Wren Kitchens - My Review
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I'm a former employee of wren kitchen (not disgruntled) if I was looking for a new kitchen I wouldn't look at Wren.
Sure the showrooms look great (in some cases it's because the display units aren't Wrens)! -When Wren kitchens were in their infancy and didn't make the majority of their own cabinet doors, these were provided by other manufacturers (still the case with the Ibsen range for example) now Wren make the doors. Lets take the Voltaire range as an example - a high gloss stone grey door with a Perspex coating- The display units are flawless, but order one for your kitchen and you'll get a sub standard finish. When light reflects off the door front you'll see the gloss paint is poc marked and cratered worse than a zitty teenagers face.
Staff - Typical sales staff you'd find in Any high street show. Gift of the gab. When it comes to sorting problems (mainly caused by our own incompetence (i can admit to that) and lack of training, support competence from the management) you'll get nowhere.
Managers - Useless, helpless, cowardly.
How to get a refund - the only hope you have of getting a refund is if the store you purchased a kitchen from has had a strong sales performance that week. The manager won't authorise a refund if it puts him or her at the bottom end of the performance table. No manager wants a conference call with [text deleted by forum team] Mr Armando Sanchez MD of Wren kitchens and the right hand man of Malcolm Healy, owner of Wren.
As I said at the beginning, I'm not a disgruntled former employee. I found working for Wren had the potential to be a fantastic job and a rewarding feeling, creating a work of art in a customers home for their family to enjoy. If it hadn't been for crazy managers, incompetent staff and a feeling that you were cheating customers out of their money knowing the problems they were going to encounter I would have stayed.
Best places to buy a kitchen in my experience - B&Q (just to clarify, I don't work there)0 -
Well a bunch of flowers arrived at our house for me this week for placing my order, nice touch. Lets hope they're as attentive with the kitchen order, 4 weeks to go...0
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Just to balance some of the negative reviews on here, I would just like to report a net positive experience with Wren. I spent £12000 on 2 kitchens for our new build.
We went for the cream empson range with oak worktops, using our own installer.
Look:
The main kitchen looks fantastic and gets many positive reviews from visitors.
Quality:
Seems good after 4 months, no wobbly doors etc. The built in TV is only good if you have it at eye level - it does not work in the top of a tour.
Installation:
The cabinets being prebuilt helped, the design specified a 3m breakfast bar which wren did not actually do. However Danny from the Bristol store worked to resolve the problem and everything was sorted in 4 days
Customer Service:
Really helpful although sometimes as previously mentioned people don't always respond to messages promptly.
Problems:
One of the worktops was bowed - one quick photo and wren agreed to replace
A breakfast bar was missed off the order and the colour then discontinued - Could have been a disaster but wren tracked down a replacement and supplied free of charge (as was not on the original invoice)
Cheers,
JB0 -
Just to say Wren kitchens What a nightmare..... has been such stress.After paying a small fortune on their fitter in the hope of the job being done efficiently and quickly,couldnt have been further from the truth. What a joke think my seven year old daughter could of put together a kitchen better not that this would have been a hard task given the appauling results we were meant to have been satisfied with.
Bespoke work surfaces..... fitter thought patchworking them was acceptable as surfaces sent werent correct.
Fixing handles and smashing through the back of 90% of the units was also acceptable
Sawing through the boxing around stench pipes was acceptable
Fixing handles the wrong side of magic unit causing whole unit to buckle when pulled was acceptable
super glueing pieces of badly sawn inserts onto a £1000 coffee machine also acceptable
Leaving bare cable electrics accesible which was also yes acceptable he thought
Sawing decorative side panels which shouldnt have been cut with a blunt saw!!
Leaks under sink
Taps that moved
I could go on oh yes paying for gas to be capped by a qualified registered fitter who we never saw as he came when i wasnt in!!! Had to get national grid to come check for leaks....as wasnt convinced anyone credible actually came worryingly
Customer service dreadful nobody rings back when they say they all seem to "talk the talk" but dont deliver.
This all started in oct 12 and has only just ended although we are with dinted drawers, drawers with appauling shattered drill holes because they cannot be replaced as they dont "do" our colour kitchen anymore........
Oh how could I forget the 8ft x 8ft unit that houses the ovens and microwave wasnt fastened to the wall with the correct fittings!!! handy if it had pulled off the wall onto my daughter!!
Manager assured us the fitter wasnt working for them anymore then happened to say recently he had been moved to the "bedrooms"
Feel very badly ripped off customer services left me angry and frustrated and nobody knew who we were every time we rang had to explain who we were and what was the problem...how many dissatisfied customers are they dealing with every day?
