Everything's a Marketplace

[Jono8]

Is anyone else a bit fed up of the growing trend in retailers becoming marketplaces? Everyday, it seems like some other well known retailer is now a front for any Tom Dick or Harry with stuff in a warehouse they need to flog.

B&Q , The Range, Robert Dyas etc etc

Sometime its extra irritating (B&Q for example), as google search results take you to products that aren't actually sold by B&Q/that you can collect locally etc.

It just all seems fairly pointless. Might as well just stick it all in one big city sized warehouse complex and have one website.

/rant over.jpeg

 

[Jono8]

Yup, I hate it. Amazon is a complete mess as a result, but has been for years - people must be looking at their revenue and trying to copy suit.

Type "armchair" into Dunelm for example. 247 results. Yeah, right.

It just dilutes the offering and confuses what places actually sell (ie type, quality, brands, styles etc).

Yep. Even worse is when sometimes the same product is called something different on different sites as well.

 

[Jono8]

Just stop buying from them then.

My point was that this option is getting more and more limited as more and more retailers are doing it

 

[Jono8]

The problem being 9 times out of 10 it isn't

Yep. It's very depressing, but i try and do all DIY/light construction stuff myself now, as from experience, most tradesmen are total garbage at their jobs.

This is not to say there are not some very good/skilled people out there, but they are few and far between and hard to find.

 

[Jono8]

Was driving me crazy today. I was trying to find an unusual item, kept thinking it was for sale at places like B&Q but it turned out to be just another random third party.

Yeh. I've been doing up my house and B&Q is the nearest hardware/materials place to me (sometimes I need things quickly/delivery cost is too much etc) , and far too many times I've thought they would have what I need but it's actually sold by a third party on there.

It's just frustrating. I find the click and collect filter doesn't work all that well either.

 

[Jono8]

Indeed - a good tradesman is worth their weight in gold, but filtering out all the dross who call themselves "tradesmen" because they've bought a 15 year old van off ebay and have a couple of paintbrushes or went to college for 6 months is a job in itself.

If I'm doing the job myself it may take a little longer, but I know it will be done to a standard I'm happy with, and will almost certainly cost me significantly less

The amount of hassle our neighbours have had with the various jobs they've had done is unreal.

They had their windows done and had to have the company back 4 times due to poor fitting, leaks, mismatching trims etc.
They had their drive done, and the drainage was not up to scratch, causing water to pool at the edge of the house causing damp inside.
They had their back fence done and the fitting is awful - gravel boards not flush with the ground in several places meaning gravel pouring onto our lawn - I ended up fitting new gravel boards underneath on our side.

Personally I'd only get someone in if it's legally required (e.g. gas & electrical work), more dangerous than I can be bothered to deal with (e.g. roofing work), or the required tools are prohibitively expensive.

I had loads of seperate tradesmen coming around to finish bits/snagging on my last house which was a new build and the variation of competency was ridiculous.

The plumbers were by far the worst. Couldn't fix a slightly leaking bath trap until the 4th attempt and the guy reinstalling the shower due to having to have a cracked tile replaced just shouted and swore in frustration the whole day he was doing it (which to be fair, was amusing). The general jack of all trades bloke was rubbish too and didn't really know what he was doing. The guys that laid the patio were hilariously stupid. Their first attempt was abysmal and three of them were tasked with digging the depth down for hardcore and they had just one spade between them (!). The list goes on really.

The only good ones were:

-The mastic man, who I was in awe of. How easy he made doing nice clean lines of sealant was ridiculous.

-The tiler, who made a pretty good job of everything, including an extra bit we paid him to do outside of the official channels!