Kitchen quotes - haggling with Howdens

[Hitomi]

Hi, I'm planning to get my kitchen redecorated - mainly to replace the units and worktopsI'm keeping my existing freestanding appliances (but replacing cooker hood).

I got four quotes from different suppliers and so far narrowed it down to Howdens or Magnet. (Other options were Wren, who I said no to because I wasn't massively keen on their design and also found them far too aggressive in their sales approach! The other one was a local supplier who did a beautiful design but was miles out of my budget)

Howdens have so far quoted just over £5.5k for a mid-range kitchen (11 units, laminate worktop and backboard/upstands, sink, tap, canopy cooker hood). Magnet's quote is about a grand higher and I'm also slightly less keen on their design as they don't seem to have all the unit options/sizes and worktop style that I'm looking for. However I'm still keeping them in the running for now as I do really like door/unit style.

The estimate from Howdens is 'ok' but a little higher than what I had budgeted, and so am wondering the best ways to try and haggle down, as I would prefer to invest more in a decent fitter. I'm aware about flatpack being cheaper (and that this would add extra to my fitter's costs).

I sent the item breakdown to DIY Kitchens to request a like-for-like quote, and theirs has come out about £2,500 cheaper! So I'm thinking of trying to ask Howdens to do a price match, but not sure if trying to get them down by that much is an unrealistic ask...??

I've got a follow up appointment with Howdens and wondering whether to take the DIY quote to discuss with them in person, or just email it to them in advance of seeing them?

Am also wondering if others have had much success with getting Howdens to price match with DIY Kitchens, or have any other tips on other ways to try and get the price down please?!

Thanks in advance :-)

We do a lot of business with Howdens and we can’t get that sort of discount, so I’d go with DIY kitchens if price is the most important to you.

We got a quote from DIY and our Howdens branch in North Wales price matched without a quibble. It may vary from branch to branch though.

We asked Howdens to price match a DIY kitchens quote not thinking they would, but surprisingly said yes! The sales guy didn't seem too pleased but you don't ask you don't get!

You will get a better quality of kitchen from DIY than Howdens though. I was surprised in the difference in quality when I compared like for like.

Thanks all - yes I did wonder if it depends on the specific Howdens branch. I think I will just try my luck with asking if they will price match - like you say, if you don't ask, you don't get!

Don’t ask don’t get. I got about £500 discount by asking so it was worth the email!

Howdens wouldn’t match our DIY quote because “you are not comparing like for like as DIY kitchens do not have our overheads”.
Our Sales guy was pretty awful though and honestly didn’t seem particularly bothered if we went with them or not. We have friends who bought from a different branch and had a great experience.

Anyway, we obvs chose DIY in the end and really happy with our decision. Their customer service both pre and post sales was great and yes, they only have one showroom but we were happy to travel up and view our cabinets. They were about 10k less expensive and DP (former kitchen fitter) thought the quality was a lot higher than Howdens.

DP (former kitchen fitter) thought the quality was a lot higher than Howdens.

Theres a kitchen fitter on TikTok who says the same.

They have to meet end of month targets, so now might be a good time. DH has fitted a few Howdens kitchens, they are good quality units.

I did this and Howdens actually undercut the DIY Kitchens quote by a few hundred pounds. They initially said "we're not sure the DIY kitchen components are like-for-like in terms of quality" so I went away and did some research and found out not only is the quality like-for-like, but the components are actually identical, made by the same brands. I also bought my Howdens kitchen on a trade day (annual or bimonthly event where they offer a discount to close the sales on existing quotes) and bought through my kitchen fitters trade account. I also wasn't in a rush as I started the process very early, so they knew I wasn't under pressure to buy. I ended up getting the quote down from about £10.5k (including the Lamona appliances and cheaper quartz) to £3.2k (without appliances and worktops). I then spent £2k on decent quartz worktops and £2k on decent appliances so the total cost came down from £10.5k to £7.2k.

