MFI - should i get my deposit back??

savemoney

MIL who bought a kitchen to be fitted in Jan 09 just got a call tonight from fitter who MFI employed he said MFI own him a lot of dosh and he wont get paid so would be unable to do the work MFI are meant to provide the units. He said that he can get kitchen at Howdens and he will do it cheaper anyhow. She had to get money back from desposit from CC

hello__69

I was from one of the stores that closed down less than a month ago. They told us that we would be ok then within 3weeks it was gone. I still know some things and have been told that they have not paid bathroom suppliers so people wont get bathrooms unless they do and they were running out of money when i left. If i was you i would get your money back if they will let you as you may have to pay 10% cancellation fee but if you have had your pre fit within the last 7 days they you do not have to pay it and if they try to say you have to, it is on the back of your customer charter they should of given you saying you do not. The if the store has the bathroom that you wanted on display and they go in to a close down sale you will get it cheaper than you paid already. As for fitting it you have the fitters mobile number now as it will be on your extra works sheet ask if he will do still fit it for you and pay him direct as that will be cheaper to and he will deffo get the money from you were he may not from them. Hope this helps but the fact you paid by card means you are covered if you decie to keep your order.

zenseeker

The MFI website has shut down....

http://www.mfi.co.uk/

edwinac_2

dag wrote: »

I have to say, I honestly had no idea that MFI sold flatpack furniture until today, when there was an article in the Guardian about it. I honestly thought that MFI only sold custom-built kitchens (which are obviously of no interest to people on short-term tenancies), and that the only places you could get flatpack furniture from were IKEA, Habitat and Homebase.

Is it true that you can get flatpack furniture from MFI? What's the quality like? What are the instructions like? And what are the prices like? Has anyone bought any? And if so, what do they think of it? Is it any better than what you can get from IKEA? Thanks.

MFI's furniture was appalling quality. Think shoddy cupboards, desks, and shelving units, all made of cheap laminated chipboard, sometimes even with chipboard legs, that soon buckled under the strain. Think thinly plated chromium coffee tables topped by perilously thin glass. Think poorly sprung divan beds with nylon velour headboards... That was the mainstay of MFI - low-quality, high-profit junk.

The only item we every bought from MFI was a replacement gas hob. It seemed like a good deal at the time - stainless steel and cast iron, it looked quite nice. Sadly it proved to be no bargain. We've now replaced every one of the four gas taps. In fact one tap has been changed twice now. Each tap costs £25 with a £50 bill for fitting it. Certainly no bargain in the long term.

I will interested to learn what happens to MFI's spare parts department in Norwich. When I phoned them a couple of months back (to order yet another replacement gas tap), the girl was very cagey about the relationship her spares company has with MFI the retailer. She claimed they were completely separate. I wasn't at all convinced by her reassurances.

In the circumstances, perhaps it's a bit cruel slating MFI for selling expensive tat. A huge number of jobs have just been lost, and that is a genuine tragedy.

andrew-b

edwinac wrote: »

MFI's furniture was appalling quality. Think shoddy cupboards, desks, and shelving units, all made of cheap laminated chipboard, sometimes even with chipboard legs, that soon buckled under the strain.

Wasn't that bad...well no worse than Tesco direct or argos in my experience. My desk and filing cabinet came from there about 9 years ago and not had any probs.

Still MFI have been struggling for quite some time so it's no big surprise to see them topple. When we were looking for a kitchen back in 2006 there were rumours they might go out of business so we didn't even bother having a look. All the scaremongering that's existed over the last few years with them hasn't really helped. I'm surprised just how long MFI have lasted before the wheels totally fell off!

The trouble is us moneysavers tend to fall for bargain basement prices so i hope not too many of you are affected by having fallen victim. If you're paying off credit taken out to purchase MFI products then you will still have to pay it i'm afraid (we are still slowly paying off a debt for a sofa purchase from Courts from years back - don't even have the sofa any more!). I believe that if you have unresolved problems that you would normally take them up with the company providing the credit - at least that is what happened with Courts i believe.

For me the bigger surprise in yesterday's news was Woolworths going into administration - mainly because i hadn't known they were in trouble i suppose. So who would you save...what was pretty much a national institution in Woolworths or MFI? I guess the government aren't interested in saving either as they just blew all their cash in the pre-budget report and probably have nothing left over to save anyone! Seems to be mis-management occurring at many levels to me and at the end of the day it's the poor employees and customers that get hurt whilst top management won't lose any sleep and just move on to screw up another company!!

Of course they'll brush it off as being the "credit crunch" - but when you begin to look more closely most of the companies failing are one's mis-managed in the first place and the "credit crunch" is just one of the final nails in the coffin lid.

Unfortunately I doubt MFI and Woolies won't be the only ones that go under.

Andy

lozzy73

Does anyone know who makes/supplies MFI's home office furniture / bedroom furniture. I'm waiting on one item but may need to source directly. They wouldn't tell me when I asked.

edwinac_2

lozzy73 wrote: »

Does anyone know who makes/supplies MFI's home office furniture / bedroom furniture. I'm waiting on one item but may need to source directly. They wouldn't tell me when I asked.

If the furniture is made of MDF or chipboard, then the manufacturers could be BGH (Bernsteins) There are only two or three manufacturers in the UK, and Bernsteins are by far the biggest.