B&Q Kitchen Compensation

[nbellyjnr]

Hi everyone,

To cut a long story short, we’ve had a nightmare kitchen fitting with B&Q with endless trouble over the last 8/9 months. We were supplied unqualified cowboy fitters that delivered unimaginable levels of poor joinery, we had initial delays, we’ve been abused by staff and fitters, had damage to our own property, endless lies from B&Q, an assessor that came out and claimed it didn’t need refitted, subsequent joiners that but we’re left with loads of problems, promises they would attend but then radio silence and then third joiners who came out and discovered further damage (huge holes cut in our walls etc) and said the workmanship is joke. This only touches the surface.

B&Q have now (after 7 months) agreed the whole thing needs ripped out, the damage repaired and fitted again. New joiners (that will hopefully be an improvement) start the work this week.

We are obviously going to wait until the work is complete to discuss compensation but I just want to ask how much (in your experience) is a reasonable amount to push for?

The strain on our well-being and the stress has been horrific. It’s cost us a fortune in time off work etc alone. It’s one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made.

If I were to opt to go down the legal route, does anyone have any advice?

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[foxhole]

Try a phone calm to BBC , see if they are interested for their consumer programme .
Small claims court is easy option as proof is just down to providing reasonable evidence of poor workmanship though reward is limited .
( Currently 10k in most cases)
Big firms like B&Q often don’t even turn up to defend due to cost and ineptitude meaning you win case by default .

 

[nbellyjnr]

Try a phone calm to BBC , see if they are interested for their consumer programme .
Small claims court is easy option as proof is just down to providing reasonable evidence of poor workmanship though reward is limited .

Thanks. I have proof of nearly everything with the exception of conversations and proof of the verbal abuse we received from B&Q - I do however have the emails of us reporting that and the kitchen manager subsequently forcing us to have those same joiners back out (effectively telling us they will charge us anyway and leave us with an incomplete job). Having done my due dillegnce it would appear those fitters had no experience in kitchen fitting despite the B&Q advertisments saying they will supply ‘trusted, experienced tradespeople and a hastle free service’. I even have emails of them trying to get us to sign completion documents with a half finished kitchen and repeated refusal to escalate any of our complaints.

Really, I have mountains of evidence. Dozens of photos, videos, emails etc.

We’re not even out of the woods yet as we’re only just back to square one.

I think it will probably take small claims to get fair compensation from what I’ve read. BBC is a good shout though albeit I’d be reluctant for my case to be public.

Thanks!

 

[johnny2007]

You need to first quantify your losses.
Anything that left you out of pocket, days off work, damaged items in your home, damage to property that you mentioned, etc.
Then go about expenditures. This is a bit of a more long winded job where you need to itemise all bits that you bought yourself for example, fuel to go up and down b&q, even extra electricity if you have the bills.
Then there's the compensation part of the claim: first of all calculate how much time you wasted on this and itemise everything.
For example: email to b&q 15/03/2023 @ 12:45 = 15 minutes
Telephone call to 030088888888 15/03/2023 @ 12:45 = 25 minutes
There's a fixed rate in county court, some time ago was £19/hour, but you can always ask for your hourly rate which you will back up with your payslip.
After all, my argument is that if your employer pays your time £50/hour, that's how much your time is worth.
Judge will decide if that's fair or not.
Finally, there's the compensation for distress.
That's a bit of a gamble because judges don't seem too keen on awarding much for this.
Apart from the few cases reaching the press where the award is very large, usually the level of compensation is below the £1000 mark.
If you have home insurance, usually they have a free legal advice line where you can ask how much is appropriate to ask.
It's a lot of work to put all the evidence in order so that a third party can understand what went wrong, so start filing everything in chronological order and write down all dates in an index.
Save all communication in pdf format, that will save time later.
However, once they finish with the kitchen and you're happy, you will need to file a formal complaint to b&q and ask for compensation within 14 days.
After that you'll send a letter of claim giving another 14 days to pay up and if they don't you file a county court claim (small claim)
I only dealt with b&q once on behalf of a customer for panels damaged in transit.
They were pretty good, replaced the panels (even though damage was discovered 2 months after delivery) and paid £50 compensation for the trouble of having wasted time on a few long telephone calls.

 

[martygturner]

Go and see a solicitor...lots have free consultations and will give you good advice on if you can, where you can and when you should launch legal action. Having a solicitor to front up your complaint immediately says you are taking it seriously its about £250 for a letter of complaint, if its more than 10k then ask for a barrister's opinion....solicitors tend to write speculative letters, my client feels that ... barrister opinion states the law...under section x of x you have failed in your duty to ...and therefore my client is owed x

 

[Koolpc]

Seek legal advice.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Agree with legal advice.

But personally I would get the job done 1st, and be very, very careful what I signed. Would only look at compensation once the job is done to satisfaction. You might have more aggro to get through yet, but I hope not.

 

[cdbe]

Credit card, Section 75?

 

[OvertonPlumber]

I've never seen a joiner fit a kitchen especially for b +q. Jobbing chippies maybe.
A Joiner makes something in a workshop and a carpenter fits it out on site, customers house.

 

[johnny2007]

I've never seen a joiner fit a kitchen especially for b +q. Jobbing chippies maybe.
A Joiner makes something in a workshop and a carpenter fits it out on site, customers house.

Some joiners don't want carpenter's dirty hands on their cabinets

 

[Notch7]

I've never seen a joiner fit a kitchen especially for b +q. Jobbing chippies maybe.
A Joiner makes something in a workshop and a carpenter fits it out on site, customers house.

I used to run a joinery company so it bugs me when I see site carpenters referred to as “joiners”

 

[blup]

Ggo to rogue traders, there’s a good story there and you will get compo quicker and cheaper than small claims because it will go to the top

Blup

 

[opps]

If they won't play ball, find the Twitter account details for any execs at KingFisher (the parent company).

https://www.kingfisher.com/content/kingfisher/corporate/en/about-us/our-leadership/board.html

Politely tweet your de-satisfaction and use the @theirUserName tag in the body of the tweet.

It has worked for me in the past.

 

[nbellyjnr]

I've never seen a joiner fit a kitchen especially for b +q. Jobbing chippies maybe.
A Joiner makes something in a workshop and a carpenter fits it out on site, customers house.

Ahh, it’s seems you’re just being supercilious for the sake of being so.

If you don’t have anything of value to add, why bother commenting at? Telling of your character.

The two words are synonymous with one and other where I stay. I may have you the wrong one as I’m clearly (as is obvious from the post) not a tradesperson.

Everyone else, thank you so much for your help! Will take everything on board.

 

[blup]

Ggo to rogue traders, there’s a good story there and you will get compo quicker and cheaper than small claims because it will go to the top

Blup

These companies tend to have good comms teams with social
media accounts that they check or even pre approve, that might soften them up

Blup