Which Kitchen Companies Should Be Avoided?

[ELW85]

Apologies if this isn’t in the best section, but we’re moving house snd are going to be knocking the kitchen through j to the dining room and putting a new kitchen/living area in.
We love the look of a Wren kitchen we’ve found but have been put off by some nightmare stories.
Can anyone shed some light; who should we avoid? Currently browsing Magnet and Howdens too.
We have a small baby so can’t afford for f-ups that’ll lead to a kitchen disaster or work ongoing for weeks!
Also intro hear if we should just avoid the Wren fitters if the quality of their product is otherwise good?

TIA!

[ELW85]

Thank you everyone! Off to check out a local company today for comparables!

@Ken1976 - nice to hear a somewhat happy ending from Wren; I’m really pleased it worked out for you!

@GatoradesDream - thanks for the tip, his work looks great.

[GatoradesDream]

I am no longer in the north but when I was I had Kevin from //www.kevinrichardsoninstallations.co.uk do some work for me and it was really well done. He has a young family himself and understands!

[FatimaMunchy]

Our 'design visit' from Wren was a waste of time. Although they said it was an opportunity to talk about what you wanted, how you use your kitchen etc he wouldn't even engage with us. He drew plans which were pretty much what was already there, not what we wanted at all. When we arrived for the shop consultation he had plans based on the 'design visit' so we had to start from scratch. The 'design visit' chap had also put an archway between our kitchen and utity which didn't exist and had the door to the hall in the wrong place.
Ours was an insurance job, and the insurance company chose our Howdens quote in the end.
We had our own fitters. Much better to find someone you trust.

[MaisyMary77]

@ELW85 the quality is really good. I love my new kitchen! I would absolutely recommend Magnet-just hope they supply a decent fitter!

[whenwillthemadnessend]

We are considering ikea with independent fitter but also getting a quote from a local supplier and fitter too. We looked at wren but reading this has put me off totally!!!

[Ken1976]

By the way , we love our new kitchen.

[Ken1976]

We got a wren kitchen just before lockdown. We went to the showroom with an idea of the layout we wanted. The designer helped us to tweak it a bit . We ordered our units from them and all our integrated appliances .
We had a builder/plasterer in to knock down a load bearing wall and he sourced our electrician, plumber , gas fitter and kitchen fitter. They were a great team and it was all done in about 3 weeks . The only problem was the quartz worktops . First they came to fit had the sink cut in wrong place , so they just fitted one on that occasion. We waited 3 weeks for them to fit the other 3 worktops but they only brought two . We then waited 2 more weeks to fit the last worktop and the windowsills . So the only problem was with the wren worktops . We should have sourced them elsewhere

[Cecilia2016]

@RHOBHfan

Used Wickes for a £20k kitchen (design, supply and fit)

No complaints at all.

Appreciate their fitters are self employed therefore must be luck of the draw though.

We used wickes as well 4 years ago and my kitchen still looks nice. They come out and measured our kitchen and we designed. No problems and the kitchen was done within the time frame. B&Q didn’t want to do any structural work only wanted dry fit but wickes did everything and very happy and still happy with my kitchen.

[Frestba]

I'm very happy with my Wickes kitchen. Great quality, price and a very easy process. They find the fitters for you and ours were great.

[whiteroseredrose]

@ELW85. From what I remember stuff was delivered but XYZ was missing so bits couldn't be fitted. So the workmen left for a few days until whatever turned up.

FWIW I think she liked the kitchen once it was all done.

[Takeitonthechin]

@ELW85 I think it's was a bit of allsorts , bits missing, kitchen not fitting into the space it had been made for, crap fitting.

[ELW85]

@PresentingPercy - don’t feel guilty; it really sounds like the luck of the draw for every company and you clearly did a lot of research into it to find DD the best based on independent reviews so there’s literally nothing more you could have done.

