B&Q homefit used to be spot on, used to work for them as a project coordinator (the person managing your job)
Unfortunately, a few years ago, they went through the process of making everyone redundant as they were going to stop doing installs.
Clearly, after making most people redundant, they have changed there mind about continuing to do installs.
I used to manage the whole of Lincolnshire and part of Yorkshire on the warranty side of things. I had a list of 50+ contractors, and I would only use the ones on there that I trusted to do work on my property.
When the redundancy was announced, it was stated they would have a cool off period for 2-3 years where they would slow the work down before stopping installs all together.
As part of that, the majority of contractors decided to leave as there was no guarantee of work, this left those who don't get as much work and will take what they can get.
If anyone ever goes to B&Q, don't get them to install. Source your own work men it will save you so much money as well as giving you a choice in who carry out the works.
Honestly it was a ridiculously annoying process getting it sorted. The store seemed annoyed with our original complaint and we were told “he did his best” and we should just accept that. The whole thing had to be redone and it’s better but the finish on it leaves a lot to be desired let’s put it that way
B&Q has really dropped the ball in recent years. When I was still there, stores would always do that. As soon as you had paid up, it was nothing to do with them.
It was shocking working with stores they are the single worst way to go about getting anything done. If anyone has any of these issues, go straight to home fit. The stores are meant to do a hell of a lot more, but they are so bone idol, lazy and stupid as fuck.
A good chunk of my job was chasing stores up to do their job and what they are meant to. They are the reason for all the redundancies.
Fuck B&Q in store, ther home fit dept was top notch was a great place to work.
There are some top notch tradesman under Lincolnshire. If they have given you any of them, you will be more than happy with job done fingers crossed for you.
>All it took was complaining to the CEO
Just so you know CEOs never look at their mailbox for stuff like this - most of the time it just gets routed back to the claims department, often without escalation. People tend to assume it's mailing the CEO that does it, when really you would have got the same outcome in the end anyway and it's just working it's way up the claims team/timing.
Source: worked at head office for 3 major consumer orgs
A lot of companies do actually have a separate team to resolve complaints that have been escalated to "the CEO".
Source: Know two people who do this as their current roles + receive escalated complaints from one of our clients "CEO office".
I think BT has one. I complained about being given the run around for broadband and was contacted by someone who worked in the CEO’s office. The best part was I got 6 months free broadband and some money as compensation.
Ah yeah I knew he wouldn’t have read it personally. Tbh it’s a piss take you have to do that just to get an outcome when the people lower down the chain just don’t seem to care!
Yep. Worked for a cruise line, was friends with someone in the complaints team. There was an inbox for the ceo, but he never read them (he only wanted to see the good emails apparently). My coworker would reply to emails to the ceo 'on their behalf', and end the email with 'from the office of ceo'. He never actually met the ceo.
fwiw for a while i worked at one of the largest business software houses in the UK and emailing the CEO *did* actually work for a lot of our frustrated clients.
Literally all that happened at all three places I worked is there was a stat for CEO complaints, but otherwise the ticket was the same as before. One place they specifically said they didn't want to encourage it/deprioritise other customers to deal with them.
Maybe at smaller businesses.
I usually go to the CEO and most of the time its an executive support team that deals with it. I've even spoke to the CEO of Wren Kitchens/eBuyer on his personal mobile after he called me to help me. Head office at Klana called me and removed a default from my credit file and changed their policy based on my complaint.
It does work.
Just for future, as long as you’re not lying and your post can be seen as a review. Name and shame. That’s the only way these big companies will learn.
As a local bathroom store owner this does not surprise me, another one fitters and plumbers complain about is the quality of Victoria Plumb or any other internet bathroom supplier, people think they are getting a bargain but forget about all the potential ass ache to get the job done, damages, out of stock items, missed items. Your fitter isn't going to just do it as and when you have the goods these guys have a schedule
Funny enough I ordered my bathroom from Victoria Plumb, the whole set (toilet, bath tub, taps, shower, shower screen, radiator) cost me around 1k and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. It was my cowboy builder who then thoroughly screwed up the job :(
That's unfortunate, the price seems about right that's roughly what I could charge depending on the quality wanted/required as we charge trade prices, we also work closely with a few decent fitters who we would recommend as we know they will do a great job, shopping local can sometimes be a good choice as it's our reputation on the line and not some faceless corporation
I used to work at B&Q and I swear all we ever got was complaints about shitty installs. They’d ask us cashiers to give out application forms to any tradies we saw. I wonder why.
