Free initial appointment with a consultant from your local B&Q store.
Not[FONT=“Arial Black”] IN[/FONT] your local store. they should have come to your home
You know perfectly well that if I demand my money back they won’t do the job.
If you click the next section “Book a consultation”, you will read :
Complete our booking form to request:
Free appointment with a design consultant
Expert advice from store colleagues
Access to the B&Q Spaces 3D planning tool
and the booking form asks “What would be the most convenient store for you to visit?”
in the section headed “How to prepare for your kitchen design consultation”, the following advice is offered:
Get ready to come into store and meet our experts
There’s a long list of things to consider when planning the design of a new kitchen. But that’s why we’re here. Our design experts take care of all of that – so you don’t have to. All we need from you are a few simple things and then we can get to work.
What to bring with you
When you come into store for your free design consultation, please bring with you:
•Any photographs or pictures of ideas you have.
These might be torn from the pages of a magazine, print-outs of a webpage or snaps on your smartphone. We’re not fussy how you show us to them – we’re just keen to better understand your vision for your new, improved kitchen. And if you’re not certain what you’re looking for yet, check out our Help & Advice articles on “How to plan your kitchen” and “What kitchen style is right for you?”.
•Your kitchen’s measurements
This is essential to help our designers accurately start work on designing your kitchen. Follow our step-by-step guide to getting all the dimensions you’ll need.
The implication is that in-store consultation is free - there is no mention of home visits.
Lila, don’t hold your breath if you require firm dates, they rarely work out.
Like all companies that use sub-contractors they are dependent on the contractors availability, this can change from day to day. Unforeseens are our major problems when trying to reach deadlines. We are reliant on the suppliers supplying all the correct fixtures and fittings, delivery dates, customers not changing their minds with add-one etc.
Good shout mate
We got our kitchen from B&Q, with hindsight I wish we had used their fitters. The chaps via Age Concern were interesting to say the least. Among other things the wall cupboards were at fascinating angles and to top it all the cooker was lifted into a space that had been made too tight for it, so I can never pull it out for cleaning, never mind renewing. I hope to goodness that Lila manages to get a decent set of workmen and ends up with the kitchen of her dreams.
I will certainly use their fitters.
The chap at B&Q admitted one might be able to find others who’d do it more cheaply but then you might find the guarantee not working if things had not been installed correctly.
They would take total responsibility from delivery to completion.
Worked OK with the shower-room done by Homebase. They arranged a delivery date and a start date months ahead and stuck to it. The fitter could not be sure how many days it’d take but that’s a minor matter as long as it’s the right start date and as long as he doesn’t abandon it half-finished to go and do something more urgent.
The only problem was with the tiling, but that was because I didn’t choose Homebase tiles.
In my experience smaller companies and one-man bands are much vaguer about time and don’t always know how to keep a diary. Possibly relying on an unpaid wife to do the paperwork.
Had phone call from B&Q re survey.
I’m not trying to put a dampener on your new kitchen revamp, I’m just giving an insight as to what may and can happen, from a contractor’s point of view.
It is not my place to criticise any one company but what I will say is, as a contractor we will NOT contract to ANY of the large DIY stores/plumbing outlets etc. Because we, as a company are dealing direct with the customers and it is us that gets the flak when things don’t arrive on time or are damaged in transport, supplied wrong or bits missing. It happens a lot with the larger companies.
This is not to say the fitters won’t be of a decent quality, they will be.
Another surveyor coming today. Between 10 and 3 they say. A pity they can’t say a.m. or p.m. He’ll phone before arriving.
[QUOTE=Lila;811810
In my experience smaller companies and one-man bands are much vaguer about time and don’t always know how to keep a diary. Possibly relying on an unpaid wife to do the paperwork.[/QUOTE]
Which is exactly my point.
The big DIY companies don’t employ fitters, they contract out to your one man bands, as you call them, and pay peanuts so you don’t always get the quality fitters.
But how would you find better and more reliable ones?
Ask at builders merchants, kitchen suppliers, plumbers merchants, tile suppliers which are all places fitters will frequent.
The above will have a list of approved/proven fitters that they know are worthy of recommendations, they have no vested interest in your project so will be totally unbiased.
Surveyor turned up, measured, told me my cooker as it is is illegal, and I’ll go back to B&Q tomorrow for a revised estimate and to arrange a date.
I wonder what he means about it being illegal?
He says the gas rings are safe, and of course they are checked annually.
As I found to my cost and spoke about earlier…
http://www.over50sforum.com/showthread.php?p=796741#post796741
the experience scared me for life :shock: I now have a panic attack at the thought of having any workmen in the house.
A couple of years ago my son had a small local company to fit his kitchen , they did a great job and the cost was about the same.
Well, if I could find any small local companies that would even come along and do an estimate … either they don’t exist or they don’t give their qualifications etc. or they don’t bother to reply to phone calls.
The girl who came from that other company (the only other one who came to do an estimate) was pleasant and polite enough but she wasn’t going to be the one doing the work and I didn’t get the impression she knew much about it, i.e. she was really just a salesperson not a surveyor.
Please DO NOT get confused about a person’s job “title”. They are not surveyors of the qualified type, they have not earned any recognition from a professional body, the title is misleading in that it over values its worth. All the “surveyor” does is provide a link to the customer, a friendly face that explains what can and can’t be done and takes a few measurements.
A bit like a salesperson, a representative.
But you can tell quite a lot by asking them a few questions. B&Q would have to check what they know as otherwise they would not be able to guarantee the work. As they said, you could get someone else to do it more cheaply but then it wouldn’t be covered by their guarantee.
Well, they have a 3-month waiting-list so it’ll probably be done in May.