Kitchen designers or salespeople?

With the busiest selling period coming up in the next couple of months I thought I would pose this and other questions about some of the major companies selling home improvement products and the problems a lot of people are going to have if they don't do their homework.

Over the past couple of weeks there have been articles on BBC's Watchdog programme relating to two of the major home improvement companies giving poor customer service and poor installations of fitted kitchens and bathrooms. At what point do these and other major home improvement companies take responsibility for what they design, sell and install or should I say who should take responsibility, the companies themselves? the salespeople? yes I said sales people not Designers because that is were I believe the first problem lies.

Firstly the salesperson's priority is to make the sale and get the commission, I know I have been there but even then I was honest, upfront and never sold anything that the customer did not want or knew what the full facts were about having a particular product in their new kitchen or bathroom would be.

Secondly these and other companies a lot of the time do not even employ people from the field that they will be now so called "professionals" in, so it is no wonder mistakes happen, don't get me wrong none of us are perfect or can profess to know everything, but I was always taught that "if you don't know the answer don't blag it", find out and get back to the customer, and it is very important to get back to the customer, do what you say you will do even if you know there is going to be a problem because burying your head in the sand will only make the problem worse.

Thirdly, people see up to 60% off sale headlines and they think they are getting something for nothing, 60% off what needs to be asked and you do not really get anything for free. Getting  people to sign on the dotted line there and then should be outlawed, if the company is honest with itself and it's customers then they should be confident enough that the customer will come back.

There will be "happy" customers from  these companies after all when they are on TV defending themselves that is what they tell us I.E " we fit over thirty thousand kitchens / bathrooms a year so it is inevitable that there will be a few problems"

The home improvement industry is big business so if you employ a chain of people who are not fully trained in their particular field then you can expect problems. Someone needs to take responsibility for the actions of the few, but the only way things will change is if the public vote with their feet, do their homework, take advice and go to a reputable company that will let them speak to previous customers, and Google "problems with" a particular company. Only then they can make an informed choice, because as long as there is a demand for a bargain then you will get what you pay for.

What do you think?