Wren kitchens & pushy staff

[CamdenTownie]

Hi,

I've recently had an appointment at Wren, after looking through the brochure they gave me I was pretty sure they'd be able to help me sort out a new kitchen.

Initially the staff there were very friendly, maybe slightly too friendly, and helpful. I gave the all the measurements and we started to 'build' the kitchen at no point during the two and a half hour appointment were prices mentioned until the very last few
Minutes.

Anyway my 'dream' kitchen as they like to put it came in at around £28000, this is well above my expectations. And also included appliances which I stated that I did not intend to purchase from Wren.

The salesman leaves me to go and ask his manager a question, he left the costing sheet behind and I noticed that the cost of the kitchen units could be halved if I took a lower range and changed the colour slightly, so I mentioned this when he came back, at this point his attitude changed instantly, he said the finish wouldn't be as good and his friendly persona became quite rude and he almost completely lost interest.

A few minutes later the very pushy store manager comes over and asks "what's going on?" He replies that he's now quoting for the cheaper range and she barks "Why?" I told her that it was simply too expensive and whilst it's nice to have an integrated laundry bin, it's really not worth £8000 to me.

At this point I could see the hard sell was about to start and I could feel myself getting flustered, they started talking about interest free payments and how I could pay that way rather that upfront as I intended. Neither of them wanted to let me go without committing to a purchase of a high value kitchen, it almost felt like I had to argue my way out of buying something that i can't afford. They were adamant I'd pay a deposit there and then even though I told them
I wasn't going to without speaking to my builder first.

After another ten minutes of being grilled I finally escaped.

Now I did like the kitchen that was designed, albeit it was way out of my budget, I said that surely everyone has a cut off point and you have to stop somewhere, my sister has had a fully bespoke kitchen installed for just over 30k, if I was going to spend that amount I'd probably do the same.

Anyway I really feel like I don't want to use wren now, but I also don't want to waste another two and a half hours of my time, I felt so awkward whilst I was there and it made wonder how someone not so confident would have reacted, 10 years ago I wouldn't have been brave enough to say no.

Has anyone else had a situation like this at all? It actually reminded me of Rogue Traders, and the old double glazing sales pitch.

Any other recommendations of fully build kitchen units?

Just don't know what to do from here

Sounds like you was unlucky with the salesperson rather than Wren itself, mine was great, saved where he could to get the same result. Although he did say he was a tight Yorkshireman who saw it as as challenge to get the price as low as possible!

My Wren guy was great. I got a kitchen in the sale. £21k down to £13.5k then he told me where I could possibly make extra savings and it came down by another £170 (I didn’t take up all the suggestions). He wasn’t pushy and he listened hard and seemed to “get” me and what I wanted.

The chap who’d done the measuring and survey the previous week was very thorough.

I've just had a John Lewis kitchen fitted. I choose one of their cheaper ranges and sourced most of the appliances/sink etc myself to save money.

I have had an ikea kitchen and one from from Wicks in the past - the JL kitchen is such good quality and the design was second to none.

Definitely don't go with a supplier who has made the choosing process such a drag. You could try another branch of Wren or another supplier altogether.

John Lewis of Hungerford or John Lewis partnership?

My experience of Wren design was that she was briliant and not pushy - but that they just take the space and see how many units they can possibly put in it.
We went to a local kitchen company and they designed the space in terms of usability. We have built a large kitchen, dining, living room - and he worked with us on how he thought the flow of the space would be. Where our main walkthroughs would be, enough space for the kids to run in and around without getting in the way of cooking etc. Had we have gone for the Wren (or Magnet to be honest) I know we'd have had more units, but we'd have been in each others way!!

We have just ordered a new kitchen from Wren. The showroom staff in Tunbridge Wells were incredibly helpful. We had a long session with the designer, focussing mainly on layout. We were also able to try the virtual reality room and experience how our basic plan would work in 3D. When the final price first came up it was almost double what we wanted to pay, but then a whole bunch of special offers were added and it came out £8,000 cheaper. We can make changes up to 5 weeks before delivery. They price match every appliance right up to delivery.
I saw negative reviews like everyone else, but asked about them in the store and was really impressed with the changes made. We’ll be using our own fitting team though - people we’ve used before. Using Wren is saving me a whole lot of work as you can compare quality and prices in the showroom. So far, very impressed. Fingers crossed!