How to get Howdens to price match?

[daisychain237]

Have had a design done by Howdens which I like, but price is £10k.

A like for like at DIY Kitchens is under £5k but Howdens are refusing to budge on price.

Any one succesfully had them price match DIY and can share tips?

Diy kitchen isn't B&Q.

There was a comparison video link on here not so long ago. Fitter compared Howdens, Wickes, Wren, B&Q and DIY kitchens for quality and price. DIY came out way higher than all the others. I think Wren came second. Howdens was bottom.
Why don't you just go to DIY kitchens?

Just to clarify why I prefer to go with Howdens is because the DIY showroom is too far for me to travel there in person + not keen on designing the kitchen myself (mainly I worry about getting the measurements wrong) + my local Howdens is 20mins away so very easy for me to just pop over if anything goes wrong in the process. Also I slightly prefer the colours Howdens has to offer.

Howdens is easier to deal with for missing/damaged parts. Diy have to remake and resend, Howdens your builder can pop down and get it.

The kitchen quality or DIY kitchen is heaps better imo.

So basically you aren't getting a like for like quote because you haven't got a quote for DIY Kitchens.

I didn't think Howdens priced for individuals, just for builders with accounts?

I had a DIY kitchen (nearly 4 years ago) and the builder I used usually fitted Howdens. At the start he was somewhat moany about it not being Howdens, by the time he'd finished he was singing DIYs praises and saying he'd recommend them.

I did do an initial design and received a quote based of that, but I am not sure if my measurements are entirely accurate + I found the process challenging so not very keen on doing another one.

The extra cost from Howdens is because they've got a showroom near you that you can just drop into and someone will design the kitchen for you.

If you go with a bigger builder they'll get a bigger discount if they use Howdens regularly - ours worked out less because of this. £6k for quite a large kitchen

Fair enough.
I knew what I wanted, I was meticulous with my measurements and very detailed with exactly what I could fit in to get the best possible use of the space.
I wouldn't have wanted to rely on someone else for that, I'm the one who has to live with it.

In my experience, you tell Howdens the name of your builder / joiner and Howdens checks with the builder how much of their own commission they want to pass on to you as a discount.

The first builder I spoke to was very proactive in telling me to give Howdens his name when we were still considering our options, which I thought was kind but actually we were getting a small discount and I assume he was getting a cut.

Eventually, we decided to go with another builder and once we knew exactly what we wanted we gave Howdens his name and they immediately applied a bigger discount as this builder doesn’t split the discount / commission.

Did they say why they couldn’t price match? eg did they say it’s because your DIY quote wasn’t like-for-like, or that they simply can’t come down by 50%?

I sent my Howdens quote (not itemised) to DIY who then put together a like-for-like quote for me. (I initially tried to put it together myself but found it too complicated)

Howdens were happy to price match (so about 55%), though did change/add a few things to make it more like-for-like.

I think I was lucky as it does seem to be dependent on the Howdens branch and salesperson. I think it also depends on the tradesman’s relationship with the salesperson (business-wise I mean, not personal!)

For example I was told that the pricing would be the same regardless of which tradesman I chose, but I’ve read/heard that you can get tradesmen to pass on some/all of their trade discount to you also. I think this also depends on whether you are doing the negotiating through the tradesman or with Howdens direct.

I’ve been researching a lot on here lately and heard that some branches of howdens do pricematch DIY kitchens. I’m hoping they will for me. Only thing I’ve found with the diy kitchen quote is the price of the end panels is ridiculous. Was thinking if went with DIY I may just go somewhere else for end panels as they are white gloss so surely they won’t be much different from another supplier but a fraction of the cost.