Wren kitchens. Yes? No? Good? Bad?

[TheOneAndOnlyAlpha]

That's it really. Has anyone had one fitted. It's either that or magnet. Any opinions would be fab. Thanks!

We had an AWFUL experience with Wren and would never ever recommend them to anyone. I wish we never stepped into their show room in the first place. It has been a disaster from beginning to end. We have refused to pay the balance of the kitchen cost (as we only paid the 10% deposit on the day we ordered the kitchen) on the basis that they have not offered us sufficient price reduction/compensation for the appalling service, workmanship and multiple defects with the product (which meant we had to get units replaced a number of times) which Wren provided. Now they have the audacity to send us a letter from their solicitors - is this some sort of joke? Has anyone had a similar experience?? I am so angry.

Wren Living/Kitchens should not be touched with a barge pole!
Briefly my experience is as follows:
1st January 2014 we paid a deposit on the kitchen of our dreams.
May 2014 we paid in total for our kitchen. Told that the work would only take one week or at a push6 days
Units were delivered on May 27th
Work started June 2nd.
Today is 24th November and the kitchen is not finished.
One unit is completely missing.
The tap only has hot water and does not fit.
Two glass unit fronts are badly scratched
The kick boards do not fit
A Neff dividing plinth is missing.
Tiling has not been finished
A pile of broken units etc was in our front drive all summer until just 3weeks ago.
We were told we had to pay more money to enable the kitchen to be finished as they had not quoted all the prices to us.....Until the work is finished we are not allowed to complain to their head office.So eventually we have to sign off the work as being complete before we can complain
We used Wren fitters so there would not be any problems....what a joke.exceptthis is no laughing matter.
Frommy experience I will never ever recomend Wren.
Both the company and their fitters

Wren saw my post on this thread and contacted me via the site. They apologised for all the delays, misunderstandings & lack of comms then arranged for a fitter to come here and complete the fit, which he did last week. I'm happy with the kitchen itself now but why oh why oh why did they ignore all my texts / phone calls / eMails / website messages BEFORE I came on here to moan?

My legal eagle has advised me to claim compensation from them for my time & trouble so we've just kicked that process off.

I purchased a kitchen from Wren early in 2014 and still have ongoing issues! My main one at the moment is do you get what you pay for? I ordered an Autograph white gloss kitchen and had to go back into the store for something when I went to where the Autograph white kitchen was I realised the kitchen the had sent out was a completely different finish to what they are selling from! They haven't sold that kitchen since the end of 2013 the quality of the in store one is far superior to what they are sending out and it is flaw free!
Wren are banking on you not going back into the store after you get your kitchen delivered hoping that you will just accept what they send you. I would urge others to revist the stores just to check the quality instore compared to what you have had delivered. They claim they have the right to do this I would suggest otherwise!!

My neighbours had a Wren kitchen installed about 6 months ago. (One of those white shiny ones). They already had to replace bits and pieces to it and it looks really shabby to be honest. Kitchens are expensive, personally I would be upset with such a poor standard kitchen...

Ipswich Wren so nearly finished my kitchen on Tuesday
We put down a deposit on 1 st January
Work meant to take a week
I am not taking any bets on it being finished by its one year anniversary.
Apparently we are not allowed to complain until after we have signed the work off as completed. What happens then?
We will have agreed that all is ok...except it isn't .Wren asked us to sign off earlier this week...but we are waiting for the missing handle etc

Dear AJM1954
Would you please supply some details and we may be able to help you further.
Thank you
Wren Living

Please refer to my posting dated 24th November.
A handle is still required for the cupboard fitted the other day.
We will then be in a position to sign off the kitchen as long as we can reserve our rights to complain over the way this project has been carried out

