Home Improvement/Furnishings

A great store with a whole host of items.

Advantages: Lots of choice, great prices.
Disadvantages: Quite a few people at the queues.

My review of Wilkinsons is based on my local store in Harlow, Essex. Our local store is huge and is located inside the local shopping centre, The Harvey Centre. They stock pretty much everything you can imagine in store (that you could carry home at least) and at the front of the store they also have a catalogue for you to order other heavier goods including white goods. At the front of the store there are lots of special offers on a variety of ...
...I would recommend giving Wilkinsons a visit as they are basically Woolworths with better stock at cheaper prices and lots of extras on offer. I am subsequently rating the store 4/5 and it has lost one mark because of how busy the front of the store is and how deep the queues at the tills can be. ...

katyeverett 17.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Wilkinsons (Shop)

Kitchen Beware

Advantages: Not bad on choice and price
Disadvantages: If you order a kitchen for B&Q to fit, there's no knowing if and when it will turn up

The chronology is as follows: - Ordered and paid for on 22 January 2009 over £8000 including fitting. - Old kitchen stripped out 28 March 2009 in anticipation of fitting date given 30 March 2009 - Fitting date 30 March 2009 given by B&Q sub contractor - did not turn up. - 1 week without any kitchen at all. - Contract fitters and part of the kitchen turned up 6 April (why only part of the kitchen when we were told it was 'all ready'?) Missing hob, ...
...give alternative date for completion despite numerous telephone calls and a written request. - Took it up with Ipswich store direct. They left a message on my wife's answerphone. parts will be all be delivered 12 May, fitting will take place 14 May (Today! I have taken the day off!) contractor to confirm. - Contractor rang after being chased by my wife (who like me is getting stressed by unfulfilled promises from Contractor/B&Q) 6:15 pm 13 May. Contractor ...

peterxg 14.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of B & Q (Shop)

Not Real Leather

Advantages: None at all
Disadvantages: You can't be sure of what you're getting and the quality is dredfull!

Having purchased a suite (2 x 2 seater + 1 chair) that was supposed to be leather I awaited delivery which was on the day specified and was quick and efficient which I know isn't everybody's experience. The suite looked Ok if not a little cheap. The first sign of things being not as they seem were the supposed wooden feet which I soon found out were not even wood. Obviously it must save them a lot of money to make the legs out of a white plaster/ ...
...and most people won't find out till they hit it with the vacuum cleaner and a chunk falls off leaving a white gouge. This was annoying but after a few more months we started to get cracks in the leather and it started to peel, fair enough i thought I've obviously not looked after it properly but then on looking at what was underneath the shiny elastic brown stuff that was peeling off I found it was stuck to what seemed to be a beige cloth. What I ...

ProcalHarlem 08.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Land of Leather

Bensons - Not too sure of these yet!

Advantages: you can lay on the beds
Disadvantages: customer service

Bensons for Beds calls themselves Britains Biggest bed specialist. Im not sure if this is true or not as the stores, although large, don't tend to have masses of beds on offer. From 'Britains Bed Specialist' I would expect to see at least 100 beds from around 20 different brands. In reality you're lucky if you see 40 beds from 4 different manufacturers. Stores are usually out of the town centre with plenty of free parking. They are usually open 7 ...
...a mattress we like at Bensons but we're still not sure whether we will order from them or try to find it direct on the internet. I guess it will depend on whether we can find it cheaper. Delivery costs £35 which is good but sometimes there can be a huge wait. This, and other peoples poor experiences puts me off. ...

nigelcross 01.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Bensons Bed Shop

more tills open please!

Advantages: Good access & parking, large stock, usually have what we want
Disadvantages: Scruffy layout, "Pound Shop" type piles of goods, long queues at till

...of the other reviews that Homebase was started by Sainsbury's. Homebase & sainsbury's each have a huge hangar on opposite sides of Manor rd. Both are pretty good for general stock, access, parking - but both spoil it by having so few tills open. When will shops realise that expecting people to stand in line for 20 minutes before paying is unacceptable. Its not that there's a shortage of staff either. The fault seems to be with management priorities. ...
...busiest days of the week for gardeners & DIY people off work - & found 3 tills open & long, slow, grumbling queues. There seemed to be any number of staff wandering about or filling shelves, but when we asked why they couldn't open another till to deal with the crush, we just got some vague "have a nice day/we value yr custom" reply. I'm partly disabled so I don't have a lot of patience with places where I have to stand too long or am constantly ...

Denbrowne 03.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Homebase (Shop)