1. 02/08/2001; Cheque paid to Norman Paris for bathroom. Date for fitting confirmed for three weeks time

2. 06/08/2001; Cheque is paid into Southend on Sea (SoS)

3. Even though we are a customer of the Chelmsford Branch we were the fielded out to Basildon (for the Kitchen) and Southend (for the Bathroom) as the Chelmsford branch was closing until Nov at which time there would be a Warehouse. Both of these stores are miles from our homes and had no co-ordination between the two. Consequently it was very difficult indeed to try and resolve any queries with respect to the customer we were giving B&Q.

4. 14/08/2001; Contacted SoS nearly two weeks after paying the cheque to the B&Q Sales Representative as we had not received:
a confirmation of the order
an invoice
a receipt for the cash payment
a call from the fitter (which was promised to be within a week of placing the order)

At this time the cash had been taken from my bank account

5. We were told by SoS B&Q that a fitter would get back to us and the store would call us back with our invoice amount and would post the correct documents to us.
6. 16/08/2001; The store had still not called us back. At this point I was concerned whether or not my money had gone missing or even stolen. We then called customer services who then promised to resolve our concerns.
7. 18/08/200; We had still not heard from anyone. B&Q had had our money for over two weeks with no confirmation of our order, no fitter visit etc. The bathroom was due to be fitted within a week. We then called Wendy at Customer Services who said she would get back to us. A phone call was later made to our phone but no message was left.

8. 20/08/2001; We then chased up the phone call made on the 18th. Zess Carter said he would get our file. Zess could not then find our file. At this point our concern was deepening. We expressed this and were then given assurances that Customer Services (CS) would continue to monitor the problem for us.

We finally, had some progress when the fitter called to make an appointment. When asked what our fitting date was he replied that it would be mid October! Not a three-week date that we had been informed of or had been allowed to make a decision based upon.

We again called CS and spoke to a gentleman who said he would help us and shortly after spoke to John Allen (Deputy Manager) who had arranged for an earlier fitting date, the 17/09/2001 which is this coming Monday. John's excuses for the poor service amounted to the fact that a member of his staff was having a baby, and was only working on a part-time basis. He was not sure when she was working and said that our service has suffered because she could not give the job what was required whilst only working part-time and being a Mother. I hope that you are as incredulous as we were at this point upon discovering that B&Q not only offered poor customer service but also had sex discrimination taking place within its four walls. This is certainly not tolerated in my organisation, nor is poor customer service. Customer Service is seen to be our key competitive advantage especially given today's competitive environment.

Mr Allen then also advised us that we had no problems with the kitchen with Basildon because Basildon was the better store. Why was our bathroom not dealt with there then as we had already had our kitchen being done by that store!

9. 21/08/2001; Our receipt finally arrived three weeks after paying

10. 21/08/2001; Knowing we were due to pay the balance on the Kitchen we phoned Basildon to pay to enquire as to the final amount as some amendments had been made since the fitter visited yet we had no corrected invoice or knowledge of what we were to pay. No one contacted us at any point to tell us it was time to pay and organise delivery and so again it was up to the customer to chase this up. Upon contacting Basildon again no one could find our file. We was told we would be called back. With knowledge of the service level we also fortunately called CS and spoke to Wendy. CS said they would ensure we got a phone call that day. No phone call came.

11. 23/08/2001; Now getting quite distraught and fed up with the entire saga unfolding we again contacted CS and asked for a customer services manager to call us back. We were obviously rather distressed at this point. Sue White then spoke to us who was rather surprised as she had insisted to Basildon that they call us back and she had only discovered when we called her that they had not so she had obviously not followed up our issue. Basildon finally called with our invoice amount which we promptly paid as a good customer does.

12. 28/08/2001; The bathroom fitter finally arrived. We changed the suite upon his recommendation.

13. 03/09/2001; The kitchen fitter arrived, who has been excellent and provided us with good quality work.

14. 10/09/2001; Called SoS as we had not received an updated invoice for the new bathroom costing. Again Jackie could not find the file and blamed it on her being very busy in the store and as a result did not have the time to help us. Jackie also said that she had no knowledge that the bathroom order had changed even though it was due to be delivered the following Monday the 17th. I asked her to call me back as I was rather concerned and needed to ensure the delivery would be correct as the fitters were starting work that day on the Bathroom. Received no phone call back.

On the same day the Kitchen fitter fitted the new Dishwasher switched in on and then went out to his van. At this point we heard an unusual noise from the Kitchen and went down to investigate. Upon going downstairs we found inches of water on the kitchen floor which then took hours to mop up. This event caused even more distress, as we also had to remove the flooring as water had got underneath. The fitter said he would contact his manager to arrange for an engineer to visit. We also faxed the details of this to Basildon.

