mfi kitchen's good or bad

RedOnRed

This is our eigth year with our MFI Schreiber kitchen and it still looks new. The only thing i've found of average quality is the main inset panel on the doors feels a bit on the thin size and has always felt like it could be prone to being knocked through if not careful.

Girl_least_likely_to

We bought a kitchen from MFI 3 years ago and still looks like new. The only thing I disliked about MFI was the shocking customer service. They tried to sell us a dishwasher which turns out they were having trouble supplying and in the end couldn't supply. We wouldn't pay them the balance of the kitchen until we knew they could supply us with the correct dishwasher (it was a slimline stainless steel one - very hard to come by apparently). We received many phone calls from MFI (on our landline and mobiles), texts and letters advising us to pay the balance and we told them we wouldn't until they could confirm to supply us with correct dishwasher. Both myself and OH told them the story several times (4 times to same girl in store!). It seems that they couldn't write notes on the computer system and the different departments didin't speak to each other anyway. Eventually after 3 months they admitted they couldn't supply the correct dishwasher and tried to sell us a different one for £900 (a smeg one) !!!! I managed to push them down to £500 after seeing the store manager but it was hard work.

We're in the middle of a kitchen extension and are looking to refit. We said we would never go to MFI again but guess what - the nicest kitchen we've seen is from MFI :rotfl: . I'm going to checkout Howden's. My OH is a plumber with his own business so shouldn't have a problem setting up an account. I'm hoping Howden's will come up trumps for us.

rizla01

MFI!!! NOT true that it stands for 'Made For Idiots'

O.K. here's the lowdown.

Poor to VERY poor service at the moment as they have implemented new policies and changed their telephone system since a change of owner and most of the stores have cut back on staff so that the sales deal with Admin Etc. Sure they will do this instead of earning comms, wont they?

Check out some of the freebies on at this moment. Free dishwasher or fridge drawer Etc. see here. http://www.mfi.co.uk/mfi/content/offerscond.asp

Also they now offer an insurance that covers you for accidental damage. Don't ask for it though. Wait to be offered it and they will probably chuck it in.

O.K. units but like most things, totally dependant on the fitter.

Get quotes from outside MFI - WELL worth it.

You will save yourself 1 THOUSAND pounds, easily.

You are lucky if they answer the phone in some stores.

Cruiksl

We bought a kitchen from MFI 2.5 years ago and I wouldn't rush back. We weren't told that they contracted out to kitchen fitters and unfortunately we were given the dud fitter. He came started to fit, left us after 3 days with a cooker sitting in the middle of the floor and nothing plumbed in, wired etc and for this we paid £1500 :eek: (just for fitting). We'd chosen granite worktops and knew we'd be without worktops for 3 weeks. After 5 weeks, we contacted them (as oven was still in the middle of the floor) to be told our kitchen was finished (errhhh don't think so).

We took in pictures of the unfinished kitchen and were given £500 compensation and a free American fridge. The kitchen cost us over £13500.

They eventually finished it 6 months after starting it.

If I was buying a kitchen now, I'd buy from Howdens (they still have our kitchen), get a good fitter from word of mouth and wouldn't fit granite(it's a nightmare to clean).

hth

Lynn

Alan50

Had a kitchen fitted by MFI 6 years ago and I am very pleased with the result and the fact that everthing works (had to replace a thermostat in the oven 2 years ago, but otherwise everything is ok.)
Bought my first kitchen units from MFI 27 years ago when 1st married, the quality and fit in those days was 'crap' the draws on those nilon runners where so bad you pulled off the draw front....!!!

Good luck

Alan

shelly

We bought our kitchen from MFI about 3 years ago. Never again. The units themselves are fine and still look brilliant but it took no end of hassle to get a complete, undamaged kitchen. CS is non existent. We had a chippie in to do some of the fitting and we ourselves done the rest.

RedOnRed

MFI's customer service nose diving demise coincided with them closing down all of their branch warehouses. The consequence of that has been when ever something in a self assembly pack is missing you have to wait an eternity for a replacement.

One thing about MFI that bugs me is that they seem to permanently have a "limited term 50% off sale". We got our kitchen from them in '99 and they've been having some sort of one ever since.

In Milton Keynes we've had an MFI for years and then 18 months ago a new Ikea opened literally just down the road. The Ikea is always jam packed while the MFI now just has a few tumbleweeds blowing through the car park ...says it all really.

denise110

I have now gone for the mfi kitchen fingers crossed everything go,s ok did a lot of haggling while I was in there and managed to get a free intergrated fridge/freezer, intergated dishwasher and half price 5 year insurance for all 6 eletrical products,saving a total of £900 I also asked which were the best fitters and made sure I would get them thanks to all your replys they were really helpful

angelavdavis

Cruiksl wrote:

wouldn't fit granite(it's a nightmare to clean).

hth

Lynn

I am surprised to hear this Lynn. I had granite fitted and have found it to be fab. We went for Emerald Pearl which was a high gloss finish as our kitchen is quite dark so I wanted to introduce more reflective surfaces to bounce whatever light was available. We just wipe it down with a bit of bleach on a cloth and dry it with a piece of kitchen roll and it gleams.

Ref Post-sales service. Some of your comments did remind me that we had a lot of damaged doors delivered at the time (chipped corners, scratched fronts, but MFI just sent through new ones - eventually, they were very slow. This was about four years ago now. The problem then was how to get rid of the old ones. We were really shocked as some of the doors were clearly damaged before they had been put in the boxes! I know MFI did have a lot of issues with customer services a few years back, they had implemented a new warehouse management system that completely screwed up the orders and replacement orders, but I believe that has now been resolved.

Coveredinbees!!!!

We had an MFI kitchen in our old house around 3 years ago. I fitted it myself and when it was finished it looked fine. The problem was they delivered a load of rubbish to start with, most of the doors were damaged and nearly every unit had a fault on it. You could never get through to their customer service number so we went in to the local shop to sort things out. The people in the shop would promise to sort things out and then did nothing. In the end we stood in the shop and asked to see the manager.We told him if it didn't get sorted we would stand out side the shop and tell everyone how rubbish they were. It was all sorted out after that.