I wonder if any one can help me. I have a serious complaint again DIY store, Wickes. I won't bore you with the entire story, but in summary (and the spiel below is not even the half of it)... We made an order from Wickes in May for about £500 worth of sand, ballast and other building products, as we were laying a patio. We made the booking online with Wickes on the Wednesday for the following Saturday. As we had had problems with Wickes deliveries previously - a driver getting stuck on our driveway (we have a long driveway) due to his error - and we were hiring two friends, who worked as labourers for the weekend at a cost of about £500 to lay the patio, we wanted to make sure that the products would turn up. We phoned Wickes on the Wednesday who assured us that delivery would be made in a 3 hour slot on the Saturday. Come the Saturday, we received a call midway through when delivery was due from the driver, saying that he was refusing to deliver, due to him previously getting stuck - he hadn't even attempted to make delivery. To cut a long story short, he and his manager were adamant that he wouldn't deliver on health and safety grounds, despite the fact we had been assured that delivery would be made. They could not answer why we were not told this before (the order was made 4 days previously), why we were assured verbally the delivery would be made, why a more competent driver or different vehicle could have been used, or why other Wickes drivers had made identicial deliveries previousaly without problem. We even said that the driver could drop the items at the end of our driveway (i.e. next to the road) and we could transport them ourselves using the excavator we had hired, but they wouldn't even entertain this. So, the delivery was cancelled by Wickes, our patio wasn't laid and we still had to shell out for the excavator and labour hire. Our complaint was compounded by the fact that it took two further calls for Wickes to actually cancel the order and refund our monies. We were informed that Wickes had a dedicated complaints team and we should make a complaint to them, which we did. The result was after various communications, Wickes' method of dealing with complaints is that the dedicated complaints team just gets the store responsible for the delivery to deal with the complaint (which is hardly indpendant). Unsurprsinsingly, they did not uphold our complaint, and as well as ignoring many of the questions and complaints I raised, they also lied to me in their response by stating facts that simply weren't true. Despite my efforts, any response from Wickes' complaints' team was a regurgitation of the same party line that was provided to them by the store (i.e. those complained of) - this was all to apparent as the fonts in the emailed response from the complaints team differed, so it is quite clear that they topped and tailed their response and just copy and pasted the crux of the response, presumably from the manager of the store responsible for the delivery. I emailed Wickes two weeks ago to raise further points, and they have simply just decided to ignore my compaint now and not respond at all. Has any one got any ideas how I can take this further? Are there any Trade or Consumer Bodies that I could contact? By the way, I sent a letter to the CEO's office too, and that was also completely ignored, despite being recorded as delivered. I would like some sort of compensation for what has happened, but more than anything, I want to expose Wickes' terrible customer service, and sham of a complaints scheme, that culminates in those complained of simply responsding to complaints and lying and ignoring questions in the process. Thanks in advance.

Hi, first post for me, so apologies if I mess something up. I went to wickes in Ealing today to have this Messina tap (sorry can't post links) Product code 410705 on wickes.co.uk website price matched with this toolstation tap Product code 50262 on toolstation.com website The lady at the till said she was calling the store manager. A older lady appeared and said that she was the manager. I tell her about the price match, she looks at the toolstation catalogue and starts laughing at me. I ask what's so funny and she says that they don't price match with postal catalogue. She explains in a patronising tone, like talking to a mentally ill person, that toolstation don't have shops and warehouses, so they don't price match. I point out that at the back of the catalogue she can find the addresses of all the stores, including the one a mile away from where she is standing. She looks at the back of the catalogue and drops silent for a minute or so. Then she looks at their tap (in the box in front of her) and the toolstation catalogue. She says that the two are different. I ask to point out the difference and she says that one is wickes and the other is not. LOL on my part and the entire queue in the store. I explain that of course the toolstation tap is not wickes, but is an "equivalent" product as required by their terms and conditions which I am showing to her on their catalogue. Another long look at the catalogue and the boxed tap. She says that the price is different. Another big laugh. I explain that there would be no need for a price match if the price was the same. She then gets on the phone with toolstation. She writes down all the technical info and puts the phone down. She says: "I got you!" and explaines that the wickes tap requires 0.5 bar pressure or above, while the toolstation tap requires 0.5 bar minimum working pressure. By this point my eyes have rolled so many times that I feel them at the back of my head. I explain to her that the two concepts are the same, but she says that because the description is not identical they cannot price match it. I point out that the goods descriptions might be copyrighted and therefore not identical, but they have the same meaning. She says no. At this point I ask to speak to someone above her and she says that she will get the manager. "You said you were the manager" I say, and she says that she is only a cashier and she is not trained on technical stuff. She runs away. 10 minutes later she comes back and says that the manager said no, no way we are price matching that. The price is too different so the taps must be different. As the manager cannot be bothered to come to the front desk (probably having a nap), I call the head office. A woman called Deena hears (but not listens to) my reasons and calls the store. She speaks to the older woman for a couple of minutes and then the phone is passed to me. This Deena says that the taps are completely different in design, material, specification and they don't even look similar, so they will not price match and that is it. I leave the store with my list which would have made them a couple of hundred pounds. I go to toolstation and the chap in there tells me that the tap is the same one they sell in wickes, just in a different box as they are all sourced through travis perkins group (I didn't know this). If they have a price promise, they should honour it, not try to find any excuse to not apply their own terms and conditions. I have always been appalled at the extremely poor attitude of wickes workers compared with all other diy stores, but this is the worst I have seen and for once it affected me as I had to get in heavy traffic to get to toolstation. Dirty uniforms, shabby looks, unwashed hair, patronising and careless attitude, one person at the till and 6 outside smoking (BTW I saw this today) etc. etc. it's all too familiar with wickes. I will take my business elsewhere, but they don't care if they lose 4-5 grand a year (I'm a handyman). What do you think about this price promise? Should it be reported to trading standard or am I being unreasonable and the two taps are really completely different? Thanks for the replies