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The joys of screwfix counters

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Gavin John Hyde

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Just gone along the road to screwfix to pick up a click and collect order for tomorrow before they close. Place usually like a ghost town this time of night.
However, There is a lady at the counter with a pile of stuff including a small consumer unit, a box of sockets, switches etc and some twin and earth. She is having a conversation with the guy behind the counter who is being more than helpful in selling her all the bits and discussing her planned job.
She intends to wire up her shed with power and lights now spring is coming and is doing it herself. I know most of the staff in the store and he says to her you need somebody like him (me), she says how much would it be? I said ball park figure depending on cable run and the condition of existing stuff, clipped direct/conduit? etc.. £500+ if it involves a long supply cable and rod.
She said thats far too much and she is going to carry on doing it herself! I said I hope you are going to notify it and test it afterwards. Her response was a classic... My partner will help if i get stuck!! Is he an electrician? No hes a teacher! , what about yourself? Oh, I am a community mental health nurse!
Surely there comes a point with these stores where they have to stop people being a risk to themselves and others in buying things they dont really understand... She might have read a book and watched youtube but is not competent to do the job.
I have long thought that certain stuff should be restricted and only available to people in the trade and qualified or accredited somehow.
 
Nowadays people don't know their limits because they haven't been introduced to what they can and can't do - it used to be that kids were taught how to do DIY, had a go them selves and consequently knew how to do it. Now nobody is allowed to do anything because "health & safety" unless they've had 'training' and got a certificate to go on the fridge, until such a time comes that they are expected to know how to do everything, like after buying a house or being given a position of responsibility, such as a teacher.

The papers are always keen to tell us that nobody can do the kind of things our grandparents did - wallpapering, darning socks, servicing a car, changing a plug... I suppose having a go at wiring a shed is one of those empowering things that no adult should be told they shouldn't do.

I sometimes wonder what the future has in store, what with children 'graduating' through every stage in life where we would have just got on with it - is it a bit of harmless fun or does it teach the idea that you can't do anything unless a higher authority has officially legitimised it with a certificate? Will it be left to the NHS to scoop up the bodies of recent university graduates who have starved to death because they never got their groceries badge?
 
neither did a local independent (who questioned why they were necessary - so I simply suggested would he want brown or black ones on his new shiny £10K plus kitchen ......... and left)

I think I can guess where that was, and which member of staff it was. He always has to have an opinion on what you are buying and the way you should do the job.
 
limit sales of plumbing and electrics to tradespeople, and you had to prove you were actually a Spark or Plumber by showing your qualifications, and so avoid selling to non qualified people,

When I signed up to electrifix they wanted proof in the form of scheme membership, they had to phone the office to check whether my C&G qualifications were good enough!
 
When I signed up to electrifix they wanted proof in the form of scheme membership, they had to phone the office to check whether my C&G qualifications were good enough!

When I signed up they just wanted proof that I had a certificate relating to electrical works, they asked for my membership number but as to whether they contacted them I have no idea.
 
When I signed up they just wanted proof that I had a certificate relating to electrical works, they asked for my membership number but as to whether they contacted them I have no idea.

However, when they opened our local branch they gave Electricfix membership to anyone who asked... No proof!

This seemed to be a common policy at the time, there is a thread on here (from about 6 years ago) discussing it.
 
My regular supplier always has a full wild boar,on a spit-roast,and nubian eunuchs,serving honey-mead...

I think you lot need to find establishments,willing to try harder...
That aussie firm who have taken over homebase give out free hotdogs on a sunday in Oz. I am hoping they do the family sizzle events in teh uk, but suspect it will attract the wrong crowd! should offer it to people spending x amount only. you wouldnt mind homebase prices then if you get a hotdog!
 
Whilst not disagreeing with the safety aspect of wiring or gas installations by unqualified people, I always find it strange that no mention is made of the ability of anyone to buy car brake or steering parts, and to fit them. Surely the danger risk is far greater, potentially many people injured or killed as oppossed to one. Also how many safety minded qualified electricians use their phone, eat or drink whilst driving? A high number I'c guess, but of course that 8s suitably forgotten.
 
That aussie firm who have taken over homebase give out free hotdogs on a sunday in Oz. I am hoping they do the family sizzle events in teh uk, but suspect it will attract the wrong crowd! should offer it to people spending x amount only. you wouldnt mind homebase prices then if you get a hotdog!
With the new owners taking a £584M write down on the business I don't think that will happen.

The trouble in the UK is you just get the scum abusing it, look at the Black Friday event a few years back with people going mad for sh!te TV's or the opening of the new Ikea store in Enfield.
 
With the new owners taking a £584M write down on the business I don't think that will happen.

The trouble in the UK is you just get the scum abusing it, look at the Black Friday event a few years back with people going mad for sh!te TV's or the opening of the new Ikea store in Enfield.
When they bought the company it turns out homebase had millions of quids worth of stock sitting in warehouses they had forgot about, i learnt this as when in a store i asked what the heck they were doing with spice girls wallpaper in 2017! they said then about the old stock and how this mountain of plastic storage boxes was part of it and thats why they are so cheap - they had sat in a warehouse for close to a decade. they have turned some homebase stores (mainly small dated ones with short leases) into clearance stores where this random stock goes to be sold cheap, they are then going to close some warehouses as they are surplus to requirements. the random stuff ranges from fittings, storage stuff, tools and furniture. its a case of what they find next in the warehouse. I bought a new light fitting that had a faded old homebase logo on the outside for a tenner, back in 2009 when on sale it was £49.99, so cant complain
 
When they bought the company it turns out homebase had millions of quids worth of stock sitting in warehouses they had forgot about, i learnt this as when in a store i asked what the heck they were doing with spice girls wallpaper in 2017! they said then about the old stock and how this mountain of plastic storage boxes was part of it and thats why they are so cheap - they had sat in a warehouse for close to a decade. they have turned some homebase stores (mainly small dated ones with short leases) into clearance stores where this random stock goes to be sold cheap, they are then going to close some warehouses as they are surplus to requirements. the random stuff ranges from fittings, storage stuff, tools and furniture. its a case of what they find next in the warehouse. I bought a new light fitting that had a faded old homebase logo on the outside for a tenner, back in 2009 when on sale it was £49.99, so cant complain
The HB in Earls Court was demolished and the are being turned in to flats the one in W12 is closing down in the next year or so and flats are being built on the plot, who the f!!ck will want to live in a flat on the side of the A40?
 
and this is how it sounds at home . mind you, Anfield has gone downbank, even allowing Geordies in these days.

if you look closely, that's me, the guy in the middle, just behind the "play" arrow
 
I wonder if Dan could tell us if on the plumber's forum they have all this debate regarding DIY gas jobs?Maybe a staff member could bring this question to his attention it would be interesting to know with their gas safe.
 
I wonder if Dan could tell us if on the plumber's forum they have all this debate regarding DIY gas jobs?Maybe a staff member could bring this question to his attention it would be interesting to know with their gas safe.
Recently had a problem with my Baxi combi boiler (hot water, no heating).
Found on Google someone who had had the same problem and had visited a couple of forums.
The advice given was either incorrect, or to get a Gas Safe engineer in.
 

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