Further to last week's leader, in which I extolled the virtues of great customer service, I must recommend the staff a B&Q Leatherhead (and B&Q everywhere, from my experience) for their bend-over-backward helpfulness when I called in last week to buy loft insulation. They didn't make me feel stupid at my inability to work out how much I needed but instead appeared impressed by the product knowledge I'd gained via the Internet and they backed my choice, which filled me with confidence. They made sure I had everything I needed before offering to take my purchases out to the car.

See - I said happy customers will recommend stores and products and here I am sharing my good experiences with almost 8,500 KBzine readers!

Sadly I can't do the same for the surveyors employed by SIG to determine my needs for the Government's offer of free loft and cavity wall insulation... Having ascertained that my home was suitable, the installation was booked in. As agreed, I emptied my attic - no mean feat I have to say - and cleared the furniture, fixtures and fittings from one wall of my sunroom (which is an exterior wall of the house). I also dragged all my many enormous, heavy shrub pots to the other side of the patio, so the installers had a clear working area.

When the installers arrived, I learned that my attic did not qualify for the scheme as more than a third has been converted and that I wouldn't have been able to return my belongings to it for storage anyway (as discussed with the surveyors) without first raising the joists, as the insulation is too thick for the loftboards to go back down. Then I learned that the cavity wall insulation couldn't go ahead, as despite the surveyors having said that the installers could put their ladders on a bridging system to access the area above the sunroom, scaffolding was needed instead.

So, a lot of time and effort for nothing and one very unhappy customer (well - not even a customer as it turned out) who doesn't have nice things to say about the company...

I gather that these surveyors (and others like them for different companies and industries) are generally paid on the leads they provide, so they take little care over whether the work can actually go ahead.  If you're involved in the installation side of the KBB industry, is this something you encounter too? If you have a story to share I can promise complete confidentiality...

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs