Dunelm - Tell them what they want to hear

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Owd Jockey

Established Member
Joined
11 Jan 2018
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Location
Shropshire
Background
I recently decided to store all of my turning tools in one of those large plastic storage boxes, you know, the ones that go under your bed. The minimum length needed to accommodate all but one of my tools was 600mm. I noted that Dunelm were advertising 600mm x 400mm boxes at only £5.50. Ordered one on line for Click and Collect at local store (10mile round trip) and wife picked it up. When I tried to load the box I could see the tools would not fit, the dimension of the box, even using the outside, was 585mm x 385mm. Ok, no problem I'll take this one back and upgrade to a larger one for £8.50. Got my money refunded and could see there were 4 remaining of the larger boxes........................but with no lids! Approached staff, who said "that's strange" and confirmed there were no lids "in the back". So I returned home...........box-less.

Because of value of the item I had not read any of the reviews on this box, if I had I would have seen that other customers had complained about the advertised box sizes and that the lids broke quite easily (explains why there was a lid shortage!). A day later I received an email from Dunelm asking about my experiences in this purchase. I posted a review back on their online form, stating that other customers had had issues with the advertised dimensions and lids, and that they should amend their advert, perhaps to include the word approx[?], otherwise what is the point of giving feedback?

Rejection

A day later I received an email from Dunelm containing the following:-


dunelm.jpg


I did not give any personal information and certainly did not use inappropriate language, so I suspect it was me suggesting that the shortage of broken lids was down to people returning their broken lids. I did not resubmit a Review, but did reply back suggesting they open a branch in Moscow. This is the first time I have come across this form of censorship, which does not bode well.

Anyway, in the end I did get my plastic box from Argos
 
I had the same thing with an Amazon review about safety gloves advertised as large, when they arrived they were size 8 which are not large. Pointed it out in a review in a factual way and Amazon bounced it for more or less the same spiel you got.
 
I once had an amazon seller with a photo of stabilo boss pens and when they arrived it was a different make/brand, eventually got a full refund but the guy was a d**khead, first offering me a 50% discount, then 75% and really pushing his luck, I tried to leave a review of his store but it got taken down, in the end I went to rymans and bought the real thing, I've been censored with several reviews I've tried to post, it's best to use a third party like trustpilot e.t.c so that the company can't take it down, you'll often find much more honest reviews on there and a more accurate picture.
 
The reply "from Dunelm" was probably from some poor soul paid minimum wage on zero hours contract whose boss yells at them if any negative reviews slip through the net. I doubt it's a considered corporate response. I bet they have systems which flag below 3 star for a human intervention. If you want to try a game, give the product 3 stars but use the same words, add a positive what we did well "gave me my money back quickly when I saw the product wasn't as advertised" and see if it gets published.

I don't do reviews at all these days unless it's a positive after some stunningly good customer service.
 
A good case of where actually seeing the item before purchase is much better than buying blind and having to believe the description given. A lot of these cheap plastic storage boxes get used for items that do not have fixed dimensions. Another option is to either make a nice storage box that would be much sturdier or buy something commercial like

https://www.rapidracking.com/en/rra...5DAtfEAAYAiAAEgLNivD_BwE#productBeginIndex:0&
https://www.plastor.co.uk/storage-boxes-by-feature/heavy-duty-storage-boxes/
https://www.bigdug.co.uk/storage-boxes-containers-c363
 
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