Wickes kitchens - any good?

[cometothinkofit]

We need a new kitchen and this would be one of the options - we're wondering whether their customer service is good, and efficient when it comes to installation?

You can buy the exact same kitchen for less from Benchmarx. But you will need to find your own fitter.

We'd like to have the whole thing arranged in one go - there's a central heating boiler to be replaced, re-sited and hidden inside a cupboard, the plumbing needs to be moved around and there's electrical work as well. What we could do with is a firm who will arrange the whole lot.

I doubt Wickes will move your boiler
you will have to get someone in for that

I would go to a private kitchen fitter. They will fit any kitchen for you but they should also be able to arrange other teams to do the moving work. Wickes or any high street chain won't touch stuff like that.

I know, they already said that to us. They also said that their kitchen fitters would know local gas engineers who are familiar with their kitchen units and would understand where the new boiler would need to be sited so that it can be enclosed in a cabinet.

It's not exactly an unusual request, they must come across it all the time.

I'm asking about people's experiences of Wickes customer service and the quality of the fitters' work, because we need the whole thing co-ordinated.

Their customer service is average. My sister and I both purchased our kitchens from wicks and both had wrong items or things missing. I went to the kitchen designer and she put in a sink that was too big for the base unit, then when it came to realising she recommended another that would definitely fit and once again wouldn't. The trouble we had was that we were only allowed to deal with her and she worked part time. Which when you are trying to get something done isn't ideal. It might be worth checking with your local store about who can deal with you if a problem arises.
I have and mdf based kitchen in light grey which I love with the Apollo slabtec worktops. My sister has the dark navy sold wood kitchen they do with quartz worktop.

Wickes kitchen quality is probably the worst out of all the high street suppliers
My son is a fitter and has refused to fit wickes kitchens for the past 2 years or so
Luck of the draw with fitters unfortunately... some are great, some are bodgers.. wont know until they start
Better finding a local fitterb

I have one, the Tiverton which is one of their more expensive ones. It's 4 years old, looks brand new and the quality is very good.

Great service and excellent fitter but that is luck of the draw.

I'd get another one from Wickes.

@Jessie9323 that sounds a bit like our experience so far with the sales person dealing with us. He's not exactly inspiring us with confidence - hence this thread.

@cometothinkofit to be honest we had a look at Howdens and B and Q and I don't really think any of the sales people have that much of an idea. The lady we dealt with just tapped it all into a computer and that was pretty much it. We installed ourselves but my sister used independent fitters. There were lots of niggly bits that we seemed to have been charged for but didn't actually need. Extra end panels, extractor kits etc that when you are looking at a huge list of stuff are easy to overlook.

The people buying my house have a Wickes kitchen in their current house and love it. I suggested they look at DIY Kitchens in Pontefract. (they aren't 'do it yourself' at all). As it's not far from us they went to have a look and are completely converted and will be installing one when the house purchase goes through (I've build a new home and am already in it).
Few places, other than very expensive, have their own fitters any more; they subcontract and you may be lucky - or not. Wren particularly have a shocking name for frequently employing very poor quality fitters. Mostly though they subcontract - the fitter charges them more than they would charge you direct and the suppliers add another percentage for themselves - but don't like to take responsibility when things go wrong.

A local fitter, preferably recommended by friends, will have contacts who will be able to organise the boiler move.

We’ve just had a Wickes kitchen fitted and love it. However the designer at Wickes seems to be an anomaly in that he was brilliant and really experienced and worked very hard on getting the layout right. His communication has been brilliant as well. We had our builders fit ours because I’ve read bad reviews about subcontracted fitters. And we got ours in the sale which meant a really good price for it.