Focus / Do It All (Shop)

...is like a supervisor) at Focus in Hertford, Hertfordshire and I have worked there for 4 ½ years. I was looking through the reviews for Focus and noticed that a lot of them were quite negative about the company, these reviews were written a while ago and things have changed since then, but I thought I should do a review from the 'inside' as it were. This review is not bias, it contains factual information and my honest opinion. STAFF I think our ...
...whenever you go to a Focus store there should be at the very least one person that has had a decent amount of training on what ever you need. CUSTOMER SERVICE We have it drummed in to us that the most important part of our jobs (and rightly so) is customer service. About 18 months ago the company introduced 'Mystery Shoppers', these are people from a contracted company that come in and shop and assess things like customer service, stock availability ...

motodoughnut 15.08.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

Last year saw a vast improvement both in the quality and price of their bedding plants. This year though I was disappointed to find them more expensive and less of a range. They'd also changed suppliers for their gravel so I couldn't get the same one that I'd used already on paths and gravel beds. I was told they now had a better range but I don't agree - the quality was very inferior - coarse chippings - and the price more expensive. As they are ...
...to buy plants and had a good browse but I've certainly spent less time and money there this year. The only improvement has been in their Pet World section where the pet food is quite reasonable. The service has always been poor and queues can build up before they open another till. There are one or two friendly assistants but a lot looked brassed off and I think I would be too with the poor management system - they're invisible. The only reason ...

concat 19.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

...more things to say about Focus with an overall view about the store: Staff The staff is very helpful, although very slow in responding. They also don't seem to have enough experience in their kind of product ranges. Product Range Their range is quite impressive. In some stores you can even buy pets and pet supplies. Their range of lighting products is outstanding and their kitchen units are good value and trendy. Locality The Focus stores are ...

Udo1 23.11.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

When my local Focus store in Whitehaven was to be helped by the addition of the Do It All range, I thought there may be some hope for a poorly run enterprise - how wrong can you be. No matter how many customers or staff are present in store, the queues at the checkouts are ridiculously slow. There is little evidence of what difference the additional three words 'Do It All' to the existing Focus moniker has made. The product range goes nowhere near ...
...cost, availability and staff support alone that Focus don't really Do Anything At All for me (unless the local shop has run out of lightbulbs and I need one in an emergency). Focus/Do It All could learn a lot about product range from the excellent Screwfix Direct or even B&Q. ...

harpo63 17.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

My local Focus / Do It All is in Castleford and lthough it isn't one of the giant stores it does have a eally good range of stock for the home and garden. I won't go into too much detail about what the shop stocks as it is much of a muchness of what other DIY barns sell. What makes the Castleford Focus / Do It All branch so special is the high level of customers service. ALL the assistants (male and female) are always friendly, chatty, will ...
...elderly mother bought a lawn mower earlier this year and although she only lives 5 minutes away by car ... she doesn't have one so the manager at Focus / Doi It All offered to deliver her the equipment free of charge THAT AFTERNOON. Now *that's* what I call service! ...

gailmill 13.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

Focus DIY in Bishops Stortford is excellent. It does all the usual DIY stuff - paint, tools,wood, building materials etc. It also has a pet department where you can purchase small pets, food, bedding, litter and other pet items. This department is good as you can often buy stuff in bulk, tehrefore making a saving. However the best bit about this Focus is the craft department - it's huge! You can buy stuff for every hobby imagineable. knitting, ...
...have yet to find a hobby for which it does not cater! It's one of those great places where if you're an arty/crafty bod you just want to have a good mooch around and end up buying something new to get you into an exciting hobby you've never tried before. ...

pagan 12.03.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

...over that. We went to Focus – Do It All, and bought some plain paper. There were three big rolls of paper left, so we bought a big roll of lining paper, and a small one just in case. When we used up the big roll, we decided to exchange the small roll for another big roll. Two weeks had passed since we first went and we were lucky to get more paper as we had the last one! After 2 weeks, you would have thought that they would have restocked the ...
...member of staff for advice on paint, the initial search took several minutes, and even then they didn’t know the answer, and we went on guesswork. Why is it that when you don’t want to talk to a member of staff they are everywhere, sitting around and chatting, but when you do want to chat to one, they all disappear and become very busy? The shop itself is not bad, fairly cheap with friendly(ish) staff when you get to find them! The layout ...

Amanda_Fowler1 27.02.2001 (08.03.2001) · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

...really not so sure that Focus is a shop I need to use at all anymore. I called in today, basically looking for a few small items – including a specific size of nails, and some brackets – and I came away with nothing. They either didn’t have what I wanted, or what they did have was very expensive compared to the other shops I’ve been into recently. I love the B&Q warehouse – and there’s no way Focus can compare ...
...Focus, but I still find Focus doesn’t come close. I'm not certain what it is that's changed ovber the years. I know at one stage they were linked with WH Smith, but this may no longer be the case. Whatever, the chain seems to be suffering from a lack of direction. Yes, I’ll still take a look in Focus if I’m looking for something different, and don’t like the ranges in other shops. But it’s really going to be a last ...

chrisOne 22.10.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

This shop sells plenty of cheap handy tools for people who do a little bit of diy at weekends. Anyone thinking of buying tools from here to use more regularly, full-time labourers you'd do well to steer clear of their cheap tools, because they won't last you a long time. You'd be better going to a local specialist tool shop. I've in the past thought I was getting a bargain hammer at say £3. Only to find a year latter that the heads come away form ...

Flashgordon 05.01.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

...called Kensington. I returned to Focus a week later and told them what cupboards I wanted. The staff were trying to be helpful but they were inexperienced and not really that helpful. I even pointed out what cupboards I wanted but they just couldn't help. I ended up having to get the right cupboards out of the shelves myself. All the cupboards were coded and they had the name of the design on the boxes. Then I discovered that they only had half the ...
...branch near to this branch. The colleague went off and came back five minutes later to ask what were the cupboards I wanted. I gave them the name and the code. They came back a further five minutes and said that that particular cupboard was available from a branch about ten miles away and could I go and get them from there. I went to this other branch only to be informed that they didn't have this particular cupboard but if I could wait until a few ...

lynnparfitt 10.02.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

why does everyone rate focus do it all as a diy store i wanted a new bathroom suite so itried focus only to find that i would have to wait at least 3 weeks for it to arrive ,it was not a special order off the shelf job so why does it take three weeks for it when if you go to b&q you could pick a suite and take it away with you at the same time so am i the only one who has a quibble about focus do it all or what? ...

derekley 03.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)

I’m a Ex-employee, 1 year working, when I started it was a tip, my store was the mockery of the entire working group, while I there the store manager had a nervous breakdown, and 4 managers left, morale was beyond down in the dumps and only the garden area got good reviews. After I had left, I returned only 6 weeks later to say hello and had a pleasant surprise, the shelves were filled, the people were working with a purpose, and still it was getting ...
...choice in my view I was constantly helping people in there even though I knew little about it, the range of stock in there though was huge and it was impossible to know all the Craft section and the rest of the store. Its range was the best part of it but also may have contributed to its demise ill miss you Craft Section(RIP). The staff don’t know much for about 3 weeks after joining then they settle in and know what the customers will want to know, ...

Red_Storm 20.11.2002 (28.11.2002) · Read full review
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Review of Focus / Do It All (Shop)