Kitchens - MFI or IKEA? Have you had a kitchen fitted in the last year?

[MARGOsBeenPlayingWithMyNooNoo]

My brother is getting a new kitchen. I had problems with Mfi, so did one of my aunts. His flatmates' mum has had a few friends who have been happy with MFIs sevice.

Is he wise to go with them?

Well, they are offering a long-term IFC deal, so if money is the object, it might be a good move for him.

We have just had a new kitchen fitted. We went to local independent retailer and got good deal, no more expensive than the big names, we knew exactly who we were dealing with (spoke to the same person throughout the process), didn't have anything missing, took the salesman a bottle of wine to say thank you.

Some of the 50% off deals that the major retailers offer are a huge con. Their 'prices' are hugely inflated to cover the discounts.

I know what you mean. I've told him to get a quotation from the builder I used recently. He was very good and reasonably priced too. (I'd pay a little extra if a tradesman was reliable)

Well, I've tried to visit MFI twice to speak to them about fitting a new kitchen in our lovely (but not yet built) kitchen extension. Both times I have been scuppered by the lack of staff. It used to be the case that when visiting those sorts of places you couldn't step two paces around the store before being accosted by a salesperson. Now you have to BEG them to serve you.

So I have taken the bank's money my money to IKEA instead.

I have just bought a kitchen from IKEA but havent had it fitted yet.
They now do a 2 year no interest payment deal, well they do here in Spain, maybe UK too?

ours came from ikea, handles from ironmongery direct cos I didn't like what ikea had- well pleased despite having to do a bit of chopping about of cuboard back because all our services come through the wall

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We had an Ikea kitchen fitted. They were really good and went out of their way for us.

although we are always being told that MFI "have changed" I would still be dubious about them after some truly appalling customer service a few years ago. My Mum has just had hers done and she used an independent and was v pleased with it - it's gorgeous

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We have just had a lovely MFI kitchen fitted. I have to say there were no problems at the planning stage, and the guy was positively throwing free appliances at us.

We had a couple of problems with the the delivery...things not turnng up with the main delivery but apparently coming later. I phoned and made a fuss and hey presto they appeared.

The quality is good, I'm pleased with it. Our builders fitted it, BTW.

Customer service might not be the best but the kitchen we got from them is lovely and very nice quality.

MFI get an awful lot of mentions in the consumer complaints column of the Guardian.

My parents have an Ikea kitchen and are thrilled with it. The other advantage is that if you sell your house to someone who doesn't like your kitchen they can go back to Ikea and buy new cupboard doors rather than rip the whole thing out.

ikea will be cheaper and better. Get an independent local fitter be prepared for the odd thing not turning but it gets sorted very easily. Esp quick if you live near an ikea. Also if near john lewis they do a first range very competitive and they have superb planning service. Still would get other fittercthough as costs through shops are twice if not thrice the price of a local chap/ chapette

We have just one fitted. We choose Johnson's buildbase but found a local fitter because their installation charge was nearly as much as the kitchen.

It worked really well and I would highly recommend them. Mind you, I think a lot of it depends on what your sales person is like and ours was great.

When I was looking I didn't like the approach of MFI/Magnet. Just didn't seem to care about what I wanted at all and went into the same old sales spiel.

I had IKEA kitchen fitted in a previous house. They can give you details of local fitters who should do a good job. Mine were great. Only thing is that IKEA cabinets/base units were deeper (internal dimensions, not external ones) than some others because they go right back to the wall and don't have a false back for cabling, etc behind them.

Thank you for your replies - He's ordered it from MFI and there's no telling him otherwise.

Ah well.

are they installing it?
rip off aroony

Hopefully not - A builder who worked for us recently is giving him a quote.

We bought our kitchen from Wickes in the sale, and got a joiner to fit it (with DP acting as his assistant). He'd done lots of joinery jobs for us in the past, so we knew he was good & reliable.
Didn't fancy buying a kitchen from one of the big names and having one of their own fitting teams fitting it in case they were rubbish.

Doesn't it all come down to what type of look you want? I wanted an in- frame look to my kitchen and altho I liked IKEA, they just didn't have the choice I wanted. So MFI it was.