New Kitchen

In theory, thats what the install service is supposed to be / sold as. on the paperwork i even got a named person as being our "coordinator".........never spoke to them once

I've told the mrs that our next kitchen is coming from rightmove!!!
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
I think I'm just going to stick with my policy of moving house when I need a new kitchen.

Seems like you can do all the research in the world and still get ripped off.

Is there a company out there who will sort everything? Design, delivery, install, appliances, electrics, plumbing, plastering etc?

Ideally I just want to go to a showroom, pick a kitchen, they then project manage the whole thing including measuring and planning.
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I do the opposite, I pick a house with a $hit kitchen and then move in and do it up. When you selling? :ROFLMAO:

I get Howdens to measure up and go through the detail, then get my mates trade business to get the price from Howdens, then I rip it out, move any sockets or whatever, I do any filling of big holes or whatever, get it skimmed (if it needs it), get my mate to fit the units in his "off time", and get the Hartlepool reproduction centre (furniture fireplace granite) or whatever it's called, to sort the worktops. Takes a bit longer and can be a bit stressful the first time, but once you've done it once or twice it's easy, I usually end up paying 5k for something that looks like it should/ would have been 20k.

I reckon I could do my own next time, other than lift in the quartz worktop.
 
I have got Bren to cancel my order and give me my money back and cancel my finance agreement. I have now just placed an order with Tcaz, they are coming out to measure and will do the install if needed. This is also almost half the price I was paying Bren, so have dodged a bullet.

As said above when trying to deal with Bren nobody would give me their surname, nobody is willing to take any responsibility. I was even told by a guy called John , I didn't need his surname as he was the only John who worked for Bren customer services.
 
Emmersons_BrazillianDong said:
We've always used Howdens and always been happy with the quality. We're just getting another sorted at the minute.

Design and price from Howdens via our fitter and then share that quote with their competitors to get some better comparison quotes to take back to Howdens to beat those.

Was so close to going with DIY Kitchens who I've heard nothing but great things about from those in the trade but ultimately the work I had to do in designing and ordering the whole thing was too much for me. I was worried I'd fcuk the whole thing up whereas the CAD design done by Howdens was brilliant.

The benefit of Howdens is there's so many trade stores and stock is always really close to hand.

I've just shared our Howdens quote with Wren today to see how much they can knock off our quote and will do the same with all of the competitors too.

From the research I've done, Wren seem to be storming things because of the credit as some have mentioned above.
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MSE advice is usually to get the cad design and list of units etc from howdens and send it direct to diy kitchens, they will then directly price match it and you can use that in the way that you have done with other suppliers to bring price down further. If you do end up going with them it’s based on the existing howdens design, and installers generally like it as the units arrive assembled
 
The_Big_Woodowski said:
Or rather lack of it.....

Has anybody had any dealing with a well privately owned kitchen company, with a green banner and a bird as its logo? Rather than name them we will just call them Bren Kitchens.

If you haven't then I suggest you stay well clear!!

My kitchen was delivered on the 15th April, we proceeded to open the kitchen at it became apparent each unit was damaged. chips in the caucus's, wonky doors and shelving, scratches and scrapes all over the internals, blobs of glue, much stuck to the glue, edging peeling away and uneven colours on the door fronts.

we are sending back 38, units frontals, we are keeping two work tops a sing and 2 plinths and the appliances - which are yet to be opened due to issues with available room in my house.

We raised a complaint on that day, and each day thereafter only be told we would be called back at said time. The call back never came. We have spent the best part of the week on phone trying to get this resolved.

After 4 days the said company have agreed to replace these in 10 working days from when they placed the order. Advising us not to book any trades men until 10 days after this has arrived in case they have any issues then they will have time to get a replacement out.

This is a goodwill gesture on their part, and I quote

"We have agreed to replace the items in the absence of a full review, after reviewing your pictures I am confident a proportion of the items are merely cosmetic and are of satisfactory quality. The goodwill gesture I have extended it to replace these regardless."
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Oh no Mam’s just bought one! It was all very flash - it reminded me of a car showroom from a customer service and employee attire point of view. I wasn’t keen anyway as they are a big doner to the Tory party but I was overruled lol!
 
Jimmy_Salmon said:
I’m considering using diy-kitchens.com for our renovation. There’s quite a lot of work to do yourself in terms of basically designing the thing in the first place but I’m told it’s worth it for the amount of options you can choose from and ultimately the cost. I’m sure there are numerous resources to draw inspiration from.
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Get a design drawn up by howdens and send it to diy kitchens and they will match it for you saving you most of that design work.

