Wren Kitchens - My Review

Gareth201175

DO NOT BUY A WREN KITCHEN - They are very bad and have terrible customer service and they charge you for things you do not need.......see below:




Good Morning





I would like to lodge a complaint regarding my recent order to your Stirling branch.








My wife and I recently ordered a circa £15,000 kitchen for [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] (Kitchen Designer).





[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] was very helpful when he met us and designed our kitchen, he even came to our property and measured it all himself. However since we received the kitchen it has been a disaster – one thing to another…..





We received the kitchen approx. 2 weeks ago and my joiner was going to install – as the cost you gave us was astronomical.





However we quickly discovered the following:

• Items damaged
• Various things missing
• Too many of certain items – i.e. end panels that were not required as they would not fit into the space - measured and designed incorrectly.
• Drawers supplied for one unit when it should have been a door.
• Extremely poor plan provided to build from – looks like something one of my children could do on the computer.
• We bought a Neff Single oven, microwave, coffee machine and plate warmer – [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] assured us and spent a great deal of time trying to sell these items to us stating they would all fit in symmetrical and all the “lines would match in the space provided. This was quickly noted and fed back to [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] that this was not the case – none of them would line up unless we severely modified and added shelving and brackets and only then this would allow two of the items to line up the other two look silly! The instructions say the oven should be placed directly on the plate warmer, however we cannot do this otherwise no items would line up. We are extremely annoyed with this – if this had been explained at the start we would never have spent thousands of pounds on these appliances.
• One of the carcases and doors supplied was not measured correctly, once the Quartz worktop was fitted the door would not open, so [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] said we would need two doors instead – this also looks like an afterthought and mismatch!
• I have a slim line unit in my island where I could have had a full size unit – no excuse given by [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]??
• When [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] was designing our kitchen he advised we could put our integrated Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer into a Fridge Freezer carcus – he showed us the one in the showroom and said he has seen this done before…… We went to install this last Saturday and quickly discovered both appliances would not fit?????? I called [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] and said there was an issue – he said come to the showroom, however I asked him to come to my property and view the issue first hand. He came up with a colleague and noted the appliances would not fit – he said it was a bit embarrassing for him…..!!!! He then said he did not know how to solve and he would send his fitter [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] up to look at it. Two days passed and not fitter arrived?? We had now no washing facilities in our house and we have 3 young children and this was explained to [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]. I chased [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] and finally [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] the fitter turned up on Monday evening – he said that will never fit?? He was extremely negative and non-helpful (good asset to Wren)! My wife said that is a shame your designer did not know this!!! He said he could fix it but not for 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!! He said he told [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] this prior to his visit. I advised [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] in writing this was unacceptable and I would pay a joiner myself to fix and bill Wren for this – NO REPLY OR RESPONSE AT ALL??????? I then chased again a few days later and copied in [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] (Store Manager) – NO RESPONSE!! Then two days later I received a short e-mail from [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] saying he had been off for two days and he would speak to [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] on Sunday?? No apology and we were expected to wait a week after [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] had been to the house! No customer care what so ever!!! I chased yesterday as I have yet again heard nothing from either [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]or [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]! I kept calling and got told a different excuse from however answered the phone at Wren Living Stirling – [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] is on lunch, [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] is at a customer’s house and then [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] finally called me back 3 hours later and said he had been at the bank!??????
  
  I explained to [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] the entire saga from start to finish has been a shambles – as soon as [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] got our order/business – I feel as a customer we have been left out on a limb! No customer service, no apologies, no professional pride and definitely no management!!!!
  
  [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] advised I should send you this e-mail as he could not assist???
  
  I would like as stated in my e-mail to [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] and [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] (which was never answered):
  

1. Providing me with money to pay my joiner to do additional work to your design - £480





2. Reducing the cost of my kitchen price due to units and end panels I did not require. I am not paying for items that were not required - designed incorrectly – circa £820





3. Compensation to me for all the calls made to your company by me - over the issues that have arisen - missing parts, appliances that don't fit, and doors that were damaged.