@whiteroseredrose @Takeitonthechin @imabusybee - these are exactly the sorts of stories I’m terrified of about Wren! Do you know if they were fitting issues or just generally awful?
@imabusybee - I’ve had a look on DIY today snd dropped them a note asking about a design to see if it can be tweaked with a trim, so fingers crossed!

@Dogsorlogs - are Tecaz any good?

@MaisyMary77 - was the quality ok apart from the fittting?

[Dogsorlogs]

If you're in the North East try tecaz? There's one in North Shields. We ended up going with ikea but they had good choice and costs.

[MaisyMary77]

Magnet Oxford. They were great-really helpful, great designer...
The fitter was a walking nightmare. Awful. 3 months to fit it. So stressful. Still having to have things fixed now-a year after finally completing the fitting.

[Android18]

@Em8725

Don’t go for b and q either. Utter shambles. I’ve had 5 delivery dates so far and it still isn’t all here. As I was writing this post another bit turned up!
They missed bits off, ordered us extra stuff we didn’t need/want that weren’t supposed to be on the design. I would never use them again.

It just goes to show how different people have different experiences. Our B&Q kitchen, when delivered and fitted in September wasn't missing anything. We had extras delivered that we didn't order or pay for, but got told to take them back to the physical store and get money back! We got about £800 in total!
I love our kitchen, and our fitter had no complaints about quality that we're aware of.

[imabusybee]

I've just finished fitting our second DIY kitchens kitchen - first one was in our old house and 2.5 years after it was fitted it still looked brand new and was a positive for viewers when we were selling.

My sister and Dad have both had Howdens kitchens and had problems with design, delivery and quality of units.

A friend of mine had an absolute nightmare with Wren and ended up suing them - Wren settled out of court but the whole ordeal caused a great deal of stress.

I would really recommend DIY Kitchens. Our kitchen is quite big but we paid about 4.5k for our units (not the cheapest range), including worktops, upstands and splashback but not appliances. Priced up a similar kitchen from IKEA & B&Q, it would have been minimum £11k ikea (cheap range) and £15k B&Q

[PresentingPercy]

DD has a John Lewis kitchen. We first enquires about it last November. It still isn’t finished. Like everyone else, they are incompetent. They never finish anything. Don’t respond to issues. Don’t contact the fitters so dates cannot be adhered to. Dd works like stink with a tight diary. JL is Which Best Buy. I guess some people might have had a good experience but it’s been a huge disappointment for DD. I feel guilty because I recommended them! They do everything required to install a kitchen but unfortunately it takes months and months and months!

[Takeitonthechin]

@ELW85 a guy I worked with got a Wren kitchen and he ended up getting a solicitor involved it was that bad.
Why not try a bespoke company, google to see who is in your area.

[whiteroseredrose]

We lived through the trauma of a colleague getting a Wren kitchen fitted. It took forever as bits were always missing so the fitters went elsewhere

[ELW85]

@Takeitonthechin - that’s what I’m worried about! I’d heard Wren fudge their Trustpilot scores.

[Takeitonthechin]

Hubby is an independent tradesman and has seen so many blunders made by Wren in fitting kitchens, I also once overheard a conversation between 3 Wren employees, one of the three asked the other two if they'd ever been offered money for writing positive reviews for Wren, 2 said they had and one didn't partake ... I was quite shocked to hear this conversation.

[ELW85]

Thanks everyone! It really does sound like every company has their ups and downs.

[mangothoughts]

We have two sets of friends who have just had kitchens fitted:

1. Wickes kitchen - no problems, looks great and was very reasonably priced.
2. Neptune kitchen - a few niggles but they came back and fixed all problems (20year guarantee I think), looks totally amazing but cost was much higher.

[goldierocks]

My Howdens kitchen is 18 months old now and still looks brand new. Fitted by my own builder.

I still smile when I go in, I love it so much!

[hollygoflightly]

We're just finishing fitting our Magnet Kitchen and are v happy. Used our own fitter and got the appliances elsewhere, but actual kitchen is fine and the designer really knew her stuff