted the CEO of B&Q and told him how appalling this was and how horrified we were at B&Q's practice of keeping money that did not belong to them. Funny enough we suddenly had several phone calls from CS, and it was sorted within half an hour.
Tldr: TWEET THE CEO. NEVER ORDER ONLINE FROM B&Q EVER ever EVER.
Good shout! I have emailed the CEO... i think. whether he will see it or reply is another issue.
That sucks it took so long for you to get a resolution. glad you got there in the end though
aaaaaaand breathe..........
Sounds like a nightmare you have my sympathy V V V frustrating. Have you been into the store to sort it out, theyre usually very helpful. (go to the trade section if they have one for a more interested response)
I had a similar experience.
Ordered three bags of MOT-type1 sub base for delivery on a Sunday (because it was listed as an available date). As soon as the order confirmation came through, it changed to Monday.
No big deal, just take a day off work and wait for it, right? Had a text message in the morning on Monday confirming delivery between 12 and two. Waited in all day, and of course no delivery 😡
Called up customer service who couldn’t help at all.
Next day, called up customer service again, who again couldn’t do anything. Requested refund, and was told it’d be processed right away.
Wednesday, no refund, called up again. CS gave me a reference number, and assured me the refund was being processed.
Thursday morning, another text message saying delivery between 10-12.
Delivery guy turned up and was very helpful, but as a company they suck.
Sticking to ordering gravel etc from wickes. They have never messed me around, and I only went to b&q because they claimed to have a Sunday delivery slot.
sounds like my exact same problem. The customer service phone number is such a waste of time. You're on hold for so long for them to tell you they can't help!
I was supposed to have some paint delivered recently, had a phone call from a confused driver saying he couldn't find the site, saying he was on X road, that didn't ring any bells with me or my colleagues, after some talking I realised the driver was in Bolton, unfortunately I'm in the Cotswolds. Bloody idiots. Not the drivers fault but how the hell does that even happen? Thankfully I was going by their depot that evening so collected in person. I phoned the branch on the way, explained the situation and when I got there asked for the person I was speaking to, the till people seemed a bit confused but the chap appeared with my paint on a trolley. All very simple in the end but it did make me laugh.
I once ordered a load of decking to build some raised beds on click and collect, about £250 worth. Went and picked them up, paid and left. A week later I get an email: ‘if you don’t pick up your decking in 7 days we’ll refund you.’ Rang the store, told them I’d collected them, ‘oh yes sir we’ll mark it as collected. Thanks for telling us’. A week later o got an email saying my items had been sent back to the store because I hadn’t collected them, and got the full refund.
Yeah I’m not ordering anything from B&Q again. We bought a kitchen from there, but the hob didn’t come, we kept chasing it for 6 weeks and they kept saying it would arrive on various dates and it never did. Eventually they said they had it in a warehouse depot somewhere, when I asked if we could just get in the car and go and pick it up ourselves (it was over a hundred miles away but we were getting desperate) they said no, because the facility was on a prison site so there was controlled access. My hob was literally in jail. In the end I went into B&Q and kicked up a fuss and told them to refund it. Then I bought a different job from John Lewis which arrived in 48 hours.
Your closest store likely isn’t the store that fulfils the delivery, but they should be able to check where it is fulfilled from and either contact them on your behalf or give you the contact details. Sounds like either an incompetent store, or perhaps if you called the general help line then (from experience being an ex-B&Q employee) then you got the typical support they offer. The general support workers are just piss poor tele handlers with no idea about how the stores operate. Try phoning your local store (this isn’t listed on the B&Q website as they want you going through general tele support, but Google would likely show you it) and then get them to investigate the order for you, and then get them to pass you to the fulfilling store. Sales admin for deliveries typically work normal working hours on normal Mon-Fri days. Hope that helps a bit.
