Howdens designer talking rubbish

[BG2015]

We are planning to have a new kitchen in the next couple of months.
Last kitchen was fitted by an amazing kitchen fitter, he lives near my parents and I went to school with him and his buddy (who's an electrician). His work is impeccable and he's well know locally for his carpentry skills.

We've had a Wren quote and our fitter suggested that we get a Howdens quote too and the designer came out yesterday.

I know my fitter prefers Howdens (I presume he gets discount/kickback ) but our last kitchen was a Wicks one and all was fine.

The Howdens guy started measuring up and when I said I'd had a Wren quote too, for comparison he said " oooo S won't fit a Wren kitchen," I just laughed at him and said "actually he'll fit any kitchen I want as I'll be paying him!"

Does he think I'm stupid? Straight away he annoyed me.

Doesn’t like a big deal. Possibly your fitter at some point down the line has been in Howdens joking around and said similar. I used to work at a builders yard which included selling kitchens and bathrooms and the tradesmen would joke around like this about other companies.

or possibly he genuinely won’t fit a Wren kitchen no matter how much you pay him. I do hate the attitude of “he’ll do as he’s told as I’m paying him”. Actually he’s probably got enough work lined up that he can choose to drop you if he wants. Obviously if you have a personal relationship with him that might not happen. But it sounds like you just know him from school rather than being a friend so it could.

i believe Howdens will give the price to your fitter who will then relay it back to you.

i do hear good things about DIY kitchens.

Once you have a plan you like go see benchmarx too (they sell wickes kitchens i think)

My experience of howdens has been poor overall but their kitchens are fine.
1 poor interaction (as per yours)
1 sexist interaction(would only speak to my dh who has no clue about kitchens)
1 just plain lazy (totally uninterested and the designer wanted the design i already had to copy and cost it when i specifically said i wanted him to optimiae the space)

I had an excellent design and service from Howden’s. We fitted the kitchen ourselves which was a doddle as the cabinets are already assembled. No complaints at all. I'm guessing they vary from branch to branch looking at some of the comments here.

Spoke to my fitter and he says they only send quotes out with the account holders permission which he has now given to the designer.

So hopefully by tomorrow I'll have a rough quote.

Howdens quote is £5917 compared to Wrens £5622, neither include appliances. Fitting isn't included, reckon that will be £5k plus electrics, flooring and tiling.

Wren quoted £2877 for appliances.

Does anyone know if Howdens will lower their prices if we haggle?

They call them ‘designers and I had high hopes of Howdens as brilliant builder recommended, but he just said what their formula was. No imagination or original problem solving. In the end we designed it ourselves. Very happy with result and still looks great. They need to train proper designers not just parrot things. People want something tailormade for their ownspace not identikit stuff. Good luck OP.

To be fair our kitchen is tiny and pretty big standard. We don't need anything bespoke.

We're going next week to tweak a few things and ask some questions.

*bog