B&Q. Underwhelming. (B&Q)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	B&Q
Date:	27/08/09 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The out-of-town stores - when you find them - often have big customer car parks.

Disadvantages: Greatest disadvantage - of many - is difficulty in getting advice / customer service from B&Q staff.

I should say at the outset that I am no fan of the DIY chain B&Q, having not set foot in one of their branches since February 2008 when I was verbally reprimanded by one of their members of staff in the Cribbs Causeway, Britsol store, for the offence of letting my young daughter run up and down in the paint aisle while I tried to find the exact shade of magnolia emulsion I was after. This charmer hollered down at me from the top of the cherry-picker load-lifter he was standing on two aisles away - then got exceedingly het up and, I felt, aggressive when I got on my high horse and said I wanted to complain to the store manager about what I felt to be his unfortunate attitude. (Incidentally the store manager didn't seem fussed in the slightest to hear that his staff had been upsetting the customers, actually.)

That's the downside - one of many, in fact - of shopping at B&Q. Over the ten pre-2008 years I spent shopping on and off there for DIY odds and sods I never once received anything other than disinterested, grudging and unenthusiastic service from the staff - many of whom seem personally affronted when customers have the temerity to politely ask them for directions around the enormous B&Q warehouse-style stores.

That's assuming you can find a member of staff to ask for directions in the first place - and forget about waiting at the customer service desk at the front of the store, because in my experience there is never, never, anybody on duty there. So the B&Q warehouse stores are poorly signposted, the staff in my experience are lack-lustre in their attitude to customer service at best and though they do sell a good range of, I don't know, tile grout and skirting board and paint and screws and picture hooks and what have you, their stuff is on the whole not the cheapest available on the market. For that you want to go to 'Focus' DIY shop, which sells the same range of stuff at markedly lower prices.

I would also warn potential buyers off purchasing bathroom fixtures and fittings from this shop. While doing some renovations in 2006 we bought two basic white budget bathroom suites from them - and those these look all right they're not great quality: the knobs fall off the taps, the bath and sink plungers don't work properly, the shower cabinet leaks, the toilets don't flush properly (one doesn't flush at all unless you hold the button down, and the other sprays water up onto the seat) and to crown it all they got the order wrong in the first place, missed out a load of components we'd paid for then said that range had gone out of stock so we've ended up with all this mix-and-match bathroom stuff instead of the fittings we'd originally selected.

B&Q. It's thoroughly underwhelming.

Summary: Find a nice, helpful, local ironmonger and buy your DIY stuff from them instead