Screwfix rubbish

[Handyman]

I have been an ardent supporter of Screwfix for a year or so, but now, no longer. Rubbish service and wrong products delivered have put me off. Now, you can only access their website "when it suits them". Well, that's fair enough, but no use to me. Can anyone suggest any marketing or PR benefit derived by preventing would-be customers from viewing their online store? This is inept marketing at its best. Their argument is that they can't currently promise next day delivery, but why on earth should this justify stopping punters browsing their website? Even their Screwfix Talk site shuts down when they can't deliver products. What's that got to do with deliveries? Very strange. Can anyone throw any light on this? - And moving one's warehouse is not a reasonable excuse.

For the record, I have (so far) found ToolStation the best alternative. Has anyone got any better suggestions?

 

[breezer]

if i may?

I quite agree with what screwfix have done ("turn off website" when unable to take more orders)

you are fed up / annoyed because you can not get / order / look at what you want. that i am sorry to say is your problem, not that of screwfix.

They (so i understand) "close the site" when they can take no more orders, if they did not do this people would try and order products screwfix can not deliver. It is better to stop taking orders than to take orders you can not "deliver"

Its a bit like if i took you to the pub, gave you a beer, another, another , another, another , another , another , another , another , another , another , (yes ok you would be leg less) but after a while you should say stop no more! that is exactly what screwfix have done.

They also close the site as if given the chance people would not read the message "sorry closed but you can look" (or similar) they would complain they can not order anything.

In general people do not read all the information displayed, an example of this is general diy forum, (have a look, go on) look how many people post there wrongly, although it clearly says something like this is for posts that do not fit in any other category, people still post about plumbing, electrical etc. so that is why screwfix shut the site, to stop people compalining, but only because they do not read the information given.

so next time you whinge / moan, have a look from the other persons side of the fence, not just your own, and see is it worth it.

 

[AdamW]

Now, from a competition point of view this is a good thing. They are now in competition with alternative websites. Perhaps we will see benefits from this. But I am not so sure as Screwfix is unique in that they sell everything. TLC are better for electrics but they don't sell an extensive range of plumbing fittings. Toolstation are OK but their range isn't that great.

What Screwfix should do is just withdraw their boast of "delivered next day if ordered by whenever". I bet a large fraction of Screwfix's customers are DIYers. After all, materials costs are not so important to tradesmen as they pass the cost on, and also DIYers have far less knowledge on just what is available. I have looked at Screwfix in the past and thought "Wow, that will do the job!".

What they are doing is market-share suicide. I know they are having staffing problems, but the customer doesn't care about that. We just take our money and business elsewhere. As I said, hopefully good for competition, but not good for Screwfix.

 

[pipme]

Leave Somerset at your peril !!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3686404.stm

The problem is Screw-em has a staff shortage ... huge backlog of orders.
Cannot imagine any company being silly enough to turn POTENTIAL customers away ..... Poor website set-up I suppose - all or nothing job ... I have been surprised at the number of people I know who like to browse their on-line catalogue, almost a public service !!

Just thought, perhaps they had found more retirees for staffing at Yeovil .. bit different in the chilly nearly North

P

 

[Handyman]

Breezer, I don't wholly agree with you, but AdamW sums it up pretty well. I have looked at it from the "other side" - I was a marketing manager for nearly 25 years, so I profess to know a bit about "the other side".

Using your pub analogy, if a pub runs out of beer, it doesn't shut its doors and stop customers from coming in. And when Oxford Street shops close, they don't pull blinds down over their windows so you can't see what they sell. I (and I suspect others) cannot waste time going to the SF site to see if its functional. They want to go there to view the site. I work during the day and can only order stuff "after hours". I can't do this with Screwfix, so I now use other suppliers. This is not sound marketing strategy for Screwfix - and this is what frustrates me: A prefectly respectable and reliable company has shot themselves in the foot because of their inward-looking marketing.

All it needs is a banner across their web page warning punters that they can't meet next day delivery, or perhaps a warning when you get to the order page - not closing the entire site.

