Homebase - www.homebase.co.uk

Very nice talking at the start, then they made mistakes one after the other. Then stopped replying to emails. 6 reminders over two months. They know there are a lot of bad comments, but they don’t care.

Poor service

Initially, inaccurate measurements resulted in units that didn't fit our kitchen, causing a last-minute discovery and significant installation delays. Despite the management's initial promise to cover additional expenses, they reneged, leaving us to rectify their mistakes at our cost. The lack of attention to detail exacerbated the chaotic situation.

This shows a severe lack of credibility and very poor customer service, as all the problems were caused by the poor skills of their kitchen department having made 5 separate visits to our home. Finally coming to see what errors there were and they walked away saying they have never seen such errors before and they will pay for all corrections and any extra work leading to this.

We believe a company's true measure is not just in the products they sell but in how they handle challenges and customer dissatisfaction.

Equally distressing was the customer service we encountered throughout this ordeal, both in-store and at the head office, were met with dismissive and unhelpful responses.

Disappointed and dissatisfied with Homebase Branksome Kuchenmobel – Poole, to say the least and the situation is STILL NOT resolved to our satisfaction, have not offered to cover our extra tradespeople costs. Warning: Please read the contract, which stipulates you are not to remove your existing kitchen until the new one arrives on site and you have checked it.

This is the first time I have ordered something on line from Morecambe Branch. The instruction was to take some i.d. to collect, which I did. The person on the desk asked for the last 3 numbers of the order. I told her I didn't have them as I was only asked to bring proof of i.d. which I had my driving license. She said she couldn't get my order if I didn't have my order number. I said if I was told that I would have, she said who didn't tell you!!!! It was an online order, I said and it just states to take some id. Again she insisted she needed the last 3 numbers of the order. I said I ordered them at 10.06am today and it was 2 sets of lights @: £45. She then said she couldn't pick the order without the order number. I said my name was Jenkinson and I'm sure she could find the order. After a few minutes her looking on the monitor, she disappeared and came back with the goods. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR AND MANNERS. I have ordered many things online for collection from Wickes, Toolstation etc without any problems what so ever. If you need the order number you should state this on the order acknowledgement where it just says take some i.d. when collection. This woman sounded as though she had several hundred collections this morning and couldn't find mine without the order number. I have previously spent a lot of money at Homebase, Morecambe but will not set foot in the store ever again.

Wow 545 reviews, 440 1 star. That speaks for itself. What a terrible company.

Sold us Bathroom and pushes us towards ProtectMyInstall. Fitter was a sham artists.

Two independent surveyors said most things should be re-installed. Homebase CEO rep washed their hands of the situation. Homebase have done NOTHING, 4 months later we still have water gushing through the bath side and into our downstairs electric cupboard. DO NOT ever trust Homebase and the recommendation of PMI. Our £6000 bathroom installed is ruined and they have done nothing about it.

During install the installer caused 5 different leaks into the ceiling, in some places there is a 12mm gap between bath and wall which can be seen as daylight from the electric cupboard below. The fitter broke the bath corner forcing the bath panel in which is now distorted and bulging. None of the wet wall are level or square, surveyors noting 20mm bowing out in places.

He cut a massive hole in our stairs to reach a leak that he caused fitting the shower feed, that he never tested. The sink tap moves freely, the bath taps were initially fitted hand tight and leaked. Nothing is level or properly fitted.

RICS Surveyors words.

Summary and Recommendations

Overall, the bathroom installation appears to be poor and my recommendations are as follows:

In the first instance, the bath should be removed, and if damaged replaced. The wall panelling should

be cut back and trimmed off level with the top edge of the bath. The bath can be scribe slightly into

the wall if required to ensure that there are no excessive gaps and ceilings can remain watertight and

relatively small. Sealants will all require renewal.

The shower screen will then need to be refitted.

The fixed panel to the vanity unit beneath the wash handbasin needs to be replaced and fitted so

suitable gap can be obtained between the doors and the fitted panel the doors and then require

general adjustments to ensure consistent gaps throughout the vanity unit installation.

The basin should be removed and refitted level and at this time the basin taps should be securely

fitted.

The WC should also be removed and refitted to ensure that is level.

What have Home base done about this?

NOTHING.

A helpful chap in store tried to help and was categorically told to back off and not get involved, even though in his expert opinion 'the entire installation should be ripped out and re-fitted' He has been ordered to stop helping us by his superiors and the CEO's office.

This company is a disgrace and treats customers disgusting.

1 star is too many.

They use Protect my Install (er) who do not communicate, and instead give the problem to QASSS who's biased approach has been noted on several occasions.

If you want a bathroom fitted by Chimpanzees for blind people fitted. Please do go to Homebase and use their 'accredited fitter' Service. If not please look elswhere and find yourself a professional company, that knows what they are doing and has some understanding of customer service.

