Moben kitchens ripped me off!

Hi there

I was wondering if I could get some advice. Basically had a saleman from Moben round before christmas to design and price up new kitchen. He asked my husband and I if we wanted to pay for it through finance but we told him we had the cash and would pay for it in one go. He then went on to offer us a further discount if we signed up to finance. I asked him what early repayment penalties we would incur and he said one month's interest which would be about £85. As this was less than the discount offered, we decided to go for it. However, when I went to pay off the balance once the kitchen had been fitted I was told we owed an extra £288. This was £65 admin costs, £124 interest for one month, plus a further £99 for interest accrued in the 28 days notice period we had to give GE Money to terminate the contract. Have since be told (but not sure if correct) that the FSA say that it is an offence to offer enticement to customers to sign up for credit agreements. I wrote a letter to moben head office to complain but was told it was our fault for not reading the small print. I phoned Consumer direct who said I could take them to the small claims court but it's our word against theirs that they offered us a discount. We could supply the court with a bank statement to prove we had the funds to pay for the kitchen but this is not conclusive proof. Also, the court could argur that we should have read the contract fully. However, we didn't get the contract until a week before the kitchen was to be installed. Is there anything I can do? I am so annoyed that the salesman will have earnt himself a nice little commission from the finance agreement, but the discount he fraudently offered is pretty much cancelled out by the extra admin costs we have to pay.

Thanks for listening!
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Comments

  • TAG
    TAG Posts: 2,823 Forumite
    We had the same with Zenith Windows.

    Sales guy would only give us 'the special price/massive discount' (which got bigger and bigger the longer he stayed). If we signed a finance agreement, even though we wanted to pay cash.

    After 2 hours of him clearly not wanting to give in, we told him to shove it and showed him the door.
  • Tom_Jones
    Tom_Jones Posts: 1,562
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    Mmmmmm seriously though if you had the cash why would you sign up for finance ? it's a great money earner for Moben or any other company that use finance as they will get a large commission for every sale. You should have read the contract closley, over at least 48 hours, before you signed, sorry but you've been a victim of high pressure sales tactics.

    If you have cash to buy any large item you are in a strong position for knocking the price down, and I'm sure that you know that anyway, next time record the salesman on either tape or video, you have to tell them though.

    BTW £124 in interest per month is rather large, it must have been an expensive kitchen, and was it fitted properly as Moben have a poor reputation
  • Moben's offered me a half price kitchen ..............£6000.
    Went to Howdens...................................£1600 same kitchen.
    Says it all really.
  • The reason we went for finance even though we had the money was that we were offered a big discount. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I suppose we should have got the saleman to write down the deal he was offering so we had proof he was offering discounts for finance. We thought as Moben was such a big company they would do a good job and we didn't think the price was particularly expensive considering we'd paid about £3000 for a kitchen at BBQ for our old house. The actual kitchen fitters were very good and the kitchen does look really good - I'm just so angry that we were taken in by this saleman.

    It looks as though there is nothing more I can do then........
  • Tom_Jones
    Tom_Jones Posts: 1,562
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    Moben, Kitchens Direct (same firm btw) etc have poor reputations, so it looks like you were lucky not to have any problems with the install. I would have thought you would have got the same discount from the salesman as he offered for finance if you'd have pushed him a bit. I doubt that you have any recourse against the company as you have no proof, so pay the bill so it doesn't affect your credit record, and never use Moben again and tell everyone you know how they ripped you off.
  • mrmajika
    mrmajika Posts: 986
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    Tom_Jones wrote:
    Moben, Kitchens Direct (same firm btw)

    We just had our kitchen done by DM design but had quotes from Moben and Kitchens Direct also. Moben and KD use the same suppliers but are not the same company.


    We were offered a discount for taking the finance by both Moben and Kitchens direct. I believe the discount was around the £300 mark, although can't remember exactly.

    The way it was worded to us was that the company get a 'kickback' from the finance company which they then pass onto the customer.
    Whilst my posts do not constitute financial advice, I am always, without fail, 100% right! :D
  • Tom_Jones
    Tom_Jones Posts: 1,562
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    Moben , Kitchens Direct, and one of the companies that does bathrooms (forgot the name) are one and the same company, they were advertising as such over the Xmas period.
  • Hi there,

    The bathroom company is Dolphin.

    I know it's no consolation Missmadness, but I had a similar experience with Moben many years ago and bought the most expensive kitchen in history which left me feeling very p'd off with thier sales team and techniques to say the least - it was an expensive lesson. I hope posting this helps anyone else to either steer clear of Moben altogether or at least be forewarned.

    Helen.
  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,912
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    Moben and Kitchens Direct are both trading names of a company called MKD Holdings Limited based in Manchester.
  • mrmajika
    mrmajika Posts: 986
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    MarkyMarkD wrote:
    Moben and Kitchens Direct are both trading names of a company called MKD Holdings Limited based in Manchester.

    I stand corrected! I didn't check this out - just believed the salesman who told me that KD and Moben were seperate - should have known better.
    Whilst my posts do not constitute financial advice, I am always, without fail, 100% right! :D
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