Tell me about Wren kitchens

[BurningTheToast]

I've gone back a few weeks' worth of posts and can't see any discussions about Wren, which surprises me so apologies if I'm retreading old ground...

We're looking for a new kitchen - previously we've put in Ikea and Magnet - and today I wandered into Wren. Very helpful and (seemingly) knowledgeable sales chap, good choice of units, worktops and so on.

Anyone any experiences they'd like to share? I had heard that their fitting service was very variable but DH will be fitting it himself with trades in where needed. But quality? Customer service if there's a problem?

Many thanks

I suppose it depends on which branch you are in as to whether the service varies - but we were messed around so much by Wren that we went elsewhere.

Measuring appointment was rearranged by them three times last minute and nobody actually followed up with the design appointment. I called them a couple of times to arrange, didn't get a call back, and then had a call asking if I was ready to book my kitchen and pay the deposit.

What kitchen?! I haven't even designed it!

So I suppose my advice, if you go with them, would be to stay on their case a lot to make sure they get things done. Our in-store experience with the salesperson was great but the follow-up wasn't.

We were quoted in store for fitting etc. and it was horrendously expensive but if your DH is doing most of it you can probably shave off a fair chunk of that.

We’ve just fitted one as has my dad.

Fitted ourselves so can’t speak to that. Dad did likewise.

Quality was ok for the (sale) price. I’d not have paid the full wack they quote before discount but I don’t think anyone ever does as the special offers rotate. Dad feels likewise. We both purchased sink and taps elsewhere as we get they were hugely overpriced.

In both cases we did find they missed a couple of bits from the order and one door was damaged. They’re sending those bits out and it will take a week to deliver. Worth knowing you only get one chance to report those little issues. You get charged a huge delivery fee after that one go.

The customer service line isn’t open on Saturday afternoon or Sunday which was a pain. Also we couldn’t speak to anyone who could explain how the door fits to the intergrated dishwasher (which turned out to be because the one supplied had the pre drilled holes in the wrong place). It was irritating that the only staff we could speak to seemed to be sales focused and didn’t understand the practicalities of the products.

The designers are a bit hit and miss. They can make it look nice but often don’t understand how a kitchen needs to flow. Not a problem for us as we know exactly what we wanted but if you want guidance on that they aren’t the best. They tried to talk me out of a big sink because I was ordering a dishwasher and a small sink would look nicer. That might be true but I need a big sink. Likewise they weren’t concerned with wasted space whereas I wanted to maximise storage.

Wren are appalling.

I subscribe to Which and Wren come bottom of the pile for kitchens and fitting with a 56% customer rating!

67% of customers who used Wren had an item missing in the delivery...awful when you consider all the other 9 out of 10 had scores of less than 40%

I was harassed so much when I walked into a showroom that I eventually walked out again after about 15 mins without even looking! She kept pushing - what style units, what colour, what type of worktop, how many units would we need, what type of handles, what taps, would we want fitting, when would I want a design appointment.... every time we tried to walk away to look at kitchens, she followed with more questions. I got so frustrated, I left in the end!

I had an awful experience with wren and so have lots of others. Search wren and prev threads will come up. The kitchen had to be delivered around 3 times, parts were always missing and wrong. It took months for the kitchen to actually be fitted. Also once I had paid, the showroom and kitchen designer were no longer interested in the order or any of the problems. It was the most frustrating experience. My mistake was not listening to the online reviews. There was a Facebook page called wren kitchen disasters with thousands of members, but it has been shut down now.

I havent dealt with them as id be buying and fitting my own kitchen but i have a friend who paid a lot of money for one and she had no end of trouble with both delivery,installation and remediation of faults.

Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. Sorry, did I mention avoid?!

The main kitchen is actually pretty good quality BUT the pelmets don't match the units and their aftercare is APPALLING. we had to involve a friendly solicitor and in the end we got about £3k back but it took months and a lot of stress........

We recently almost went with Wren. Design service was excellent but the quote was very high. We had done a lot of research and asked our designer about many of the problems people had had with them, he shrugged and basically said mistakes happen!

In the end, we’ve gone with Benchmarx. Same design, good customer service and half the price of Wren.

We were nervous buying wrens from all the reviews online. We had our own builders fit it but I have to say we had no problems with design, delivery and 6 months in we’re really pleased with the quality. No problems at all for us. We were very very careful to read all the paperwork super carefully etc.

We fitted a brand new wren kitchen 2 years ago in our old house. The service was excellent and when delivered everything was numbered and coded so it was easy to check off it all arrived and what was needed for each stage. The quality was excellent. We used our own fitter as wren fitters are mega bucks. We have since moved and i miss it!

Just do Google + wren and settle down with a hot drink and some popcorn
Literally thousands of posts in threads across forums stating how bad they are.
As a pp said, 67% had missing items, and wren are at their worst after they have your money
Go for it if you like a gamble, but good luck getting it resolved if anything goes wrong!

I should add that what made the aftercare worse was the attitude that came with it. Their approach is to deny that any thing is wrong, despite photographic evidence to the contrary, but nope according to them, no issues whatsoever. It feels that they have a set script and will stick to it regardless hence why we got a solicitor involved.

It's a shame actually as the units are nice and it started with a relatively minor issue. But it was a year before they agreed the compensation ( we are offered to buy a birthday cake) but fundamentally the is still a flaw in the pattern on the pelmets, doesn't match the units.

Use the Search facility on MN & you’ll find a million reasons not to use Wren.

I have a friend who is currently suing them and he isn’t the first.

A thread running for five years on their awful service should tell you everything you need to know!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/1734578-Wren-kitchens-Yes-No-Good-Bad

We were horribly pressured after having a measure done and then a design appt. Discounts only available if we pit a deposit down right there and then, managers summoned to talk to us when I told them - repeatedly- that I will not be deciding that day, told our deposit can be refunded if we changed our mind in the cooling off period in a desperate attempt to get a signature, emails, phone calls.....it was awful. We ended up with a local business who we thought we could never afford. His price including silestone worktops was 3k less than Wrens price for laminate worktops and no dishwasher!!!!!

Oh my goodness - I missed that threat. Thanks for flagging it up Lady Penelope.

I think I'll be cancelling their appointment. Maybe our experience would be better but who needs the risk? It's not as though their kitchens are significantly different to so many others!

Thanks folks