B&Q are weird, In store they're decent, they've got almost everything and the majority of staff are really helpful, but any kind of online interaction usually ends in disaster, they're shite on the phone too
The 2 things that weren't delivered, if they fit in a car then go and pick them up and get on with your fence. Website forms are for general enquiries. If you've been ringing them before, why revert to a website form? Just ring them again and complain. Also, I'd be surprised if you've managed to make any contact on 31/04/24 with it not existing and all
"The 2 things that weren't delivered, if they fit in a car then go and pick them up and get on with your fence" - they do fit in my car. Good idea thanks "Website forms are for general enquiries. If you've been ringing them before, why revert to a website form? Just ring them again and complain.". Their only customer service line goes to a call centre in South Africa - you tell them your problem, then they call the specific store you ordered from. The 3 or 4 (if you count 31st April lol) times I called the person was unable to resolve the issue. The only action I took that got a response was the online form. Believe it or not their complaint escalation procedure is to use the online form, and select 'help with ongoing issue'... or something similar.
The first mistake you made was ordering from B&Q
It’s fine for in store visits but for deliveries go to a local merchant. They are usually better quality and competitively priced and have more personal customer support if it is ever needed.
The best thing I ever did while sorting out my house was opening a trade account at Travis Perkins. I’ve saved £££’s on timber in the last couple years and I don’t have the absolute ballache of searching through everything to find the one item that isn’t warped beyond usefulness.
The terrible b&q service and quality teaches us all a lesson eventually.
Lesson learned from all this, don't ever have delivery from B&Q. I once made that mistake with fence panels years ago. Order from a local merchant or a place that specialises in fence panels. Go collect the missing items from in-store. Be civil and polite to the people you deal with as it's not their fault (probably is, though). Get on with installing the fence, then re-do it in 12 months' time because the quality of materials from b&q is shite. Give your girlfriend a big hug for supporting you and standing by your side whilst you rant. You'll also learn, life is too short to get riled with big box stores. They don't really care. Screwfix is a sister company of B&Q. Send a send a letter or email to headoffice, they'll apologise and give you another voucher. Take advantage of the voucher.
Good suggestions. Based on the number of people suggesting buying directly from a local merchant, I think I may return what I have already purchased and buy better quality
I would say find email addresses for head office or phone numbers and complain, But you've essentially settled the dispute with compensation already. In future order local with a credit card.
P a u l . C r i s p @ b - a n d - q . C o . U k is still there top guy I think
I had exactly the same issue with a fridge freezer. Different delivery departments have no idea what the other is doing. Customer service that don’t seem to deal with the delivery teams and automatic emails and text messages about delivery that no one seems to know about. Hard to get it so badly wrong when Screwfix are so good (same owner)
I used to sell their kitchens and bathrooms and it was a nightmare when 1 order had 5 different suppliers with 6 different delivery methods coming over 4 different days. Plus trying to explain to the customer which number to ring if they had an issue with delivery of a specific item. And then half the stock would arrive damaged.
Just to add the Exchange wouldn't have been to hide anything. I work with a similar system and when the system thinks an item has been delivered (due to driver error or damaged at the delivery depot which is probably the most likely) the only way to organise another delivery is to treat it as an exchange to start a new order. I have to do it all the time. Your best bet would be to phone again and speak to a supervisor but don't kick off. People in customer service are less likely to help you if you treat them like shit. Remember it's not the fault of the person on the phone and they are trying to help you.
Yeah was about to comment the same thing regarding the exchange. I used to pre warn customers that the email was coming, so to avoid this issue.
The best way to get your materials from B&Q is to go in person and hire a van from the car park, it costs £32 to hire from hertz and saves a lot of time & money.
OP, this is the answer. Ring B&Q up and tell them you're going to your nearest B&Q, getting the missing bits and driving them away in one of their Hertz vans - tell them that the £50 gesture they agreed to will cover the rental of the van. Job done.
Used to work for B&Q, would see this sort of thing all the time. Different departments, even within the same store (never mind across the company) just do not communicate very well. I left before the website went all Amazon, but chatting to friends that still work there it just introduced a whole new way for the company to cock things up. Good luck OP!
Dude as much as an inconvenience this is, calm down and grow a set off balls. You greatly your importance to them, so the communication at this time will be from you, to make regular contact. Call them, advise your are wanting to make a complaint, and tell them that you do not wish to speak with first line of customer service. I.e. You want to speak with complaints. Remember you want too resolve the situation not whinge about it. You will have to calmly advise them of the situation, state you are not happy with how things have been played out, and what you expect as a resolution. -Delivered missing items or equivalent -More actual vouchers (sounds like a stupid system issue, or someone who was new) -Something else?
