Kitchen, bedroom and bathroom installers have reacted angrily to cost saving measures that they claim are being employed by a number of the major multiples.
In particular, they allege that B&Q, Magnet and Dolphin have all decreased their payments to installers by at least 5% in response to the downturn in the market.
B&Q comes in for most criticism, with some installers suggesting that the company has abandoned its support and is deliberately offloading its most talented and best-paid installers in favour of cheaper labour.
The situation with B&Q is blamed on its decision to hand installation work to Divisional Service Providers (DSPs) who now manage all sub-contracted fitters.
"I know of two fitters who I used to manage and the DSP's aren't giving them work," former B&Q employee Eddie Curtis told kbbreview. "The obvious reason behind it is they would rather take Joe Bloggs from the street and probably give him 25% less. That's how they make their margin. It's inevitable. Why would any businessman pay someone on a 10% margin when they can pay someone else and get a 25% margin?
"B&Q's defence would be that they're sending it to a middle man [the DSP] and telling them they aren't supposed to get rid of existing fitters. They're supposed to still give them work, but that isn't the case."
Another B&Q fitter we spoke to agreed: "Last year was generally poor, due to a lack of sales and to B&Q giving fits to teams from out of our area," he said.
"We received no support or help or any kind or understanding or assistance from B&Q during last year and no pricing reviews took place to our benefit. What seemed to happen more often was that we left a happy customer but were later subjected to huge recharge debit invoices because B&Q had decided that another fitter was required to attend site and re-do work that the customer was more than happy with. Maybe this was another way to bolster B&Q's budget? We terminated our contract with them recently."
He also identified the main problems as stemming from B&Q's decision to move installation management to a third party DSP.
"It all started to go very wrong when the installation service was taken away from the store," he claimed. "Life was so simple when a salesperson sold, a member of the store ordered the stock and arranged the fitter, then everything was 'in-house' and so much better. It would save B&Q millions if this was adopted again."
B&Q refused to speak directly to kbbreview but did release the following statement: "Details of the relationship between ourselves and our third party installers are confidential and we would never reveal information on rates of pay and levels of work. While economic conditions remain challenging, our priority is to ensure that we retain a continuity of work throughout the year for our installers and as such we have invested heavily in ensuring our pricing structure as well as our cost base is as competitive as possible in order to secure a steady flow of work for as many of our installers as possible."
Meanwhile a spokesman for Magnet commented: "Contractual and payment arrangements regarding sub contractors are an internal matter. Magnet's policy of employing quality fitters with high standards of workmanship has not changed and there is absolutely no basis to the claim that we are now employing second rate fitters as a means of saving money."