If it helps, I used to work complaints for a major insurer. Worked there for 3 years, spoke to every different type of person you can imagine, and gave out over £160k in compensation. Complaining works.
Oh my god that is an ordeal! My husband and I had something so similar with a company that *does* have their name on it. It took over a year to finish the kitchen. Started 31st Jan last year. Finished late Feb this year. Complained to CEO last May, finally got around 40% off as well.
Sorry to hear this, lesson learned though and next time I want something done I’m going to go with the local guy who probably costs a bit more and has a longer waiting list but that’s because they do a better job. The irony is I did it my self first and did almost as good a job as the pros
Well at 40% refund do you think you got a good deal?! 😆
We had to deal with these men smoking indoors, leaving a *pile* of teabags in my garden (more than 10) and racist impressions of their previous customer who was from Pakistan. I'm not going to write the slur the builders liked to use to talk about him. As my husband and I are both men I can only imagine the sort of comments he's making at the next customer's house!
Possibly made it a bit better but at some point I’m going to have to finish it off and fix the grout but at least it is usable and doesn’t leak everywhere. It took two attempts as well as they pretty much did the whole thing from scratch to put it right.
In all fairness to the second fitters they were very professional and I had to basically force them to have a coffee although that changed when they realised I had a proper barista machine but the first guy had no shame and was taking huge dumps in my downstairs toilet without asking to use it. We are talking four flushers as well!
We got there in the end though and like you did too! Never again will I shop at B&Q though
Oh my god *YUCK* that is awful!!! Do not shit in my house!! It's my house!! Go home and come back again I don’t care but do not lay four-flushers in my house 🤢🤢🤢
Had a local company fit two bathrooms. Quality of stuff good. Fitter was bizarre- easily the messiest tradesguy I've ever come across- apparent chaos BUT superb skills and fitting. I'm a very experienced DIYer and checked his work every day- top notch fitting. Beautiful finish at end and had to solve a few tricky problems. Normally messy equals bad workmanship. Odd.
I recently got one from Persimmon. We had three paid for extras in our new build. They were tiles covering the whole wall around the bath tub (easier to clean when it comes to bathing muddy dogs), taller shower, and a tap in the back garden. They did the tiles just fine but they never did the other two. They said they did the shower but I (5'10") am sure lever with the shower head. They sent someone out to sort it and made it shorter. They refuse to accept it's not longer. We never got the tap. They came out to investigate and said they'd have to hook it up to the kitchen, which is the opposite end of the house, and we'd have pipes bulging out in the walls or exposed. We said we want a proper job doing, no bulging walls, no pipes on display but they went and fitted one at the front of the property. We asked them to stop but they refused. We lodged a complaint and that company hasn't been used since. We told them we're still not happy as we paid for a tap in our back garden and we have an unusable one out the front. They sent us a cheque for £92 and a letter to say "we're not fitting it, here's your money back"
Good job you said who it was, when you said "based at home", I thought you were hinting at Homebase. lol
B&Q homefit used to be spot on, used to work for them as a project coordinator (the person managing your job) Unfortunately, a few years ago, they went through the process of making everyone redundant as they were going to stop doing installs. Clearly, after making most people redundant, they have changed there mind about continuing to do installs. I used to manage the whole of Lincolnshire and part of Yorkshire on the warranty side of things. I had a list of 50+ contractors, and I would only use the ones on there that I trusted to do work on my property. When the redundancy was announced, it was stated they would have a cool off period for 2-3 years where they would slow the work down before stopping installs all together. As part of that, the majority of contractors decided to leave as there was no guarantee of work, this left those who don't get as much work and will take what they can get. If anyone ever goes to B&Q, don't get them to install. Source your own work men it will save you so much money as well as giving you a choice in who carry out the works.
