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

Obvious that the salesman couldn’t lower himself, that should have said.

I work for a small independent kitchen supplier so am obviously biaised but wanted to echo a previous poster in saying please don’t discount your local independents. Not necessarily more expensive (as most seem to assume) and you’re pretty likely to get much better customer service than the Big Shed providers. Be very wary of the crazy discounts too. As for door providers - Second Nature do a range of great doors. We use them. But look at the cabinets too. Are they supplied pre assembled? What thickness is the carcass? All things that make a big difference to the staying power of the kitchen.

Definitely worth checking about the procedure if things go wrong too. If a door is damaged - how long is the lead time in a replacement? What warranty’s do they offer on cabs? Doors? Appliances? Surfaces? You can get supply only and hire a local/recommended fitter. The discounts are always a hook. You’ll still pay the same amount however they dress it up. The only good deal from the Big Sheds is 0% finance. If they chuck in a free dishwasher you can be sure they’ve altered their margins to cover themselves. And be wary of time
sensitive deals - sales person trying to meet their targets for the week and again the cost will be worked in elsewhere. Always get comparison quotes!

I remember once getting a kitchen all priced up from the big sale they had on at a large kitchen retailer. It was ready to go, but we had a bereavement in the family so halted for a while. Went back some months later, quote out of date so needed repricing, no sale on at the time. Kitchen quote came out at thousands of pounds less! Salesman realised what was happening while he priced it up in front of us and awkwardly tried saying oh I must have missed something, and flapped around. We gave up at that point.

We have had 5 kitchens put in from various different places, both large and small. None have been great, some have been utterly abysmal. Next one we are doing ourselves and getting an electrician in for the little bits we can’t do. The plumbing isn’t complicated. Never again can I watch grown men make such a big deal out of ripping a kitchen out or turning up for 2 hours a day to do bugger all or any of the other various ridiculousness that went on with every single fitting. Even if I don’t do a great job at least I’ve not spent a fortune and lost my mind with the stress of it. I hear DIY kitchens are good quality.

I had my own fitter and also used DIY kitchens in 2020 and would recommend/use again.

Had the plans drawn up by other kitchen providers which I then copied onto the DIY kitchens site. I ended up saving a couple of thousand by doing it this way.

DIY Kitchens for me.
Couldn't stand the 'sales' approach of WREN. Having seen their kitchen I was thinking of going with them but the slimy salesman put me off.

DIY is great. You can design it yourself with their online tool or take in a design from somewhere else and they will use that to fit their units. I love that most of their cupboards go up in 50mm sizes, so with a bit of jiggery pokery with individual sizes you can make it bespoke. Their showroom is amazing - every space saving/labour saving solution you can think of - and you get free resh coffee or tea with cakes made in their working kitchens. If you are anywhere near (or even not so near) it's worth a visit before you make up your mind.

Before I bought mine, I took my sister to show her what I was thinking. I live quite locally, she lives in Bristol. 2 weeks later she phoned me to say that she had spoken to one of her friends about it who were just about to place a £30k (large) kitchen order. They have relatives close so came up for the weekend. They ended up buying from DIY for between £15 and £20k and later feedback is that they are still very impressed.

Mines a small kitchen and the units were £3.5k with all the bits

Oh - and one damaged unit. Sent photo's and it was replaced within the week

They are all as bad as each other, as far as I can tell.

I've used Optiplan (terrible installers) and Wickes who delivered a granite worktop that didn't fit and then tried to claim it was my fault. I had to call their CEO and threaten legal action to get them to replace the work top. I was without water in the kitchen for four weeks. 🙁

They all price things to prevent you itemising any individual elements.

We had designs done by Howdens, Magnet and Wren, all remotely initially by zoom initially due to Covid restrictions, but we were able to go into showrooms for follow up. The Wren service was the best by a mile, nothing was too much trouble for the designer who tweaked and tweaked and listened to everything we asked for and made good suggestions himself. Magnet and Howdens just knocked up basic designs, didn't make any real suggestions, didn't seem all that interested in listening to us. All three were much of a muchness price-wise.

