Nonsensical policy on B&Q website

[noth...@aolbin.com]

I was going to order something on the B&Q website but when I tried to
checkout as a guest it said my email address had been registered
previously and asked for my password, which I couldn't remember. A
password reset request didn't work and the damned website wouldn't let
me checkout as a guest because I had previously registered - bl**dy
madness.
I ordered the item I wanted from Amazon for the same price with next day
delivery.

[John Rumm]

On 30/09/2022 19:34, noth...@aolbin.com wrote:
> I was going to order something on the B&Q website but when I tried to
> checkout as a guest it said my email address had been registered
> previously and asked for my password, which I couldn't remember. A
> password reset request didn't work and the damned website wouldn't let
> me checkout as a guest because I had previously registered - bl**dy
> madness.

Having control of your own domain is handy at times like that, you can
setup a forward instruction so that bandqar...@mydomain.com
forwards to your real email, and use that instead :-)

> I ordered the item I wanted from Amazon for the same price with next day
> delivery.

Yup, that is another option!

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\=================================================================/

[Joe]

Most websites will do this, though normally the password reset works.

Worth having more than one email address. If you have an Android phone
(and presumably iOS also) you must have one of their email addresses.

I also have a Hotmail address that's so old that it predates the MS
takeover, and is just my name, no digits. Unfortunately when your main
domain has problems, it's no good trying to use any MS email address to
discuss anything technical with the DNS host, as MS blacklist you for a
day for being naughty enough to include a domain name in an email.

--
Joe

[mm0fmf]

On 30/09/2022 20:40, Joe wrote:
> as MS blacklist you for a
> day for being naughty enough to include a domain name in an email.

Sounds like cobblers to me. I have sent thousands of emails using a
hotmail.com address that include domain names, weblinks, email addresses
etc. and they have never been blocked or I have been blacklisted by MS.

[Andy Burns]

noth...@aolbin.com wrote:

> the damned website wouldn't let me checkout as a guest because I had
> previously registered

clearing cookies, or using incognito mode would probably get around that ...

[alan_m]

On 30/09/2022 19:34, noth...@aolbin.com wrote:

> I was going to order something on the B&Q website but when I tried to
> checkout as a guest it said my email address had been registered
> previously and asked for my password, which I couldn't remember. A
> password reset request didn't work and the damned website wouldn't let
> me checkout as a guest because I had previously registered - bl**dy
> madness.

Ah, B & Q

They don't allow "special" characters in the passwords BUT when
resetting a password they will accept anything you type in without
question but then reject it when you try and log in with a message that
just says " password/user not recognised" if it contains one of the
(unpublished) characters that are not allowed.



--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

[Brian Gaff]

Its not just that site, I wanted to do a survey on a council web site but I
could not recall the password, All attempts to do a reset of the password
failed, no confirmation emails etc. Seems that more stringent testing is
often needed on web sites

Brian
--

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This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
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Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
<noth...@aolbin.com> wrote in message
news:jpor6a...@mid.individual.net...

[Chris Green]

CPC have a similar problem, it took me quite a while to fathom out
what was going on when I gave a password with special characters in
it. I now have just numbers and letters in my CPC password. (They
may of course have fixed this now, it was quite a few years ago that I
hit the problem)

--
Chris Green
·

[Joe]

Earlier this year I needed to change ownership of a domain, which had
to go through ICANN. DNS to the domain was disabled, and I was sent a
message by email to confirm something to get it enabled again. I had
given a contact email address on a different domain, so that trap
didn't catch me, but the different domain also used my mail server and
hence the MX record of the disabled domain...

I tried sorting this out using my Hotmail address, but without success
as my email to my domain host bounced and I got a message that I had
been blacklisted for a day due to content. I tried again next day (just
over 24 hours later), with exactly the same result. So I dug into the
DNS records of my alternate domain and set up another A record and
changed the MX to point to it, and got email for that domain working,
and sorted things out. It would have been rather quicker had the Hotmail
address worked. And the Hotmail address does work for sending test
emails without controversial content, which is what I usually use it
for. But I do only use it a few times a year, which MS may have taken
into account.