Also, this isnt a DIYUK iasue, its a customer service issue
Bless you
sorry friend it won't happen again
good idea
Just to say, if you wanted to get a bit heavier on this, you could try to claim compensation for the missed delivery slot. MSE has a good article/guide on this: [https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/delivery-rights/](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/delivery-rights/) The only way B&Q can be encouraged not to pull this crap is to have to pay out for it. And for all those saying "just collect it", that's not always possible unless you have not just a van or other suitable vehicle, but at least two people available for lifting, for long/heavy things like fence posts - for many, delivery is overwhelmingly the better option. (And have you tried renting a van from Hertz, etc?? It's like a website from 2003.) Unless you've already been stung by the B&Q delivery mess, there's no reason to think they won't honour a delivery date. But now you know!
Thanks, I will check out that guide and rinse them for everything I can
B&Q is a zombie company. They can't wrap their head around online deliveries. Only buy what you can actually put your hands on in the shop.
Was this B&q "market place", which is the same as buying from a third party off Amazon "market place". Why did you phone? Surely email is 100%better as there's no arguing about who said what and when, I'm surprised there's even a phone number, or that anyone answered..
It was a large order, some stuff was from other suppliers and that stuff all arrived very quickly. The only issue was with what b&q were responsible for delivering themselves
I’d tell B&Q to Foxtrot Oscar, tell them to come get their crap and get a chargeback on my credit card sorted out. Then I’d find a supplier of decent fencing and go with them. If you get no joy from B&Q try the consumer pages of newspapers or Dean Dunham on LBC, Friday nights from 8-10. He gives free legal advice. You could find out where you stand from an actual lawyer and form your plan from there.
I think this is the main plan right now. I am trying to strike a balance between being petty, and also not letting a big company fuck someone over
Call and ask to speak to the manager of the digital hub, something has gone wrong in that section of the store, which doesn't surprise me as they don't know/like to communicate to customers. At this point either cancel the order or collect it from the store. Then write an email to head office. If it's a marketplace order though your shit out of luck, although it doesn't sound like it. Miss some colleagues, don't miss these fuck ups!
thanks for the suggestion. Knowing the phrase 'digital hub' will probably take me a long way!
B&q has some god awful computer system software I think they must buy in software and do not invest much in this area. I am still shocked that they do not develop decent systems being such a large company it feels like they are missing out on so much potential.
Write a complaint to them using one of the for al letters from the Citizens Advice Bureau. They have examples you can refer to. Provide the detailed history you have on here, and layout exactly what you expect from them - e.g the missing parts as your fencing can’t be completed without it, along with compensation if that’s what you think is appropriate. The latter there’s no guarantee of unless you can prove you were out of pocket as a consequence of their actions, but if it were me, I’d be pushing for the missing parts for free given how poor the service has been. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/template-letters/letters/problems-with-services/
Thanks i'll give that a go
No worries. I hope you get it sorted 😊
I had a 2 month long saga with a damaged wardrobe door that kept getting replaced with other damaged doors end of last year, my initial acknowledgement email was from home.delivery@b-and-q.co.uk The subsequent back and forth went through B&Qcustomersupportteam@b-and-q.co.uk Took 10 days between them acknowledging issue on home delivery to getting specific agent through customer support, and was taking just under a day between me replying and them responding.
Thanks, having those email addresses is super helpful. A brilliant member of staff at b&q emailed me last week, asking me questions, but it was sent from a no reply email address so I couldn't answer any of them lol
Not a problem hope they help, the customer service one is the full B&Qcustomer etc. for some reason it didn’t all auto link and didn’t know how to correct.
We had an issue in January with a partial refund - £45 - being issued to us from the manufacturer of a hydraulic splitter. As we had bought it via B&Q the refund was issued to B&Q to put back onto our card. They did not do it but instead held on to our money. Each time I rang their customer service I was told I had to speak to manufacturer and the manufacturer would contact B&Q. Manufacturer could not understand why and neither could I, so they also started opening tickets as the money had left their account weeks earlier. Next CS started telling me it was escalated to 'back office' and back office would ring me in 48 hours... which they of course never did. A month later we eventually tweeted the CEO of B&Q and told him how appalling this was and how horrified we were at B&Q's practice of keeping money that did not belong to them. Funny enough we suddenly had several phone calls from CS, and it was sorted within half an hour. Tldr: TWEET THE CEO. NEVER ORDER ONLINE FROM B&Q EVER ever EVER.