15. 11/09/2001; Called Jackie again at SoS to try and pay for and clarify the order for the Bathroom. She said she would call back in five minutes. Hours later I was still waiting for a phone all and concerned about missing our delivery window I had to arrange for delivery. Upon calling the delivery centre the wrong suite was on order but went ahead even though the fitter recommended a different bath size, as I was no getting desperate. No customer should have even got to this point.

Once again I had to ask the SoS store manager John Allen to call me back. He said he totally understood why we were upset and managed to sort out the bathroom suite mix up. At this point I also paid the outstanding amount on the bathroom promptly, again as good customers do.

16. 13/08/2001 - Marie then contacted us to say an engineer would come out to us on the 14/09/01 but that we would need to be in all day. Aside from spending hours of our own personal time calling, chasing, faxing, complaining, chasing and complaining again we now were requested to be at home all day. We requested a time given the light of our circumstances at which point we were basically told it was tough. This was Linda at CS Head Office. This is not something I would even dare do with a customer at the end of their tether.

Unfortunately, this caused us to lose our patience and our, which is understandable and was probably long over due. As a result we felt we had no other option and threatened to cancel our order for the bathroom. Linda said that she would do her best to resolve our kitchen problem but would happily cancel the bathroom for us. Happy! B&Q are clearly happy to upset, distress and lose customers. At this point we sent a fax to head office at which point the closing lines were "After spending £7000 with B&Q"; Why should I continue with the bathroom on order (due to be fitted) for Monday when this is the service that I am given. I am ready to cancel the order unless I hear otherwise";.

I hope you are ready for this next section because to me it beggars belief that a company could even contemplate such a thing.

That afternoon, 20 minutes after calling Customer Services, Anne contacts myself (Kerry Dickens) AT WORK to "smugly" (and I say smugly because I could clearly hear it in her voice) inform me that our bathroom had been cancelled!!!!!!

I denied this and said that Customer Services were trying to resolve our query at which point we were told it was too late. My partner had threatened to this and did not at any point confirm in writing that we were happy to cancel our order 1 working day before it was due to be fitted. We at least expected B&Q to try and retain our business and as you web-site states "handle our complaint fairly and confidentially". I do not feel that I could have a confidential conversation with any member of your B&Q team.

Our money was refunded within minutes indicating how eager your employees were to get rid of us and their "problem" and B&Q's business and profit. At this point I was stunned, upset, left with no solution to our problem and a ruined kitchen floor.

17. 14/09/2001- I contacted Customer Services at Head Office and asked to speak to a customer services manager once again to try and resolve. As far as we were concerned we still had a contract with B&Q to fit the bathroom. B&Q said they would get a manger to call me back. Linda was, to say the least, very rude. Whilst trying to explain our difficulties and distress Linda kept interrupting me and talking over me. When I tried to disagree she virtually called me a liar and asked me to keep quiet while she was talking! Surely the function of a customer complaint service is to listen and be concerned and to try and resolve customer issues. Concern or sympathy was not in Linda tone. Defiance was and a certainty that it was too late and no other help would be forthcoming. Linda claims she could clearly remember my partner cancelling the order over the phone. She has no record of this but seems to have a photographic memory when it comes to phone calls, of which I am sure she must take tens of calls per day. I asked that surely for something such as this she would need that in writing. No suitable answer was given other than "well it is going to have to be you word against mine" and "prove it". Her standard of customer service and complaint handling skills were so poor I had to ask if she was the Manager of customer services as I had requested to speak to the manager given that the case was now so grave and that I was in such distress. She replied "no I am a representative". I can only assume upon placing the first phone all Linda overheard and said she would deal with it which given the circumstances of her cancelling our bathroom without our written or full verbal request, she was simply covering her back. These are the assumption, given the state of B&Q's service, that I am now forced to make.

I hope you are as shocked as I am with this case and can probably understand why we have raised this to your attention. Not only have you lost our business, our future business but also that of colleagues and friends who were considering using B&Q for large household renovations such as this. B&Q's future rests with its customers. No company is bigger than their individual customer yet is seems that your employees behave this way, shockingly.

I am still in a state of disgust and reeling from my earlier conversation with Linda even though I have taken nearly three hours of my own time to write this letter which has also been sent to the BBC's Watchdog program.

As far as I am concerned B&Q still has a contract with us that they are legally bound to provide. Therefore, I look forward to hearing from you soon with respect to resolving our complaint, meeting your contract, compensating us for damage to our floor and the distress that your staff and organisation has caused us.

Regards

Tyrone Reid & Kerry Dickens

update
After B&Q canceling our order a bathroom suite was delivered to our house on Monday 17th while we were working. A corner suite, and incorect.(They could not even CANCEL the order correctly!!!)
We have requested the suite to be collected every day since Monday and the suite still remains in our rear garden exposed to all the elements.