I like my local homebase store - the staff are helpful and the products are good. So when it comes to buying some £800+ worth of furniture for my living room, I thought I was in safe hands. But I was wrong. I placed my order in the store and paid for it in full, including the home delivery charge. The delivery date was clearly stated in my receipt, and there was also a reassuring line there stating that, should there be any problem with delivery, I would be informed. I received no warning of delivery problems before the date, so I took the day off work and waited at home all day long. Nothing came, no delivery, no phone call. I called up their customer service line to find out what was going on, and only then I was informed that, my order was there, the stock was there, but there was no delivery date assigned in the system, and they didn't know why. I was then offered an alternative delivery date, nearly 3 weeks later, but the lady on the line said there's nothing they could do to bring it forward. I also talked to the friendly local store people for advice, they again couldn't give me an earlier delivery date, but the store manager said that he had talked to the head office and I should email the customer service to get compensation, as they would be expecting me to do so. So I emailed the customer service as suggested by the local store manager. I outlined the problems that this missed delivery has caused me, and asked for homebase to cover my day away from work and phone costs for ringing their customer service line to get my order straight. After a couple of days I got a very short reply, saying that they can't be responsible for stock delays (which is a lie as they told me earlier the stock was there) and that it is the customer's choice to phone them so they won't cover phone costs, but they're offering me a £5 voucher to compensate for all my troubles. The email was in such a I-cant-care-less tone, to be frank the £5 was more humiliating than nothing. Shame I can't quote the email here for all to see as it is protected by the small prints. I was fuming after that and called up their customer service line to complain, the front line agent again is pretty powerless, but said she'll ask her manager to call back in an hour. No call came in 2 hours. I called up again to try to speak to that manager, and again the agent said that she'll make sure he calls in an hour. But again no call back. After that I gave up. If homebase can't stay true to its word, what good it is trying to talk to them? So weeks went by and my second delivery date was looming. Although I was supposed to receive a call the day before delivery to confirm, no call came through. I got nervous again and tried their customer service line to see whether things were ok - I don't want to be off work again for nothing, but the phone queue was so long that I couldn't get through. So I turned to my friendly local store manager for help. He's about the only positive experience I have with homebase throughout this process. He personally phoned the head office and called me early morning on the delivery date to say it is definitely coming. And thankfully, it did. My experience is nothing compared to some horror stories that I read here. Oh I wish I read some of them before I tried to do a home delivery order with homebase, then I would think again. Out of all my furniture and home furnishing delivery orders I ever placed, homebase is the only one that messed me up badly, all other orders came in time and, even at times when there were issues, communication was good throughout. To sum up, here's what I find most annoying with homebase: 1. Not staying true to its words. Breaching it's printed contract, not fulfilling what was promised, and letting the customer bear all consequences. 2. Customer service that doesn't care, gives conflicting information and makes empty promises. 3. Unreliable IT systems. About the only reliable part of the system is to do with payments. Other essential parts - like ensuring delivery date is assigned in this case - cannot be guaranteed. I once made an online order of a few small things and the system crashed after submitting payments. The order didn't complete, though my credit card still got charged. Though that's a story for another day... This is my first time writing a bad comment on trustpilot, and hopefully my last time. I feel sorry for the store staff at my local homebase, they deserve praise rather than complaint. Like me they're let down by the head office - though their bad customer service and inability to deliver products.