Howdens vs Benchmarx kitchens.

[losmn]

Comments/experience on just these two please. Many thanks.

We bought a great kitchen from benchmarx and they were prepared to sell to us at trade prices.

With howdens we would have had to buy via a tradesman, I wasn't happy with the legal position of that. Any issue with the quality we can take up directly with benchmarx, rather than relying on a sole trader still being around at some point in the future.

We are buying through Howdens who insist yes that they be installed by a tradesperson rather than diy. Howdens will still guarantee the quality of the kitchen. Any problems with kitchens would normally be seen immediately rather than at some point in the future.

I have heard of cupboard doors discolouring a few months after installation and householders having a nightmare in getting them replaced. The householder's contract is with the tradesman and has no contract or recourse to Howdens. Their kitchens aren't even that great.

This makes interesting reading
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/16/howdens-kitchen-varying-quotations-customers-confused

I think the quality is similar but we found benchmarx a bit slapdash on the service. We ended up with a few bits missing and that caused a bit of a holdup. The kitchen itself looks lovely and the price was about 1200 cheaper for a more expensive kitchen than the Howdens one we had originally chosen.