Which? says B&Q website is bottom of the pile

[The Medway Handyman]

[rbel]

Agreed. Product descriptions are frequently lacking things like dimensions and the online local store stock check cannot be relied on

- this is supported by every member of B&Q staff I have mentioned this to. This necessitates a phone call to check the stock before visiting.

In store service is very variable. The odd member of staff is helpful and pleasant but the majority in both my local stores (Torquay and Newton Abbot) are not interested. I appreciate that it must be a bit soul destroying working for local store managers who are truly abysmal and refuse to speak to customers if there is a problem.

Thankfully we now have a (very busy) local Toolstation.

[tim......]

I don't think that's any different to any other "click and collect" offering

I've personally been let down by PC World and Homebase in that respect

tim

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 24 October 2013 20:13 wrote in uk.d-i-y:

" Couriers came bottom of the pile when consumers' opinions and experiences of different delivery methods were compared. Regular post was the favoured way of receiving online shopping. "

[GMM]

Of course, I've neevr ordered anytthing from their website but is it like their shops, wehre the price at the checkout bears almost no relationship to the price on the shelf, apart from being higher?

[Ramsman]

Can't comment on the ordering/delivery system as I've never used it. My main gripe is the truly abysmal search facility. It seems to me that whatever I put in it gives me dozens, or even hundreds, of irrelevant hits.

The lack of dimensions, as the report says, is also irritating.

Don't get me started on stock levels. Homebase are even worse. Perhaps I should revive my old programming skills and write new systems for the, as I have the relevant experience.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 22:07:50 on Thu, 24 Oct 2013, tim...... remarked:

An issue I've had with B&Q "click and collect" is that you end up with that last item on the shelf that's so damaged no walk-in customer would ever have bought it. Although you can refuse to take it away, of course.

I've also had B&Q call me (before I was able to collect) to say that something wasn't in stock after all, which was better than me driving there and coming away empty handed. But they didn't appear to have a procedure for ordering one in, either for me or just to fill that gap on the shelf.

[Scion]

Roland Perry put finger to keyboard:

The Homebase "click and collect" tells you *after* you've done the deed that you have to wait two hours before the item will be ready.

I wanted a particular loft ladder, my local Homebase had just one in stock so I click-and-collected. I got to the service desk two hours later and - no loft ladder. They checked stock - zero. I pointed out that my click-and- collect transaction would have reduced the stock count.

So I went to see what loft ladders were on the shelf - and there was the one I wanted. Three of them, in fact.

[stuart noble]

The Screwfix website seems to work well enough, so the Kingfisher group has the skills in there somewhere

[pcb1962]

I suspect that's because a lot of the people surveyed mostly have experience of the abysmal service of HDNL/Yodel, the courier so bad they had to change their name. If most of their stuff arrived by DPD and UPS the result might be quite different.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, my local UPS driver comes here often enough he knows me.

I had an amazon order delivered by Yodel some years back which was just hurled at the front door from a car in the road. Another amazon order never arrived - don't know who the courier was.

I can only recall two shitty-link deliveries, and they both failed because the drivers counldn't be arsed to do their job. I actually saw one drive past without bothering to stop, and they reported back to the depot the address was faulty - it wasn't.

[Roger Mills]

I don't understand the business model used by some of these companies - particularly DPD - can anyone enlighten me?!

I've had several things delivered by DPD recently - usually from a depot over 30 miles away, as the crow flies. They send me an email, giving a delivery slot, with a 1 hour window. I can enter my package reference details on their website to track progress. Typically it says that your driver (name) is currently making delivery No. xx in (postcode district, also shown on map) and is yy hours away from you. Your delivery is No. zz.

Even if my delivery is scheduled for very late in the day, I can't remember it being any higher than about 40. Most of the deliveries are small packet or parcels for which the average amount charged can't be any higher than about £5. So, to do these deliveries, they're supplying a van, running it for (estimated) 150 miles, paying the driver a day's wages - all for revenue of less than £200 (because they've also got distribution costs as well as delivery costs).

How the hell do they make any money?

[polygonum]

No it doesn't. Bits of it work OK.

Search for "lightwaverf" - you get 18 items. None of which is a plug-in socket.

Search for "lightwave rf" you get a front page for the ligthwaverf products. Which does allow you to find the plug-in sockets.

Search for "light wave rf" you get four items from the range.

Search for "lightwaverf plug-in socket" you get pages of standard sockets.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Drivers are likely supplying their own vans and are self-employed exclusive sub-contractors, with all the bullshit that entails. It's not an easy earner, I can assure you.