Howdens may also match their price, depending on the discount level your fitter is passing on to you as it’s practically random what each fitter gets
 
Joy_Division_Oven_Gloves said:
Oh no Mam’s just bought one! It was all very flash - it reminded me of a car showroom from a customer service and employee attire point of view. I wasn’t keen anyway as they are a big doner to the Tory party but I was overruled lol!
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We did the same, went with the posh showroom, I wanted to look elsewhere but wife over ruled. Big regret...

Some advice if you will. These are the bit that where thrown down my neck from my first contact with them due to the poor quality of the product.

Be sure to read your contract.....

Clause

3.0 cancellation

3.1 cancel 28 days before delivery period
3.3 allows you cancel in cooling off period.

2.10 even though they measure if it is wrong you are liable as they expect you to check the order and make sure it fits exactly as you expected.

6.3 installation - essentially don't book an installer until 10 days after you have had all products delivered and checked. If any are damaged then they have 10 working days to get replacement. Any additional or abortive charges are your fault (I was told I was in breach of contract as I booked an installer the next day)
 
TheFair86 said:
Get a design drawn up by howdens and send it to diy kitchens and they will match it for you saving you most of that design work.

Howdens may also match their price, depending on the discount level your fitter is passing on to you as it’s practically random what each fitter gets
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Do Howdens actually give you a copy of the design? I thought most places just show you the design on a screen to prevent you from doing exactly what you’ve just described?
 
TheFair86 said:
MSE advice is usually to get the cad design and list of units etc from howdens and send it direct to diy kitchens, they will then directly price match it and you can use that in the way that you have done with other suppliers to bring price down further. If you do end up going with them it’s based on the existing howdens design, and installers generally like it as the units arrive assembled
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I ended up doing exactly this in the end and saved £4000. It's madness really.

I really wanted to try DIY kitchens because I've heard nothing but good things but it was just too much of a hassle and Howdens promised to beat any competitor's quote by 10% of the difference between their original quote and anything cheaper that I found.

Kitchen all ordered with the benefit of all items being in stock and there being 2/3 stores within 10 miles
 
MrMacca said:
I'm currently trying to get a kitchen fitted but we are struggling to find anyone.

Do you have any recommendations Boro in Devon?

We originally had a quote from Kitchens Plus bathrooms which started at 32k, then went to 26k and then it went to 21k. We didn't like the fact they could drop the price so easily so we decided against it.
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we used Steve Smith Joinery to fit our kitchen last year - he's pretty busy but does good work. he then did a friend's on our recommendation and they were pleased as well
 
Emmersons_BrazillianDong said:
I ended up doing exactly this in the end and saved £4000. It's madness really.

I really wanted to try DIY kitchens because I've heard nothing but good things but it was just too much of a hassle and Howdens promised to beat any competitor's quote by 10% of the difference between their original quote and anything cheaper that I found.

Kitchen all ordered with the benefit of all items being in stock and there being 2/3 stores within 10 miles
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So did you get a quote from DIY that howdens’s then price matched against?
 
Jimmy_Salmon said:
So did you get a quote from DIY that howdens’s then price matched against?
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I got Howdens to come and do a full CAD design and chose the kitchen that we wanted.

From there they provided an itemised quote which I shared with DIY kitchens. Their quote, like for like was a few grand cheaper so I went back to howdens and asked them to beat it, which they did.
 
Steve Duck from Skelton fitted ours 25 years ago and it is as good as new. Doors , drawers , work surfaces , in fact everything. He has fitted 2 other houses in our street in the last 6 months and they are delighted. No subbies and everything from start to finish done by his firm.
If you want quality and longevity you pay for it. If you want something to last for a couple of years then go elsewhere.
 
i got a new kitchen from http://www.jandmcabinets.co.uk/, and have nothing but praise from them..no pressure at all,everything was exactly as specified and most importantly on time.they make the units in their warehouse on sotherby road,so if anything were to go wrong ,they could rectify it immediatley,wouldnt use anywhere else now
 
Low_Key said:
you can get a trade account at Howdens even if you are a member of the public, at least i did in order to get a kitchen quote 2 years back.

For fitters https://www.instagram.com/solo_kitchens_/ my mate gaz runs solo kitchens and is excellent but busy as ever
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Trouble with this is the amount of “discount” they give to tradesmen varies wildly and probably isn’t an accurate reflection of what it’s likely to be if you just open a fresh account?
 
Try simply Dutch free standing kitchens you don’t need a kitchen fitter and the kitchens look well smart.
 
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