--
Joe

[billy bookcase]

<noth...@aolbin.com> wrote in message news:jpor6a...@mid.individual.net...

>I was going to order something on the B&Q website but when I tried to checkout as a
>guest it said my email address had been registered previously and asked for my password,
>which I couldn't remember.

Its nonsensical to require customers to "register" simply so as to
purchase relatively low value items using a secure payment method
to be delivered to a designated delivery address, in the first place

Unless they're offering tangible benefits by way of discounts to
customers who volunteer to be bombarded with their endless offers

A person using credit cards stolen from gyms has apparently bought
thousands of pounds worth of gear in the Apple Store in Regents Street
OTC; so B&Q are worried they might then go on to use the card to but a
few packet of screwss online be delivered to the cardholders address
but to be intercepted on the way

> I ordered the item I wanted from Amazon for the same price with next day delivery.

In the past anyway, the B&Q site was rubbish to start with. And if you could
eventually find what you were looking for, you'd inevitably find the price
could always almost be beaten elsewhere. By Toolstation, Screwfix, Amazon,
or Ebay sellers if already signed up; or simply one of the numerous online
sellers who don't require you to jump through hoops before they'll grant
you the privilege of being able to buy things from them - some maybe offering
Paypal.


bb

[alan_m]

On 01/10/2022 10:27, billy bookcase wrote:

wanted from Amazon for the same price with next day delivery.
>
> In the past anyway, the B&Q site was rubbish to start with. And if you could
> eventually find what you were looking for, you'd inevitably find the price
> could always almost be beaten elsewhere.

+1 for most things

You can not trust the web indication of stock levels in their stores.

The last large item I ordered from them was one of those plastic garden
tool sheds (large box with doors and lid). For once they were approx 30%
cheaper than I could find elsewhere (incl. delivery)

I tend to only use B&Q for the odd bag of sand, cement or plaster as
it's the nearest shed and factoring in the cost of petrol cheaper than
more distance sheds for low value purchases.

Both Screwfix and Toolsatan are next door to each other and closer than
B&Q.

[Chris Green]

alan_m <ju...@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Both Screwfix and Toolsatan are next door to each other and closer than
> B&Q.
>

Well just one of them couldn't be next door to the other could it?! :-)

(That 'Both' is redundant)

--
Chris Green
·

[billy bookcase]

"Chris Green" <c...@isbd.net> wrote in message news:oakl0j-...@esprimo.zbmc.eu...

Just so long as he didn't forget his PIN number when it came to paying.


bb

[Jeff Gaines]

On 01/10/2022 in message <th9f4c$1bgcm$1...@dont-email.me> billy bookcase
wrote:

:-)

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not
expect to sit.

[noth...@aolbin.com]

I doubt it because the problem arose after entering an email address

[Andy Burns]

I wasn't talking about the apparent deadlock of them saying an account using
your email addr is already registered v.s. you saying a password reset never
arrives.

I was talking about the idea you can't checkout as guest because it knows you
have an account. That can't rely on the account since apparently you're locked
out of it, so it must be cookies (or other local storage) remembering you've
tried to login but failed, and you have something in a guest trolley.

[noth...@aolbin.com]

During checkout as a guest the website (as most do!) requires an email
address, but it then moans that the address has been registered ...
that's the nub of the problem. 'tis not related to cookies. Using a new
email address would, clearly, have worked around the problem but it was
easier to buy elsewhere.
I'd only meant this as a quick moan and hadn't expected the responses.

[Andy Burns]

noth...@aolbin.com wrote:

> During checkout as a guest the website (as most do!) requires an email address,
> but it then moans that the address has been registered ... that's the nub of the
> problem.

so give them a different address ... get a disposable one if you don't have your
own domain <https://temp-mail.org/>