MFI going bust?

cattie

Quite a few furniture stores close in the last few days before Christmas, MFI being one of them. They do very little trade then & as the staff are due back to work for the sales that start on Boxing Day, this constitutes their Christmas holiday.

eileenfromplaistow

Just seen the MFI sales advert on tele - sale starts boxing day.

gentlepurr

hi and moooo! colin!

if you MUST buy a kitchen from mfi coz of the vouchers, DONT let them talk you into their insurance under any circumstances, it adds a big chunk onto the bill, and your kitchen will be covered under your home insurance anyway. of course if it were faulty after fitting it would be under guarantee for at least 12 months. use your discretion on extended warranties on any electrical appliances, or better still, purchase them a darn sight cheaper elsewhere. it amazes me how many people pay as much for an extended warranty as the item is worth!

happy designing! xx

Fraserca

Most household goods shops experience a slump in sales just before Christmas - its not a Christmas thing. Travel shops are the same - closing a couple of days before Christmas.

My local bed shop has been closed since Wednesday
It means that they can give the staff a break and get ready for the post Christmas rush, refreshed and ready to cope.

andrewmoorcroft

Colin2511 wrote:

Does anyone know anything about this? I have just got £2500k of vouchers for them (courtesy of beef in gravy from Tesco), and went to choose my kitchen yesterday. The shop is shut until Boxing Day, so "staff can rest", - I could accept this but the web site is also closed and I read a while back they were struggling

I dont want to find out that I cant get my kitchen anyone know anything?

I buy several kitchens a year for houses i refurbish. MFI nearly always have a sale but they have to legally have a 'normal price' period to allow them to claim the 'Sale' prices.
In reality this is an inconvenience to MFI because no one will buy a kitchen/bedroom at 'normal prices' so there is little point in openning.
Ocasionally i have had the need to buy in the 'normal' price period and just tell the manager to use his discretion and they do a 'one off' reduction to their previous sale price. I expect anyone could do this.
As a regular customer. i push them for another 10% off and always get it. Another tip is that they often offer 'free' insurance cover worth £100. I then tell them to stuff the cover and give me £100 off instead.

Howdens v's MFI.
Howdens do 2 main kitchen ranges. Flat pack (similar to old MFI Hygena) and ready made (similar to ready built schreiber). They offer a 'contract' range with metal draws and some with less depth to run pipes behind without cutiing the backs. Most of the doors are from the MFI hygena and schreiber ranges but some are swapped between the ranges. I.e. You may find a Hygena MFI door on a Schreiber Howdens range or vice versa. In general If you want ready built and to collect without delivery delay then use Howdens for the schreiber stuff. If you want flat pack and are prepared to wait then get Hygena from MFI.

Also MFI often do a further price reduction at the end of the sale. If you order and the price goes down you will naturally want the lower price. MFI often play a scare tactic saying that the only way is to cancel and reorder but you'll have to wait another 5 weeks! When you ask what happens to your order they say that it goes to the next person in the que. This is rubbish because the next person does not get your delivery slot and their kitchen any earlier. Anyway, i can't remember the exact details but there is a hole in their price promise. It says that if you get a quote from a national retailer for the the same product for less within 28 days of purchase they will refund the difference and give you 20%. A national retailer includes MFI!

shelly

I wouldn't recommend MFI kitchens either. Actually the kitchen is fine....its just the CS that stinks. Our kitchen was delivered in 2 stages due to most of it either being missing or damaged on the first delivery. When we called CS they weren't interested that our chippie was waiting to fit it but couldn't due to their blunders. Things might have changed since we last dealt with them but I wouldn't recommend them.....not for kitchens anyway.

Dumyat

we bought the MFI kitchen...but didnt use their fitters! saved mega bucks and got a better job I'm sure! very pleased with the kitchen!
Also got the joiner to check the plans....he pointed out a number of errors which saved us time and money!-for example they had priced for two single cupboards instead of a double cupboard(price was more for two small than one large), the worktop had been calculated wrongly...

Colin2511

wow, thanks for all the advice...if it was not for beef in gravy then we would not be going there, but taking that into account it makes it cheaper, I am not going to use their fitting, as hubby can do some and then a local guy does work tops and sinks etc.

I have sort of planned it but will get them to check it. I am going today to get a price and then I can get the vouchers converted as I dont want to convert too many.

I am not getting the cooker or firdge from them as it is way to expensive, have looked on Kelkoo etc and will be getting my lovely range cooker from somewhere else (I am sure MFI wont like it but tough)

need to get a shift on as the hob had a leak last week and the gas board shut it off leaving me with an electric oven and a borrowed steamer for Xmas !!

Dumyat

I priced the whitegoods separately and told them I was buying elsewhere....they then price matched or bettered the online prices I had found...literally knocked hundreds off the quote! and because it just meant waiting for one delivery we went with them.

Colin2511

oohh..........I like the sound of that, I have priced the ones I want and are about £300 cheaper in Comet, but if they match then I am happy to have one delicery

thanks will try it as Comet gave me a print out of the price etc