B&Q: 15% off till monday voucher

[still_adrianth]

At the top of the B&Q homepage is a banner of rotating ads. If you watch it for a while (or click on it quickly when it first loads), one of them is for 15% off everything till Monday, and lets you click through to a page that allows you to print a voucher to use in store, or gives you a code to use online. I've just used a voucher in a store and it works, even though I didn't see the offer advertised in the store.

I had noticed online that they currently have 40% off a nice Makita cordless drill. When I got to the store, there was a big display of them further including the 101-piece Makita accessory kit (£39-93) for free. And then my 15% voucher applied on top of this, so for £75 I got what would have cost £200 at their alleged full price. Seems like a very good deal even compared to online prices, though I didn't look exhaustively.

Hope this of interest to someone; I'm off to look for things that would benefit from holes, preferably in lots of different sizes!
Adrian.

 

[Lime]

Thanks still_adrianth.

 

[Penners]

Thanks from me, too. I've printed out my voucher - now I have to think of something to buy!

 

[robgil]

I've been told by people that when a large shop like B&Q have sales , somewhere in the UK there is a B&Q shop that sell things at really high prices, this means when they say £100 off they are not lying.

 

[childrenanddogs]

Thanks for that. I shall be tootling off to buy some insulation tomorrow!

 

[still_adrianth]

I've been told by people that when a large shop like B&Q have sales , somewhere in the UK there is a B&Q shop that sell things at really high prices, this means when they say £100 off they are not lying.

Yes, I've seen lots of small print saying something like "Item was offered at the full price at x stores for y weeks..." They all do it. That's how a half-price bottle of wine at Tesco costing £x tastes like a £x wine not a £2x one. Fortunately, for tools the web lets one check other sellers easily.

The web is a wonderful thing. When I was a kid, my Mum's Dad told her to use sugar soap before painting rather than sanding if possible. She asked for it at a hardware shop and got a block of granular stuff about the size of a sanding block. Naturally, she rubbed this on the woodwork like a sanding block. She's a clever woman, my Mum, and this wouldn't happen now due to things like this forum!
A.

 

[AMc]

I've been told by people that when a large shop like B&Q have sales , somewhere in the UK there is a B&Q shop that sell things at really high prices, this means when they say £100 off they are not lying.

Yes, I've seen lots of small print saying something like "Item was offered at the full price at x stores for y weeks..." They all do it. That's how a half-price bottle of wine at Tesco costing £x tastes like a £x wine not a £2x one. Fortunately, for tools the web lets one check other sellers easily.

Its a legal obligation that you offer goods at one price for a certain period before you can claim to have discounted them in a sale. It doesn't matter if your a little shop or a national chain. If you're a national store it is much easier to do - I've also seen items advertised as offered for sale at the higher price on their website which makes it very easy to do - all you need to do is add it to your inventory you don't need to sell a single unit.

One off items like that Makita drill are probably legit as B&Q can make a massive bulk purchase and negotiate a big discount from the manufacturer. It doesn't significantly undermine the other retail channels as Makita are a professional brand and this means B&Q will be more likely to stick to the RRP on their other products rather than undercutting the trade outlets on a regular basis.

From what I understand the supermarket pricing is different to other retailers in that they are prepared to lose money on some items on the assumption that you will make up the difference in profit on other items in your basket and may even buy more as your tricked into thinking the whole shop is 'cheap'. I sometimes buy wine at £5 a bottle in Tesco and the Co-op on offer which is half price then - when I see it for sale at £10 a bottle on a subsequent trip I don't ever buy it - but I do believe its the regular price.

Tesco recently noticed I hadn't been using my clubcard thanks to Waitrose home delivery offering me a succession of £5 off vouchers. So Tesco sent me time limited vouchers offering £12 off an £80 spend voucher and 2 more £8 off £80 spends. I went in on Friday and bought a trolley of half price wine, got my £12 off and another 5% discount for buying more than 6 bottles at once which equated to another free bottle of wine.

Its usually worth checking your receipt as I've fairly regularly been charged full price on items that have been advertised as on offer. Usually because the offer has expired but the pricing is still on show and doesn't have a date. Also worth knowing that if Tesco overcharge you then they pay you back twice the difference.

Yes, I am a bargain hunting, drunken cheapskate....

