Wren Kitchens - My Review

Glenn45

bod1467 wrote: »

Why do you need CRB clearance to work in a kitchen design/supply store?

Beacuase some staff visit customer properties daily to measure there kitchens

Money_Man

Well the quote did not translate to an order for me, I found the staff in my local branch lacking knowledge on the product so did not give me any confidence to spend over 10k. Surely the basics are to know your product inside out before you try and sell it to someone?

Yulka1974

Ken0 wrote: »

I had an absolute nightmare dealing with Wren. I purchased a kitchen from them last year and fitters did a total bodge job – obviously the salespeople, designers and fitters didn’t communicate. The kitchen in fact wasn’t fit for purpose and parts were missing and some components didn’t fit.
By far the worst part was dealing with customer service. It was impossible to speak to anyone who could help and when I asked to speak to a manager I was told that their numbers couldn’t be given out and that they would call me back but these promised call-backs didn’t happen.
Eventually, I just gave up and Magnet stripped out the old kitchen which I put on the bonfire and couldn’t be happier with Magnet who were excellent throughout the whole process and designed and fitted a great new kitchen for us.

at least £3000 bonfire
what a night that was!!!!

daisy0408

Hi, can I ask if anyone knows any email adresses for Wren please? Two months ago we ordered a kitchen from this nightmare of a company which we subsequently cancelled due to the sheer incompetence of the people we dealt with. The plans were wrong, no sink, cupboards on top of each other and they totally missed the fact that we have a boiler in the kitchen. The workmen they sent to measure up didn't bother because we require a bit of building work doing first, so a total waste of our time.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, they still have our deposit, and no amount of phoning them seems to want them to give us our money back (despite the fact that they are all sweetness and light on the phone and assure me we will get it back immediately). Short of going to Huddersfield and refusing to leave until I am refunded, I'm at a loss as to what to do! Any help appreciated, thanks.

wealdroam

daisy0408 wrote: »

Hi, can I ask if anyone knows any email adresses for Wren please? Two months ago we ordered a kitchen from this nightmare of a company which we subsequently cancelled due to the sheer incompetence of the people we dealt with. The plans were wrong, no sink, cupboards on top of each other and they totally missed the fact that we have a boiler in the kitchen. The workmen they sent to measure up didn't bother because we require a bit of building work doing first, so a total waste of our time.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, they still have our deposit, and no amount of phoning them seems to want them to give us our money back (despite the fact that they are all sweetness and light on the phone and assure me we will get it back immediately). Short of going to Huddersfield and refusing to leave until I am refunded, I'm at a loss as to what to do! Any help appreciated, thanks.

Don't bother with email, write a real letter, a letter before action.

State the problem succinctly.
Tell them what you expect to happen... e.g. send you a refund of £xx.xx.
Tell them when you expect this to happen... e.g. within 14 days.
Tell them what will happen if they don't do this... you will start court action to recover your money.

Send it recorded delivery.
Google letter before action for many samples if you like.

Have a look at Money Claim Online while you are waiting for a response.

roxi_rimmer

This Wren bunch are a loads of time-wasters. All twas going well till fitting day. On the day twas exciting about the brand new kitchen that had being promised as saved up for years to pay for new one. Fitters arrived late and dreadfully hungover (reeked of booze and 1 still looked stoned). Took endless cig breaks, 1 of 'em pebble-dashed my recently cleaned loo - they popped out at lunch and sure 1 of them said 'hair of the dog'. Eventually said they had finished at 4pm. I wasn't happy as some of the worktops were scratched and one looked 2nd hand. Some of the doors wouldn't shut but they just seemed to laugh it off and said to ring 'head office' and mumbled they were 'losing ale time'.

I tried to ring 'head office' but couldn't get through. Rang next day and took an age to get through but twas a waste of time anyhow as the 'customer service' person i spoke to obviously didn't even know the basics, so I'm stuck with a half baked kitchen. To add insult to injury, one of the fitters had puked in my garden so had the pleasure of sorting that out too. What a thoroughly unpleasant experience and I'd plead with anyone thinking of buying a kitchen to avoid Wren, whatever 'wonderful' deal your offered.

RevC_2

Socrates: What is probably more bizarre is how many newbies join this site just to comment on Wren Kitchens and then never ever post again on any other thread or subject - make of that what you will.................

Is it true Socrates works for Magnet? I am sure I saw a man with a beard in there once.

I am a newbie (dreadful Americanism but seems popular), I have not bought a kitchen yet and I stumbled over this site after getting a quote from Wren. So far the experience has been positive but obviously we have not gone so far as buying or installing yet. Previous experience with Magnet has not been good so that is ruled out as an option.

As a newbie I would entirely understand why other people would want to come on a site like this and vent, probably more so than would want to come on and praise. But it does make it extremely difficult to know whether the balance is right and whether the undoubted difficulties some people face is representative or not. Unhelpful people like Socrates can easily be discounted as they clearly have an axe to grind but others do seem to have a genuine problem that needed to be resolved.

I am encouraged to see senior management in Wren posting here as I think that shows good customer service (even if it is not clear whether such intervention is face value only). I am discouraged to hear of the MFI connection but that is my inherent bias and not necessarily something that will matter.

So I am grateful for the genuine comments on here to help me determine whether a lot of cash goes the way of Wren and I will try to filter out the rival companies workers, idiots and trolls.

daisy0408

Thank you muchly! The Wren guys obviously read this because they phoned wanting me to remove my previous post! Needless to say that since we still don't have a refund, my opinion of this company is getting lower and lower. I shall be sending a letter to them and if we don't receive a refund within a few days I will be seeking legal advice.

Thearc

My wife and I sold our 4 bedroomed detached house and bought a run-down detached 3 bedroomed bungalow - mainly because being in our late seventies - we are fed-up with climbing stairs.
This was an ideal opportunity to install a new kitchen to our own specification.
We called into Wren at Chester and invited Andy to come and design something modern to make life easier.
He was the first to put forward a design before a second guy from another company came and suggested a peninsula-type island to help divide the rather large room into a kitchen/diner.
A third person (a young lady from a well established "fast" company in Liverpool) came at an initial cost of £20 and posted us 2 weeks later a complete load of rubbish proving that she hadn't taken note of a word we had said.
Having Andy call a second time, and pooling both the first 2 ideas, we came up with a good compromise which has proved to be a success, with everything within easy reach and more drawers than cupboards to avoid having to stoop for access.
The order was placed with Andy some 5 weeks before we would have the garage empty. He also co-operated with a couple of minor changes before the 2 week deadline before which we paid the deposit.
2 young fit men in their big green truck arrived 10 minutes late on the appointed delivery date, having executed 5 previous deliveries - ours being their last.
Our fitters came to assess the job and 2 weeks later they completed the full installation over 2 consecutive days, including all the new appliances that we had enjoyed finding at best prices off the internet and local stores.
Then the engineer/designer came from Rotherham's with his very modern laser equipment to measure up for the granite worktops and upstands. They too sent 2 young experienced engineers to install same, arriving 2 weeks later at the appointed time and day.
All this took place last July and we moved in a week after installation.
Only last week has the Martin Lewis website about Wren "nightmare" Kitchens come to my notice, otherwise I would have done this post much sooner.
Unlike most of the unlucky customers on this forum, we are more than delighted with the quality of our goods and the service and consideration shown by all those involved. Maybe there are more satisfied customers (who avoided the bad spell which seemed to befall this company) who would be willing to express their situation, apparently against the tide of feeling.

socrates

So before spending thousands of pounds you never searched the Company on the internet?

You decided to search after the job was finished?