Don't use Hammonds unless you can wait 136 days
Here is my Hammonds story:
24th May and 27th June – Designer and Surveyor visited
30th July – Promised date of my wardrobe being fitted. I was told it would take one day. Two of the wooden panels arrived dented
16th August – Second attempt at fitting the wardrobe. The fitter cut one of the panels on the wrong side, turned it around and used it anyway. I imagine he hoped I would not notice. However, you would have to have very low observation skills not to notice a cut in the middle of the side of a gloss white wardrobe. The wardrobe was signed off as finished but on closer inspection, here are a few of the many problems that were noticed:
- Adhesive which had turned grey and spread down the wardrobe
- The side panel was not flush with the front of the wardrobe
- The rail was sharp and not fixed symmetrically with a screw missing
- The rails were too short and therefore loose, highly mobile and rattled
- There was damage to the edge of one of the shelves
- There was an assembly joint present visible in front of the interior drawers
- There were multiple places where the wood chip is exposed
28th August – Another fitter came, realized that there were more problems than reported on the Hammonds App and recommended a reassessment
5th September – A third fitter came and recommended that almost the entire wardrobe needed replacing, apart from the doors and the internal drawers
18th September – The new parts and fitter arrived. The edge of the wood was cream instead of white.
7th October – Finally a product that resembled that which I had ordered
In total it has taken 8 visits from Hammonds to fit this wardrobe. I was expecting three. For each of these visits it is necessary to rearrange my days and take precious time off work. Each visit involves multiple phone calls and emails. I have not had a bed all that time. The carpet has been taken up in the bedroom (as recommended by Hammonds) and therefore the bedroom has not been usable. In addition there are numerous dents in my walls, more than would had occurred had the wardrobe been fitted correctly on the first attempt.
My multiple complaint letters and phone calls have not been fully dealt with. When I finally did have some sort of response, I was told that the wardrobe was fitted within a “reasonable timescale”. If you think 136days to fit a wardrobe is a reasonable timescale, then pick Hammonds. If, like me, you do not have 8 days spare holiday to spend letting people into your home to rectify errors made by their colleagues then I suggest you try another company. Ikea PAX would do the job.