diy.co.uk ( B & Q ) > Reviews (19)

DIY.COM.
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What is diy.com?
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Diy.com is the online store of the company B&Q stores. This website enables you to visit B&Q from the comfort of your own home and have full access to most of the products that there stores have (This excludes Paints and Wallpapers). You can place your order online and have it delivered direct to your door, however you should be aware there is a fee for delivery (see below).

About DIY.COM
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When you visit the online store of B&Q, you are offered a variety of options and features, which B&Q now offer. These options are mainly to shop online but also include a store finder facility, shop by brochure feature, Services offered by B&Q other than diy products and diy advice pages.

Shopping Online with B&Q
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To shop online with B&Q you need to have access to a credit card to pay for your goods, security and arranging your home delivery. Either you can use the search facility provided by B&Q to search for the products you wish to buy or you can simply browse each departments from the side links on the homepage. The departments you can choose from are `Room Solutions`, `Heating and Cooling`, `Walls and Floors`, `Finishing Touches`, `Appliances`, `Garden`, `Tools and Materials`, `Special Offers` or `Online A-Z`. The site is very easy to navigate and when you use the search facility of the site it will provide you with a list of all products from all departments that include the keyword you typed in the search box. To list all the products available to purchase online from B&Q is endless to be honest so the easiest way to put it, is, if they sell it in B&Q or it, is diy related then B&Q are very likely to stock it and sell it online. (This does exclude paint and wallpaper though as this is due to the damage that can be caused during delivery, especially of liquids such as paints.) The site also offers you access to all the products that are available on offer from B&Q at that pacific time allowing you to still bag a bargain online as well. This section is easily accessible from all of the B&Q web pages by clicking on the link at the top of every webpage, this link is easily viewable by the red writing clearly showing `Special Offer`.

Ordering / Payment / Delivery.
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To order the items you want from the site is easy to do and very straight forward to access the products. Once you have found the item/items you wish to purchase you simply type in the quantity you wish to purchase in the box next to the product description and then click the add to basket button next to the box. When you have finished adding all the products, you wish to purchase you can check your order and proceed to the checkout procedure by clicking on the view basket link situated at the top of the web page in the centre of the screen. You can do this at anytime during your order as well and edit and remove unwanted items, then continue shopping as well.

The checkout procedure is very straightforward as well. First, you need to find your address with the postcode finder and supply your home telephone number and email

address for order confirmation details only. When you have done this, you need to enter the cardholder details by informing them if the delivery address is the same as the cardholders address, if different, you have to complete the relevant sections. The next step is about delivery, firstly B&Q request a few details about access for delivery such as steps at property and access to the street of delivery, and providing there are no problems here, you will then be taken to the page for arranging delivery. When delivery is, arrange B&Q will provide you with there earliest possible delivery date, if however this is not suitable you are able to select a date after this from the drop down menus to suit you. Once this section is completed, it is time to finalize your order. Next, you are requested to enter your card details, security details and expiry details to arrange payment. B&Q accept all major credit cards for payment of your order. Your page is sent to a confirmation page where your must check all the details of your order, delivery address, contact details and payment details are correct and you must then confirm they are correct. Once you have confirmed they are correct you are sent to a page quoting an order reference number and order details, this is available for you to print but you will also be sent an email to the email address you provided confirming you order for future reference.
Minimum delivery for your order from B&Q is 48hrs, but this is dependant and obviously will vary depending on the time of day and the stock levels in the B&Q warehouse.

