I bought a kitchen from B&Q in Liffey Valley this summer. The kitchen designer there was very nice (designed the whole kitchen online for us) and they offered to fit it for us but we declined as there was a 12 week wait for fitting and our builder offered to fit it for us.
Anyway, we bought one of the 'select' model of kitchens in B&Q which were more expensive then the standard range - but really nice. The product itself is great but I have to say that where B&Q really fell down was in aftersales service. The first problem was with the kitchen delivery which was delayed by a few days (twice) - no big deal really, but inconvenient as we had to rearrange when we could be there etc.
When the kitchen was finally delivered, there were discrepancies between what was on the delivery note and the itemised product list we got from B&Q when we first bought the kitchen.
The deliverers didn't want to know - nothing to do with them, they were just the deliverers, didn't work directly for B&Q etc etc...
It turned out there were some items which were not delivered - and about 50% of items had a different delivery code from what was on the itemised sales list.
I called B&Q a BILLION times - they were absolutely useless - their phone customer service was the worst I ever experienced. After about 3 weeks, and with no notice, I suddenly got a delivery of most of the missing items (although about 2 doors were still missing - and about two more were wrong), but this didn't explain the barcode problem. I was glad some of the missing items had turned up but was worried I had the wrong items as the barcodes were all wrong and the barcodes were the only way of matching what had been delivered to what was on the sales list.
When I called B&Q for service I was either transferred to a line which would ring out constantly (with no-one picking up), or transferred to someone who promised me they'd get a 'manager' to call me back - they never did, or I was hung up on. It was the most frustrating experience I have ever encountered. I could not believe they treat their customers like this - and of course with B&Q you pay for everything up front, so they already have your money.
I finally did get a manager who agreed to send the 'kitchen person' out to my house to help me. It took nearly 3 months to get to that stage. That person was the only person who was able to help and finally sorted everything, but the whole experience really put me of B&Q. I was told that the problem was the 'select' range I was buying which apparenlty isn't a frequently purchased item, so the delivery people and the suppliers in the UK didn't keep much of it in stock and items often went missing because no-one knew what the range really looked like. I couldn't believe that was the reason I was given. I was also told that the barcodes on products frequently changed and it was nothing to worry about. When I told the staff member that I was never informed that barcodes changed frequently and therefore had no idea if I had the correct product or not, they just shrugged.
Subsequently after all this, I went out to B&Q to get a refund on an item (separate to the kitchen) which had never been delivered (again after 3 months), and I spoke to a new customer service manager who was really nice and who said he was trying to improve customer service in the stores. He did make me feel better and did turn around the problem for me in record time, but I don't have a lot of confidence in them.
In short it took 4 months to sort the kitchen problem out. Even after the kitchen person came to my house, I still had to wait almost another month for the final 'doors' etc which had not been delivered. I don't think I'd ever shop with B&Q again for a kitchen.
Perhaps their service has improved since then. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's experiences.