There goes the neighbourhood.....

[Alan]

In message , Anne Jackson wrote

Get a cat and it will run up a pair of curtains and charge you nothing.

[Pete Verdon]

The last time I was in such an establishment (looking for thick enough thread to repair my sailing clobber, and a needle big enough to take said thread) the assistant was extremely attentive. Admittedly, that was mostly because she thought I needed all the help I could get.

FWIW, my very first school report said that "Peter is particularly nimble with a needle" :-)

Pete

[The Medway Handyman]

These days that would be cause for great concern.

[Andy Hall]

The question is whether they are making acceptable sales at those prices. If they are then it's not dear either.

[Derek Geldard]

At this point in time. 8-|

Amongst the examples given are fixing a BBQ or Patio heater, or replacing a light switch. At B&Q prices it would be cheaper to get wised up.

They also seem to have a strange business model whereby the customer has to supply the consumable / free issue items, such as touch up paint, cable ties, fixers and fasteners etc. as well as the "piece de resistance" they want and just buys a tranch of handyman time by the hour and pays for it all at the till.

I can forsee that when a dear old lady chooses a nice new coat rack and it so turns out the fastenings she has obtained are unsuitable for the walls she has an altercation may arise followed by a sense of dissatisfaction at the what some might consider a dis-proportionate increase in labour cost because of the additional (wasted) labour time.

DG

[Andy Hall]

Certainly, but some people don't want to do that.

This is to delineate the transactions into supply of goods and supply of services.

- Transaction (1) is the purchase of the goods in the store - standard Ts & Cs

- Transaction (2) is booking and paying for handyman services

They may even be separate companies. Kingfisher has a whole raft of companies connected with B&Q and with Screwfix in addition to the trading front names.

This is the same game that kitchen and bathroom companies do whereby the punter pays the fitters.

[The Medway Handyman]

I wonder what happens if the job over runs?

Allowing the client to buy the fixings is asking for trouble IMO

[Andy Hall]

This depends on your perspective.

If you have one business selling the fixings and another one selling the labour then you would want to keep these issues separate.

Of course, from the customer's perspective, this is not very satisfactory and is why there is a market for people who are willing to own the whole issue incuding supply, delivery and installation.

Whoever put this scheme together at Kingfisher is probably an accountant or a lawyer.

[The Medway Handyman]

Or even worse - a business studies graduate........

[Andy Hall]

The worst kind.

It may simply be to avoid the store staff having to deal with customers complaining about service. I think B&Q will be surprised. They are charging good money - fine - but attached to that is a customer expectation.

[The Medway Handyman]

I look forward to them falling on their arse over this. Perhaps they should employ me at a huge salary to run it for them :-)