Wren Kitchens - My Review

BMW51K

Just installed a Wren kitchen in Owen, and utility room units in Studio Shaker. The basic units seem the same, it's just the doors and finishing items that are different.
The units are sturdy and good value, and may well be cheaper than other suppliers - but they account for only a portion of the total cost. You have to consider all of the finishing touches such as doors, cornice, end panels, plinth. The price of these adds up very quickly if you want other than a basic set-up. However, it's still quite reasonably priced, and is well made.
Delivery team were very helpful - more so than the guidance suggests.
Fitter - recommended by Wren (they dont have their own)- was very competent - but he did walk away with my left over end panels and cornice without asking - hmmmf.:T

But overall - a good quality kitchen, well fitted

Darren_Barratt

I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with Wren kitchens. My wife and I shopped around for a new kitchen and eventually plumped for Wren. We had all the sales patter from Paul in the Huddersfield showroom and after looking around decided that yes we would go for it.
So, the kitchen fitter comes out to look at 'supplemental costs'. The plug sockets all need moving and then we have to pay additionally to have them tested once they have been moved. The total supplemental costs ended up being in excess of £1000, funny that the salesperson had never mentioned this.........
We decided to go for it anyway, the kitchen arrived, filling my garage and conservatory. Then I received a phone call asking me to check what had been delivered as another customer appeared to have my black gloss plinths for their nice shiny white kitchen. Sure enough, I checked and there, in my garage were the white plinths. I was told that someone would contact me to arrange collection. About 3 weeks later whilst at work I got a call to say they were on their way to pick them up. The bloke actually sounded quite cross when I pointed out it was a weekday, I work office hours and therefore was in the office........ Eventually after an irate phone call to the Huddersfield store where I told them that if they didn't come TODAY and get them then they were going to the tip, they came to take them away.
On to the fitting itself, the fitter is a nice bloke called Ian, tuned up when he said and I can't fault him, except, when they ripped out the old kitchen, my burglar alarm sensor which was attached to one of th cupboards appears to have gone with it, leading me to need a new alarm......
There were some issues with some of the doors being damaged and we are STILL waiting for replacements (this all started in September). We have called the store and they cannot find us on their records, unless Paul is in and all of a sudden we are there. We ordered a splashback for behind the Hob. Ian turned up one morning with a box saying 'this doesn't sound good' as it tinkled in his hands. Sure enough our splashback was about 70million little glass cubes in the bottom......
The Hob they have fitted is marked and the extraction hood howls like a banshee and the light switch is faulty.
We have been promised callbacks time after time and they have not materialised. We went to the store and spoke to Darren, who wrote down our concerns and said he would speak to Paul and get him to call me the day after. 3 days pass and no phone call, so I called Paul who was totally unaware of my visit.
If it wasn't for the fact that the whole thing cost so much money it would be funny. But my sense of humour is wearing thin. The 'organisation' of this company is farcical!!!!!

mrjohnmiles

I have read this thread for over 12 months now and in the interim I have ordered and personally installed a Wren kitchen.

From experience with the customer services and the Huddersfield branch I have had a good experience they even upgraded our ceramic sink at no charge because the ordered one was no longer available. The only negatives were they wanted to ignore our delivery date and bring the kitchen early.

They also tried to convince me the cupboards were meant to have a gap between them where corner units met. Luckily they listened to my reasoned request and posted blanking panels to me during the week I installed the units.

I found on placing the hob in the worktop that it was bent as a result of it being packaged to tightly. A phone call to branch soon had this resolved and a new hob was ready for me to collect within a few days. This was also beyond the 30 days from delivery.

I was impressed with the unit build quality and the ease of putting it all together. I have never installed a kitchen but between referring to my design and being logical it didn't take too long.

The kitchen has been in for 10 months now and other than a little rust on the hob I am more than happy with it. I will be contacting Wren to get the hob replaced but the kitchen as a product is a good one.

I did all the planning so made sure it all fitted and double checked all measurements before going to the showroom. I would never rely upon the 'surveyor' coming to measure up before checking the measurements myself and working out what space I have to work with.

