Wren Kitchens - My Review

Slinkys25

I had a wonderful experience in store, but then our delivery turned up 6 items short on the inventory but then the driver got out of his truck and did a quick check to find our missing items, so we were happy, until.... we discovered we were missing one end panel, which we reported same day on 12 Dec 16. And here we are 16 January 2017 and we are still waiting for this panel and hence have had no worktop and hence no working kitchen since December. We keep getting the brush off and we even escaleted it to a manager Leanne who has emailed us twice without an answer as to when we are due to get this one missing panel which is holding up an entire kitchen. I am really fed up as our kitchen would be finished by now if it was not for Wren. Funny thing is I am a property developer and I can tell you I will not be using them again! EVER

lasko

Some of THE MOST SHOCKINGLY DISJOINTED non consumer focused service I have ever experienced.
Wren now trying to apportion blame on me as I "signed the contract" and didn't pick up the designers error of trim colour.....
Agressive,rude and confrontational managers.
All this after missing items, incorrect items ordered and initial survey measured wrong leaving gaps in my base units of 600mm and 300mm!
NEVER EVER AGAIN.
Promise you the world with lovely showrooms but don't deliver the goods!
I have had a long list of problems since my kitchen arrived.
The poor, disjointed and fragmented post sales customer experience from your customer care team has compounded my negative experience.

I have spent almost 4 hours of my time and additional monies to my fitters in trying to fix Wren’s mistakes.

We have specifically chosen Wren because of your reputation for manufacturing quality kitchens. I am now very much regretting my decision. I have paid £16,000 for this kitchen and at the very least expect a professional finish, a professional after sales care and a kitchen which matches up to the promises of ‘a dream kitchen ‘ and the standard I saw in your showroom.

Throughout this process the only apology I have ever received has been through your store manager . No one in your customer care department has apologised for my poor experience. Conversely they have become confrontational and aggressive.

TIMELINE of EXPERIENCE

• (07 FEB 2017) – 16:00 - email received showing incomplete (missing corner post) on order for am delivery following day – only 14 hours notice and my own fitters were booked.

• (08 FEB) – kitchen delivered.
• (11:44) Spoke to customer care for update. 14 mins total with no solution – very confrontational in 'his' approach. No manager available to talk to. Promised call back from manager and refund of delivery fee. (I was never made aware of a delivery fee on ordering!) Never received promised call back.

• (09 FEB) – kitchen installation started with base units – PROBLEM highlighted that designer measured incorrectly so gaps evident of 60cm and 40 cm. Emails sent to manager/designer who ordered units to fill gaps
• Charged £55 extra as unable to discount to FOC.

• (10 FEB) – 70cm sink ordered didn’t fit as in 'expert surveyors' design . She acknowledged problem. Email sent to designer to reorder smaller sink. Process doesn’t allow her to order? I have to call customer care myself?
• 14:45 Called customer care. After 2min conversation was put on hold for 34mins. I called on my second line (whilst on hold on first call) and was held for 9mins. confirmed;
• Replacement sink (arrival FEB 17)
• Missing corner post (arrival FEB 14)
• 2 base units (arrival FEB 20)
• (Cumulative time spent 57 mins).

• (14 FEB) – sink delivered (given 17th delivery date?

• (17-19 Feb) Corner post delivered in triplicate – yes 3 times. Given 14th as date?

• (20 FEB) 2 base units arrive and fitted.
• 14:30 – Called customer care to query fitting of integrated dishwasher with Infinity plus units. 20 min hold. Eventually found answer and emailed installation guide. Cumulative time spent 1H13 mins).
• I highlighted MAIN PROBLEM of graphite edging /casing /support struts on all units (including sea foam) which contrasted with the white wall unit interiors and visible wall unit bases. "she' had no answer as “technical team were not around” 18 min hold. I was transferred to Worthing showroom. First assistant had no idea how to handle my complaint during a 10 min conversation.
• 16:20 spoke to assistant manager, at who promised a “call back in 2 minutes”. Cumulative time spent 1H 41 mins).
• 17:10 no return call. I called showroom and left message as both manager/assistant manager were busy.
• 17:27 – emailed full explanation and pictures to manager re casing /graphite edging issue.
• 18:10 – return call from assistant manager who said she “completely gets what I’m talking about … leave it with me and I’ll email you back with confirmation”. Was left reassured.
• 21:33 – email from manager with proposal for me to purchase end panels to cover casing.
• 21:53 – I responded this was completely unacceptable and should be FOC as an absolute minimum

• (21 FEB) 14:00 Call to showroom asked for return phone call from manager.