I can't imagine their Kitchens are any better. Imagine that the gas cooker leaking etc and nothing installed properly.

I made a post about this store about 5 months ago saying how nice staff are and gave them 4 stars. I’ve been using this store for about 10 years and go there on average 50 times a year. Never have I been in and spent less than £100 on each visit.

But after today, if I could give zero I would. I got served at the till by a lovely lady. She was really friendly and chatty. She processed my card and the payment went through. But the till was trying to print the receipt and it got stuck. I waited and waited while she spoke to other colleagues on her headset to help her with the issue. I showed her on my phone that the transaction was showing on my bank account and not to worry about the receipt. I’d purchase £138 worth of items, that I knew I won’t have a problem with nor would I be bringing back for a refund. So I left the store and put the items in my car.

A young lad  comes rushing up the car park to my car saying can you bring all the items back to the store. Then a supervisor comes out to the car park telling me I’ve not paid. I show her the bank app that shows the payment. I mention at this point that I don’t expect to be sworn at by people and explained that this guy had come to me swearing. He denied this and threatens to call the police.!!

I go in to the store and speak to the manager. I show him the payment and even emailed him a copy of it. I explained what had happened and how rude the members of staff were in the car park. Not even a sorry, didn’t care less.

I then decided to get the items out of the boot of my car and take them back in to the store. They said the payment had not gone through, I can see it pending still on my account now. Will have to see if I need to contact the Bank to get the money back.

They then asked if I want to purchase the items!

Now if someone had come to me before I left the store and said that we think the payment hasn’t gone through, then I would have happily paid it again and then sorted the issue out at a later date. Instead I get shouted and sworn at and threatened to call the police on me. This was in front of other people in the car park. Your staff making me look like a criminal in front of others.

Seriously Homebase is this how you deal with loyal customers?

Not at one point did any one say sorry to me or treat me like a customer.

 If you carry on treating customers like this, you won’t have any

Lovely, lovely staff. Nice size store, easy to navigate. Always good provision of stock. Great parking. Fabulous good quality lasting outdoor and indoor plants - great selection, well watered, priced and displayed! Well done in particular to ALL Check-out Staff and Salim who went up on a ladder to get the pot I wanted and gave me great advice on plants that would thrive in the conditions of my garden.

Can't go wrong with this store. Thank you Kings Heath Homebase for all your hard work! Great Quality Shop!! Best in Birmingham

As I am now confined to a wheelchair my visit to Homebase at Felixstowe was outstanding the staff were attentive kind and very helpful I left my wife to deal with the young man mixing a paint colour for her, to look for an outside socket set I was assisted by a chap, well, he ran here and there, showing me all the range and was very knowledgeable I chose one and he gave me a feedback HOMEBASE slip to win a gift card which he had created for his customers, he told me I was the first customer to have one of his own creation, the only problem was the gift card scheme had finished so I count enter anyway would someone please tell him as he was so proud of his personal art work. The lads on the paint section advised us in great detail on the right paint for the job in hand, we were treated very well since I have been in a wheelchair we haven't always had the service we hoped for at other stores but Felixstowe was superb they didn't make me feel I was a nuisance as others have done. Loved my morning out will be back again .

We had a bathroom design consultation with Homebase after which we ordered what we had selected based on the consultant's advice and our bathroom measurements. For the installation Homebase advised we use their sponsored platform 'Protect My Install' and recommended a company.

Homebase were in an indecent haste to take our money and deliver the bathroom items which were delivered and stored in our garage within 5 days of the consultation. Unfortunately getting the installer in place using Homebase's platform was not so speedy with it taking 2 months to even receive the quote. By which time we had already fallen foul of the 30 day return on all the items delivered but did not know this at the time.

The installation platform only allows you to get one quote at a time and the suppliers on it know they have no competition. Our quote was at the extreme high end of what the job should have cost but we accepted, rather than start again, even though we would have to wait 3 months for the job to start. Time rolls. On and 2 weeks before the job was due to start the installer tells us it will be another 3 months before he could start work. So we said no, left Homebase's platform and got a local installer to do the work at at a cost of around 50% less than the previous inflated quote.

Once having started the job our installer finds that we don't have enough splash panels to cover the walls because Homebase didn't order the right quantity based on our correct measurements. Also one panel was found to be damaged when unpacked. So we were forced to switch to tiles as our installer would have started his next job and we would been without our bathroom for many more weeks had we waited for Homebase to deliver replacement panels.