Howdens are better quality

Can I ask how many years ago this was? This sounds v good value

my fitter fits a lot of Howdens kitchens he hadnt heard of DIY Kitchens till he fitted mine and said he will recommend DIY in future as they are better quality than Howdens we are lucky enough to live near to their showrooms and well worth a visit as the one we had picked from Wickes only had a door glued to a wall in the showroom and at DIY we could see a mini kitchen in the one we chose and DIY were £2000 cheaper for a better kitchen

@YukoandHiro just under 2 years ago

Could you expand on this please? Just because pretty much everyone says the opposite - that DIY is better quality than Howdens. Just wondered if you had any particular reason to believe this?

We're currently about to buy and it will be a choice between the two, but based on all the feedback I've seen online, I was leaning heavily towards DIY - not just because price, but because the quality of their kitchens is supposed to be excellent.

If you want a full comparison of quality of kitchens a chap called Nick Morris has bought the exact same kitchen from 5 different suppliers (he is a house renovator) and reviews everything from door thickness to how the doors are wrapped (some have the cheaper version of doing it) and a full price comparison. For his own home he is having DIY kitchens, he has used them in other renovations. Plus the price is the price not a changeable price depending on which branch you use and how much business they get from the fitter. Weird that people accept that for kitchen quotes. Anyway his video is here and worth watching.

He covers DIY kitchens, Howdens, Wren, Wickes and Magnet.

What a great link Summer.

They absolutely aren’t - I take it you used them and want to justify the higher cost ? Husband is in the trade and DIY are significantly better quality

Don’t even bother. Just get the DIY kitchen.

for reasons that I can’t be bothered to go into but can be summarised as my own ordering ineptitude, we have one Howdens carcass in our kitchen. It is of vastly inferior quality to the rest of the kitchen and will fail long before the DIY ones do. I don’t think I will ever get a kitchen from anywhere else - great company, fantastic customer service, and an excellent product at a really good price point.

Howdens pricing is completely opaque. You need a business account and so most people have to buy via a tradesperson with an account.

Howdens then creates two invoices: one with the actual amount and one with a percentage mark-up of the builder's choice to give to their client. So you are essentially at the mercy of your builder’s level of greed.

I preferred the simplicity of DIY Kitchens with no middleman involved. We saw exactly what we were paying for as we selected the cabinets we wanted and designed the kitchen layout online with a very easy tool. Staff at the showroom were fantastic and went above and beyond to advise when we visited. Our Howdens ‘designer’ was clueless and came up with layout that made no sense!

I did this - I got a diy kitchens quote and then howdens actually undercut it. It was a howdens that had recently opened and so were desperate for business. The Howdens that my worked with my builder quoted me nearly £3k extra for the same kitchen.

I went for Howdens due to time pressures but in hindsight wish I’d gone for DIY as I’ve been a bit underwhelmed with howdens.

I bought the quartz and appliances separately.

Howdens sale tends to start in September so it might be worth you holding on for a couple of months.

Thanks again all - the main reason I'm leaning towards Howdens over DIY Kitchens is because their showroom is miles away from where I'm based, and although I know I can order samples online, I'd prefer to be able to be able to see as many elements as I can in person. I also have a couple of friends who have used Howdens who have had good experiences, and their kitchens are lovely.

I initially contacted a tradesman who put me in contact with a kitchen designer at Howdens. A design was created using the tradesman account and during my appointment with the designer I was then given a quote breakdown (which was in categories, not item by item). Was also told that this cost would be the same regardless of which fitter I decide to go with - so I'm not entirely sure how/where the tradesman discount thing comes into this? Would I just ask the tradesman separately about this?

I'm also in the process of getting fitting estimates from the tradesman (and a couple others for comparison), but they can't give full quotes yet until I've got a finalised design (which is fair enough)

I'm not in a huge rush so may see if I can hold out til Sept (or will maybe just ask about that whilst I'm trying to haggle..!)

Thanks for sharing that video link Summer, will definitely check it out!

Try Benchmarx if you can. We used them after looking at Howdens. Kitchens were very similar (we wanted a dark navy one), Benchmarx a better price but also I liked the fact they didn't hide the price, they were open about it without insisting we have a tradesperson involved as a third party.