... to be furious at B&Q?

[Southfields]

I ordered and paid for something costing £5 via their Click and Collect facility. The shop is 25 miles away, but my DP works nearby, so he went, taking an email from me to him, upon which was attached the email from B&Q to me with the order confirmation, and the order number.

They refused to let him take the item because his driver's licence is old and has no photo on it. Why they need a photo, when what he looks like in a photo (or in person) does not prove any connection with me, the purchaser, is beyond me. We have different surnames so his proof that he is connected to me was the email.

So he got out a fiver and said, "OK, I'll buy the item cash." They refused. They said it was the only one in stock, and it is reserved -- for me! So he said, "well, cancel the order", and they said that they could not do so on his authority. They could not phone me as they didn't have my number, and they would not take my number from him as they could not verify it was really me.

I am astonished at the fuss made about a £5 item, especially as only yesterday, a tradesman collected £180 worth of materials I'd ordered and paid for online from another chain of DIY stores and all he had was my name scribbled on the back of a fag packet.

I appreciate that B&Q should not hand over paid for goods to anyone who only has the customer's name, but an email showing the order number, forwarded to the person standing in front of them, cannot be fraudulent. They have CCTV in their shops and who would risk hacking into someone's email and being filmed stealing just to get £5 worth of goods?

AIBU? And does this amount to age discrimination by B&Q, as driving licences with photos did not exist when DP got his licence?

I think it is an excuse. I have looking at GDPR for the last 6 months - retailers and others are using it to change terms and conditions to suit themselves. I am quite shocked how many unilateral changes I have received at work in the last couple of weeks.

Why should I have to pay? Even if it is "only" £14 (CURRENTLY) every 10 years (which is every few years) I dont need a photo licence. I have a valid UK licence. I have held the same paper copy since 1984 and it wont expire until 2035. It is trying to introduce identity cards on the cheap. In the Uk there is no identity card requirement and attempts to introduce have failed.

So I vote with my feet and would shop elsewhere. But then I mind being mugged by companies who should know better.

I thought that there was something a few years ago that said paper licences were no longer valid and you needed to apply for photo one.

B&q are mad.
I ordered a worktop on click and collect (delivery was two weeks) dad has a van so yay, he drove me, arrived to collect, “sorry we don’t have item in stock, will be here tomorrow” ‘sigh’ ok back tomorrow, arrive next day, sorry still not in stock, “oh yes it is, I’ve seen it up theere’
Point up to gods and name code is printed on side.
“Oh, ok let us get you one down”
45 mins later sorry lift not working can’t get it, engineer coming, come back tomorrow”
Christ.
Back next day, lift still broken. This is day 3. My will to live is gone.
Day 4, receive phone call lift is fixed, horrray, arrive b&q.
Don’t worry, we’ve already got it down for you, now where did we put it. By time 3rd manager arrives to help ‘find’ it discover had been got down to helpful recovery height and some Unaware but still very CF had gone home with my worktop.
Honestly, bloody nightmare. Incompetent wankers.

It really does not matter if the item was a fiver or five hundred pounds, the terms and conditions are always clear and the staff have to comply with these policies.
You are no different from any other customer, they were not being unreasonable, they do not have the authority to hand out goods if you have not complied to the conditions.
The staff have to carry out the correct procedures when releasing ordered items, dont make their job harder by trying to convince them that you are exempt from their company policies.

He should have got you to ring up and cancel the order or do so online

My sister works in B&Q and the amount of shit she gets for sticking by there rules. At the end of the day it’s in their terms and conditions. You should of read them first and gave your husband either the card or your ID so yes YABU

2. if B&Q would be hit with massive fines and be opening themselves to all this legal stuff and fraud etc why is it he has been able to collect stuff from several different other chain retailers without any problem?

OP/Southfields Think about it. Staff aren’t just one homongeous group who all act exactly the same in every situation; they’re human. And being human means they make mistakes, can be forgetful, don’t want to bother having the same conversation yet again, can tell when a customer will become agitated and so don’t think it’s worth it to challenge/correct them, and so on and so forth.

But the reason people become agitated is because staff break the rules when they shouldn’t, leading to customers getting confused and getting angry when they don’t get what they want rather than just being grateful when staff do set rules aside for them (at what could be a great cost to themselves).

YABU. These rules are there for a reason, they shouldn’t just be broken because you don’t deem them important.

