Resolving complaints
Advice from the KBSA
The following advice is given by the KBSA to consumers and suppliers in the Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom and Home Office sectors.
The KBSA is the trade association that sets standards in these industries and its members are continuously vetted to ensure that they maintain the strict criteria for membership.
We offer the following advice and suggested methods of resolving complaints against KBSA retail members:
- Please check your contract to ensure that you have complied with the terms that you agreed to.
- As home improvement installations are disruptive and sometimes complicated, do check that your complaint is justified and of sufficient seriousness to warrant a formal complaint.
- In the majority of cases, a complaint can be resolved by calm explanation of the problem to the supplier who, in turn, should be able to take action to remedy the situation to mutual satisfaction. Some complaints get out of hand when either or both consumer and supplier lose patience with each other.
- Because of the nature of home
improvement contracts there are sometimes delays in products being
available at exactly at the right time. This can result in extending
the time taken to complete the contract. Products found to be damaged
on delivery may need to be replaced and if these products are from a
European source then lead times up to six weeks can occur. On these
occasions you should be reasonable with your supplier as they do not
have any means of speeding up the process.
- Some complaints are not about the quality of product or installation but are generated in order to achieve a discount on the agreed contract price. If there is an outstanding balance due on your contract do not invent unreasonable complaints in order to reduce the balance owed as this will lead to a breakdown in communication between you and your supplier and the likelihood of legal expenses to recover the debt.
- The installation of a home improvement is not a perfect science and there will be reasonable tolerances that would be considered as acceptable. Whilst all parties would want to achieve the very best installation possible please consider, before initiating a formal complaint, if the issue is one which can be solved amicably between consumer and supplier.
- Whilst it is ideal that a complaint is handled quickly and efficiently, there can be situations when suppliers cannot respond immediately to the problem due to resource or product availability. It is advisable to give the supplier reasonable time to resolve the problem rather than become distressed that the problem has not been addressed immediately which can lead to unreasonable fault finding on the remainder of the installation and an escalation of a small problem into a larger one.
- Over 99% of installations carried out by KBSA retail members have no need for remedial work or complaint procedure and their continued success is dependent on their performance at all levels. They, like you, are intent on achieving the very best levels of service and customer satisfaction and referral so they should act quickly and reasonably to address and rectify any justifiable complaint that you may have with their performance.
Making a complaint
If, having considered the above advice you still wish to pursue your complaint against a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or home office retailer, please follow the steps below:
- Is the retailer you have a complaint against a KBSA retail member? To check this search using the 'Find a specialist' search option on this site.
- If the retailer is a KBSA retail member – click through to KBSA complaints procedure.
- If the retailer is not a KBSA retail member, please contact your local trading standards office.