Has been a very bad and dangerous experience which doesnt seem to have been taken very seriously as i say they "talk the talk"
Was given a small refund and never heard from them since was told some bits would be sent to try patch up the gauges out the drawers but nothing and am not holding my breath.
Quite shocking
thanks for reading needed to vent0 -
that sounds discusting Kath, we all need to avoid that particular store. Hope it all works out0
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Well folks, as an ex employee. I have to say, that the product is not too bad.
However,
The customer service is shocking, and over the 6 months i worked for them more customer orders went wrong than right. The attitude that shocked me most was from the team I worked with, they really did not give a fig about resolving issues, It was only ever about the next order....to be honest what do you expect in a commision rich environment. The company decided last year that consultants would be responsible for any remedials and that they would be paid for by their own commision. (seems sensible enough) However Consultants were then in control of wether or not to action a remedial and the majority simply will not do it. I had enough early on and decided to part company with them. I am unfortunately a bad salesperson because I have a conscience.
Try them for a quote, but be warned. if you have any doubt about the ability of the salesperson to deliver what they are offering then walk away.
P.S all the above is only my humble opinion.
Can you tell me how much slack Wren have in their pricing. I was quoted £11000 for a kitchen with an extra £3700 for fitting. My wife and i both love the kitchen but not at that price.0 -
The problem with wren kitchens is if anything goes wrong ie missing parts etc they cannott resolve it in a respectable time. I was fitting a kitchen for a customer who was promised delivery of his kitchen on the 4th march i arranged to fit on the 11th march. The problem began with a missing worktop after taking out the old kitchen and fitting the kitchen units the next stage was to fit the worktops sink hob etc but the missing worktop did still not appear even thogh wren said it had been sent. After several phone calls we were told the work top will come in a weeks time so my customers family are without a sink and all cooking facilitys etc we the fitters have had to leave the job untill the said worktop turns up. Wren customer services is non existant THEY DONT CARE ONCE THEY HAVE YOUR MONEY SO BEWARE I wouldnt have one of there kitchens for the simple fact that if anything goes wrong they dont have the facility to sort out the problems in reasonable time. So this poor family are now without there kitchen and we have to find alternative work all thanks to the incompetant WREN KITCHENS0
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Can you tell me how much slack Wren have in their pricing. I was quoted £11000 for a kitchen with an extra £3700 for fitting. My wife and i both love the kitchen but not at that price.
Hello Alexi,
It's been 2 years since I worked for them , so I dont want to give you wrong information.
What I would suggest is be open and honest with the salesperson you are dealing with. Tell them your budget, and that you like what has been prepared for you. Then have the same design done at a couple of other places, choose these other places carefully, you want the same design but at a cheaper rate, get a quotation as close to the amount you want to spend and take it to Wren, ask them to price match it!!!
Good luck,0 -
Hi all
Sorry for the delay in our progress with the wren kitchen we ordered. So far so good, the kitchen arrived, everything was present and correct and in good condition. Our kitchen fitter is currently busy putting it altogether so can't say what the finished product looks like just yet. We sourced our own worktops, sink, tap, appliances (apart from Bosch dishwasher as this came with the kitchen for £75) and as I've said got our own fitter.
We went for cream handleless gloss, 2 tower units, 1 1000mm base, 2 corner 1000mm bases, 1 drawer unit and a unit for housing dishwasher as all appliances are integrated, and it all came to £3350 roughly very reasonable we thought. So far I can't complain, eager to see the end result in a weeks time!!0 -
Guess only those who are dissatisfied post to the Forum.
I bought a complete kitchen from Wren 2 years ago. It was delivered on time, everything was ok, the units were very well built compared to the flat pack versions I have used before.
After fitting (myself) I needed some extra trim which was ordered from showroom - was a couple of days late but otherwise ok. Some of the appliances are theier own brand including the extractor. I needed new filters about a year ago so went into showroom and had them about a week later at a very good price.
Just had a problem with a pull out larder unit door leaning out at top. Went into showroom last Thursday morning and reported it. The showroom staff were helpful and I got a ring that night from 'Steve' who made an appointment for today. He arrived this afternoon and fixed the problem quickly.
I cannot complain about service or the goods and would go there again.
They are not the old MFI although they do use the old MFI factory from what I can gather. I fitted 3 MFI kitchens as diy projects and I can tell you there is no comparison between the units - WREN vastly superior. Have also used B&Q flatpack and again would opt for Wren.
Sorry for those who have had a bad experience but in my case its creditv where credit is due.0
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