Popped into Wickes today because I’d run out of cable clips.
The store’s had a big refurb and it now seems to have a click and collect section instead of separate isles for plumbing and electrical.
So…instead of grabbing a packet of clips of the shelf and paying, I now have to look them up in a catalogue, fill in a ticket, take that to a counter, wait for the staff member to look them up, they then have to go off to find them and when they return I can then pay for them.
Well that’s certainly speeded things up then!
They also seem to have had to double their staff there so God knows how it’s saving them money?
Bunch of arse.

Maybe if chaps stopped smuggling toilet tanks out the shop by wedging them down their trousers

Well some prat came up with the idea.

Customers use their feet and go elsewhere.

Screw fix is like that- Argos ordering and waiting.

Keep an eye on Wickes/TP share price.

How many times have you bought something from Wickes to get home and find half of it missing?
😉

Screwfix is aimed at trade customers, and works very well if you know what you’re after. Not so well if you want to compare products, although staff are always happy to help out in that regard, in my local branch.

Plus they’re much more likely to have stuff in stock, as space is used more efficiently, meaning more products can be stored.

I used to deliver to wickes. The guys couldn’t be more unhelpful, slow and act like they were on power trips. I vowed never to go there as a customer… I’ve kept to that vow since.

Screwfix is trade part of B&Q. Same stuff but cheaper and you don’t have to walk up and down isles for ages trying to find the stuff. Then again you have to wait for some monkey to go off and find the stuff instead.

Wickes always seems more frequented by trade though anyway so not surprised if it ditches DIYers browsing round isles.

Travis Perkins Owns Wickes, and also Toolstation, toolstation prices are a lot lower than Wickes and Screwfix, with better service and a free cup of soup.

and this weekend 15% off everything in Wickes, shut sunday though.

Screwfix is aimed at trade customers, and works very well if you know what you’re after. Not so well if you want to compare products, although staff are always happy to help out in that regard, in my local branch.

Plus they’re much more likely to have stuff in stock, as space is used more efficiently, meaning more products can be stored.
I use screwfix from time to time, they seem to work pretty efficiently, not had any issues, plus I can order via my pad, and pick up the next day, they’re a five minute walk from where I work.

Screwfix is trade part of B&Q. Same stuff but cheaper and you don’t have to walk up and down isles for ages trying to find the stuff. Then again you have to wait for some monkey to go off and find the stuff instead.

Not always cheaper though, which is weird. You’d think they’d at least match B&Q trade prices. Ditto toolstation.

There’s an element of having to know what you want, as you can’t stand there staring at a shelf of plumbing widgets trying to work out which one you need, but you cans till do that with the catalogue at home. But if you know what you want it’s far quicker than shopping at B&Q/wickes, even quicker if you create the order on-line.

Only bother with B&Q now for sheet materials because they cut them for free, and paints/wallpaper.

I use Screwfix a lot, never seen any monkeys in any of my local branches.

some of the cheap stuff at toolstation is terrible quality. But it is on the same estate as a nice micro brewery 😉

I prefer them picking to wandering around a massive warehouse type thing trying to find what I need

If I don’t know exactly what I want I tell them I just want to look, not buy, or else ask the man who knows everything at the home hardware shop down the road.

I love screwfix click and collect. Means I can order on my phone, know they have what I want in the quantity I want and it should be waiting for me when I get there. They have units all over the place so it’s rare that I can’t get what I want from one of them. I have no desire to browse the isles.

Having just spent over £1k at Wickes in the last few weeks, I can only say how brilliant the staff at Stirling store are. Decent prices, certainly cheaper than other big sheds. I use a plumbing place for that, but most I buy through Wickes.

As an example, I needed 6 more 12.5mm half boards, buy they were unloading them from delivery truck. I was asked to wait 5mins. Then the staff came and found me to say they had added them to my trolley, and it was at front of the store next to till…

Screwfix Click and Collect if you know what you want. Just don’t use Paypal to pay for it if you are likely to need a refund or exchange it.

Paypal refunds need to be handled by someone in head office and he doesn’t work weekends, or late, or week days, or answer his phone, and he is the only person in the whole of Screwfix who can allow you to swap one £9.99 purchase for £9.99 different thing.

I was told that he might be able to call me back in the next 48 hours and then I could drive back to the store and try phoning him again. If he replied I could then do the exchange. Grr!!!!!!!!

Why is it so hard for them to join up their IT systems????

Wickes & Screwfix are my main destinations of choice for DIY gear.

As I’ve been doing up my house I’ve spent a fair wedge in both over the last year.

Only issues I’ve ever had were with Wickes when they picked a slightly incorrect order for a click and collect (only realised when I got home)

Screwfix are especially cheap for ironmongery – screws in particular are excellent value (boxes of 200 between £1 – £2ish, which would be more than double that in Wickes etc.)

When I worked for a charity, we had loads of employees of B & Q, Tradepoint & Screwfix volunteering on work parties. They used to bring their ‘value’ range of tools to use and ‘kindly’ donate afterwards. Needless to say by the end of the day, virtually all were busted and binned. I remember the marketing dept people stating how they couldn’t believe they were selling this shite.

I returned a PayPal purchase at Screwfix. Received a credit note on the spot, which I used against my next order. No problem at all…

Toolstation are shits of the highest order, frequently switch out stuff listed as x brand in the catelogue with their own or unbranded crap. And even worse if their tools have no brand on them in the catalogue they will likely be silverline.

Ive stopped using them

Eurocarparts have gone the same wAy when it comes to car parts.

Screwfix remain to be good as is bnq – esp their tradepoint counter.