At the end of the day this kitchen was meant to be our “dream kitchen” and look very contemporary and high quality – however it now just looks a mismatch of things that don’t fit or look like afterthoughts and is costing circa £15k!! I am presently a very unhappy wren customer – who nobody seems to be listening to or addressing my long list of points.





I would like this answered and resolved URGENTLY!

Sherlockspal

I am not surprised to come across yet another forum with multiple complaints about Wren!
The Oxford store has been failing us for the last 13 months.
We are off to the small claims court soon to obtain redress and compensation for the faults and our wasted time.
Fortunately we, and I would advise anyone to, have a full record of every email, phone call, non reply, conversation, visit and broken promise since this saga began back in 2013.

Openandhonest

Dear all

Has anyone on this thread who has had a bad experience with Wren, been invited to submit a review to Trustpilot? According to the Trustpilot guidelines (below), all customers should be invited......

When the Company sends out invitations to its customers ("User", "Users", depending on the circumstances) and asks them to review the Company on Trustpilot, the Company must observe the following mandatory rules......

1. The Company must ensure that Users are invited equally and identically to submit a review about their experience dealing with the Company, including a buying experience.......

2. The Company may not invite selected Users to submit a review; the Company must invite all or no one. If the Company wishes to deviate from the principle of all or none, the Company must give us prior notice by contacting us....... It rests with the Company to ensure that the selection of Users, who are invited to submit a review are selected in an objective, unbiased manner, for example the invitation of every 3rd User.

3. The invitation to submit a review must be unbiased and independent of whether the User is expected to have had a positive or negative experience in connection with her/his purchase at the Company.

Dcm21

Received delivery of new kitchen from wren living two weeks ago.Opened all the boxes and found approx 75% damaged. Damage to carcasses, door fronts, decorative ends, shelves and plinth. Contacted our store (Dundee) and asked for replacements for the damaged cabinets etc. They eventually organised the replacements to come in 2 different deliveries. Door fronts arrived yesterday. Opened boxes to find yet more damaged goods. Spoke to manager at wren living Dundee to ask for a full refund as goods supplied not of same standard as those on display. The basis of the purchase. Was told bluntly that wren living have a no refund policy!!! Surely this can't be legal? Seeking legal advice tomorrow to try rectify this very stressful situation.

totallybonkers

Totally agree with all comments. Currently arguing with them about the delivery of my kitchen - one of their team, somewhere along the line, brought forward the delivery date, stating that we had requested this. THIS IS A TOTAL LIE! After having confiormation from a saleman in store last week that the kitchen delivery was postoned, low and behold it still arrives this morning, so we refuse it. This salesman is now denying he told us this, and HQ are taking their word over ours, and now we have been given one of two "resolutions" - either accept a redelivery of the kitchen today, which is impossible, or pay a storage and redlivery charge for their courier to deliver in a weeks time. None of these resolve my issue, in that their whole process has been built on lies; they cannot provide evidence of these calls taking place, and as such are believing their word over ours. Avoid Wren like the plague. This is before we have even received our kitchen....

Openandhonest

Can anyone explain why Mumsnet & MSE has lots of negative reviews regarding Wren Kitchens whilst the 'Review Centre' & 'Trustpilot' has lots of positive reviews....!

There has been a recent surge in positive 5 star reviews on the Review Centre. 128 in the last 6 months, as compared to only 4 in the 6 months prior... (as of the end of Jan 15).

By contrast to the surge in positive reviews, the negative reviews for Wren on the Review Centre site have been remarkable stable over the same period...!

cddc

Openandhonest wrote: »

Can anyone explain why Mumsnet & MSE has lots of negative reviews regarding Wren Kitchens whilst the 'Review Centre' & 'Trustpilot' has lots of positive reviews....!

There has been a recent surge in positive 5 star reviews on the Review Centre. 128 in the last 6 months, as compared to only 4 in the 6 months prior... (as of the end of Jan 15).