• Missed his call 19:08. Email received stating “offer still stands of reduced price “ or I make a claim myself to customer care.

• (22 FEB) – 10:00 – called manager – explained my position. Extremely unhappy that I was having to ‘make good’ and ‘cover over’ a clear design error made my 'kitchen designer' and recall fitters at my expense. Insulting that I was being asked to pay ‘a reduced price’ for this.
• Manager called customer care and involved me in a 3 way conversation. (This process in itself is unbelievably ludicrous). In this conversation he admitted and acknowledged the “design had defaulted to dark colour casing….. the designer should have picked up on that. This happens a lot with 2colour kitchens”.
• He also acknowledged kitchen designer may not have been trained or known about it and that the error would come out of her salary! I remain astounded at this.
• PLEASE NOTE – this dark colour casing also runs through ALL THE UNITS INCLUDING BASE UNITS and is visible as a contrast when drawers are open (markedly so on sea foam units)
• I should not have to make good a clear design fault on kitchen designers behalf by casing around all wall units with end panels. I was also offered and sent edging tape ‘(as a good will gesture’) to cover the graphite edging which would protrude at the front edges of the wall units due to the handleless design!
• Manager was polite, helpful and courteous.
• (23 FEB) 09:33 Spoke to – customer care- Further investigating kitchen closely I highlighted support struts in the wall units were all misaligned and not finished correctly (as well as being in graphite colour and not white). Asked to speak to a supervisor – unavailable.
• Offered £186 (10%) and the £372 (20%) refund on the 7 units. (there are actually 8)
• Explained this was unacceptable and insulting – I’m not willing to enter in to a bartering situation. She arranged home visit by a ‘technician’. 48 minute conversation with various holds.
• Cumulative time spent 2H 29 mins).
• (1230) Home visit by (expert surveyor) NOT TECHNICIAN.
• I asked if he’d ever seen anything like this re incorrect casing colour/design error. “I don’t really see the kitchens finished” was his answer!
• "Visit was from surveyor/kitchen designer NOT a technician.
• He took photos (which I’d already forwarded to store manager and customer care) and promised call and email.
• (24 FEB) 12:34 called customer care (24 hours after surveyors visit) as nobody had returned said email/call/update. Spoke to customer care who called through to supervisor (hold 15mins ) then I was cut off!
• Called back – spoke to another agent (same agent as my very first call on the 8th Feb (16 days prior). Asked to speak to supervisor (held 18 mins).
• No supervisor available. He said the ‘technician’s report’ (this being the kitchen designer ) showed the units had been screwed too tight which caused the support post misalignment. He also stated I had “signed a contract agreeing to graphite edging!” I explained the designer error had already been acknowledged by store manager on the 22nd.
• To try and implicate me, apportion blame and twist the situation is completely insulting. It is not for me to check through 'expert surveyor/ designer's' work . She is your ‘expert home surveyor/designer. Throughout agent was confrontational, aggressive, accusatory and disengenious in both his manner and approach. I asked to speak again to a supervisor – “not available and on the phone”.
• I agreed to hold and wait (47min hold).
• Spoke to deputy supervisor who continued with an aggressive and accusatory approach asking
• “Why I fitted a kitchen if I knew it was wrong?”
• “ You know you’ve clearly signed a contract agreeing to graphite edging?”
• Where in this was an apology? A question of ‘what can I do to make this better for you?”
• Cumulative time spent 3h 53 mins).
• Extra fitting cost to date £897.

I am now leaving it with you to propose a reasonable solution to this fiasco. Either;

• A significant refund on my total spend of £16,000 or
• Replacement of all sea foam wall units with white casing (5 units – kitchen and utility).

David77

Work to install my new kitchen began on the 7th November last year (2016). Nearly four months later (I’m writing this on the 2nd March 2017) and my kitchen still isn’t complete. Items including handles, one of the caucuses and a touch up paint kit were missing when the kitchen was first deliver and the breakfast bar worktop was incorrectly sized and finished. Wren agreed to send another worktop but this too was not done to the specification that had been agreed at the design stage. It was only the third worktop to be delivered that was correct. This was only the start of the problems however, and was by no means the most serous.

