Wickes deliveries - scare tactics?

We order a lot of materials for our renovation from Internet suppliers. As with most renovators and builders these can be large deliveries or delivery of large items. Normally it's just not practical to thoroughly check every item on delivery. This is because there's just too much, the items are large and heavy or the delivery driver needs to get on with his round and not delay other customers.

So like most customers we sign for the delivery "Not Checked" and we've still got our statutory rights to fall back on. This keeps everyone happy, we can take our time and check the items properly whilst the driver can get on and deliver to other customers.

In the past we've only had one exception to this general practice. Having ordered a lot of solid wood worktops from a well known kitchen supplier all of which were warped on the 2 previous deliveries we made the delivery firm wait 4 hours whilst each was very carefully checked - 80% were bowed and unusable. As you may imagine we were not very popular especially as we then rejected the whole delivery and cancelled the order.

We are very concerned that Wickes appear to be trying to scare customers with this label on their larger items. The delivery driver advised that he had been told to "hide the labels" from customers! This would appear to be very unsatisfactory behaviour from a major retailer. This practice is not customer friendly and may imply that customers statutory rights are affected.

We did not want to unpack the doors immediately as they will be only sealed 2 at a time and if they are unpacked the risk of damage is higher. So we gave them a very brief check, ignored the notice and signed for them unchecked.

If you are buying and getting goods delivered from Wickes - take care, Wickes need to consider what damage this practice may do to their reputation.

Source : Anonymous - Barn Renovation Blog