It was made clear what you needed to collect the item, and since you failed to provide, they were right to refuse to hand it over.

Sounds like b&q have decided not to trust any staff member with using common sense. It sounds like the case here and on this occasion they were definitely unreasonable.

To be fair they are mostly oddballs who have to be managed by a script so it's no surprise

I thought that there was something a few years ago that said paper licences were no longer valid and you needed to apply for photo one.

Nope. Paper counterparts (to the photocard) have been done away with. Anyone who has just a paper license can continue to hold that. Or they can upgrade to photocard. For free.

Sounds like b&q have decided not to trust any staff member with using common sense.

Myotherusernameisbest Oh dear. I don’t think you know how businesses work. Without uniform rules, applied consistently across the board, the whole operation can go to pot.

B&Q must have thousands of staff members; they’re a huge business. You can’t run a successful business with staff just going with the flow and doing whatever they feel like, nor can you run it successfully without rules and regulations.

To protect the business, the staff and the customer, it is imperative these protocols are followed. They are there for a good reason.

To be fair they are mostly oddballs who have to be managed by a script so it's no surprise

busybarbara Please enlighten me as to what made you come out with such a rude, ignorant comment.

OP surely he has some kind of photo ID that he could have brought? It will have been clearly stated that this would be required.

It is very officious of them. My local pharmacy allows me to collect my DH's prescription without photo id!

I've name changed!

but i'm a department manager at b&q and we process these using common sense! the id check comes up on screen to use....asking for driving licence or debit card or OTHER form of id. we use it for age restricted items only. its no biggie. no repercussions for staff for doing the right thing for the customer at all. sorry about this op. if it were my store the order number via email would suffice

we don't mess about with c&c....common sense will always win and a manager/supervisor would not fight this battle!

makemeacoffee wrote:

"but i'm a department manager at b&q ... if it were my store the order number via email would suffice".

Well, there you go!

PLUS

DP went back this morning, different staff on duty. They clearly knew nothing about this dispute. He gave them the printed out email and they handed him the item. Did not even ask for ANY ID let alone photo.

Privatedoor nope, he has nothing. His job does not require it, and he has no passport. Being a driver he needs no travelcard or suchlike things. He has literally no ID with his photo on it.

In the future if we HAVE to use B&Q he will pay cash.

Thanks everyone x

YANBU.

The one and only time I did a click and collect I ended up sitting on the collect desk with my hand on the doorbell. Only after had been there for 30 mins and various staff ignoring me or asking if I needed help then ignoring me.

It only took them 10 mins to find and give me my order after I refused to take my hand off the bell until I had my order.

We then made the mistake a few years later order some garden furniture from them, after 3 failed delivery we ended up with 2 complete sets. As they 'lost' the first delivery and re sent it which we sign for then the 'lost' one was left on our drive while we were at work.

B&Q are shit. I once ordered something on Click and Collect, when I arrived at the store to pick it up, they said they didn’t have the item in stock. It turned out that the Click & Collect stock levels are only updated once a day, so if someone takes the last one off the shelf in the meantime then the system will tell you it has stock when it doesn’t.

Completely useless.

I had similar in screwfix. My husband ordered an item in his name. Paid for it with my credit card because he didn't have one at the time. I went to get it. They wouldn't let me collect it! I'd paid for the bloody thing!

whattodoabout thanks for the lecture and I do know how businesses work thanks. I run my own. However, I trust my staff to use common sense in this situation. Probably contributes to the success of my business and the loyalty of our customers.

Myotherusernameisbest If you know anything about business then surely you must know that there is a major difference between a large, national chain and a sole trader.

You can advise and train your staff personally, because you only have a very small number of them and one shop to run.

The CEO of B&Q has thousands of employees, and therefore there is no personal relationship and rules and regulations have to be implemented for consistently and protection of staff, customers and the business.

whattodoabout you are just full of assumptions.

If you think b&q handled the ops query with professionalism then we can just disagree. I personally don't think having regulations is an excuse to be an arsehole and forgo common sense.

Bloody jobsworth! Yanbu.

Myotherusernameisbest Staff abiding by their rules and asking the customer to provide exactly what they told them to isn’t “being an arsehole”. It’s common sense.

But we’re not just talking about B&Q now. We’re discussing the differences between large national business and smaller, sole trader types. And if you think you can run them both exactly the same, then your business knowledge is very poor.