New kitchens - howdens, wren or benchmarx?

dmacdonald_2

We have just had a Benchmarx kitchen fitted. Had the design done by Wickes and then saved 20% by going to Benchmarx. I think the quality is OK and I am glad the carcasses are pre-assembled. I used a good local fitter and he cut the Wickes installation costs by over 50%. Bought all my appliances and saved another small fortune and my quartz work tops came from Mr Marble who again cut 50% off most quotes. It hasn't gone 100% smoothly. Haven't got my sink installed yet because it arrived with large fins under the drainer and there's a dishwasher in the way and my 90cm induction hob won't fit in the 90cm base unit without routering out some side walls. Fingers crossed will get everything finished this week. Lessons learned: Checkatrade is an excellent place to find tradespeople, get at least 2 quotes on everything, if you're buying stuff, rather than skills, look on eBay first. Chat to the tradespeople, they sometimes have amazing ideas. Build the most detailed plan you can in Excel and cost everything up before you start and then keep track of all the actual costs.

adamg

Phils_debt wrote: »

Wren is howdens ,im looking at wardrobes

no its not

doris44

aah wrote: »

I would never use howdens.

They can give you a price all they say is that they are a wholesale carpentry (joke!) and that their installers will quote.

Now the installers get a discount depending on how much howdens like them so you never get to know the true price which is probably peanuts

And they have a lousy range of cabinet sizes.

And when we asked them to quote they measured it up wrong - 1 metre out. We decided to go with another company but our fitter recommended that we give howdens another try - we did. Their expert designer stayed in the shop but decided that our own design "just wouldnt work" They sent out an expert measurer - who got it wrong again, but to be fair, only by 10cm this time.

Shoddy and amateurish. Our fitter - who arrived swearing by howdens - said how much he loved fitting our ikea kitchen, even building the units which he normally hated.

Bargepole job.

This is my point EXACTLY on the other thread WHy don't Howdens tell you a price. Have been attacked from all angles (fitters I suspect).
I have NO IDEA how much 'profit' the fitter is making even though he quoted me £800 and WAS very keen i did not go anywhere else esp. B and Q ! Now I know why!

phill99

doris44 wrote: »

This is my point EXACTLY on the other thread WHy don't Howdens tell you a price. Have been attacked from all angles (fitters I suspect).
I have NO IDEA how much 'profit' the fitter is making even though he quoted me £800 and WAS very keen i did not go anywhere else esp. B and Q ! Now I know why!

But you need to look at the overall cost of your kitchen - not just the units and the fitting costs individually. Why are you so hung up on whether the fitter makes a margin on you or not? It happens in every trade. A joiner quotes to fit a door for you. he charges you £120 for the door, but will only be paying £100. A plasterer pays £4 for a bag of plaster but will be pricing it to you at £6. Yiu but a bag of sugar at the supermarket for 90p, Tesco buy it for 50p, but you don't ask the manager how much it's costing Tesco.

I have fitted Howdens and B & Q kitchens and will no longer fit
B & Q kitchens. When we have done them in the past, I can guarantee that some of the items are not delivered or are damaged. This means that when B & Q do deliver the replacement or missing part, (normally weeks, not days later) the customer then expects me to come off another job, go back and fit the missing items, but don't expect to pay any more for my services. With Howdens, all there stuff is held in stock, so if a part is damaged, I can go to the depot and get it replaced there and then, without it eating into another job. And yes I do make a margin on Hoedens, Magnets Trade and any other product I buy for customers. This margin pays for the running of the Van, insurances, mobile phone etc. if you dont want me to have a margin, then you can pay my Day rate plus running costs - so add another £40 per day, then see how much you like the fitting charge.

A_little_bird_told_me

Avoid Wren kitchens - they may be slightly cheaper - but I have heard horror stories about very poor customer service - They claim to be ready assembled - I would say part assembled (Doors, legs,ovens - missing on deliveries)Also you will not recieve a call prior to delivery to say there missing. They have expanded very quickly and can not fullfill the orders. Go to howdens if you want real service.

