Wickes Andover - Andover

A C. -. H.

An absolute joke. We have had nothing but issues with Wickes during our bathroom renovation. The quality of the products that were delivered were so awful that we had to return them all and frantically find replacements in the same day from other vendors. Most of the staff have been completely useless and when you speak to customer care they tell you ‘There are many customers who have had the same issues with the same members of staff’ which is not want you want to hear. The store staff also refuse to liaise with customer care. We are still waiting for our financial compensation for all the damaged items yet no department is taking any accountability of making that happen. We will need to take further action to have this resolved. We will not be using Wickes for any further renovations.
We would name and shame the staff in question but we are above that and just advise not to use Wickes in general.

AngusAJM

I regularly buy from Wickes. This branch seems well organised and well managed.

Mark A.

This is becoming my go to DIY location. Easy to access. Plenty of stock. Clean and tidy. Team are friendly and helpful.

Michael R.

Staff definitely not a store asset.

After buying a bulk bag of gravel I was directed round to the yard to collect where I was told “someone will be there to meet you”.
Arrived at the gate and nobody was there or even interested in coming to talk to me.
I called the front desk to see if they could send someone out to which the woman responded “ no because there is a lorry unloading and I’d have to wait” I then said it would have been handy if she’d told me that when I paid for my goods. She then responded with “I’m at the front desk love I can’t see through walls” before hanging up!
So first she knew there’s a lorry there and next minute she didn’t. Very disappointing that she chose to lie and hang up instead of a very simple apology.
You can train staff all you like but you won’t train out that attitude.
I finally left with my order 1hr and 42min later.

Update 04/06/24
After Dylan from customer services quickly left a response to the original Google review offering to investigate the issues, I contacted him on the method indicated. Needless to say this was a hollow response as no reply has ever been received. Store staff issues are clearly the tip of the iceberg.

Mick M.

All the staff are super helpful makes shopping better

Vic (.

Terrible staff. My mum came in because she needed paint tester pots ready for decorating her house. She spent ages choosing her colours at the stand while two members of staff stood chatting nearby. After choosing her colours she asked the male member of staff if he could mix the colours for her and he actually laughed at her and said no. Then he asked his colleague if she could and she laughed and said no. Then he just shrugged at my mum (still laughing) and they both carried on their conversation like she wasn't there. It wasn't just unprofessional, it was downright rude. I actually got second hand embarrasment from their behaviour. You wouldn't talk to someone in the street that way, let alone a customer when your job is customer assistance. I work in a supermarket and would never get away with that sort of behaviour.

Andrew B.

Initially very promising. Our design specialist seemed diligent and professional. She carried out several visits to our property and worked with us to design our kitchen and bathroom. No concerns raised by her over our property. As others have mentioned though, the kitchen and bathroom section turned into an utter nightmare and we strongly encourage you to take your hard earned money elsewhere.

Allocated fitter visits, goes through the entire process and has no concerns with our property. He completely chins off COVID though with the words "I'm supposed to put a sheet up between me and the rest of the household whilst fitting. I'll be getting a video call from my boss midway so don't be surprised to see a plastic sheet go up as I'll be playing the game then". Comforting for those of us who've been working within the NHS.

When it comes to the fitting it all goes wrong. Essentially the fitter was out of his depth and looked for any excuse not to do the work. First he makes claims of infestation and downs tools (we live in the country, our menace of a cat had at some point brought a mouse (described by him as rats) into the house which had escaped and shuffled of this mortal coil under our fridge). We had to pay for someone to come out and complete a free from infestation certificate, which they didn't want to do as they believed it was a waste of both theirs and our time. However, our fitter insisted. Then he claimed we had the "worst damp we had ever seen" and downed tools. He then insisted on us having the walls dampproofed before he could carry on working. At least two other builders have stated this was a waste of our time and money as, considering the age of the property the damp was very minimal. He then put his foot through our "rotten wooden floor" and downed tools, leaving us to have to fill the void left by him before he could carry on the work. Again, yet another builder confirms that the wood wasn't rotten (neither of us could break the wooden panel he had, leaving us to conclude that he must have used considerable force, doing so deliberately).

As well as all of this their fitter ripped out all of our fittings, wrecking our walls in the process, then walked out leaving us with no kitchen sink, no food preparation areas, no water to the kitchen and piles of rubble we had to clear up ourselves to make the area safe for our children. In all it cost us nearly £1,000 to rectify all the damage caused to our property, some of which, but not all, has now been refunded by Wickes

As soon as things started to go wrong this store didn't seem concerned. Our design specialist refused to take or return our calls. Essentially, she'd taken our money and wasn't interested. When we finally had new fitters allocated to our fitting it was over four weeks later (all the time with no running water in the kitchen, no kitchen sink and no food preparation or storage areas) and they were brought in from outside the area with only three days allowed to complete what had been allocated as a two week job.

This team tried their best and the installation manager worked well with us but the fitting was very rushed. We have a tiling job that is underwhelming, had the wrong fixtures orders so have been left with a more expensive unit, which we categorically stated we did not want and edging that has been rather poorly joined (see photos).

We requested some extra work carried out on the fixture we did not order to make it more like the one we had. This third fitter was quite heavy handed when removing some of the shelves and, as well as telling us how he'd been laughing when he'd heard about what was going on in our property, left the fixture with a fair number of damaged areas. We were offered some stickers to cover this up but they aren't nearly big enough and the fixture now looks like something that was fitted to our previous Army quarter, not part of a nearly £8,000 brand new kitchen.

Wickes customer service do not want to know. Their tactic is delay and ignore. Save yourself a lot of misery and go elsewhere.

jonathan E.

The employees are abysmal. No interest in helping you, don't know the layout of their own store - or send you off in the wrong direction for their own amusement - items are hard to find due to insufficient signage. Queue to pay was ridiculous, 1 person serving while 4 others looked on with no intention of helping. Left items and walked out.