I have shopped at Bunnings Warehouse at various stores in Melbourne, Ballarat and now Sydney, having renovated 6 houses in the last 20 or so years. I shop there because I find it convenient and reasonably priced. I have spent conservatively more than $50,000 during this time. Over the years I have come across various levels of incompetency and unprofessionalism, but nothing so great as to warrant serious follow up. However this week at Lidcombe store in Sydney it was the last straw. As I buy a lot of items (and spend a LOT OF MONEY) at Bunnings, I naturally regularly have items that are returned to the store - usually excess items that were not needed or bought too many of, and sometimes change of mind due to the renovation process. I have never returned a faulty item, until earlier this week (Thu 18 June 2009 to Lidcombe, NSW). I had 2 items, one door bell that had been removed because it no longer worked, and a door closer unit that had a missing adjustment screw which mean it didn't work at all. I held on to the door bell for a couple of weeks and then the door closer was incomplete so took them both back to Bunnings Lidcombe. As I walked in the door, the returns person (Jackie), walked out past me. She recognises me because I shop there SO often. Inside the store another person was asked to help me. I asked her to exchange the items which were faulty or had stopped working after only a few week. She wasn't particularly helpful and phone "James" (a manager), who promptly came over to tell me that because I didn't have my receipt with me that I cannot get a refund. I won't go into the ridiculous altercation that followed, except to say he was rude, ridiculing and lacking in any positive customer service. I told him that I had been shopping at Bunnings for years and require an EXCHANGE ONLY for the faulty goods. He refused, and also refused to supply me with their policy, instead directing me to their website (which is all very well if you have a computer). Their website states that faulty goods will be either refunded, exchanged, repaired or a similar item supplied. It states NOTHING about requiring a receipt for faulty goods. I contacted FAIR TRADING NSW and they advised that Bunnings should exchange the goods, and if I can't find the receipt that a credit card statement is sufficient. I complained to Bunnings head office in NSW and was dealt with suitably by their staff who said they would look into it. In all fairness they did contact me promptly to tell me to come back to the store and they will sort it out. When I came back to the store I was greeted again by "James" (a manager) who instead of doing what was required of him, decided to lecture me and repeat over and over how they are doing me a favour as the goods I returned will need to be thrown away, and that under no circumstances I am to return anything to their store again unless I have a receipt - WHICH IS IN BREACH OF THEIR RETURNS POLICY - see: www.bunnings.com.au. I told him that as the goods were faulty was I expected to just throw them away and waste the money I had already paid to Bunnings to purchase them. I asked him if he wanted a "soap box", and later if he thought I was deaf or stupid. Eventually he shut up and then had the gall to tell me that I need to take the items out of the store with their knowledge so that I don't get arrested! I could have pursued the matter further with him, but in the end could not be bothered. I had other shopping to do, and spent a further $150 that day - but only because I was under pressure for time. I can tell you I will never shop at Bunnings again, and I'll tell everyone I can about the shocking treatment you will be dealt if you happen to strike the wrong person at Bunnings. Had Jackie been behind the desk when I arrived I would have not had aANY TROUBLE WHATSOEVER, and would not be writing this diatribe. By the way the items I returned retail for less than $20 each. How ridiculous and unfortunate.
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I emailed this to Ricahrd Goyder - CEO of Wesfarmers:
As a CEO I am sure you get many emails from customers, I do hope you can find the time to read mine.
I feel have been treated in an appalling manner over the last 5 months while trying to make a purchase through the Special Orders Desk. Bunnings had always been to me the ultimate in customer service with a very happy and motivated in store team. I feel that this began to slide around a year ago. I deserve a medal in either perseverance or stupidity for continuing to deal with Bunnings.
All that I want to do is place an order, pay for it and receive my goods. Special Orders is a service provide exactly for that. I think I have suffered every possible poor customer service scenario in using this service.
I went to the Ashfield Store on 19th January this year to enquire about 2 x ceiling fan light kits. I was told that they did not stock any light kits similar to what I wanted and to call back on Monday when there would be people on the Special Orders dept that could help. I did this and from that day onwards was caught up in a loop of calls, return calls promised but never received, hanging on phone for long periods. All I want to do is order/buy something! I ended up tracking down exactly what I wanted and contacted the Manufacturer directly on 4th February to see if they had any in stock. Imagine my surprise when they yes and Bunning’s can order them in! I went down to the Ashfield Store armed with the name and part number from the Manufacturer. I was told “oh, there is no-one here on weekends, we cannot order it until Monday and we have to get a price”. Fair enough I guess, I was getting closer my purchase. It is now March. Again, another long period of endless phone calls, promises of a callback that never happens. Finally, in sheer frustration I call the NSW State Office – who seemed interested in my plight, they said that the Store Manager would call me back. A woman did call on 7th April (not sure if it was the Manager) and told me she would order the light kits for me but I had to pay for them over the phone before they would do it OR go the Store and pay – there is no way I was going to do that and risk starting from scratch again. I was told the order would be 2 weeks. I was not given an order number nor sent any copy of a receipt, confirmation of order – nothing. Even worse no apology for this ongoing poor service.
At some point I even filled in a Store Feedback form on the Bunnings website – but of course no reply – I was not surprised.
I cannot emphasize enough how many calls I have made since January along with some visits to the Special Order Desk. There was even 1 visit made by my husband when we were told it was in – only to get there an find it was someone else’s order that was in (lucky them).
Monday of this week – 19th May – I received a voice mail – my order is in. Thanks goodness, I can finally get this all over with and finally have a light in my bedroom. I call the Special Orders Desk, they tell me they have to look and see if it is in – I tell them that they called me – but they still had to check “out the back”. They call me back. How many did you order – I said 2. The girl tells me there is only 1 there and she will have to do more checking. THEN, to make it worse, she tells me thinks it is a stocked item at another store! Here we go again is all I can think.
If you managed to read all of this , then I appreciate your valuable time. If my email can do something to help improve the Special Order Desk at Ashfield in NSW then all of this frustration will at least have had a positive result for other customers for the future.
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I recently purchased a large quanity (2 x 15 litre buckets) of exterior paint from Bunnings - Wollongong store. I had it tinted to a colour i chose from the brand's colour cards. Once the storeperson finished and removed the bucket from the 'shaking machine', they did not offer to show me the result and quickly taped it up. I requested to view the colour before proceeding to the checkouts and found it to be much different to what was on the card. They explained that all colours look different wet, which i am well aware of, as i have renovated many a home. But as the difference was quite significant, I requested that they apply some of the paint next to the colour on the card and let it dry, which was returned with a "roll of the eyes". Once dried, with an obvious difference in colour, the storeperson still "couldn't be wrong" and continued to argue that the colour takes 'around 12 hours' to develope and refused to re-tint it or alter it to resemble what i had chosen. Exhausted by the battle and time-wasted, not to mention how 'belittled' i was feeling amongst the other waiting customers, I failed to 'stand my ground' and stupidly purchased the 'mis-tinted' product ($330 worth), which many people agreed was not the same colour as on the card. GEEZ BUNNINGS ~ YOU SEEM SO HELPFUL ON YOUR COMMERCIALS?? - So if your looking for my place, it is the bright yellow 'eye-sore' !!
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