BigGraham_2

Right, probably not that well qualified to comment yet as we've only just ordered our kitchen from Wren so can't comment on the quality of the units first hand, installation, or customer services, but the whole buying experience has been a pleasure so far. So Betta Living came to our house and drew up a plan, designed a kitchen, priced it, discounted it and pushed hard for the close. Original price £38k! Yeah, £38k! After special offer, discount for this, discount for that, etc we arrived at £12k if we put a deposit down then. And it was very confusing how he arrived at the discounts - there were lots of 'if you change the doors to a cheaper range then you'll drop below the £9k furniture price which means you no longer get this offer or that offer' etc. Went ahead and placed deposit though as the 10 day cooling off period meant there was no risk. Salesman left with an 'enjoy your kitchen' meaning that his work was done. Following 24 hours was spent in frantic research and I went to local Wren showroom (Reading) as part of that. Firstly, great showroom. Secondly, spent 2 hours with the guy working on a design on computer. Then went back that evening for another couple of hours. And you can play with the designs at home as well. Their pricing seems a lot more 'open'. It came to about £17k and we got down to £12k. BUT that included granite instead of the composite stuff from Betta, a few extra tweaks to design and an American style fridge freezer, so a much better deal. He did try and close us then as you'd expect but was happy to let us sleep on it. We went back following morning, few more tweaks and went ahead, and have cancelled the Betta Living order. The salesman and his manager were a pleasure to deal with. And the whole process has given me a lot of confidence which I hope they don't prove to be misplaced. So we're allowed to make some changes and if we do, he'll discount at the same level so no overly complicated pricing and it's very easy for me to work out the cost implications of anything I do. Before they sign the job off, the salesman and his manager visit my house to confirm that everything is fine. I think this is a cracking touch. It really was refreshing to deal with them. I'm an IT salesman and I know most of the tricks and tactics but they seemed a genuine bunch. I know these words could come back to haunt me but I'd definitely give them a visit if you're in the market for what seems a decent quality kitchen. I was going to speak to Howdens as well but went to their depot and they were shut until January!! My gut feeling is that they will be a similar price. A friend has had a positive experience with them but I got a good feeling from Wren so not going to bother speaking to Howdens now.

adamg

seriously wren you are pathetic everyone can see through you and your staff, cant wait till you go bust!

BigGraham_2

AdamG, I can assure you I don't work for Wren. In fact until last Friday I'd never even heard of them. I'm a 38 year old IT salesman working for the world's largest IT company, living in Reading and until a few days ago had not the slightest interest in kitchens or kitchen manufacturers. I do know that the last few days have been exhausting and stressful, including dreaming about kitchens most nights, and even this morning we've still been sat in the kitchen eating breakfast talking about whether there are other better ways to lay it out. And I do know that going online and reading the almost entirely negative reviews on these boards would make you think no company was worth talking to so positive experiences need to be shared as well as negative. And I do know that personally my experience with the guy at Wren helped alleviate some of that stress. If you are unwilling to accept that someone has had a positive experience with a company you seem to have an issue with then I think that says more about you than me.

I actually spoke relatively positively about Betta and Howdens. Betta we did order from but just found the Wren experience more confidence inspiring. Howdens I would definitely have spoken to as my friend recommended them but they were shut when I went there and to be honest now I don't see the point as I don't think they will be significantly cheaper / better than Wren and I've had enough of kitchens to be honest. It seems to be one of those things that the longer you look at it the more times you will change your mind so when you think you've got a good deal then go for it.

I'm more than happy for you to PM me and I'll give you my full name if you want to google me, check me on LinkedIn or even give me a call. That applies to anyone else as well. Don't let idiots like AdamG make you assume that any positive review is a false one.

Steve_the_fitter

Fitting a Wren kitchen this week. Oven cabinet and built in fridge missing. I know they are not going to get them there by the time I finish the fit so there will be a return visit which costs money and from the customers point of view they wont have an oven or fridge until they are delivered and fitted.
Last Wren kitchen I fitted every panel bar 2 has scratches in it and all needed replacing. Did they get them there while I was still fitting the kitchen. Did they heck.


Wren kitchens are good for the money but their problem is they have got to big to quickly. A year or 2 ago they seemed to get all their deliveries correct. Now they are just another MFI with bad delivery and after sales is only going to get worse as they sell more kitchens.

BigGraham_2

OK, so that is slightly concerning but to be honest it seems that all the companies have their issues so how you're meant to decide, god knows. If you google reviews for any of them you will find 90% negative so I guess you just need to trust your instincts and hope for the best. They've said stuff like the fitter only gets paid once I have signed off the installation, and that the manager and the salesman personally come out to give the installation a final check, which sounds reassuring to me if that's how it really happens. I really liked the lack of a hard sell from Wren, transparent pricing and loved their online planner - meant I could play around with the design and see exactly which bits were costing the money and how changes I made would affect the price. That said, if they screw up the delivery and the installation then those positives become irrelevant. Betta were ok, came up with a decent enough design but just didn't leave me with a warm, confident feeling and to go from £38k to £12k was taking the p#ss really. I'm sure Howden would have been ok too if I'd got to speak to them, but I like to buy rather than be sold to, if that makes sense, so them being shut when I wanted to go and see them, and the lack of any pricing on the web meant they were a bit of a non-starter for me. Fingers crossed that by mid-Feb I've got a kitchen that I'm really pleased with.