Evo kitchens ignoring us regarding a broken (expensive) cupboard - wwyd?

[anythingicando]

We redesigned our kitchen last year and after researching various options, chose to use Evo kitchens (Evolution kitchen and granite). We originally found them as annalouiseh is a mumsnetter and the wife of the guy whose business it is. Paul was great through the design process and we have been mostly happy with the kitchen .

A few weeks ago, one of our magic corner cupboards broke (the small wheel along the top runner sheared off) , we have stopped using it and it's very annoying as it is about half of our kitchen storage. These cupboards are around ??400 I believe.

We have tried to contact Paul by email, phone (many times) and messaging via his contact form on the website. At first we weren't too worried but time has gone on with no response so this evening I thought I could try his Facebook page to get in touch.

I posted on his page asking him to get in touch and have just checked back and my post has been removed. So now I know for certain that he is ignoring us and I'm pretty annoyed!

His website states that cupboards have a 5 year guarantee so I assume that he should be putting this right for us.

I've tried searching for his wife under her user name but it says there is no profile for her, however Anna if you are still on here please could you get in touch or ask Paul to get in touch.

On the assumption that isn't going to happen, does anyone have any advice as to where we can go from here? It's going to be really expensive to replace the whole unit and I don't think we should have to!

Exactly how long since the kitchen was installed? This might affect whether the magic corner mechanism is still under guarantee. Do you know the manufacturer of the magic corner?

Depending on the answers to the above questions then you might consider speaking to Trading Standards for advice on what to do. You may be able to claim on your home insurance if there was, for example, a one off incident which broke the mechanism and you have accidental damage cover.

You could also consider contacting the manufacturer and seeing what they will do, but you may have to provide proof it is their product and when it was purchased.

With regard to the kitchen company you do have to give someone an opportunity to respond to you - perhaps they have been on holiday? They may have come back to a deluge of messages from you and we don't know what your messages were. Rather than hounding them on their personal Facebook pages - that is ott and crossing the line into potentially harassing them and I'm not surprised your message has been removed, it would annoy me if someone did that to me - write to them at the business address and send your letter so it has to be signed for and ask them to contact you to discuss the issue.

You shouldn't have to replace it yourself, especially if these a 5 year guarantee. Even if there weren't a 5 year guarantee, I'd say that between 1 & 2 years use (you mention designing it "last year") is still within a period of reasonable use under the Sale of Goods Act.

I don't think it sounds like you've been stalking - it was a few weeks ago and I too would be frustrated at a lack of response. Even just an acknowledgement and "we're on holiday/very busy and we'll get back to you by x time".

Was it the business or personal Facebook page that you posted on? If it was a business page, you're perfectly entitled to comment on it - but the PP seems to think you were stalking a personal page. Do they do Twitter? It's not so easy to delete tweets. You're only trying to get someone to acknowledge you.

You've got two options now (which are not exclusive): 1) to send a letter saying that unless they deal with it, you'll be taking it to the Small Claims Court and 2) to take it up with Trading Standards.

The way I read it, it was his personal FB page. However annoying something is, if you have contacted someone multiple times with no response I would always write a letter to them and have proof it was delivered.

I looked at the company's website - the 5 year guarantee is for the units. Which actually isn't great for a kitchen. The mechanism is fitted in a unit so that's why I asked exactly when it was fitted. Last year could be 18 months ago. I agree re: the Sale of Goods Act. I had one of those magic corners and it was still going strong after 10 years.

What does bother me about the company the OP got her kitchen from is that there are no proper contact details on their website - the address is given as Manchester, UK(!) and there is an 0800 telephone number and a mobile number. They could be in the Outer Hebrides for all anyone knows.

No registered office address, no VAT registration on the website. If this is a limited company or partnership they are breaking the law with this lack of transparency. I would be really interested to know what details were on the invoice the OP paid. If there were none then I can understand why she's resorted to trying to contact him via his personal FB page. And they sound dodgy as hell. Anyone can have a splashy website and post fabulous looking photos on Facebook. Honest, decent businesses comply with the law. It is director's duty to ensure they do.

