I wanted to buy some bark clippings, Wickes seemed to have a reasonable product and, according to their website, my closest Wickes branch had 14 bags in stock. But in fact, they had none. The assistant there asked if I'd checked their branch on line and I said yes, and they showed stock. He checked while I was there and agreed that their site showed stock, but said they'd been out of stock for a while. When I said what is the point of showing stock if they don't actually he have any, he said: "No point". He said that the nearest store with stock was Minworth - 40 miles away. So when I got home I phoned customer services. The guy there apologised and said he'd speak to their IT dept. I pointed out that there were around 20 stores showing stock closer than Minworth but did they actually have stock? How would I know? He eventually agreed to contact the two closest stores and get them to call with with what their physical stock was. Having heard nothing for 24 hours, I called customer services again. This time, their representative said he would call the next closest store and check on the stock; he couldn't get through so told me that he had emailed them for a response - he promised that he would then call me with the relevant stock info. I heard nothing, so decided to risk another trip, and did actually get the bags I wanted. Moral of the story: don't believe Wickes's online store stock figures and don't expect their customer service teams to act on what they promise.