DIY Advice Feature.
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This is a very helpful feature from B&Q allows you access to inspirational ideas for your home from interior to exterior renovations for your home. This feature also provides you access to a buyers guides for `Flooring`, `Networking`, `Pressure Washers`, `Mix and Match Bathroom Suites`, `Garden Trimmers`, `Tractor Mowers`, `Chainsaws` and `Lawnmowers`. These guides are there to help you decide which product is right for the job in hand. Another feature on the DIY Advice section is the Project Calculators; this gives you access to features such as Imperial / Metric Converter, Wallpaper Calculator, Tile Calculator and even Radiator BTU Calculator. Also on the DIY Advice section is a `How to Project` section which and give you some great help and advice on things such as painting and decorating to fix it yourself at home tasks. One final feature to this section of the site is the section if you are planning a new fireplace or a new kitchen feature. It enables you access to B&Q free online kitchen and fireplace planner feature that will help you plan out your kitchen or fireplace and give you all the information you need to know with regards to exactly what you need to purchase to complete the project you have designed.

Other Site Features.
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B&Q offer you access to there free store finder from there homepage, this will help you to find the store nearest to your locations postcode. All you need to do is type in your postcode in the box provided on the store finder page and click go. B&Q will then show you a list of the ten stores nearest in distance to your postcode and list them to you via nearest first down to furthest last. This is also great and informative as you are given the exact address and postcode of the store and its store contact telephone number. These details can be very useful for use in checking stock of the store before leaving home, and the postcode can be used with Sat. Nav. if you have it and are unsure of the way to the shop.

B&Q nationally dispatch shop brochures regularly and have them available to order online, it also gives you a feature to order online easily from the brochure in its order by brochure feature on the site. You can simple add the codes of the products in the catalogue in the box provided and the quantity and it will auto add whatever stock you have ordered direct to your basket ready to go to the checkout feature, providing it is in stock.
Finally, the web also offers you full access to the links for contact details of B&Q, there privacy statements, site terms and conditions, copyright laws, site map and details of the sites security features.

Help & Advice.
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DIY.COM has a complete section on help and advice which can be visited from any of there web pages and product listing pages by clicking the link at the top of the pages called HELP. The feature gives you access to help and advice on many subjects including shopping, payments, delivery, returns, refunds, registering, accessibility and much more.

Other Services by B&Q
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DIY.COM and B&Q now offer access to a wide variety of other services and features now as well as diy products. These are finance and home services such as appliance care, gas and electricity supplies and credit facilities. They can also arrange for installation of products, extended warranty features, health and safety features, design consultancy and much more. All the information for these products are available online but some of the features such as finance have to be applied for from your local B&Q store.

Site Security.
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B&Q boasts a 100% secure shopping feature on there online store, they state that this is possible because they use the following features. They use SSL (secure sockets layer) in there ordering and payment facilities and that all transactions are processed by there secure server in an encrypted format for added security. This process will also be securely closed immediately after the transaction payment has been processed for even more added security.

My Opinion.
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I have ordered any times from the diy.com web site over the last few years since the site has been using an online ordering facility and I personally have never had any problems with the service they offer.

I feel they offer a large selection of products for me to be able to browse through and purchase from the comfort of my own home and for a small delivery charge, I can have the items delivered direct to my front door. I feel the site has great security features to protect me from the possibilities of internet fraud and I am able to place my full trust in security features they boast. Whenever I have placed an order with B&Q I have been very fortunate in the fact that I have never had any problems with regards to there delivery of my goods and the fact there all my items have been delivered to me with no items missing. The returns procedure with B&Q is extremely easy and straightforward if you do have any problems and there customer services

will be able to sort the problems for you immediately. An example of this is, a while ago when B&Q were still offering home delivery on paint products. I order some paint for home delivery and when it arrived, the paint had opened in transit and spilt all over the rest of my order. I phoned the customer helpdesk on the number provided and they were great, even though some of the products would still be ok as I could wash them off, B&Q did not want this, immediately dispatched a complete new order free of charge, and returned the cost of my original orders delivery fee. I must say going on that instance, I was extremely surprised at how helpful the customer services of B&Q really was. I can now however understand why B&Q have decided not to sell paint and wallpaper online as it is extremely hard and costly for them to arrange safe and secure transit of these items.
In my own personal opinion with my own personal experiences with B&Q in mind, I am happy to Highly Recommend diy.com and give them an amazing 9.6/10 for the quality of products and services they have available online.

Happy Shopping......