Compensation for Magnet kitchen nightmare?

GaryD_2

Hello,

We've had an absolute nightmare this past three months, which we've just come out of. Magnet Kitchens were the source of this, and from day one it was a disaster.

We have documented all of this at www (dot) kitchen-nightmare (dot) com
[sorry, we're new here so we're not allowed to enter links yet!]

We were so upset by what happened we tried to reject the installation, but they would not take this for an answer and the only option we had was to "push through". But as you can see from the site this was not a pain-free option.

My question is, now that we have finally got the kitchen finished to an acceptable standard (after three months of intense debate, inconvenience, stress, tears and what we felt were "untruths" told by Magnet in order to fob us off), what can we realistically claim back in terms of compensation?

My feeling is that companies that fail to deliver in such a spectactular, disasterous way should not expect to be paid for their work. I know I couldn't ask one of my clients for payment if I had done this to them. The problem is, Magnet demand payment up front, so we are trying to claim it back.

But what do you all think would be fair and reasonable? A few hundred pounds, the installation charge, or even more?

Cheers
Gary D.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

What have you asked from them and what have they offered?

bris

Any compensation is down to what Magnet offer, if you don't agree with what (if anything) they offer then your only recourse is to pick a suitable figure that a small claims court may be happy to award you. As they have still provided the kitchen it may be reasonal to ask for the installation cost back or sue for that amount.

Hintza

Hope your legal team have pre-approved your website!

Freddie_Snowbits

Just one post will do. Freddie will reserve opinion till the snug reopens on Thursday

CyCo_2

I wish I had that much time on my hands...

What can you expect to get? Realistically your out of pocket expenses.

What could you have expected to get if you hadn't bothered with that website? Probably a lot more

Oh and as for the point about them asking for payment upfront. ALL the multiple retailers do this: B&Q, Wickes, Homebase, Ikea, Moben etc etc.

fthl

you'll get your losses and then a little more for the delay and inconvenience. realistically, for three months, not a great deal, unless it really was hellish - for eg no facilities at all. Even in these cases in court you'd generally get 5 or 600 quid a year for inconvenience, and this needs to be more than an irritation - substantial inconvenience. This means not being !!!!ed off, but having your day to day routines and life substantially altered.

What are your losses?
What inconvenience exactly did you suffer? Loss of cooking facilities? If so, how long? Missed fit dates? Multiple fit dates? Days off work? How many?

GaryD_2

Thanks everyone for the comments.

In terms of the inconvenience, we were without a proper kitchen for months. We couldn't put anything back in the kitchen as we were always waiting for a fitter to come back to repair it. Both our garage and dining room were unusable as they were full of kitchen parts and the normal contents our kitchen. And this was over the Christmas holiday, remember. Most annoying for me was that my wife was in tears on multiple occasions as it felt like they just didn't care. I escalated it to their MD since we were getting nowhere, and things did improve after that, but it still took another two months to finish during which time we went through endless debates, boken promises, "untruths", poor quality work and faulty products. It felt like it would never end at times.

I asked this question as I wondered if there was a general rule or standard for compensation in such cases. I think we would settle for the installation fee back, since this was such a !!!!-up. The first installer told us that the installation fee would have been about £2.5k, based on what he saw and how much he was being paid (Magnet have never shared a breakdown with us). We asked them for this back, and they told us that it was not the case (they said it was about half that number), but they have offered about £500 so far. In reality we would probably accept Magnet's version of the number and just move on. That's what we are currently debating.

In terms of the website, we already had the pictures and the log of events, as we kept these once things started to go badly wrong back in November. The site itself took about 2-3 hours to build in total as a result, and I felt that this was a worthwhile thing to do. My intention with it was not to try to extract more compensation from Magnet, far from it in fact, but to let others know of the hassle we went through so that they can see what does happen when things go wrong. We were very impressed with Magnet until we signed on the dotted line... and I think companies that take such an approach should be named and shamed. I certainly wouldn't treat my customers this way, and if I did I would not have the gall to expect to be paid!

In our experience not all of the major chains asked for payment up front. In most cases there was a substantial deposit (20% seemed the norm), but both B&Q and Kitchens Direct asked for payment upon completion. Don't know about the others, but we were surprised at Magnet's demand for payment and only agreed to it in a moment of madness as my wife had found the kitchen she finally liked (and we had spent a lot of time looking...)

As for whether the website has been legally cleared, well having worked in that field for a while you might notice a disclaimer at the bottom of the pages, and the careful wording of the pages. We have used only facts and our opinions, and no emotive language, accusations or insults. The Magnet logo and picture of the kitchen are not hosted on our site, but are loaded directly from the Magnet site to your browser. We have also invited Magnet to comment and correct any factual mistakes. Although I anticipate that Magnet will send me a legal snotogram as a result of this, they cannot legally stop anyone from posting facts and opinions (otherwise what would sites like this do?), just libellous accusations and copyight infringements. I don't expect that they will see it that way but to be honest after what they have put us through, if it causes a few people to change their mind then it's been worthwhile.

Cheers,
Gary D.

roddydogs

Why 2 lots of threads by the same person?

libsmum

You have had 3 months+ of hassle, how long did they quote to fit the kitchen originally ? If you haggled and debated for months and months you might end up with a few hundred quid more but the stress of prolonging the debacle - is it worth it ? You have vented your frustrations on your website, if they write back about it you would have 'got under their skin' and in effect feel a bit of 'getting even'
I think i'd be inclinded to ask for a bit more than the £500 they offered just so they were paying what I asked for not what THEY offered.(childish of me but hey ho !)Hopefully you will then be able to treat your wife to some lovely new bits to put in her shiney new kitchen and put the whole thing beind you.
Good Luck

Equaliser123

We had a Magnet kitchen installed last year. To be fair, we are happy with the design and the quality.

But the aftersales from Magnet has been worse than useless. Perhaps most disappointingly, is the way in which they quote terms and conditions (which I don't think they quite understand...) at you.

Fortunately, the problems have been resolved and we now have a kitchen we are happy with. Sadly, wouldn't recommend them to anyone due to the fact that they take an enormous amount of chasing in order to get really straightforward things corrected.