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.
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