Doing the basics like checking where sockets are, rooms sizes, window locations etc. can be done by anyone who can work out where the business end of a tape measure is.

We love our kitchen and despite our friends having trouble with Wren I would recommend them, just do your homework, take nothing for granted and know your own home. That way if the designer/surveyor seems to be offering something wondrous you will have an idea if it works ok.

I would also check the delivery note before they take any box off the lorry. The first thing I asked was "Are there any items missing" and as each item came off I checked them for damage and to confirm that they were what we ordered.

bite21

we ordered a kitchen through wren Hayes branch in London 3 months ago,loads of issues right from the start,which included damaged doors,panels,worktops too,constantly had to phone the branch but we don't seem to be getting anywhere designer was very helpful,but the new manager is the complete opposite,refused most of our request to replace the items,tries to blame us for all the damages and to top it all up never returns our phone calls,sick and tired of them please please never go to them and if you do you will have to deal with a manager who speaks
English only he can understand,and loads of tears,never recommend it to my worst enemy

vikvek

Wren kitchens are good.....but wickes are better as the cabinets are stronger and the closing buffers work like a charm no issues what so ever. Customer services is the actual store i bought the kitchen from, instead of the 0800 national number wren give you. Cost wise wickes are very competitive and price match which i didnt know

camgamini

we had a kitchen installed through wren,execllent product,hats off to the southampton branch,Tim and his team,however we were slightly unhappy with the west london branch(uxbridge)as we first went to the branch and despite the website offering 4 years interest free credit,the management refused to offer this to us,so we went to southampton and were then offered 4 years credit,

AmigaBloke

I have to say that our experience with Wren Kitchens was the worst ever with any company. Nothing went right and even our fitter said he'd never experienced anything like it before. Even after the manager came out to see us and my wife had a conference call with the managing Director of Wren and staff things went wrong. They supplied the fridge but still managed to send us the wrong size cabinet doors! It was literally a nightmare from start to finish and two years later we are still waiting for the Ebuyer vouchers they promised us. Wren are owned by Ebuyer apparently.
At present I'm desperately trying to get a remote control out of Ebuyer for a TV we purchased off them last year. The original remote has packed in. After phone calls (you are usually in a queue for atleast 20 minutes) and emails and enotes we are still no further forward. You need the remote to eject DVD's and use most controls so we are stuck and unable to retrieve a DVD.
I won't be buying anything from Ebuyer in future and I definitely DO NOT recommend Wren Kitchens!

Petit_pois

Hi

I ordered a wren kitchen from the Huddersfield branch last Wednesday, I'd read this forum but unbelievably still decided to go for it, I hope this is not something I regret! My kitchen is due to be delivered the week commencing the 11th feb, my brother-in-law is a kitchen fitter so he will be fitting it, we measured up ourselves and he did the design online which the designers then picked up in store and we tweaked a few things. I've not ordered the worktops, sink, tap or any of the appliances from them apart from the Bosch dish washer as they had a deal on where it was only £79.

So far the design and order of the kitchen has gone well, I understand this is where some people's problems have begun. Just a bit of advice but originally I went with wickes and their designer came out and measured up and listened to what I had in mind then put something together, the price was pretty ridiculous and he said he couldn't do the design how I wanted, I took my brother-in-law with me to wren so he could see if I could have the design I wanted (basically we needed to get rid of 620mm to fit in the units around a corner I wanted) turns out he can shave mm's off a few things and it will work. So if you can take someone with you who knows about kitchens i would say this will help with ensuring everything gets ordered you want and need. Had my bro-in-law come with me to wickes and they had considered getting the price down to something like I would most likely have gone with them.

Also I agree about a previous post about the quality of fitting, I would always recommend finding your own fitter from friends recommendations.

Anyway there will definitely be a couple of us at our house to collect the delivery of the kitchen and check everything is there and in tip top condition or I won't be accepting it!

Ill let you know how we get on (fingers crossed)

Al_Ross

That was the first problem we had ,some items did not turn up.

Please let us know how you get on.

AmigaBloke

Petit Pois, I hope things have improved two years on and you have no problems. The units themselves are actually good quality. It's the service and Wren staff that let them down badly in our case. Good luck.