Just got the usual pile of junk mail through the door, to find an interesting snippet of a new Screwfix Trade Counter opening April 25th in my home town of Preston.
Now, that's interesting enough for me, at least, but what actually *IS* a Screwfix tradecounter?, is it worth wandering down for a snoop around?, or is it literally a trade counter in front of a whole warehouse, expecting you to turn up with your order already written? Are they Joe-Public friendly?
Any info...
Why don't you go, find out and report back here?
No, they run an Argos style operation with catalogues, pens and forms to fill in. It works more smoothly if you know your Screfix customer number.
So far I've had safety boots, hard hat and other assorted stuff from my local Trade Counter. All supplied without fuss and even the obscure items were in stock.
Mike Dodd explained on 18/04/2008 :
I've only been in one once...
They are rather like a boyz toyz version of Argos. Fill out an order slip, pay and wait for the goods, not much on show.
There's lots of them now dotted around the country. It is B&Q owned & the chain has been building over the last 2-3 years. You can still use screwfix.com (& must for larger items), but these counters take the waiting out of wanting. The free Argos style catalogs (1188 pages in the current one) come out roughly every 3 months and are a paradise garden of boyztoyz.
Long term it rather seems like B&Q are planning to make their stores more female friendly (eg as Homebase) & putting the more mechanical stuff into screwfix.
yes to collect a catalog & also there's usually a few Argosstyle pice cuts out around the counter
or is it literally a trade counter in front of a whole
very much so. you won't be looked down on even if you onlly have a tuppeny happenny order; you even find wimmin buying stuff.
:(
How long until the Laura Ashley dept?
SCREWFIX or their agents are now sending unsolicited premium rate text messages to customers registered with the Telephone Preference Service. I have had to complain to the company and their attitude stinks. They are making a lot of money from this as you have to send back the word STOP on each unsolicited nuisance text being sent. If you get the same messages please complain to Screwfix and the Telephone Preference Service. Screwfix know they are breaking the Law and dismiss it with excuses.
Steve Firth wrote: > Mike Dodd wrote: >
I've been very surprised with the stock levels. Safety boots as above, sliding door gear, radiators etc as well as the more common stuff.
Anything not in stock (only one item in may case) will be there next day with no delivery charge.
-- Dave - The Medway Handyman
Tiscali Idiot has been drinking albasani absinth again.
This information is as reliable as expecting a nail to secure unchilled jelly to a brick wall....
If it's anything like the one in Luton, you'll be able to wait and wait and wait as the queue crawls forward imperceptibly and each would be customer asks questions that the small staff do not know the answer to. I waited and waited: gave up, and went in the proper plumbing shop nearby, where what I wanted turned out to be cheaper and service was instant.
On the other hand: Screwfix on line is a doddle: so long as you don't order anything that the packers can sabotage. Lamps will invariably arrive broken (I once received a box with CFL lamps and a sledgehammer in. Not much left of the lamps after the box had been buffetted around in the back of a van for several hours...); fluorescent tubes will be 'bent' to make them fit in the box (I have the pictures); plastic, and even metal, paint tins will have any metal items stabbed through them; and the whole will come in several huge boxes full of bubble wrap even if it's only a couple of boxes of screws. They are usually very quick, but the drivers tend to do a runner long before you can get to the door.
They always replace the items, but I really felt sorry for them for the vast amount of stuff they must be throwing away as a result of not looking after their packers. Wrote to them about it, but I bet it's still the same.
Having said all that: they have been very handy and saved a lot of trudging from shop to shop, and me a lot of money. (Though nowadays they are not always the cheapest option...)
Hopefully Preston will be much better (loved the market when I visited some years ago).
Sspamlet wrote: > Having said all that: they have been very handy and saved a lot of > trudging from shop to shop, and me a lot of money. (Though nowadays > they are not always the cheapest option...)
I've noticed that as well. Shower enclosures, bath panels etc they have been twice the price of Wickes or my local plumbers merchants. Wickes compression fittings are cheaper than Screwfix.
Having said that, overall they save me money, but you have to "keep 'em peeled" as Shaw Taylor used to say.
-- Dave - The Medway Handyman
So near, but yet...
You queue for a place at the catalogues (unless you've had the foresight to grab some order forms on your previous visit, or have the chelp to break their system by giving them your own list), you queue to speak to a bored 16 year-old girl assistant, who ruminates gently while staring over your shoulder and slowly typing your order numbers into her ZX Spectrum, you try to memorise the alternative part numbers that you'd accept when you discover several items are out of stock, or wait while said assistant looks through the catalogue, apparently always for the first time, you wait while your receipt is printed, from a printer far too far from the assistant, then you have a really long wait while your order is picked, then a shorter but more frustrating one when your order is quite obviously on the conveyor belt just behind the assistant who is dealing with someone exchanging three woodscrews, then finally you marvel how so obviously incorrect an item can have got into the wrong bin.
When they get some new valves for their computer, perhaps you'll be able to order online, check the stock at your local branch, pay for it, and drive to collect it.
Till then, it's going to make shopping at Ikea seem like fun (though their pencils are better).
This is the Derby branch, based on a dozen or so visits this year, very few of which resulted in 100% success. YMMV.
Expand, Toolstation, expand!
Well you did ask & if you will care to read my post again you will discover I covered that. B&Q sheds are being gradually toned down to give more of a gentle Laura Ashley feel. The hard mechanical stuff is going into Screwfix.
You won't IMHE find yourself being sniffed out as 'non-trade' at Screwfix, unlike some other trade merchants I could mention.
On the whole prices are good; stock availability is good; there is peak-time queueing; generally there is a top grade item on offer backed up by a serviceable option for limited use; & it is open weekends.
All in all a very welcome development.
In a survey I'd tick the 'very satisfied' box.
Granted some of the staff don't know the entire product range, but overall I'm very happy with them.
I would like a Toolstation depot to be sure!
-- Dave - The Medway Handyman
Toolstation is OK but they don't have the same range that screwfix has. It is closer at 1/2 mile rather than the 1 mile to Screwfix. I don't even need to tell them who I am, they just pull up my account and add the stuff. I don't even need the receipts as they just pull them up if I want to return something. Its nearly always empty though. I spent ten minutes explaining how to use a router to a chippy today, never used one in thirty years but buying a de waltz one to put some intumescent strips in doors on Monday.
Not a frequent customer of screwfix by any means but the three or four times I have been there, there have been two or three people flicking through the big laminated catalogoue things (a dozen or so open). Have queued to be "served", but nothing excesive yes it is generally someone who is not "technical" but then anyone who is will be out doing they won't be working a shop counter. And waiting for your goods to "come up" yes it takes a couple of minutes but again nothing that would cause a sweat. Qute like the "Argos" type approach though I do agree there could be someone who you can "chat" too about product X but, then someone who knew valve A could be swapped for valve B (with a wee bit fettling) is not likely yo know that electrical fitting C is more for a high voltage application than fitting D.
Never been to a Toolstation. The Screwfix I have been to is the one out at Bankhead industrial estate, near hand Stevenson college (Edinburgh). The issues you have with speed and placement of equipment at Derby are perhaps local issues as I have seen no evidence of waiting on equipment[1].
[1] Computers, tills, printers etc
Yes, basically my experience at Ipswich too. I generally order on line but if there's a small item (or two) that I want I can pop down to my local Screwfix and get it saving carriage.
Hopefully it won't be like the new one opening in Huyton, Liverpool.
The advertised "opening weekend 18th-20th April" on large posters around the area has been superceded by a shit paintbrush on scrap timber they found on the site with "screwfix may 6th"
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