'Cheaper than MFI' Kitchen to buy or not to buy?

27col

'Cheaper than MFI' Kitchen to buy or not to buy'
Why would any company advertise that they are cheaper than a non-existent company. Ie MFI. It seems a rather pointless piece of advertising as it has no meaning at all.

kittykat23uk

Yedge,

I found that Kitchens Now site too back in February and stupidly ordered from their salesman. I did look for reviews online before I ordered and found nothing negative (or positive) so thought I'd give them a punt since they only wanted a £50 depasit up front. Boy do I regret it now!!!

Here's whats happened to date:
In late February 2010, I ordered the kitchen fixtures and fittings and paid a deposit of £50 by cheque. I was informed by the salesman, that upon payment of the deposit my entire order would be inventoried and allocated to me and would be available for dispatch on a date of my choosing, as long as it fell on a Thursday.

We provisionally agreed a date in late April, but at my request this was subsequently put back to May. I was in regular contact with the delivery team and confirmed my date again a week in advance. I then received two calls the monday before the delivery was due informing that my entire order would arrive as promised on 27th May. Not once was I informed that there were any issues in fulfilling my order. Then the next day, Tuesday, I was again called by a staff member who explained to me that the doors that we had ordered (oak shaker style) were not available.

By that point work had already started to remove the old kitchen and so at this stage I had no choice but to accept a different style of door (light walnut- turns out to be MFI stock) and £50 discount in order to avoid delay to the project.

I spoke to deliveries on Wednesday 26th May who confirmed my revised order. I was expecting to take delivery of the entire order on Thursday 27th May as promised. Only some of the kitchen turned up and I paid for everything except the worktops on delivery (£950 cash). But at present I have still not received the entire order. The missing items are:

Two lengths of Granite work tops- I specifically asked Kitchens Now deliveries on Wednesday to confirm the granite would arrive with the shipment on Thursday, which she assured me was the case. However, when the delivery driver arrived, he informed me the granite was coming separately, either the same day or Friday. My kitchen fitter chased the order on Friday and I received a call on Saturday 29th May at 16.45 from a delivery driver who had hoped to deliver at 18.30. Unfortunately as I was not forewarned of the weekend delivery, I was unable to take delivery at that time.

The driver agreed to re-deliver on Tuesday 1st June, but he failed to meet this commitment. As of today the driver has given me some feeble excuse about the van breaking down (although he was at least polite) and has promised to call me again tomorrow.

Five pairs (10) soft close hinges and three “Boss Bar” handles are also missing- My kitchen fitter contacted the delivery team Friday 28th May to inform them of these missing items. They have promised to send these out by courier but to date I have not had any indication of when they might arrive (a tracking number and date of dispatch seems anathema to them).

My fitter only found that we were also a door short on Monday 31st May. He contacted the delivery team tuesday and they have agreed to send out a replacement – again, no firm date has yet been provided.

When I and my fitter raised concerns with Kitchens Now staff, with rare exception, see above, we found them to be very rude and dismissive, they seemed unable or unwilling to provide either of us with any firm details of when the rest of my order will be fulfilled. Furthermore, my kitchen fitter had to make some modifications to the kitchen cabinet legs even buying new ones, owing to shoddy workmanship (cheap plastic legs).

I appreciate its only a week into the delivery and they might still turn this around, but if this drags on any longer I'm going to have to look elsewhere for replacement worktops and the other missing bits. Kitchens Now I hope you take note of this- if you do turn this around to my satisfaction, I would be happy to post a more positive follow up to this post.

In all good conscience I cannot reccommend this company at this present time and would advise you to look elsewhere:mad::mad::mad:

All the best

Jo

PS Any recommendations on where to source some granite worktops and a light walnut MFI kitchen sink unit door would be very welcome.

Basil1234

looks from this site is vance miller owned has a review from 17th may 2010 and does not look favourable look at all company names at the top says it all really http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_id/11224/companyname/Kitchens-Now-Simply-Kitchens-The-Kitchen-Factory-Outlet-Vance-Miller-Kitchen-Dreams-Kitchens-4-Less-.html

kittykat23uk

Yes its a pity that review wasn't there in February.

before_hollywood

vance miller set up numerous companies in my neck of the woods

run. away. now

if i was buying a kitchen i would buy wickes take away cabinets and pay my mate's brother to fit them, he fits them for the neighbouring council's properties.

mikey_D

Vance Miller has his own wikki page as well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Miller

Basil1234

for those looking for cheap kitchens and of good quality i went to ikea myself and found they where best for the money and quality overall
http://thekitchen.ikea.co.uk/
http://onlinecatalogue.ikea.com/2010/sb_kitchen/GB/

kittykat23uk

Well after much ringing up and "negotiating forcefully" down the phone, we finally have received our missing door, hinges and handles today. Still no sign of the granite and we're also short on pelmet too...