DIY giants voted worst on-line shops

DIY giants Homebase and B&Q, with its diy.com website, have been voted among the worst online shops, as voted by their customers.

According to the annual Which? survey of the best and worst online retailers, the consumer champion asked 14,353 of its members to rate sellers based on customer satisfaction.

Homebase and B&Q were in the bottom five online retailers, along with interiors website Achica.com.

However, the home industry was buoyed by johnlewis.com rated second and Lakeland.co.uk rated fourth.

According to the survey, customers chose to shop online because it’s cheaper, easier to compare prices between shops and easier to find items. However, the shoppers also found delays with deliveries, faulty items and poor availability were the most common problems.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd said: “With household budgets squeezed, it’s not surprise that many more consumers are going more of their shopping online, with seven out of ten people saying they shop online for cheaper prices.

“But it’s clear some online retailers need to raise their game, with people complaining of delays with deliveries, faulty items and poor stock availability. Although we’ve found many are providing excellent customer service, we want to see the rest not only meeting the minimum fair trading rules but catching up with the best.”

The research follows an Office of Fair trading (OFT) investigation into retailers who are failing to meet online trading regulations. The OFT has written to 62 retailers after a check of 156 websites found problems including unreasonable restrictions on refunds, inadequate contact details and unexpected charges at the checkout.

For more industry news, expert views, product trends and SME business support, subscribe for FREE to Kitchens & Bathrooms News.

CEO of BSH UK believes industry “self-guidance” best for appliance safety

CEO of BSH Home Appliances UK, Michael Steinle has stated it is the industry’s responsibility to ensure appliance safety, not government. His comment comes after a Which? investigation into appliances that have caught fire and its call for government to collect and analyse fire data and alert manufacturers.

Although he wouldn’t be drawn on the Which? report or to the specific issue of faulty appliances causing fires, Steinle stated on the topic of appliance safety: “I think the appliance industry has a responsibility and I took that onto the place of AMDEA [Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Electrical Appliances]. We discussed it and it is an industry goal and objective. It means open communication and taking up our responsibility to the consumer. That’s what we hope to achieve and what I want to achieve – all the white goods manufacturers following a guideline because that is what you have to do. [Issues regarding safety] influences [all appliances] negatively, [whether] it’s brand A, B, C [or] D.”

He continued: “It was clearly targeted from me into AMDEA that we have to have a common objective and we have to follow it. So it’s self-guidance. If you forward the responsibility to an external body, Government or whoever it is, does it work? We think we follow our responsibilities. We did follow it and we have a very good example [of doing that] over the last year. We went through the process and we took up our responsibility.”

For more industry news, views and product trends, make sure you receive your next issue of Kitchens & Bathrooms News.

EDITOR'S COMMENT: Appliance brands under fire

Kitchens & Bathrooms News
Editor Philippa Turrell

The kitchen appliance industry could be placed under close scrutiny. Consumer watchdog Which? is calling on the Government to collect information on house fires, caused by faulty appliances, by brand. While some fire brigades already collate information on makes and models of appliances, it is not a statutory requirement in the UK and is not readily available to the public. Which? wants greater transparency to ‘alert manufacturers to faulty appliance and give consumers greater protection against these appliances’.

No-one would question the importance of safety for kitchen appliances. Of course the information would be useful for manufacturers to stop the issue ever re-occuring. But how could this information be passed to consumers without incurring widespread, national panic?

It is distressing enough when particular models, by particular manufacturers, have been the cause of household fires and worse still injury or death. Although one fire is too many, just how many cases or what percentage of fires would require a witch hunt?

When it was widely reported, last year, that selected Beko frost-free fridge freezers had been the cause of household fires in the capital, the manufacturer was already working with the London Fire Brigade, Trading Standards, had informed retailers and was using social media to contact customers. That’s before it had to increase its customer call centre five-fold to deal with incoming calls, following the publicity.

And herein lies the second issue, when would consumers actually be informed? Would it be on a weekly, monthly, yearly basis? Surely a major problem in providing statistics on appliances that may pose a fire risk lies in the fact they have to first be bought, and then installed, before any potential incident could occur. So in reality, how useful could this information be to consumers? And in fact, would the information be that accurate anyway, when an appliance model cannot be identified because it’s been ravaged by fire?

Consumer safety is of major importance to all kitchen (and bathroom, for that matter) professionals. And I’m sure that no matter where you work in the supply chain, all of you will endeavour to make home design as safe as possible. I just wouldn’t want to see the kitchen appliance industry held up as a scapegoat, with statistics created to provide a shocking headline for the sake of tabloid readers in ‘appalled’ middle England.

Haier expands UK operation

Household appliance manufacturer Haier has moved to larger premises, with a showroom facility, in Ealing, West London.

Its 353 sqm offices and showroom have been designed for use by its trade customers and to ensure the brand has room for expansion in the UK.

In addition, it has opened a warehouse in Nottinghamshire with 30 times more storage than its previous facility in Aylesford, Kent.

Haier provides cooling, dishwashing and laundry appliances, as well as TVs and recently launched a nationwide consumer campaign for its MyZone refrigeration.

Its 3D fridge has scooped a Which? Best Buy and its Glass Design cooling range won an IFA Preview Award.

Jeff Moody, sales and marketing director at Haier UK, commented: “The move from Godalming [in Surrey] to Ealing, which gives us three times more space, clearly reflects our continued determination to consolidate and grow the Haier brand in the UK.

A natural step, following the opening of our first UK warehouse earlier this year, we are committed to achieving our goal to become one of the top 5 European and UK home appliance brands by 2014.”