Shortly after the cabinet doors had been fitted I noticed a difference between the colour and finish of the graphite grey shaker doors and also the end panels. I drew this to the attention of my fitter the next day and he agreed that there was a colour difference and that the paint seemed to have been applied to some doors in such a way as to conceal the wood grain effect that is an important element to this particular style. After my fitter and myself sent Wren several photographs of the doors one of Wren’s Field Installation Managers came out to inspect the doors on the 29th November and also agreed that there was a discrepancy. He took away two of the doors (one that was correctly painted and one that was incorrect) to show the factory and ensure that an entirely new set of doors were manufactured to the correct specification. After a long delay (partly due to Christmas and the new year) the new set of doors were delivered on the 20th January. I unpacked a few of them to check, and to my horror they were the same as the doors that we’d agreed were incorrect. The paint kit that came with the deliver was also the wrong paint. The Field Installations Manager came out for a second time on the 23rd January and took away with him another of the original correctly painted doors to show the factory and manufacture a third set of doors for the kitchen. Delivery of this set of doors was planned for the 13th February. This date was then postponed by the Field Installations Manager giving the reason that there were still one or two doors for this latest set that the factory weren’t quite happy with and were redoing. A new time was set for an AM delivery on the 16th February. The AM slot was then missed by the driver and so it was agreed that they would deliver to my local Wren showroom and that the Field Installations Manager would collect a couple of the doors and the paint kit the following week on the 21st February and would bring them over for us to check. You can imagine my utter frustration when once again these new doors were the wrong colour and the wood grain was not showing through correctly. Still no paint kit was provided. It was at this point that the Field Installations Manager revealed that this particular style of doors had been discontinued and, contrary to a statement in Wren’s catalogue which states in big bold letters that “Wren Kitchens are proudly manufactured in our own UK factories” in fact my kitchen doors were originally manufactured and painted in Italy. The Field Installations Manager further explained that what they had been trying to do was to replicate the correct paint finish in their UK factory. The outcome of this visit was that I will probably have to choose a different shaker door from Wren’s current range that still matches the end panels that have been installed or choose an entirely different kitchen.

I don’t think I need to explain how annoyed I am with the process that has so far taken almost four months and the end is nowhere in sight. I feel that Wren have been far from honest about their production line and I’m unlikely to end up with the kitchen that I ordered. The delays have also meant that other work that was planned for my property has had to be postponed, the knock on effect of which is that I’m unable to rent out my spare room, loosing me probably £600 in rental income per month.

Immediately after the Field Installations Manager’s last visit on the 21st February I sent an e-mail to the customer care team at Wren requesting a transcript of the order history for the kitchen. It's now the 2nd March, I had two phone conversations with Wren yesterday, and one further conversation today, but still they have not been able to provide me with the information I requested.

Zulik

HI I think I got same problems as you all missing, damage parts, design problems.. I can live with that.. But Main thing who bought from Wren are YOU RECEIVE SAME TYPE AND QUALITY KITCHEN? In show room 99% hinges are Blum ( who not understand its like rolex) I got hinges Grass ( it's like casio) but I paid for Blum... They are just legal thief's. example pair of Blum hinges 12 pounds pair of grass around 6 pounds.. Before you buy ask that you get for your money.

nicola_morgan

I purchased my dream kitchen with qurtz stone worktop from Wren in jan 2017. The sales team were amazing and showered us with prosecco giving us a bottle to take home. Little did i know this was to be a complete disaster and i was making a huge mistake.
The kitchen was delivered on time with several items incorrect however i understand this happens and eventually the issues were resolved.
The experience i then had with the quartz worktop installers J ROTHERHAM was unbelievable. I was left for several weeks with no worktops while they delayed in measuring and supplying the worktops. This meant no washing machine, washing facilities or gas hob as these had to be fitted after.
When they eventually arrived to fit them 18 working days later they fitted the island wrong, the ceramic sink set beneath the granite is hanging on its support by only a few mm and looks to fall anytime and the long length of worktop is fitted of the wall with a gap of 1/2 inch. The wall is new and drylined and completely straight the work top has been fitted short along the entire length. J Rotherham did attend to realign the island and shoved some gray silicone along the gap of the worktop and then tried to advise i had signed the work off as a satisfied customer. The paper work was subsequently sent to me and i had clearly only signed off the re-aligning of the island. To my dismay i have been dealing with the worst customer service team i have ever had the misfortune to deal with. They actually told me to take my issue with the worktop up with J ROTHERAM myself as they had now closed the complaint down (without even speaking to me!) even though i had placed my order for worktops and units with WREN for thousands of pounds. I never add comments on social media or feedback forums but i do not want to other hard working people paying thousands of pounds of their hard earned cash to this appalling company. I also fully intend to be treated fairly and get the dream kitchen that i purchased and will paying for OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS!!!