In reality, I think SF are making too much of this next day delivery thing. What people really want is reliable delivery. I would rather wait a day or two and know that was getting the goods, rather than a broken delivery promise. In any case, Toolstation offers *free* delivery (much better) and you get the stuff next day in most cases. And I useTLC for electrics, now (I pick the stuff up locally, too)

 

[securespark]

Handy............my nearest TLC is probably Croydon.

I'm in Stockport.

No pick-ups from TLC for me......!

Why don't they stop being Sourthern Jessies and get North of Watford??

 

[Handyman]

TLC Exeter is only 20 minutes away from me. Also, it's worth noting that from TLC you can order cable (like meter tails and SWA) by the meter. You can only order fixed lengths from Screwfix.

 

[AdamW]

Why don't they stop being Sourthern Jessies and get North of Watford??

I dunno, I moved north of Watford and I'm afraid to leave the house without my scuba tanks... the air's too thin to breathe up here.

 

[Handyman]

Off topic, I know (but since I started it....):
A few years ago, as you drove out of London somewhere near where the A1 starts, there was a sign which said "The North". Someone had written underneath it "Turn back now". I don't know if it's still there.

Getting back on topic, I've just read that BBC News article. If that's not a demonstration of how a company doesn't understand the art of successful marketing, then I don't know what is. I didn't know that it was part of B&Q, though. Mind you, that probably doesn't help.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Let's face it - they are just buffoons.

 

[david and julie]

Bearing in mind most of us are quite close to a B&Q warehouse I would think the answer is obvious.

Charge account holders,at screwfix, the same price at B&Q during these problems, therefore relieving the pressure on screwfix. This would also, presumably, help retain the customer base.

Using the pub anology, most people dislike change but often prefer the new pub after they have tried it.

Screwfix have probably worked out how many customers they will lose and must consider it worthwhile.

You don't get as big as Kingfisher if you don't know what you are doing.

 

[securespark]

I don't know how the hell they've done it.

B&Q was started in S'oton by Richard Block & David Quayle (hence B & Q) in 1969.

They were bought out by Kingfisher in (I think) 1981.

A certain company within the same group has a bad reputation for buying masses of dirt cheap stock (and it shows) and only paying for it when the bailiffs knock on their door. If other co's in the same group do the same, maybe this has saved them a lot of money.

One thing is for sure - they are not winning sales or customers with good service.

So why do they thrive?

Over to you in the studio, David..........

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Leave Somerset at your peril !!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3686404.stm

Now I'd be the first to admit that project managing the moves of large warehouses/distribution centres does not appear on my CV.

So maybe I'm missing something, but if doing a move like this, to a new location where you'd need 550 new staff, wouldn't it make sense to find them before the artics full of stuff start turning up?

 

[david and julie]

Location Location Location.

Stoke is a lovely place with lovely people.

But it is not Birmingham,M/cr,Liverpool,Leeds or Newcastle etc, which are just as central and could easily provide the required workforce.

What Stoke does have is a vast tract of land between Stoke/Derby with newish/improved(EC provided) road links. This area also attracts Gov/EC grants for companies. I would imagine Screwfix like most big companies are attracted by these "incentives". Unfortunately as the EC enlargens and becomes slower and more beureaucratic(?) and regionalises(sic) our country for it's own purposes, it will take longer and longer to change or adapt to an areas changing circumstances. Stoke can't handle this expansion, hence more travelling and pollution.

I think we will see more of this problem in the future and the Gov's answer will be more houses on green belt, aka Essex/Kent. It will do the same on Stoke's lovely surrounding countryside.

If you want to see this go there now before it is lost.

Unfortunately we are not being told the truth or given the opportunity to stop this onslaught.

The sooner we get out of Europe (which you are not mandated to be in!) the better.

Sorry to be political.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Unfortunately as the EC enlargens and becomes slower and more beureaucratic(?) and regionalises(sic) our country for it's own purposes

Our purposes, if we take an active part in the running of the EC.

The sooner we get out of Europe (which you are not mandated to be in!) the better.

You are wholly, completely, utterly, 100%, never-been-more-in-your-whole-life wrong.

Sorry to be political.

I think it's allowed on this particular forum.

PS - if you'd clicked on

it would have suggested 'bureaucratic'.