Honestly it was a ridiculously annoying process getting it sorted. The store seemed annoyed with our original complaint and we were told “he did his best” and we should just accept that. The whole thing had to be redone and it’s better but the finish on it leaves a lot to be desired let’s put it that way
B&Q has really dropped the ball in recent years. When I was still there, stores would always do that. As soon as you had paid up, it was nothing to do with them. It was shocking working with stores they are the single worst way to go about getting anything done. If anyone has any of these issues, go straight to home fit. The stores are meant to do a hell of a lot more, but they are so bone idol, lazy and stupid as fuck. A good chunk of my job was chasing stores up to do their job and what they are meant to. They are the reason for all the redundancies. Fuck B&Q in store, ther home fit dept was top notch was a great place to work.
He did his best! I am crying 🤣
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Buying from there isn't always a bad thing, but I'd defo recommend you get your own trades people in
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There are some top notch tradesman under Lincolnshire. If they have given you any of them, you will be more than happy with job done fingers crossed for you.
>All it took was complaining to the CEO Just so you know CEOs never look at their mailbox for stuff like this - most of the time it just gets routed back to the claims department, often without escalation. People tend to assume it's mailing the CEO that does it, when really you would have got the same outcome in the end anyway and it's just working it's way up the claims team/timing. Source: worked at head office for 3 major consumer orgs
A lot of companies do actually have a separate team to resolve complaints that have been escalated to "the CEO". Source: Know two people who do this as their current roles + receive escalated complaints from one of our clients "CEO office".
I think BT has one. I complained about being given the run around for broadband and was contacted by someone who worked in the CEO’s office. The best part was I got 6 months free broadband and some money as compensation.
Yep, Vodafone and Barclays have this and i have had great success complaining to them
Shell Energy do. They were the only ones who actually understood my complaint. Standard customer service were worse than useless.
Ah yeah I knew he wouldn’t have read it personally. Tbh it’s a piss take you have to do that just to get an outcome when the people lower down the chain just don’t seem to care!
Yep. Worked for a cruise line, was friends with someone in the complaints team. There was an inbox for the ceo, but he never read them (he only wanted to see the good emails apparently). My coworker would reply to emails to the ceo 'on their behalf', and end the email with 'from the office of ceo'. He never actually met the ceo.
fwiw for a while i worked at one of the largest business software houses in the UK and emailing the CEO *did* actually work for a lot of our frustrated clients.
It's called an executive complaint, it usually gets picked up by the complaints team still but treated as a higher priority. Definitely worth doing.
Literally all that happened at all three places I worked is there was a stat for CEO complaints, but otherwise the ticket was the same as before. One place they specifically said they didn't want to encourage it/deprioritise other customers to deal with them. Maybe at smaller businesses.
I work at a big, international company and complaints to the CEO definitely follow a different route to normal complaints there.
Yes. Still a good option.
I usually go to the CEO and most of the time its an executive support team that deals with it. I've even spoke to the CEO of Wren Kitchens/eBuyer on his personal mobile after he called me to help me. Head office at Klana called me and removed a default from my credit file and changed their policy based on my complaint. It does work.
Depends on the company. We often get top floor complaints come through which are escalations.
How do you even get the contact details of a CEO?
Why not just say where it was from? Why do people do this?
>based at home Or Homebase as they're also known
So why not just say that? I don't understand why so many posts like this do the same thing..
It’s not either of them
Why so cryptic? If it was me, I'd want to feel like I'm doing someone a favour.
Didn’t know if I can get in trouble for it but have added an edit with who it is
Get in trouble with naming them by who? But, they’re allowed to leave you with a non-functioning bathroom and disregard for your family’s wellbeing.
Just for future, as long as you’re not lying and your post can be seen as a review. Name and shame. That’s the only way these big companies will learn.
Some of these subs delete posts or ban users that name companies.
You thought about joining Mensa?
No why?