We are now left with nearly £1,000 of splash panels we have no use for and Homebase have washed their hands of the matter because we have had the panels for way longer than the 30 day returns policy. Nothing is their fault; it is all down to us. It is our fault we didn't spot that Homebase's consultant had got the quantities wrong. It is our fault we didn't remove the packing from every bulky item delivered to inspect for damage. It is our fault that the original installer the Homebase consultant recommended (he gave us his card!) was so useless and unreliable. And it is our fault Homebase delivered the items before we had an installer on board. We don't accept this but we do accept that we are at fault for not reading reviews on Homebase before ordering from them. Had we checked out reviewcentre.com and noted that out of Homebase's 541 reviews some 438 (81%) were just one star then we wouldn't have gone anywhere near them. Totally useless and incompetent so beware

My purchased a 5 litre tin of paint on the 14 August which was a particularly hot day. She put this in the back of her small Mitisubshi Colt which is painted black! After driving home and within 15 minutes to 10 minutes the paint exploded and the whole of the back was covered in white paint. At first I blamed my wife and then thinking about it surely the shop should be aware that paint is very solvent and under hot temperatures can be a fire hazard. So I thought that I would write to customer servcies at Homebase. They then requested a copy of the invoice and images. No problem. I sent them the next day. But then I started to get odd emails from the middle management of the Woking Branch where my wife bought the paint. They at first doubted us. Then there attitude was cold and arrogant. The Area Manager got involved and he was worse. He boasted that he had never heard of any of the Homebase paints exploding. I subsequnetly found this article in google from 2015.

No sympathy and no realisation that I was more concerned about other memebers of public buying paint rather than getting any compensation. WHAT A RUBBISH BRANCH WOKING HOME BASE IS!

I ordered a outdoor furniture set from Homebase two weeks ago, trying to place the order in store in St Albans was hard work, the cashier didn’t seem interested and was unhelpful but never the less it got ordered. She informed me that home delivery would be Friday 10th June.

I received a text to say that delivery would be Friday the 10th, no one turned up on the Friday and I didn’t receive any communication. I called Homebase’s customer service line on Saturday 11th and they told me that delivery was refused at the door, I explained I took the day off work to wait for delivery and I assured them that no one turned up. They contacted the courier and they hadn’t booked it on for delivery but she re assured me that it would be delivered on the Tuesday, after taking another day off of work to wait for the delivery the drivers turned up, said to me that it wouldn’t fit through the side gate, but they weren’t going to get it off the van as the glass table top had smashed and someone will call me to re book delivery, they wouldn’t leave me anything even though it was just the table that was broken.

I called Homebase customer service straight away only to be told that as I ordered it store I needed to go back to the store. Three separate agents hung up the phone and wouldn’t help me. I went into the store and the sales assistant couldn’t give me an answer and proceeded to tell me that her manager was in an area with no signal and that she couldn’t help and I should call back to customer service and get them to help. I explained the whole situation regarding that they couldn’t help me as it was a store order and she again said she couldn’t help.

I called back to customer service and asked to speak to a supervisor, she was very apologetic that her agents had hung up on me and would try and help. She looked on the system and could see that the courier had said that the item was damaged but still put it down that I refused the item. She looked into it and said she will get another one sent to them, she checked the stock levels and said unfortunately it is out of stock and they weren’t getting anymore in. I asked two things to be done:

1. Can they send me the set back minus the table and if they could get me another one delivered at another time?

2. Send me the whole set back and I will get a new piece of glass and they can refund me for the table.

She explained both of the options they couldn’t do, they could offer me a refund and that was it but she couldn’t do that over the phone as it was a store order and I needed to go back into store, she said she would send the store and email and ask them to call me.

I heard nothing, I went into store 15th June and spoke to the deputy manager who proceeded to tell me that they were just talking about me as they received the email from head office in the morning but didn’t think to call? The deputy manager said to me she doesn’t know what she can do and that she would go and speak to the manager she was very uninterested in helping me.

The manager said that all he can do is offer me a refund and when it come back in I can re buy it at a higher cost as it had 20% off. I asked why I could take the one on the shop floor as I have a family party on Saturday and have no furniture as I got rid of my old set due to the new one being delivered. He said that he needed the one on the shop floor so people could purchase it. How can people purchase it if it’s out of stock and they don’t know when they are getting it back in? He said that wasn’t the point they couldn’t give me that one. I explained my two options that I gave to the customer service supervisor and he said no we can’t do that all we can do is give you a refund and that is it.

The whole process from buying it to the failed delivery, being hung up on and the lack of interest of finding a solution is completely unacceptable from a store that ‘prides themselves on their exceptional customer service’. I called back to customer service and asked to speak to the area manager or someone who has authority to get this sorted, she explained that she will get someone to call me in two days!

I now have no garden furniture. No estimated date of delivery and nothing but rudeness from most of the staff and to top it off I have had to cancel the family Party which has been planned to celebrate my late grandfather! As well as loosing two days holiday from work.

Please stay clear of Homebase and their shocking attitudes with their customer services. I will be telling all friends and family not to shop here! Shocking customer service, and reading reviews I am not the only one this has happened too.