We have also had a really bad experience with Wrens in Hull. In late Oct we put down a deposit of £450 for a new kitchen, after a change in our personal circumstances we called Wrens the following week to cancel the order for the kitchen but asked them if we could keep the oven, hob and extractor fan as we had put a deposit down and naively felt we had wasted a bit of there time with measuring up and designing our kitchen. The store manager said no problem and we agreed to pay the outstanding amount for the said appliances. This is were our problems started.
First the manager "accidentally" overcharged our card by approx £200, I called him back straight away and he put on a show of apology and said he would refund the money BUT he couldn't do it until after delivery !! which was approx three weeks time.
Then a week after the delivery should of been made I got two separate emails saying there was a delay on our order and after calling into the store the same manager confirmed two of the three items wouldn't be delivered until the new year (original delivery date was week commencing 22 Nov)
I explained this not no good to us and could we have a full refund, again lots of apologies and smiley faces and yes the money would be refunded straight away, since then I have called them numerous times only to be told the manger is busy and he will call me back later, he never does. I have been back to the Hull store three times to ask for my refund, the first time the same manager checked our records and put on a bit of a show saying how head office and messed up and he will get it sorted straight away, after another week passed and still no refund I went back and this time was told by the same manager that the person who "authorises" refunds was not in that day but would be in tomorrow and as soon as he was back he would get our money refunded, again nothing happened and no promised call from the manager to confirm the transaction.
I just went back this past Saturday and have been told the man who "authorises" refunds is in the store and has already approved my refund, still nothing in our account, the person who the manager sent to speak to me did say that the money would not get into my account until Wednesday but I fail to see why if it has been authorised that it cannot go back in straight away, I really feel this is just another stalling tac tic and do not expect to see any money refunded on Wednesday which will mean I will have to drive 10 miles each way back to the store again ( they don't return phone calls ).
The thing that really irks us is that we thought we were being fair with them by not asking for our deposit back and using it to buy the appliances, then to be overcharged and the manager admitting he had overcharged but still avoiding paying any monies back at all is just dishonest and deceitful.
I will let you know how I get on this Wednesday but I after reading this and other message boards I don't expect any good news.

Hi.
If you supply some order details we can make sure that head office are aware of this.
Thanks

I went to a local wrens in Milton Keynes to see what their kitchens were like, they do all look very nice, I spoke to a designer who asked if I was just looking or ready to buy I said I would be getting a design and quote from Magnet and themselves. They said straight away just go to Magnet first and get them to design and quote and then bring it back here and we will beat their quote. I did this and then went back to wrens with my quote and yes they did beat it, however I didn't make a final decision as I feel their aggressive attempt at getting my business was very underhand.
The guys at Magnet Milton Keynes were very professional, they don't use these tactics and for me after reading all these really negative stories about Wren I decided to steer clear of them.
If you want quality products and quality service this comes at a cost, by the way magnet beat Wrens price when I returned to them in any case so my advice is use a company that's been around for 100 years not one that has been around a couple of years and in any case strike the deal with magnet and you get your bargain in the end.

I recently baught my kitchen from wren kitchens Doncaster,
After visiting the store I picked the kitchen of my choice, I made an appointment with a so called expert Simon Marlow to come to my home and measure up the dimentions.
I then returned to the store and sat with with simon and ran through a couple of designs with him, once I made my choice of how I wanted it to look we set about picking the sink , taps, oven and cupboard space, great I thaught that was painless and so was the price, 5,700, I signed the paperwork paid the deposit , happy days,
The kitchen arrived on the proposed date and time, my kitchen fitter was on holiday when it arrived but aweek later he returned and made a start, he unpacked and checked the kitchen finding a drawer front damaged and a 4 metre length of worktop that was not needed, my fitter rang Simon and reported the damage and the extra worktop that should not have been ordered.