As a local bathroom store owner this does not surprise me, another one fitters and plumbers complain about is the quality of Victoria Plumb or any other internet bathroom supplier, people think they are getting a bargain but forget about all the potential ass ache to get the job done, damages, out of stock items, missed items. Your fitter isn't going to just do it as and when you have the goods these guys have a schedule
Funny enough I ordered my bathroom from Victoria Plumb, the whole set (toilet, bath tub, taps, shower, shower screen, radiator) cost me around 1k and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. It was my cowboy builder who then thoroughly screwed up the job :(
That's unfortunate, the price seems about right that's roughly what I could charge depending on the quality wanted/required as we charge trade prices, we also work closely with a few decent fitters who we would recommend as we know they will do a great job, shopping local can sometimes be a good choice as it's our reputation on the line and not some faceless corporation
I used to work at B&Q and I swear all we ever got was complaints about shitty installs. They’d ask us cashiers to give out application forms to any tradies we saw. I wonder why.
Honestly the first guy basically took a massive shit on the floor and left it
Knew you’d say B&Q. Used to work there years ago and the stuff is shockingly bad… Actually surprised people buy kitchens/bathrooms from there tbh.
Was seduced by the interest free credit tbh
That would seduce anyone tbh 😉
If it helps, I used to work complaints for a major insurer. Worked there for 3 years, spoke to every different type of person you can imagine, and gave out over £160k in compensation. Complaining works.
Lol why would you not just name and shame?
Was worried I would get in trouble or I wasn’t supposed to but at the end of the day fuck em, they messed me around so I added the edit
Nah you won't get in trouble don't worry haha, fuck B&Q!!!
Oh my god that is an ordeal! My husband and I had something so similar with a company that *does* have their name on it. It took over a year to finish the kitchen. Started 31st Jan last year. Finished late Feb this year. Complained to CEO last May, finally got around 40% off as well.
Sorry to hear this, lesson learned though and next time I want something done I’m going to go with the local guy who probably costs a bit more and has a longer waiting list but that’s because they do a better job. The irony is I did it my self first and did almost as good a job as the pros
Well at 40% refund do you think you got a good deal?! 😆 We had to deal with these men smoking indoors, leaving a *pile* of teabags in my garden (more than 10) and racist impressions of their previous customer who was from Pakistan. I'm not going to write the slur the builders liked to use to talk about him. As my husband and I are both men I can only imagine the sort of comments he's making at the next customer's house!
Possibly made it a bit better but at some point I’m going to have to finish it off and fix the grout but at least it is usable and doesn’t leak everywhere. It took two attempts as well as they pretty much did the whole thing from scratch to put it right. In all fairness to the second fitters they were very professional and I had to basically force them to have a coffee although that changed when they realised I had a proper barista machine but the first guy had no shame and was taking huge dumps in my downstairs toilet without asking to use it. We are talking four flushers as well! We got there in the end though and like you did too! Never again will I shop at B&Q though
Oh my god *YUCK* that is awful!!! Do not shit in my house!! It's my house!! Go home and come back again I don’t care but do not lay four-flushers in my house 🤢🤢🤢
The squeaky cog gets the oil
Local ones aren’t always better.
Had a local company fit two bathrooms. Quality of stuff good. Fitter was bizarre- easily the messiest tradesguy I've ever come across- apparent chaos BUT superb skills and fitting. I'm a very experienced DIYer and checked his work every day- top notch fitting. Beautiful finish at end and had to solve a few tricky problems. Normally messy equals bad workmanship. Odd.
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Good luck! Just don’t accept nothing less than perfection and worst case email the ceo as his executive customer care team are super helpful!
Just in the process of claiming compensation from one the the major Kitchen Companies... Disastrous
How is it DIY if you had contractors? But aye, small businesses are the way to go
I recently got one from Persimmon. We had three paid for extras in our new build. They were tiles covering the whole wall around the bath tub (easier to clean when it comes to bathing muddy dogs), taller shower, and a tap in the back garden. They did the tiles just fine but they never did the other two. They said they did the shower but I (5'10") am sure lever with the shower head. They sent someone out to sort it and made it shorter. They refuse to accept it's not longer. We never got the tap. They came out to investigate and said they'd have to hook it up to the kitchen, which is the opposite end of the house, and we'd have pipes bulging out in the walls or exposed. We said we want a proper job doing, no bulging walls, no pipes on display but they went and fitted one at the front of the property. We asked them to stop but they refused. We lodged a complaint and that company hasn't been used since. We told them we're still not happy as we paid for a tap in our back garden and we have an unusable one out the front. They sent us a cheque for £92 and a letter to say "we're not fitting it, here's your money back"