Gonfera

Hi, Wren are currently recruiting for new store in the South East. Visited another store near by and they have so many empty cubicles for designers upstairs, yet downstairs only seem to have a few designers in the showroom. Apparently it takes a few weeks to train up while you are on minimum wage and a few months before you get any accrued commission. I'm wondering if they are on a recruitment drive now so that they have loads of newly trained designers ready for Boxing Day and January sales? Filling up those upstairs cubicles. The leads get filtered to the top designers, so newbies won't get many opportunities to prove themselves. So sometime after January would I be sacked because no longer needed, or leave of my own accord due to the lack of opportunity to sell enough kitchens to earn decent commission?

Can any current or ex employees answer me?

Kickwren

I tried txting the mobile number but hasn't been delivered to Sanchez!

Turn your phone on or you scared with dealing with complaints!?

Mr Sanchez you and Wren are a joke. Another MFI in the making!

I paid 13k for a kitchen a quartz worktop.

Kitchen delivered with missing/wrong parts!

Worktop templating now asking for another 1k because wren staff failed to pass requirements to worktop company.

cddc

Think Armando has gone now.

Check out the "Wren Kitchen Disasters " group on Facebook before Wren get it shut down again, which they have once already. The new one is already up to 1100 members.

Someone on there should be able to give you some up to date contacts. Whether it will help you or not, who knows?

Helen_Bowman

Not so lucky my end as still fighting Wren as they refused to exchange any of the standard off the shelf units that arrived but did not fit due to their surveyor not measuring correctly! They argued I had to check measure myself even though I am partially disabled and the units were meant to just slot in to match existing Wren units! No actual fitting needed if they had been the correct size! Useless company in my opinion and would never recommend to anyone as I bought a whole kitchen and not one single item fitted! They were left sitting in the communal hallway waiting for them to agree to an exchange. After months they were removed as they were blocking the communal fire exits as obviously it's hard to fit a whole kitchen, which won't fit in your own kitchen area, anywhere else in a flat! The ombudsman told me they would have issued me a refund or exchange had I kept the items just that little bit longer but Wren never replied promptly and never sent anyone to check and then the surveyor was sacked. All nicely swept under the carpet!

Hattie.a

Shockingly bad experience from start to finish, but let's start at the beginning.

1. Salesman assured me the kitchen cupboards would be MDF not chipboard. I bought the kitchen, which arrived as chipboard. When I called to complain, not only did they say that they don't even do MDF, so I was outright lied to, the customer service handler tried to spin some other lie that chipboard is better quality and more durable. I'm no kitchen designer but we can all agree that is outright not true.

2. The kitchen arrived in a different shade than ordered. When I sent pics whilst speaking on the phone to the customer service rep, he immmediately admitted fault and assured me he'd change them. He then realised I was out of my 30 day return policy (we had some delays with workmen so the ready assembled cupboards sat in their padded and sealed boxes until we were ready to fit them) and swiftly changed his tune. Ladies and gents, I kid you not, he GENUINELY tried to tell me that the reason they had "changed colour" was because they had been stored in the packaging they arrived in. Apparently he personally checked the order before dispatch and it was pure white upon dispatch. Magic colour changing cabinets!

3. One of the cupboards arrived broken and every single cupboard (and I mean EVERY SINGLE CUPBOARD on my white kitchen) had weird green streaks that won't come off no matter what I try. Again, will not exchange.

4. The kitchen designer left me no room to put a tap in behind my sink. Like sinks were just meant to look like a beautiful, empty, gaping hole in your worktop and most definitely are not meant to have running water to wash your dishes. I believe the customer service representative's words were "a mispick on your part". Are you actually kidding me? Who is the kitchen designer here? Pretty sure it is your job, not mine - I am paying you to do exactly this.

5. The work top that arrived looked nothing like the one in the showroom. The one in the showroom had lots of dark pewter grains against white, providing a lovely contrast. The worktop I got is almost beige with light grey streaks.

I'd say pay a little more and go elsewhere, but they're also not the cheapest out there. So save some money, get a better quality kitchen, and with the cash you'd have left over, go and treat yourself to a city break, safe in the knowledge that the kitchen you've just bought from ANYWHERE ELSE is far superior to one that Wren could ever provide you with!