I ordered 40 lengths of deck board 3.6m x 140mm x 28mm on 8th July 2010.

I paid extra for Saturday delivery and it arrived on the first available Saturday, so it was a good start but since then everything has gone horribly wrong.

Only six of the original boards were of any good, so they were:
1) almost straight - not arcing by a deviation of more than 5mm per metre length
2) not significantly bowed
3) not split in places other than perhaps at one or both ends
4) inspected to have less than 5 knots per metre length
5) not damaged or broken in other ways such as being cut/warped by retaining straps
6) inspected to not have significant holes or gaps where knots had fallen out

The only reason why I bought from wickes is that part of my deck is already using their deck so I didnt want to have an inconsistent look to the surface.

I only ever buy the minimum amount of wood that I can work with or lay down to avoid warping whilst standing for more than a week or two.

34 pieces of wood had two or more of the above issues. You can imagine how shoddy this wood looked after I unpacked it.

I contacted Wickes Customer support (Becky) on 17th July and they told me it was i would be easier if I contacted the local delivery hub at St Albans and speak with them directly.

I understand that the depot staff may be busy, however after nine attempts to call them and being kept on hold for over 20minutes or just having the phone hang up on me, I started to get fed up. So a few days later I spoke with Matt who contacted the depot on my behalf and they promised to call me back. Still nothing happened. So after a few more days I spoke with Millie who did the same as Matt even though I asked her to agree a date to pick up the wood and deliver some replacement. My suggestion was declined.

So here I am again, on Saturday 7th August finding myself speaking to Chris in Wickes Customer support as I still cannot get through to the depot people. He said he would escalate to regional management, but I have no idea what that means and whether Ill get any resolution to my issue.

As far as Im concerned, this deck should be finished by now and I still need to order a further 20 lengths of deck.

All I can say is that despite how helpful Wickes Customer support tries to be, I just cannot get anything sorted.

Its worth noting that I have had my fingers burned by Wickes before when I bought some wood before which was bowed and cracked but was unable to resolve it with the manager in the Borehamwood branch in less than 30days as I couldnt find my receipts, so I was lumbered with (pardon the pun) over one hundred pounds of useless wood.