Screwfix customer support seems to be sliding...

Thought this might be worth sharing as a heads up...

Was chatting to a friend the other day and he told me a rather worrying story about his recent dealings with screwfix. He ordered some bits that he needed, but did not have enough to get to the free delivery limit. Hence thought he would add a pair of trainers to the order to make up the value since he was probably going to need some new ones shortly....

Anyway, order was delivered, and although he did not notice until the following day; no trainers. Box was unopened and undamaged on receipt. So he phoned sf to tell them about the the missing item. They said, ok we will look into it and phone you back. Three days later, no call, so he phoned again. They then said we need you to notify us of any missing items in writing, and then we can look into it. So he does by letter and email. Waits a few more days and rings them again. "Oh yes we looked into it, and they were sent out to you". So he points out the they were not in the box. They insist that he has definitely got them since they were sent - they claimed they weigh all the boxes before shipping to make sure they are the right total weight. So again he pointed out that they did not arrive! They were offhand and basically said not their problem. Several calls more, each time they simply said "you have received them". So he spoke to the courier to see if they check the box weights, and they said no, they just take SF's word for it. So he found out the name and contact details for a slightly higher up bod in SF and made several attempts to call him. Got fobbed off a few times, before eventually getting through. He basically insisted again that he had received them and refused to entertain any further action. My mate pointed out that either he wanted the goods or a refund since otherwise they were in effect stealing from him - not to mention accusing him of being dishonest. (The bloke should have known better - my mate is not one to *ever* give up!)

So next he speaks to trading standards, and they point him at a local council department. They take the details and allow him to make a formal complaint, which they say they will investigate.

A few days later he finally gets a call from SF bod with a very snotty attitude, to say words to the effect "since we are such a great company we will offer you a refund for the trainers, even though your have actually received them. However take note that, in future we will scrutinise any order you make very very carefully!". My mate points out that they are accusing him of stealing when in fact it is they who have done the stealing! He also told them that he can save them the bother of scrutinising his future orders, since there was never going to be another one!

TS gets another customer!

I have not ordered much from them lately, but have always had a quick resolution of problems in the past. Have they really got that bad that quickly?

Reply to
John Rumm
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I have often wondered if there is a school for Customer Service Management, where basically they are taught to sit deleting any complaints, fingers in their ears going la-la-la-la, and hold up a chart boasting of the great reduction in their Cost Centre ignoring the exodus of customer lifetime value out the door and the future marketing costs. Indeed perhaps marketing do it because they can then get more money for & commission off the next campaign. Company cannibals.

So they then run a quick campaign to get new customers in, forgetting these are often the customers they did not want and instead wanted competitors to have - the low lifetime value customers who see catalogs as instant landfill.

Screwfix seem to forget they only exist because they are #1 cheaper than B&Q and #2 deliver.

Toolstation meanwhile deliver for free above =A310 and have a reasonable "trade-basic-but-almost-incomplete" range in useful quantities. Toolstation could eliminate Screwfix over night if they sat down and planned out a range of jobs that trades & DIY do, then ensure they stock everything for those specific tasks.

I recall telling that to one accountant who, yes, you guessed it worked for Focus. He did not understand.

Reply to
js.b1

Thanks John - I will purposely attempt to avoid SF now. And TS have a nice new shiney branch in T Wells 20m away from SF, so that's easy enough...

Ah - the power of the Internet...

Reply to
Tim Watts

They may be the correct weight. That does not mean the trainers were in the box, they could have been on TOP.

Reply to
js.b1

SWMBO in November

door handle pack

paid

in stock but they cannot find them

so have ordered them for tomorrow

no good to us will take a different item

OK but will need to pay again and come back tomorrow to cancel the order for the first lot and be refunded then

Not happy but pays for different item

different item in stock but cannot find them either

Toys out of pram

Will refund second payment now but not the first

....followed by pram itself

Store manager sent for

Other customers leaving

Money back

Round the corner to Toolstation

Steam coming out of ears

Assistant there says we are getting a lot of trade from screwfix customers just lately

Regards

Reply to
TMC

Strangely, that was exactly the theory that my mate had - the shoes were sat on the box when weighed, and "liberated" shortly after!

Reply to
John Rumm

*All together*

"Down the pan, down the pan, down the pan..."

This seems to happen nearly every bloody time a decent company sells itself to another company. DABS were good until BT started the f*ck-up process too.

*sigh*
Reply to
Tim Watts

Oh, no, they weren't. I vowed never to shop there again - long before BT bought them.

Reply to
charles

Homebase couldn't sell us a dehumidifer the other week. They said there were only 14 in the UK and they wouldn't order one to store.

Reply to
mogga

Strangely, DABS (via the BT pensioner route) have been remarkably on the value recently, and have managed not to screw up too badly. I have bought a few things from them because they were cheaper than Amazon (who are normally one of the cheapest). Haven't had to try their customer service, though. And IIRC DABS were getting a bit flaky before BT stepped in.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

+1
Reply to
Bob Eager

I stopped using them when they started opening separate trade counters so they could reduce their prices for trade customers whilst screwing joe public. Found they weren't particularly competitive anymore.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

ditto

I think they finally got the message and I now no longer get their glossy junk mailings.

Reply to
The Other Mike

Not my experience - pre 2006 I personally found them pretty good.

Reply to
Tim Watts

I buy much more from TS now than SF. The only reason SF get any business from me is because they have a trade counter in town & TS don't. As soon as TS open one I'll go there instead.

SF are getting expensive and often don't have what I want. If you clog up your inventory with log cabins & s**te it's gonna get complicated.

The trouble these days is that accountants used to just keep the score, now they play the game.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Toolstation's catalogue can be a bit lame too:

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it's 19x19mm. Err, what size is the hole?

It's 33p and there's a trade counter around the corner so I can just buy some to find out, but if I were ordering one and some screws it would be kinda useful to know if they'd fit.

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to tell me what size sockets are included? I'm not going to order that speculatively, and there isn't even a Draper/Silverline/etc number to look it up.

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's a 12V battery. Fancy mentioning what size it is? (I assume it's an A23, but it doesn't say)

Rinse and repeat...

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

They have done for a long time. About 18 years ago I worked for a large company, which designed and built large, bespoke compressors and generators - multi-million pound contracts. One year they turned down a twenty-odd million pound order, because the costs would have fallen in one financial year and the profits in the next and that would have made the figures look bad and affected the share price!

In 1997, that site employed around 450 people, was the most profitable plant in the group, had full order books and customers waiting to place more orders. However, the group as a whole was short of work and being an American company, they couldn't be seen to close one of the American plants. The other two large European plants were French and Norwegian and their redundancy terms were too generous, so the UK plant was closed instead.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Or SEF - Someone Else's Feet

Reply to
grimly4

I always found them fairly good when DA was in charge and he popped up in person on uk.adverts.computer (iirc). My main gripe with them was the minimum order value needed to make postage to Ireland worthwhile.

Reply to
grimly4

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So it's 19x19mm. Err, what size is the hole?

Bought some and measured it. 4.5mm should anyone care.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

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