Kitchens - has anyone had a good experience with wickes?

[NeedAHoliday2021]

We were going with Howdens but the designer at wickes (that we did for comparison) is so much more helpful in discussing options rather than dictating our choices. But I’ve read mixed reviews re wickes. It’ll be our own fitter. Would it be a big mistake to choose Wickes over Howdens?

I was going to say don't do it I until I saw you had your own fitter! We did the kitchen at our old house through Wickes..the design part was really good. Was a small kitchen in an old house and they were the only people who managed a design with everything we wanted in. However the fitters contracted through them were unreliable and although it was fine in the end as in standard of finish it was only because we were on them the whole time and it took much longer than we were told as they kept disappearing!

We had a Wickes kitchen in our old house and it was great. The only things that caused issues were the washing machine and dishwasher, that's not Wicke's fault.

They did send enough worktop for a kitchen 3x as big and then got weird about collecting the excess but that got sorted after a couple of phone calls.

We had our own fitter as well.

IME the best option is to find a local, independent fitter, based on recommendation from friends and neighbours. Then choose a kitchen from a good supplier.
The fitter who did my kitchen said that there are roughly 3 grades of kitchen:
Basic/a bit flimsy, reasonable quality, and average price/very good quality/expensive. Different brands made by the same manufacturers.
I believe that Wickes kitchens are reasonable quality.
(We had a B&Q kitchen in our first house many years ago and it was really very good. They did the plan and our own builder fitted it).
My current kitchen was planned and fitted by a local small business. Manufactured by a German company that the fitter recommended.

I’m thinking the fitting is the key but people seem to have issues with. Howdens pricing annoys me. Wickes discount on appliances is also significant so coming in slightly lower than Howdens but with AEG appliances rather than lamona. I want Neff hide and slide but looks like I’ll have to accept that I can’t have that as I want kitchen fitted this year and they’re not available (haven’t been for months).