After sending a photo of the drawer front , the claims dept sent me a new one, regarding the worktop my fitter was told by simon to wait until he had finished then phone back and it would get sorted.
I called into the showroom my self to order a cornice which I didn't order in the first visit, I spoke to a different designer who made e flippant comment saying havent you got a garage you can put the worktop in.
I called on a couple more occasions only to be told that simon was unavailable.
When I visited the store again I spoke to simon who admitted he ordered two 4 metre lengths of worktop instead of one but he would have to pass the issue on to the claims department.
A few days later I received a call from claims saying I should have checked the order before the kitchen arrived so they weren't prepared to take back the worktop and refund the price of it, nearly £400.
I phoned the store and spoke to the manager who also wouldent except that his design engineer was incompetent and by his mistake I am now out of pocket and have a worktop that I dont need.
I asked to speak to the area manager, he rang me the next day and left a voice mail telling me that there was nothing wren kitchens could do, he didn't even leave me his number so I could return his call,
So with this experience and reading other letters I would not recommend buying your kithen or anything from Wren,
It seems they are quick to take your money but the after service is non existent,
infact the mood im in I feel like taking the worktop and boarding up the store front.

IN SHORT STAY WELL CLEAR,

thanks guys!

Wren Kitchens has asked us to post up the following in response to CPMNottingham's post:

'We understand this is all now resolved with both parties taking relevant action to rectify.'

We have had a long and tortuous relationship with Wren in Oxford which started in January 2014 when we signed up for a full kitchen installation and are still awaiting completion in December!
The original end date for this £15K Kitchen project was February but has slipped and slipped due to various fitters not being available and fitters and managers rejecting doors which had poor paint finish. Countless emails and phone calls resulted in 25.5 days waiting in for installers or deliveries not to mention the disruption of fitters who like to fit us in weekends or evenings. Today we still await 9 replacement doors and panels and rectification of shoddy installation work.
All this is so stupid because the kitchen looks good and if one person in Wren had owned the problem totally it could have been signed off in March,
We even contacted the MD but that had no lasting effect. I fear they are a sales led organisation and delivery is something of an after thought.
Has any one out on MN had any success in obtaining compensation for all the cock ups disruption and time wasted?

A bit of advice from an interior designer here (in Canada currently, so not able to do anything other than advise so please don't delete this message, admin!).

A lot of high street, lower end kitchen companies hire untrained people as they think it's easy to design a kitchen - it's just learning a computer programme after all, isn't it?? You might as well do it yourself through the IKEA website or through one of the many apps available these days.

Kitchens are expensive (like it or not), have to endure a lot of stress and hard use every day, but we want them to look beautiful at the same time, so it is crucial that homework is done - who are these people sitting in their showrooms; what training/experience do they have previous to joining the company; how are they paid (beware commission- based consultants - check to see if that company is hiring and what experience they are requiring of applicants); how do their materials compare to others; including IKEA, as you might be surprised; if you go the builder route, what are his design capabilities or is he a one trick pony ie always does the same style (have seen that a lot, especially in NZ)....I could go on......it's people that mess up, by being inexperienced/unqualified to do what they do or by making poor materials choices etc...the kitchen cupboard door isn't responsible for its inability to close properly, it's the person who fitted or designed the catch, so check out the people more than the designs in the brochure....glossy pictures are designed to seduce and sell....

Too much choice on the high street isn't always a good thing.....!

Will be avoiding wren after this. Thanks.

My parents had a wren kitchen fitted this year, it took months. They had parts missing, wrong items delivered, fitters who failed to turn up and a fitter who drilled through a clearly labeled gas pipe...

Avoid them like the plague.

Bad bad bad. We also had a horrible and upsetting experience with the people at Wren. Please go elsewhere, you will regret it otherwise. All they want is your money, they don't care about anything else.

Dear Andyinnorwich

We are sorry to hear of the service received. If you supply some order details we will look into your concerns.

Thank you

Very interesting thread. I had already been put off Wren by the aggressive salesman in the showroom who wouldn't give me a brochure unless I gave him my contact details!

Interesting that only a few posts are deemed worthy of a response from Wrens Nest.