B&Q bathroom installation – day 26

The suppliers, PJH Group, leave a message on my mobile at 2:30 asking me to ring them to arrange delivery. I ring them back and they say I had a delivery on the 28th. I say I’m ringing about a delivery that is to be made. She says yes but you accepted a delivery on the 28th? Not sure why she’s telling me this but I say yes. She says there’s a bath end panel to be delivered. I say and some flooring and some edging. She says we don’t deliver that, that will be coming from the store. I say can you deliver the panel to the store? She says I’ll have to ring the store and ask them to ring them to arrange it and to give address details.

If that twat Riaz had ordered enough stuff in the first place, there wouldn’t be all this to-ing and fro-ing and deliveries all over the place.

I ring the installation centre to see if they can tie all the deliveries in together but give up after being on hold for 10 minutes. Suppose I’ll have to go to the store and buy the edging and flooring myself.

I ring back PJH and ask when they can deliver, they say Friday 8 December. I say have you got anything sooner? She says can do Monday up ’til 1:00. I say so Monday morning? She says up ’til 1:00. I say ok then.

My boss gets back from his meeting and I say I need Monday morning off to take a delivery. He says I can’t have any time off. Waa!

I ring the installation centre to see if they can arrange a special delivery so it comes first thing but they’re obviously still busy dealing with all the other complaints, as I’m on hold for ages again.

I have a brainwave and think I know, I’ll get it delivered to work, an end panel can’t be very heavy. So I call PJH and ask to change the delivery address. She asks for the postcode and asks why I want to change the address. I say because I can’t get the time off work, so want it delivered to my workplace. She says she needs to check something then comes back and says she’s checked with her supervisor and they can’t deliver to that address as it’s outside their delivery area. Waa!

She says it’s Parcel Force so what they’ll do is if I’m not in is see if a neighbour can sign, otherwise I can pick it up from their depot or ring them to arrange another delivery.

‘kin hell, why is it always one step forward and two backwards with this f*****g bathroom?

Grr.

At 4:40 Jackie from the installation centre rings and asks me how I got on the other night. I can’t think what she’s talking about (although when I put the phone down it dawns on me that she’s taking about when I was going to go to the store to pick up the sink parts, which they delivered to my neighbour anyway) so I tell her that it’s nearly all done but I need some flooring which I’m going to get from the store tonight and also PJH have rung to arrange delivery but I can’t get the time off work and they can’t deliver to my work.

Jackie says if I’m going to the store tonight I can ask them to authorise the delivery to there. I say I’m not going to my local store but to one that’s easier for me to get to on my way home from work. She says that’s fine, I can ask at the service desk for them to ring PJH and ask them to deliver to my local store. Hmm, I think, that’s too many people getting involved, it’s all going to go wrong. Jackie says she can ring the store for me and ask them to authorise PJH to deliver to them. I say that would be great, I can pick up the panel from the local store, that’s not a problem. She says she’ll phone me back.

Update
I go to the store after work and buy some edging and another pack of flooring. As I’m staggering across to the cab office (that flooring is heavy!), I snap the edging. Waa!

The taxi driver gets me to my house and I say can I have a receipt please? He hands me a card and I give it back to him and say can you sign it please, I need it properly receipted, I want to claim the money back. He says have you got a pen so I give him a pen and he receipts the card and gives it back to me.

I get in and realise I’ve bought the wrong colour edging. Waa! And I can’t even take it back because I snapped it. Waa! Sigh, back to the store tomorrow then and see if I can manage to get the right colour, although I did wonder when I bought it if it was right but it was the darkest one that was there, so maybe they’re out of stock? Bollocks.

7 comments

  • So is that a phone call about a conversation about a phone call for delivery, or was it a phone call about the delivery phone call? – I’m getting confused.

  • I don’t know. I’m even more confused.

  • Saw your blog while I was checking on a buddy of mine at
    http://sorelimbs.blogspot.com/. I built a house a few years ago here in the U.S. All contractors and suppliers are consistentily not consistent.

    Good luck!!!

  • Thanks Adam, I’m going to need it!

  • Cathy, don’t you have the equivalent of a Dept of Consumer Affairs you can contact? This is ridiculous. You need to start writing some letters and making phone calls. Also, is there an executive office of B&Q that you can write to? That sometimes gets results. I’d remind you that you need to document, document, document — but you’ve already done so with this blog!

    I know it costs money to consult with a lawyer, but I’d also be thinking of that route soon if you don’t get results.

    Man, this saga reminds me of why I always get the dry heaves whenever I consider any major work on my house and why I’ll never build my own.

  • Thanks Julie, as soon as (or should that be if?) my bathroom’s finished, I’m going to be writing a long letter of complaint asking for compensation. If they don’t make me a reasonable offer, then I’m taking them to the small claims court. Yes, I think I’ve got the document everything side of things covered 🙂

  • I’d be curious to know how you got on with your compensation claim. I’ve had a similar experience and although Jackie has been ‘helpful’, it’s all promises and no action. I have a half-finished bathroom and no sign of any installers.

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