mfi kitchen's good or bad

gollygosh

have to say we're on our second schreiber, [fitted ourselves] and having seen both b&q and wickes in action we definately got the best deal. a friend in the trade gave us the howdens brouchure [same kitchens with different names] and i asked m.f.i. to price match. they did on everything including appliances. saved us hundreds more on a 50% sale price!!

purplekim

You can buy most MFI kitchens at Howdens (trade only so you need to get a trade account set up if you have a company or know of anyone that would do it for you). Howdens suply kitchens to MFI are are sold at approx half the cost for the same kitchen with great planing service - they come out to you. Its the best kitchen design that I have had done having gone to homebase, B&Q and mfi.

website is:

https://www.above-it-all.co.uk/howdens/companies.htm

good luck

ozskin

the schreiber kitchens are not bad but neither are they good. they are not a true rigid kitchen and unless they have changed are not on an 18mm colour coordinated carcase with solid back. you will find that you may be able to get a bespoke kitchen from a specialist for very similar money

Help_Wanted

Howdens is no longer the trade arm of MFI and a work colleague of mine has opened a trade account with Howdens without any problems and he doesn't have his own company or joinery business. He does fit kitchens for friends and family because he is a DIY enthusiast. My brother has a joinery business and he uses Howdens all the time. They have a 18mm rigid carcus and come ready built and very rarely have any bits missing. I have been searching around for a new kitchen too and the only negative point against Howdens is that they only do certain cupboard sizes. I've heard that MFI are ok providing you don't have any problems as their after sales service is very slow. Hope this helps:cool:

denise110

I would just like to thank you all for your advice and will keep posted what I decide to do

cheapskate101

MFI kitchens .... 6/10. The usual wobbly drawers, etc. But according to the carpenter, B&Q are about the same and Ikea are not much better.

Tip - Try being really rough with the drawers of kitchens that are on display. Take one out and have a go at putting it back in. If they don't run smoothly - don't touch the kitchen because ill-fitting drawers will drive you mad after three months. The cheap built-in fridge lasted around two years.

The delivery persons were very strange. Took me to dark part of my kitchen and demanded that I fill in their pre-ticked boxes to say delivery perfect etc. Refused as hadn't counted the packages, let alone counted them. Said I'd sign as 'uninspected'. They said no - if I didn't sign that everything was OK they would take the kitchen away. Said OK then....off you go - I signed uninspected and they left, still grumbling. A bit sad as everyting was reasonably OK, except the builder tutted about the worktop being bent.

We had a nasty experience with a kitchen salesman from a widely advertised company. He arrived at 7pm - we asked him for a paper quote for the kitchen we wanted.

He proceeded to do the:
'I'm ringing my boss to get a discount that only I can only give you today because your such lovely people,' routine so beloved of salespersons.


We told him we would like to think about it after the paper quote- more frantic calls to the boss and further discounts. Then he turned nasty - saying he didn't want to come all this way for nothing... He then sat and smoked and thought about it. Made one last stand with a further drop in price.

At 10pm we had to say that if he didn't leave - we would call the police! Finally got him out of the door. Phew! Never again. The MFI experience was 100 times better.

ormus

most kichen units use the same/similar carcasses. so shop around. i bought a set of units from MFI for a small kitchen yrs ago, for 350 quid. wasnt the best but great value for money.
ikea seem ok to me. (ive got some of their lounge units).

i cant understand why peeps spend 5k/10k and more! on a new kitchen.

keep away from the specialist companies. just another double glazing rip off.
i knew a salesmen for one company, he was on 25% commission!

emilyt

We bought our kitchen units from M.F.I. They are brilliant. Good size and still lok new. Had them about 5 years now. We fitted them ourselves.
Hope this helps.
Emily
P.S Bought them in the sale and they were aboout £600 including all cupboards and work surfaces.

cpu

cheapskate101 wrote:

You can get massive amounts off MFI kitchens by using Tesco vouchers. ie if you have £100 of Tesco vouchers you get £400-worth of MFI kitchen. It may be worth buying yr shopping and petrol at Tesco, and taking out a Tesco credit card for a year, if your are into long-term planning and pay it off every month.

You can't use Tesco vouchers in MFI after April this year.

ormus

just remembered.
my brother in law had a new kitchen fitted for 4k. just a couple of yrs ago.
(very small kitchen/small terraced 2 bed house).
it looks no better than ours.
i reckon its got about 1k of units etc.. say 1k for the fitters.
so that leaves 1k each for the company and the salesman.
cant remember the name of the company but i think it was one of the big boys. might have been dolphin?