By contrast to the surge in positive reviews, the negative reviews for Wren on the Review Centre site have been remarkable stable over the same period...!

Let's not make unsustainable allegations here, but it may be something fishy is happening one way or the other.

All I would say from being in the industry is that Wren have appalling staff retention which tells you something.

Clearly not all Wren customers have issues and if all goes well the quality of what you get for what you pay is fair. No business could survive if they get it wrong every time, but I also know from speaking to Wren customers, that those that have had issues have had a terrible time trying to get them resolved.

Pretty much all of the other companies poor web reviews are to do with poor fitting and fitters. This is not surprising as you pay a premium for a Company backed fitting service and if it does not meet your expectations or a cowboy turns up, you have every right to express your displeasure. With one or two exceptions, these are are almost always the reason for a poor review.

The complaints regarding Wren are far more wide ranging and stem from the entire culture of the company. They ring true from what I know from former colleagues who spent typically short periods working for them.

I do know of companies who encourage their staff to put five star reviews on websites. I am not aware if Wren encourage this practice or not.

As I said earlier, it is not like Wren do not have happy customers, they do, so positive reviews are to be expected.

The posts complaining about poor service, product quality, fitting, and most of all about the sheer difficulty of getting your problems resolved, however, should not, from what I know, be discounted either.

Openandhonest

cddc wrote: »

Let's not make unsustainable allegations here, but it may be something fishy is happening one way or the other.

This isn't an allegation, it is an observation. As a new user, I am unable to upload the screenshots as proof. It is just a little odd that the Review centre ratings have improved so dramatically and are in contrast to the typical experiences described on MSE and Mumsnet.

There is also an anomaly in the Trustpilot reviews. You will notice that many of the positive Wren reviews on Trustpilot have the statement 'Review by confirmed purchaser'. This means that Wren 'invited' the customer to place the review. Obviously Wren should not be selective in which customers receive the invite, however very few of the negative reviews have been invited.. Have a look at how Wren scores on Trustpilot compared to some other well known high street names..

Trustpilot Scores
Wren reviews - Score (Great) 7.6
Harrods reviews - Score (Average) 6.2
Tesco reviews - Score (Poor) 3.0
Marksandspencer reviews - Score (Bad) 2.8
John Lewis reviews - Score (Bad) 2.1

Not what you would think from reading this thread.....

The_Bargain_Hunters

We are currently in process of looking for a kitchen, with a budget of £20,000 for everything, our 1st quote from Norwood Interiors was £28,000 :eek: 2nd quote from local bespoke kitchen supplier £13,000 for same job!! (the company has been going for 40yrs but is small so you never know these days...)

We have 2 more quotes to come - Intoto who we are going to see tomorrow and last of all, Wren the day after. Wren were the only ones who didn't send a designer/salesman - they sent a joiner, builder & plumber, to check out and measure everything in detail - so until I started reading reviews I was almost convinced they will do a good job - now I'm not so sure :undecided - did anyone else have tradesmen come round and spend a couple of hours going through every detail??

The other thing is Wren had the cupboards I liked best - but I don't want it to start/end in disaster - does anyone have a good experience with them?

cddc

Openandhonest wrote: »

There is also an anomaly in the Trustpilot reviews. You will notice that many of the positive Wren reviews on Trustpilot have the statement 'Review by confirmed purchaser'. This means that Wren 'invited' the customer to place the review. Obviously Wren should not be selective in which customers receive the invite, however very few of the negative reviews have been invited.. Have a look at how Wren scores on Trustpilot compared to some other well known high street names..

Trustpilot Scores
Wren reviews - Score (Great) 7.6
Harrods reviews - Score (Average) 6.2
Tesco reviews - Score (Poor) 3.0
Marksandspencer reviews - Score (Bad) 2.8
John Lewis reviews - Score (Bad) 2.1

Not what you would think from reading this thread.....

Knowing the company culture nothing would surprise me. Complaints certainly disappear rapidly from their Facebook page and Twitter feed!