How Much to Deliver it?!?! (homebase.co.uk)

Member Name: Lucille

Product:	homebase.co.uk
Date:	05/06/01 (1897 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent site, Easy to use, Lots of great ideas

Disadvantages: Some of the delivery charges are ridiculous

My husband enjoys DIY, so since we have owned a house together, we have got to know our local Homebase stores very well. Most of the time we go directly to the store when we want to buy something, but twice recently we have had cause to use Homebase’s website.

The first time was when we wanted to buy a new lawnmower. The two stores local to us don’t have a large range of lawnmowers, so we looked at the website to see all the different ones Homebase stock. The website itself is very impressive. It says that it carries 14,000 products. I don’t know if that is Homebases full range, but it must be pretty close. It is easy to navigate around the site, with the products grouped together in the way they would be in the store. Once you have found the item you want there is a picture and a lot of information about it, probably more than if you went into the store and looked for the item.

One of the best things about the site is the projects and ideas sections. In the projects section there are over 40 downloadedable files about DIY projects you maybe be attempting. These include everything from painting walls and ceilings to glazing windows. The files are full of tips and hints, for example telling you what tools you need before you start a job. In the ideas sections there are pictures of rooms and gardens showing how they could be decorated. There are then links to the relevant places in the website so you can buy the things you have been looking at.

The site has a store locator, which is handy when you move to a new area. There is also a calculator section so you can work out area, length, volume and weight. These calculators work in both imperial and metric, and will convert between the two, so everyone should be happy!

So we went to the site, and found the lawnmower we wanted to buy. The delivery cost was £10, which didn’t seem too bad. I asked for delivery to be to my parents-in-law’s home, as we were go
ing on holiday. The next day I received a phone call from Homebase customer services. The person I spoke to explained that the lawnmower was out of production, and they had sold the ones they had. He apologised and went through the other mowers Homebase stocked. Unfortunately they didn’t have another one that suited our needs, and I cancelled our order. We later found out that Homebase had also phone my in-laws to let them know the order wasn’t coming. I was impressed with this service.

So this weekend when my husband wanted to buy a new ladder I suggested he used Homebase.co.uk. He wanted a 5-metre ladder, so he could clean out the gutters on our house. We don’t have a big car or a van, so going to a Homebase store and buying a ladder of this size was out of the question. He decided to order the ladder, as the £10 delivery charge would be worth it.

He found the ladder he wanted for £49.99 and started to order it. When it came to the checkout section he was amazed to see the delivery charge. The ladder was classed as a bulky item and because of this they wanted £45 to deliver it! Almost double the price. And this was just for the standard delivery service. If he had wanted it the next day they would have charged £65! I do realise that a ladder is a bigger item than a lawnmower, but £45 seems excessive to me. It’s also annoying when compare to another, (smaller) site I have used recently. I have ordered my daughter a wooden playhouse for the garden. Bigger than a ladder, and certainly heavier. Delivery charge for that, free. So if the smaller companies are doing it, why can’t Homebase?

Homebase.co.uk is an excellent site. It’s easy to use and has lots of great ideas and hints for the keen DIYer. Just be careful if you do order something from them. You may end up paying more than you bargained for.

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