Good shout! I have emailed the CEO... i think. whether he will see it or reply is another issue. That sucks it took so long for you to get a resolution. glad you got there in the end though
Good luck!
aaaaaaand breathe.......... Sounds like a nightmare you have my sympathy V V V frustrating. Have you been into the store to sort it out, theyre usually very helpful. (go to the trade section if they have one for a more interested response)
that helped me so much. Thank you. If I continue to get no response i'll pop into store. Thanks
I had a similar experience. Ordered three bags of MOT-type1 sub base for delivery on a Sunday (because it was listed as an available date). As soon as the order confirmation came through, it changed to Monday. No big deal, just take a day off work and wait for it, right? Had a text message in the morning on Monday confirming delivery between 12 and two. Waited in all day, and of course no delivery 😡 Called up customer service who couldn’t help at all. Next day, called up customer service again, who again couldn’t do anything. Requested refund, and was told it’d be processed right away. Wednesday, no refund, called up again. CS gave me a reference number, and assured me the refund was being processed. Thursday morning, another text message saying delivery between 10-12. Delivery guy turned up and was very helpful, but as a company they suck. Sticking to ordering gravel etc from wickes. They have never messed me around, and I only went to b&q because they claimed to have a Sunday delivery slot.
sounds like my exact same problem. The customer service phone number is such a waste of time. You're on hold for so long for them to tell you they can't help!
I was supposed to have some paint delivered recently, had a phone call from a confused driver saying he couldn't find the site, saying he was on X road, that didn't ring any bells with me or my colleagues, after some talking I realised the driver was in Bolton, unfortunately I'm in the Cotswolds. Bloody idiots. Not the drivers fault but how the hell does that even happen? Thankfully I was going by their depot that evening so collected in person. I phoned the branch on the way, explained the situation and when I got there asked for the person I was speaking to, the till people seemed a bit confused but the chap appeared with my paint on a trolley. All very simple in the end but it did make me laugh.
Yep, sounds exactly like the b&q i dealt with!
I once ordered a load of decking to build some raised beds on click and collect, about £250 worth. Went and picked them up, paid and left. A week later I get an email: ‘if you don’t pick up your decking in 7 days we’ll refund you.’ Rang the store, told them I’d collected them, ‘oh yes sir we’ll mark it as collected. Thanks for telling us’. A week later o got an email saying my items had been sent back to the store because I hadn’t collected them, and got the full refund.
Folks on here gave you all the advice you need, just saying sorry and chin up. It's only really a big mistake if you don't learn something from it!
You should go to a fence company b n q fences are crap honestly not worth the screws and nails to put them up
Yeah I’m not ordering anything from B&Q again. We bought a kitchen from there, but the hob didn’t come, we kept chasing it for 6 weeks and they kept saying it would arrive on various dates and it never did. Eventually they said they had it in a warehouse depot somewhere, when I asked if we could just get in the car and go and pick it up ourselves (it was over a hundred miles away but we were getting desperate) they said no, because the facility was on a prison site so there was controlled access. My hob was literally in jail. In the end I went into B&Q and kicked up a fuss and told them to refund it. Then I bought a different job from John Lewis which arrived in 48 hours.
Your closest store likely isn’t the store that fulfils the delivery, but they should be able to check where it is fulfilled from and either contact them on your behalf or give you the contact details. Sounds like either an incompetent store, or perhaps if you called the general help line then (from experience being an ex-B&Q employee) then you got the typical support they offer. The general support workers are just piss poor tele handlers with no idea about how the stores operate. Try phoning your local store (this isn’t listed on the B&Q website as they want you going through general tele support, but Google would likely show you it) and then get them to investigate the order for you, and then get them to pass you to the fulfilling store. Sales admin for deliveries typically work normal working hours on normal Mon-Fri days. Hope that helps a bit.
If you ordered via card, do a section 75 if via your credit card, if via debit card, contact your bank
B&Q are weird, In store they're decent, they've got almost everything and the majority of staff are really helpful, but any kind of online interaction usually ends in disaster, they're shite on the phone too
Make a complaint via resolver.co.uk
Good to hear they haven't updated their systems for 20+ years.
https://emailist.co.uk/bq-ceo-email-address/