Silverline is okay if you want something simple like a mallet. But yeah, utter gash otherwise. Still cheaper on the branded stuff than Screwfix though.

Wilkinsons are best VFM though if you know you can find any fittings you need in their pick and mix section, it’s amazing how many coach bolts you can get for £2.99 😀

ECP stuff is okay if you pay for the decent brands, the bought name stuff wouldn’t get touched with a barge pole though.

Screwfix staff have always been excellent ime. They are not subject matter experts, that is not their job but they are friendly and helpful.

Screwfix have reviews for products. This makes them my go to supplier. Toolstation doesn’t afaik, plus Toolstation just seems to manage to look ‘low-rent’. Probably just their design style.

It often feels like I ought to just pay my wages directly to screwfix to save time…
Research and order on my phone, collect in 5 minutes. 🙂

The branch I went into was Dorking, and all the 400,000 staff seemed very keen to help.
The main problem seems to be that they’ve done a massive refit and literally halved the stock on the shelves and turned the rest into a mini Argos.
Maybe I’ll get used to it.
Maybe looking for stuff on shelves is ‘sooo last season’ and I’m just getting old?

When i first saw this thread, i wondered if you meant the Dorking branch 🙁

Got loads of diy to do after just having an extension finished and, after a quick visit last week, it is concerning that they don’t have much of the stock on display as i do like to stand and go over the pros/cons of alternative items before committing to a purchase…this can take an unreasonably long time. Our builder was bemoaning the fact it took him half an hour to buy a tin of paint

Squirellking you miss my point.

Ecp i order the good brands – they sub with their shite – tell me its the same stuff and i tell them to ram it and give me my money back.

Same at toolstation.

Switch and bait – without even offering me discount to compensate for the fact the replacement is not what i ordered.

So i have been using my local factors who manage to not only be cheaper than ecp but consistant.

Agreed. I tried this last week. The staff were clueless too so I gave up and popped in to a small hardware store to make my purchase – goodbye Wickes. 🙁

I can’t believe that this concept passed a trial phase. (Dorking branch) maybe it is the trial phase.

Toolstation was set up by the guy who formed Screwfix.
He was bought out and handed a “no compete” contract.
As soon as it was up he went ahead.
He then got bought out again!
Smart cookie

Our local Wickes (Taunton) has a Toolstation in store.

I use Screwfix all the time, order from my laptop and then cycle / drive there and pick it up normally within a minute of entering the store. Best service of any DIY place I’ve found. Also, very competitive on price (tool station is a bit cheaper, but the fact you can’t order online is a no no for me).

Ah I see, no that is shite, I’ve luckily never had that problem either online or in branch but probably order far less than you do.

Sadly my local factor is a reknown twunt so its either ECP or Livingstones.

Toolstation was set up by the guy who formed Screwfix.
[…]
Smart cookie

Agreed; he’s now doing it again over in Belgium.

Worcester branch of wickes is now half shop half argos, has been for a couple of months. The paint/kitchen/sheet materials and other large items are still on shelves to browse but the small stuff is behind the counter.

Went in there for some O rings and the chap behind the counter couldn’t have been more helpful, found what I needed when I asked no problem.

Of them all, Screwfix is still my favourite. They’ve now got a nifty little app where you stick the catalogue numbers into your phone, wherever you are, and once you’ve finished your list, it generates a QR code for the till guy to scan in store. Once you’ve done it once, it always links the QR from your phone to your customer number. I like that kind of nifty.

Toolstation seem cheapest for decorating stuff, but I hate their stores…dunno why. Their one in Clifton, Bristol has some of the longest waiting times ever. 😡

Mind you, you can get a free cup of hot chocolate in Toolstation which is actually so hot it will take the roof of your mouth off.

Mind you, you can get a free cup of hot chocolate in Toolstation

aye its a bit like getting a toy with your happy meal to entice you into mcdonalds…..

id rather have decent service and equipment over a cup of klix….. infact id rather be set on fire than given a cup of klix…..

I remember the marketing dept people stating how they couldn’t believe they were selling this shite.

Most marketing departments probably feel the same.

Black and Decker even admitted that their stuff was crap, but as it was sold at mid range prices to DIY’ers who would apply the same logic to power tools as they do table wine (always go for the 2nd or 3rd cheapest) they could make a fortune because to a DIYer a B&D drill probably lasts about as long as a tradesmans Makita. So once it’s died in 5 years time (or one day on a charity jolly) the buyer thinks “well, that was good value for 5 years use, I’ll buy another”.

wasnt there a study that said average diy power tool was used for 12minutes or something silly ?

Ive stopped buying the diy stuff now. Melted some shite now – some of the states ive handed back to screw fix as warrenty returns thanks to titans long warrenty 😉

bosch blue is the starting point now followed by a bit of research to see if its any good – if its used often its a good investment.

bosch blue is the starting point now

Yep, Bosch Blue and Festool are all I buy now.

great to see that Screwfix is generally liked on here…… My missus works there at a local branch. Good team with a nice working atmosphere. They seem to have a very generous returns policy…..although as ever there are people who try and take the p*ss.
I don’t bother with Click and collect though….. I just txt her and she buys it and then brings it home !!!

Toolstation are shits of the highest order, frequently switch out stuff listed as x brand in the catelogue with their own or unbranded crap. And even worse if their tools have no brand on them in the catalogue they will likely be silverline.

Ive stopped using them

Eurocarparts have gone the same wAy when it comes to car parts.

Screwfix remain to be good as is bnq – esp their tradepoint counter.

This is bang on. I had a 6 week tragedy of failure regarding Tool Station and the utter trash they peddle. Never again.