Wren Kitchens - My Review

Miss_painting

I really wish I had read this site first before ordering with Wrens kitchens.

We ordered the white high gloss handless range.

I have had an extremely bad experience with this company. I ordered my kitchen from Wrens Stirling branch. Throughout the process of trying to get my kitchen completed over a 6 week period I have been passed from one person to another and I am still trying to resolve the issue. After spending 10 k on a kitchen I feel very let down! Here is my story.

We ordered our Kitchen in January delivery date March. Wren contacted us to say they could deliver early on 28.2.14 and as I am 31 weeks pregnant we agreed. My husband then booked a week of work to install the kitchen. At no time did anyone contact us saying there were products missing. When the kitchen arrived we discovered a sticker on one unit saying there were products missing and would be with us in two weeks, if there was a problem to contact the number provided for customer services. Only the number wasn't for customer services it was for the Doncaster store and they were unable to help! We should have know then this was not going to be a good experience!
We took our Old kitchen taken out morning of 28.2.14.
On delivery these items were missing
4 main panels were missing we are still waiting on these!
The Cutlery tray was missing still waiting on this!
Back panels for the breakfast bar not even ordered they were completely missing from original order we are still waiting on these!
Sink kit wrong new one ordered waited two weeks.
Main corner post missing that was essential for fit!
Door below oven missing we are still waiting on this!

The Sink kit provided was the completely wrong size, after around two weeks Wren sent out a maintenance man to fit a cheap kit to allow us to use the sink. So we were without a sink for around two weeks, he suggested that because my husband was not a kitchen fitter he did not know what he was talking about. He had to agree with my husband when he arrived and saw the kit.
The Whole kitchen was originally mis measured resulting in the units being to big for kitchen space. We Had to go back to Wrens for a redesign resulting in us losing cupboard space and new cupboards had to be ordered.
The Kitchen is still to big for our space and one large unit is now overhanging a wall.
The Hob recommended and sold to us is to large for the quartz work top and 3 main units had to be cut to house the hob.
The result of this is that the Cutlery drawer is unable to open due to hob being fitted ( we were told we will deal with later. Not acceptable )
Corner cupboard door not fitted correctly, sits squint.
One door damaged.
We have been Unable to fit oven to date as main panels still missing.
We Were unable to fit hob until 28.3.14 so for 4 weeks we were living of take away and microwave meals.
The Quartz work top has arrived with marks on it.
There are rust spots on stainless steal sink after two weeks use.
The Designer is now denying that we gave her a drawing of the correct measurements even although she photocopied our drawing provided by us the day we the kitchen was originally designed and ordered.
Throughout this time there has been a number of communications between our selfs and wren Staff. Wren giving us various dates for delivery for a variety of products and continually changing these and also not contacting us to inform us.
My husband had to take a second week of work as we were promised the product only for them not to turn up.
As I am 31 weeks pregnant and having complications with my pregnancy This has been an extremely stressful and upsetting experience. I have spoken to various kitchen fitters and in their opinion it should be a 2 day fitting process at most for any modern kitchen these day and not an 8 to 9 week process!

I have spent a lot of money on this kitchen. Myself and my husband are so disappointed with this company and will never recommend them to anyone!

I have tried to post this review on wrens official review page but I think because it is so poor it will not let me post!

I have sent my complaints to the manager but to be honest I have no faith in this company any more and would rather have my 10 k back than the kitchen!

sclaridge

As a developer I buy 4 or 5 kitchen a year, Magnet are fine, Selco are fine but for a big house I was building I decided to go for Wren, I read some reviews and decided they were probably not all that bad.
Disaster, £16,000 I paid up front for a kitchen, on the stated delivery day approx 50% of the pieces turned up, off these 50% were damaged and then packaged, clearly the doors had been dropped on the corners and then the protective padding put on top.
The pre-assembled carcasses so were so badly built they were not square. Some of the front were just the wrong colour !
The high gloss door and draw fronts were high gloss until you hit the edges, where the gloss ran out and you had dark lines.
The gloss also bobbled across door fronts and in the handleless pulls.
Shop Manager and Area Manager - both answered their desk phones on hand free and barked disinterested comments, made a visit, refused to refund, told me it was normal etc.
They outsource worktops to J Rotherhams, chap came to template and told us the design was unworkable, too much heavy worktop floating off the end of the island was dangerous, I got the area mgr on the phone to the template chap and the Wren guy told him 'to bodge it just this once'.
Another meeting was arranged on site, area mgr was 2 hours late, I rang HQ, got the MD on the phone who immediately agreed to a full refund and collection, few days later some lovely fitters arrived and took it away - never again.
Have since bought one from Benchmarx Kitchens in Reading ( part of Travis Perkins) it's slightly less money, better quality and the people are far superior.