Incidentally, Companies House now offers a Beta service where you can view company documents for free - previously this was a chargeable service. At the moment you have to know the company name, you can't search by director names. I am happy to help the OP do some digging if she wants to pm me to find out more about them. It would be interesting to see how long they've been in business and what shape their accounts are in. Providing of course he isn't just a sole trader.

Hello, sorry for the delayed response.

It was his business Facebook page I posted on, I don't think I know his surname - as far I as can recall the email address he used then didn't have his name in which is fair enough. Even if it did I wouldn't post on his personal page - as you say that would cross the line.

Fudge you are right about the website, it doesn't have the business address so I can't send him a letter. Even if I could, I know the other messages have got through (eg the website message said'your message has been sent successfully' and it also copied to my email folder too).

The lack of transparency is right and its the lack of acknowledgement I find very frustrating.

The kitchen was installed last April so over a year. The cupboards are expensive and I certainly would not be thinking of replacing them every year, I will have to do some research into the Sales of goods act - presumably something to do with it being fit for purpose?

Fudge thank you very much for the offer of help - I will go and dig out all the paperwork and emails I have and pm you about it. I don't know much about this sort of thing other than what we learned as we were going along. I am quite trusting (though Mumsnet has helped me be a bit more thoughtful about things - obviously not enough yet!)

He was fab as we were going along and in the process of designing the kitchen - very available and helped us overcome some issues with other designs we had had drawn up. I assumed the excellent customer service would have carried on post sale - ever the optimist!

Find the invoice anything - that should help. Can you remember if you paid by cheque or bank transfer?

I am not sure I can really add anything helpful here other than to say I dealt with him a few months ago in the initial stages of kitchen design but decided not to take it any further. Then his wife pm'ed me on here out of the blue after I'd posted some grumbling about getting our kitchen done and she offered his help - that was on 21 July.

I've been back through the emails he sent to try and find anything to help you but can't see anything. I've just called his mobile and the 0800 number and they both went immediately to voicemail. Also had a quick Google search re the Companies House option having not actually read the reply from wowfudge!

I would very much hope that, in your paperwork, there will be something about the company registered name and its registered address.

What about the people that fitted it for you? He said he has contacts with kitchen fitters all over the country and knew someone local to where we are - did you ever get a direct number for your fitters or was it all done through Paul?

Good luck

Me again - what wowfudge said - if you paid by card / bank transfer, perhaps worth taking this up with your bank as a disputed transaction? I have no idea if there are time limits on these things but could be worth a go to see if you have any purchase protection offered by your card(s).

I'm pretty sure we paid by bank transfer as it felt like the safer option . Though would have had his address if we had paid by cheque! So that may be one option though it has been more than a year, something to look into anyway.

We actually arranged the kitchen fitting independently of him. We had a wall taken down and various other things so we got our builder to fit the kitchen too.

Swillows thank you - the most recent posts I could find from his wife were a few years ago so I didn't know whether she was still on here. Obviously she may not be by now, especially with hackergate, but hopefully she is and may be able to help.

It's just so frustrating as he was so very helpful when designing the kitchen. We even had a problem with our other corner cupboard (we have two)- something had got damaged presumably in transit and this was prior to installation but after we had paid for everything. He sorted it out literally in three days and had the damaged unit replaced completely. This is all so at odds with how he behaved previously which is why I am a bit baffled (and annoyed obviously!)

Also fudge I'm not sure when I will be able to get into the loft storage as its also one dcs bedroom! So could be the weekend before I can get in there . I will pm you once I have gone through everything though, thank you.

The reason I suggested both finding the invoice and how you paid him was as an audit trail/to find his contact details. If someone is a sole trader then Companies House won't be any use.

She's still on MN up to something like June 2015. I sound like a stalker now!!

The best course of action now is to try to get an address. If he removed your post from his business website I doubt his wife will respond to a PM on here.

Good luck finding the docs op. If you can't there are other things you can do.

This is a turn up for the books - he has just emailed and text messaged me! He has apologised for the delay and given a reason which I won't state on here as it is personal but if true completely acceptable. He has contacted the supplier and said he will be in touch.

So it's a start I would be very happy if this was resolved without too much further fuss and feel like my instinct about him was right. Which makes me feel better! Will update with progress.

Thank you all very much for your help.

I hope this gets sorted out for you. Maybe his wife saw this thread?