Are all the main kitchen suppliers really that bad??

[aslander]

We are looking for a new fairly large kitchen. Magnet's quote seems high even with 50% off plus an extra 30% off the range we like and 0% finance. It works out no better than the quote we had last year. They seem sneaky in where they apply the discount and make up for any supposed savings elsewhere. Some reviews are shockingly bad, especially the after care/customer service side. Diabolical reviews in fact. Same with Wren.

Is this really the case? How bad can they really be? I feel nervous spending so much knowing I'm likely to have problems further down the line. I know there's the likes of DIY kitchens, Howdens etc so need to look. Also, has anyone had a second nature kitchen and if so is it any good? Thanks

I think they’re all terrible. We had a really high end kitchen and paid a fortune and it was so badly managed and in the end it took longer to order the kitchen and get it fitted and it did to renovate the entire house!

I've got a Wren kitchen, 9 years old now. Still looks like new. Had no problems with them at all and the quality is excellent.

The actual kitchen is mostly okay (though not as high quality as you'd expect for the price) but I can agree with the reviews you've seen that Wren's customer service is absolutely diabolical.

Try Kutchenhaus. We used them, they price matched our quote from Wren and we are really pleased with the kitchen.

Have a look on Youtube for a video by Nick Morris, who erects and compares equivalent kitchens: 2023 UK Kitchen Comparison - Wren, DIY Kitchens, Howdens, Magnet & Wickes Review.
I came across it the other day - and watched it all despite not being in a market for a new kitchen!

I wouldn't touch Magnet even if they were giving me a free kitchen - that's how bad they were to me with regard to after installation problems.

We have a Wren kitchen, its only two years old but the customer service was excellent, from the designer to the delivery people and replacing an incorrect part by next day courier. We didn't use their fitters though.

I've used both howdens (with their design service) and ikea (designed just collected and installed myself)
Both excellent value and good service.

Heard bad things about Wren.

We have a Howdens kitchen designed by them and fitted by our builder, its excellent we can't fault it. They came up with ideas we hadn't thought of.

We got our kitchen from, and fitted by Homebase. We had a really good team and no problems with it. That was in 2017 so a while ago now. It still looks good.

My husband fits kitchens and bathrooms as well as lots of other home improvements like windows, carpentry etc. has a great reputation, long established . Fits many makes. His advice is to source a kitchen from where you like eg b & q, ikea, wren but don’t use their in house fitters who are just on a rotating list of contractors to them, could be anyone and many are rubbish. He rates Wren for the actual kitchen and showroom service, but not their fitters. Howdens is good, ikea ok (but often deliveries are incomplete and all ikea kitchens need modifying for Uk plumbing). Overall he says kitchens are very similar, high end showroom units are often no better quality than the run of the mill b & q. The difference is ALWAYS in the fitting, particularly the ability of your contractor to get around unknown modification requirements; the flooring, the tiling, project management and good plumbing. So buy from where you like - but source your own fitter by going onto Facebook and asking for a local recommendation. He gets all his work and always has done via word of mouth, his waiting list is 12 months long. Don’t risk check a trade or rated people - contractors who need to pay to be on those sites can’t be that good . Good luck

On the contrary, having priced around we had a fantastic price for the kitchen that we wanted from Magnet. Everything went smoothly and the quality is brilliant - nothing flat packed. They use local fitters to you so I suppose that can make a difference, but ours was brilliant and we've since had him back to do some tiling for us. This was 2 years ago now though.

From what I've read, and experience, the kitchens are often fine but installation is a fiasco.

I had a kitchen from Benchmarx (identical kitchens to Wickes but the carcasses come pre-assembled). We had a quote from both and Benchmarx was a bit cheaper in our case. We found our own installer who was absolutely fantastic. Really took pride in his work. No problems at all. Kitchen is wonderful.

My parents recently had a whole kitchen, bought and installed by Wickes, and it was horrendous. Broken doors, wonky units, leaks, gaps. No-one would take ownership of the problem. It took nearly a year for the work to be completed after going to the ombudsman. They got some compensation but it was awful.

I would never use their installers but I would buy kitchen stuff from them again. Doubtless if you're willing to source everything separately you might save money.

Came on to say the same as @HedgehogB, get your own fitters. Several friends had Wren kitchens fitted in the last year, the one who used Wren fitters had a nightmare of a time, shoddy workmanship, terrible timekeeping etc etc. The kitchens themselves are lovely.

We recently used a local independent firm who did all the work themselves-family business so it was in their interest to be reliable & do a good job. The pricing was completely transparent & on a parr with the mid/upper range in Wickes. They were our 'wild card' quote, so pleased we went with them so don't discount your small local kitchen suppliers.

We used DIY Kitchens and are happy. I have friends who’ve used Howdens and were happy, but it does depend on what trade discount you can get - for us, DIY were about 50% of the cost of units alone. I agree a good fitter makes a crucial difference.

It helps if you can remove your old kitchen yourself first, make good any shoddy plaster, if you're needing tiles, get yours up first and the floor levelled. These are all DIY jobs, only snag might be cooker, but ours was just an old plug in type so it it went. It made it so much quicker for the fitters to finish up, and there were no "sorry, but you need to sort that wall out first" type of conversations.

We used Wren, but not their fitters, the kitchen is great, customer service was very good, one wrong cupboard replaced immediately. The price was really good for the kitchen units at the time and we didn't buy their appliances, etc, which were not on offer. The design was a bit of a fiasco, we knew exactly what we wanted, but getting their designer to do it that way took a few unnecessary iterations. The guy who came to measure up was really good and gave a few suggestions that were useful. Added solid wood work surfaces from another supplier.

I've concluded the more you spend on something, the more likely it is to break when it's just out of warranty.

I currently have a broken (very expensive tap) and electric shower (never buy aqualisa - expensive and crap) whereas my very cheap 20 year old towel rail has only just kicked the bucket.

Kitchens - Ikea are pretty good I think. I used Howdens last time and wouldn't recommend them.

Basically this.

We had an excellent joiner who had an excellent team of subbies to do electrics, water softener etc., it is four years old this year and still looks like new.

We had Wickes supply and fit our kitchen in 2017. Absolutely fine. Wickes fitter (Simon) was a dream, kept everything clean and tidy and kept us informed every step of the way. He found that a very minor part was missing from our order so he dealt with it and came back on a Saturday morning to fit. 6 years on we are really pleased with it.

So the consensus is to use our own fitter which is fine. We do know someone reliable but likely no availability for a year! Does anyone else have experience with magnets? I've read so many bad reviews I'm now really disappointed as thought we were getting our dream kitchen from them!

We took a gamble and ignored the bad reviews and went with Wren. It was hassle free and the kitchen looks great and stands up to heavy use from a family of 6 and two dogs. It was pretty cheap bar the worktop which we spent more on, and it won't last forever but it's pretty good so far

We had a Wren kitchen three years ago and can't fault it. Didn't use their fitters though, we had a local firm come in and do that, which worked out cheaper. One of the cabinets turned out to be the wrong size, and as soon as the fitter found out we contacted Wren and they sent a replacement out the next day.

Wren were really good, especially as we and the fitters had to re-schedule delivery and installation several times due to the original delivery date being at the start of the covid lockdown.

Wickes were very good. (This was pre pandemic )
The two men we had were brilliant.

We walked out of Magnet mid-conversation when it was obvious that the salesman, without asking what our budget was, told us that they were very expensive, and didn’t do a budget range. We bought a solid wood, Italian-made kitchen and quartz worktop from somewhere else.