hollydays

Fake newbies posting rubbish, clearly with an axe to grind.

pelirocco

hollydays wrote: »

Fake newbies posting rubbish, clearly with an axe to grind.

Why would you think they were posting rubbish

NeverForgivingWrenLiving

hollydays wrote: »

Fake newbies posting rubbish, clearly with an axe to grind.

'Fake Newbie' here with an axe to grind. Sorry I don't have 10k+ previous posts to validate my experiences with Wren Living, but I can also confirm that buying a kitchen from Wren will only end in disappointment. They are a RIOT of a company. They take orders that they can't fulfil, and will happily deliver you half a kitchen and not care less what situation that leaves you in. Zero communication takes place, and there is even less urgency to get your project completed.

AVOID

GipsyRacer

In response to the post from Hollydays, I have better things to do with my life than spend time posting fake rubbish. However, Hollydays is right in that I do have an axe to grind. This company has my money and I don't have a kitchen. I would say that is a fair point, worth of posting.

Current status is that they have asked for a few weeks to be able to supply the missing parts. Unlike the other posters, I have found that they do return my calls and have been quite communicative so far.

I'll post an update if an when I get my gear.....

MiddleAgedLady

Having heard how good wrens kitchens were - I was really surprised to be so badly let down. Having pulled our old kitchen out and gone on holiday for 10 days on 17 March, we left our son and his mate (experienced joiners) to fit our dream kitchen (£19.5k for units only!). First problem was found on the day before delivery was due, upon checking empty room and marking up, son found it had been designed to the wrong size - and like an earlier poster, we were told this was entirely down to us giving the wrong dimensions. Luckily we had emailed our plans through so it was a simple matter to disprove this. No apology though - just suggestion to resize units ourselves.
Our son agreed to re-work the design, as he knew we would be disappointed (& kitchenless). Next day, only half the units turned up - similar story to earlier posters, units missing, no cupboard doors, no drawer fronts or inserts, no surrounds for plate-rack units, cornicing came - but in completely the wrong colour. No lights in the display units etc. etc., you've seen it all before in this thread.
I will say that the majority of the Wren staff (all except the sales manager - who was a condescending prat) we have spoken to have been quite polite and sympathetic - but there is not much that they can do.
I have received a small, partial refund - but a month later I still have no kitchen. The worktops / integrated sink (subbed to J Rotherham as per earlier posters) has been cancelled twice, so I have no sink to even wash my takeaway plates up in, my cooker can't be connected, the tilers have been postponed twice and I'm still £19k the poorer, and still waiting for major parts of my kitchen to turn up.
It's a bit mean to tar all first posters as 'disgruntled ex-employees' or 'rivals'. I bet most of us come across forums firstly looking to see what experience others have had.
My heart sunk when I saw that there were plenty of others like me who feel let down, fobbed-off and out of pocket.
I'll update this post when the kitchen is finally finished......
bet you can't wait? no, neither can I!

MiddleAgedLady

hollydays wrote: »

Fake newbies posting rubbish, clearly with an axe to grind.

Absolutely not!
Newbie ... even after a month has passed.... still has no wren kitchen.

gik

MiddleAgedLady wrote: »

Absolutely not!
Newbie ... even after a month has passed.... still has no wren kitchen.

Ignore hollydays comments...they are seldom correct.

GrungeMeister

Wren don't just do kitchens ... they do bedroom furniture too.

We bought a lovely double bed in their Hamilton store a couple of weeks ago. It was about twice as dear as what we'd budgeted for, so I guess their upselling skills are pretty nifty. Still, the bed arrived on time, easy to assemble, looks great. And so comfortable.

Um. We can't complain at all !