 

[Penners]

Tesco recently noticed I hadn't been using my clubcard ... So Tesco sent me time limited vouchers offering £12 off an £80 spend voucher and 2 more £8 off £80 spends.

Oh yes, this is a technique that we use all the time. Give a supermarket a couple of home delivery orders - then stop. You'll invariably receive money-off vouchers from them. :wink:

I don't call that cheapskate - I call it playing them at their own game.

 

[Penners]

Well I popped over to Bee & Koo today, and bought various odds and ends that I shall need in the next week or so. They totted up to £50 (surprising how quickly you can spend that much on just incidentals!). So the 15% discount was worth the trip - which I would have had to make anyway.

Many thanks, still_adrianth!

 

[philpjuk100]

Just come back from a trip to "Focus" big signs in the window giving "UP TO 50% OFF" but very little left,little timber,no slabs,bricks,blocks,sand,gravel or cement.OH NO! sorry! must not swear.I belive that B&Q will be taking over the newark branch of focus so all is not lost.

 

[Feltwell]

B&Q have bought about 30 of the ex-Focus stores - others have gone to Wickes and a variety of non-DIY stores, others will just simply close.

I've been told by people that when a large shop like B&Q have sales , somewhere in the UK there is a B&Q shop that sell things at really high prices, this means when they say £100 off they are not lying.

This has been done in the past and was almost the norm in the 1970's and 80's but it's much less common now. Certainly in my 7 years of work at the head office of a major retailer, which lasted up until 5 years ago, it wasn't done at all.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

hi there great post we have going there.

Can anyone else smell Troll?

 

[LadyArowana]

hi there great post we have going there.

Can anyone else smell Troll?

Now now Gareth, you know from "the other place" that that's a very offensive comment to be making in my presence, and anyway I had my bi annual bath just last month so there should be no issues with my personal freshness quotient. :lol:

 

[Penners]

B&Q have bought about 30 of the ex-Focus stores

Do you have any idea which ones, Feltwell? Specifically, is Beccles among them?

 

[Feltwell]

The list hasn't been released Penners. B&Q are stuck in a daft situaton really - they want to take over 31 stores now, and transfer the staff straight into B&Q employment. However, the Office of Fair Trading want to look at the deal first - and some stores B&Q may be forced to sell on rather than re-brand. The OFT are dragging their heels, if they don't get a shift on and come to a decision very soon then the administrators will start to make the staff redundant.

We're talking 700 people here. If they have to go through statutory redundancy then it is not only a big effect on the people concerned (although I realise some will be hoping for redundancy) but it will cost the taxpayer up to an estimated £3m in statutory redundancy and benefits, my source reckons. The silly thing is, 31 stores is small beer - B&Q already have around 350, and these additional 31 are all small format stores in small market towns that B&Q has not targetted in the past. Estimates are it will increase their market share by less than 1%.

 

[Penners]

Mrs P was in the Beccles branch the other day. She asked a helpful chap what he was going to do when the company finally folds. He just looked very glum and said, "I have absolutely no idea, and I have a family and mortgage to support".

I do hope the OFT can be persuaded to cut through the red tape and save as many jobs as possible. Slim chance, I fear.

 

[Feltwell]

Beccles shuts on 22 June according to the administrators website. You can only hope that is prior to it being converted to a Wickes or B&Q. I too doubt that the OFT will move quickly, it's not exactly something they are renowned for.

I must have been approached 4 or 5 times about roles with Focus at their head office - I was never tempted, despite it being very close to where my family are. Focus have teetered on the brink of administration many times over the years.

I do feel very sorry for all their staff, I know some of the head office team personally. The office is in Crewe - and there's not a lot of employment round there, no retailers of any size have their offices near there. Crewe is a railway town and had a station that all the trains stopped at - now most go straight through. The loco works is a Morrisons, the carriage works have all but gone. Rolls Royce cars have moved to Goodwood, Bentley is still there but they employ a fraction of the staff they used to. It's not a great place to be looking for work. Stoke on Trent is an easy commute but that is in just as bad a state, if not worse.

 

[LadyArowana]

I really wish that some enterprising person would open something like Bee and Koo here. Would you believe we have absolutely no equivalent to the DIY shed type place. In general people don't "do" their own stuff, they get someone in. I Suppose it's a chicken and egg situation, with no demand because no supply. The professional chaps have to source from lots of small places, some will just do paint or light fittings, whatever.