Howdens here but I'm related to my fitter so I only pay the cost no fitting.

We have a DIY kitchen which was fitted by a joiner, with plumber, electrician coming as needed.

including plaster boarding the whole room, tiles, paint, appliances (only thing not inc in flooring) cost about £7K 3 years ago.

had no issues with anything we bought.

We have a Howdens kitchen and are really pleased with it - decent price and customer service good too.

We used a local kitchen showroom and their fitters. It was great - fabulous service and I love the kitchen. We looked at the bigger sellers like Magnet etc but the value was better from our local one.

Our Wren kitchen is absolutely fine. We used our own fitters (a proper joiner) and our kitchen designer really cared about getting it right for us. He was quite new and green behind the ears but obviously very passionate and had a good eye for it.

We didn't have a single problem with delivery - everything was as it should be.

I think most of the big ones are much if a muchness its the quality of the fitter that makes the difference.

Hated the Wren sales pitch, very aggressive imo.
In the end went with Howdens as our builder recommended a branch where he knows and likes the people, we were right to go down that route. Designed by me and them, fitted by our builder. Looks good and works well seven years later.

Wait a year for a good fitter. You won’t regret it. Crap fitter and in a year’s time you will still be tearing your hair out so what will you have gained? Grey hairs? . Loathe to just big up my husband (who is a perfectionist and stressful to live with but excellent if you are his customer ha ha) but the amount of people who say ‘sorry mr HedgehogB I wish I had just waited for you’ is sadly too large an amount. The fitter makes the difference - and his or her support team of gas / electric / plasterer people. If he’s good he will have a long-standing team to call on. Be patient it will pay off. Ps avoid magnet 🧲 I say.

My DSis has a Howdens kitchen and she loves it. Looks really good.

My friend had a Wren kitchen and has had nothing but problems with veneer peeling off doors, hinges breaking etc. The service from them has been terrible.

Thanks for all your responses. It's frustrating how these kitchen companies can get away with conning consumers with their supposed sales yet up their margins elsewhere.

I've been browsing kutchenhaus kitchens online, look really good and quality higher. Anyone have any experience with them?

Following - I'm desperate for a new kitchen but my angst about where to look and trying to source my own fitter has left me in a state of paralysis!

I had a Magnet kitchen fitted last year and am very pleased with it. We used a fitter we have used before and he made an excellent job of it.

We had a new Magnet kitchen installed in our last but one house, and again it was excellent.

We did too, although we used different fitters. It was in 2019. Still lovely. We'd had a bad experience with Wickes previously so we tried IKEA, not impressed, WREN, absolutely tried to rinse us, then B&Q, let us down after we paid the deposit. I was quite desperate.

Yes we had a Kutchenhaus kitchen fitted before Christmas. I love it, and we were really pleased with the service. They price matched our wren quote. We actually also sent the quote to diy kitchens and they came up more expensive which we were not expecting.

According to Which? the best kitchen brands are: Ikea, Magnet, Howdens and DIY Kitchens.

We have a DIY Kitchen and they were great.....up to the point of delivery. Several items arrived damaged or flawed, which wasn't an issue itself, just needed to get replacements dispatched. It was at that point dealing with them became very difficult. They disputed everything and when you have the rest of the kitchen sitting there and fitters waiting to get started you are kind of held hostage. We got so little traction with them I even considered just using the credit card dispute route to try and sort it. In the end the fitter had to adapt some damaged items and install them anyway as they couldn't/ wouldn't replace them.

We renovate properties as a business and have never put another one of their kitchens in again.

We were not impressed with the customer service at the DIY showroom nobody wanted to help us at all. I think we were 5 minutes early before they opened because we'd driven quite a way and got there quicker than expected - they made us wait outside for 10 minutes before they deigned to open the door and let us in. They were doing nothing inside because we could see them through the window and they knew we were standing outside waiting. Then when we actually did get in they were supremely unhelpful. Just completely uninterested.