Wren Kitchens installation quote - over the top??

shrubalicious

Hi,

My mum's having a kitchen installed atm and I got involved in it today as am not sure she's being treated properly by Wren.

The overall price she agreed for the kitchen + installation was £12,800 - the kitchen itself cost £9,800.

So kitchen installation = £3,000 to Wren.

Four weeks before, a Wren installer had come round to do an assessment of the installation work ahead. He told her that she would need to pay him £1,500 directly for the work.

So overall kitchen installation fee = £4,500, for 5 - 10 days' work. Wren installation fee + 'extra' fee for the installer (to cover extension of gas pipe, water pipe work in the sink area, some small plastering, removing tiles work).

Does this seem reasonable/standard? I'm late on to this project, but my mum has not been aware as to which costs are going where and the process doesn't seem right to me - expensive and Wren have been v unclear as to the costs (this is the tip of the iceberg as far as problems with Wren).

Cheers,
Marko

suisidevw

No, absolutely not 'reasonable/standard'. Maybe for one of these big companies it is but you should be paying half of this MAXIMUM - GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN AND FIND A RECOMMENDED LOCAL INSTALLER

Doozergirl

Do you use twitter? If you have a look at the mesages being sent into Wren (@wrenliving), you may not want to buy the kitchen at all. You meed to look at what they receive, not what they tweet.

I would not feel comfortable in having part of the contract with Wren and part with kitchen fitter. If something goes wrong, your mum is going to be fobbed off as to who is at fault for anything.

MissWhitehouse

Must say £1500 does sound excessive for plumbing work that ought to be accounted for in the original fitting price ( how many kitchens don't have plumbing ?). If you take your car in for repair do you expect an additional charge in the Extras column for lifting the bonnet ? Of course your poor mum will have been stitched up by the Wren sales team with a one time only offer, I bet she got 50% off of a vastly inflated price and as it was the last day of the promotion period she will have had to make a commitment there and then. Perhaps the salesman, who of course didn't work on commission would win a TV for his children's bedroom if the project went through on this months figures so if she really wanted to do it he'd really appreciate it if she did it now. I wonder how much the before and after photos that she could get another 10% off for will help their business........... Wren and their likes are the Moben and Kitchens Direct of yesteryear. Average furniture, inflated prices but great marketing and hard sell... Tell them to stuff it. demand your money back & go see an independent local showroom. Honesty and transparency is surely what we all want when purchasing anything.... you haven't got it here.

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Direct Sales law: If you throw enough SH.. at the wall, some of it will stick !

cddc

3k dry fit charge on a 10k kitchen seems excessive to me even for a warranted big co. fit. 1.5k for the rest, less so.

Would expect 1.8-2.5k for the dry fit, depending on number of units and type of worktop. Though Wren really should be cheaper than that as the units all come pre assembled, so it is not like the fitter has to build anything...

It may be that Wren still warrant the part that goes directly to the fitter. Work for Wickes in K&B and we do...

Having said that....

Agree with Doozergirl... I may be biased because I work for a competitor, but don't take my word for it ,look at the twitter feed and the reviews.

Have friends and ex colleagues who went to work for Wren, suckered in by the excellent Showrooms and the promise of good money. None of them are still there. All I would say is if they treat their customers the way they treat their staff, and judging by the tweets they do, I would avoid like the plague....

shrubalicious

Thanks everyone for your replies, they're very helpful. Great to get some info from someone in trade, cheers cddc

Anyway as mentioned this is the tip of the iceberg. I got involved because of something else altogether!

As part of the deal my mum had been offered a free dishwasher - she had chosen a model with the saleswoman, and on the invoice a footnote 'extra discount as part of the dishwasher deal' was included.

Lo & behold when everything was delivered there was no dishwasher! After calling them and visiting the showroom to talk the the saleswoman and the sales manager, they told us that the agreed dishwasher was no longer stocked by them.

Though they admitted that there had been significant error on their part and that the agreed dishwasher had been discussed and agreed upon, they would not replace the agreed dishwasher with one in stock without us paying extra for it.

They stuck to the line that the dishwasher had not been included in the itemised breakdown, and it therefore was our responsibility. This is true, but given the highly ambiguous footnote my mum felt she had written confirmation of the deal. Their interpretation of the footnote was that the kitchen would have cost more with a dishwasher included, but they could not find any 'original' price anywhere in their system. It certainly wasn't specified on our invoice.

Hence our concern about the fitting fee - coz i think part of that fee is for a dishwasher that never materialised...

Fault on my mum's part of course for not going through the itemised breakdown and making sure before the delivery. But EXTREMELY SHARP UNETHICAL PRACTICE in my view, and their admission of significant responsibility without making effort to rectify it is shocking.

That being said, the fitters are lovely fellas!

Hayes Wren for any concerned locals. Make sure everything is clear and in writing before proceeding or paying, verbal agreements clearly mean nothing there. Not a positive experience...

cddc

The fact that it is London(ish) would to some degree explain the higher fit fee....it is a fact of life that you pay more for any trades in London than elsewhere, big companies also adjust their fees upwards, as they could not get anyone to work for them otherwise. Still think it is on the high side though.

I would complain to Armando Sanchez (Wren MD) about the dishwasher thing...

Agree it is outrageous that they are trying to get out of something they clearly promised your parents!

suisidevw

So your Mum IS paying £4.5k for fitting?! It must be a huge kitchen!!!!

MissWhitehouse

Agree with Suisidevw £4500.00. to fit a kitchen in London or not is extortion, unless there is more than meets the eye.
Had a quote from Kitchens Etc in Leeds for a recent 17 unit project I'm involved with.
_____________________________________________________________
Installation within pre-prepared room 850.00 ( We Call this a "Dry fit" )


Preparation and building work
Remove Existing kitchen 150.00
Remove Wall & effect Steel support 750.00
Prepare Plumbing 250.00
Prepare Electrics for kitchen and appliances include 4 double sockets for use 350.00
Plaster patch walls and beam where discussed 350.00
Clear site of waste (skip hire) 175.00
Administration & certification 150.00
8 LED Ceiling downlights 360.00
Preparation Total £2535.00

That's Less than £3500 TOTAL including taking out a wall...

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Doozergirl

MissWhitehouse wrote: »

Agree with Suisidevw £4500.00. to fit a kitchen in London or not is extortion, unless there is more than meets the eye.
Had a quote from Kitchens Etc in Leeds for a recent 17 unit project I'm involved with.
_____________________________________________________________
Installation within pre-prepared room 850.00 ( We Call this a "Dry fit" )


Preparation and building work
Remove Existing kitchen 150.00
Remove Wall & effect Steel support 750.00
Prepare Plumbing 250.00
Prepare Electrics for kitchen and appliances include 4 double sockets for use 350.00
Plaster patch walls and beam where discussed 350.00
Clear site of waste (skip hire) 175.00
Administration & certification 150.00
8 LED Ceiling downlights 360.00
Preparation Total £2535.00

That's Less than £3500 TOTAL including taking out a wall...

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Adminstration and certification - what does this mean? Building regs fee? Have you had the structural engineer out yourself to calculate the support needed?

That work is cheap.

How old is the house?

evokit

That is a silly amount even in London
I was billed 5k from one of my london fitters, and that included.......
kitchen removal, supporting the floor (suspended) plastering the whole room and ceiling (not small) floor tiling (23ish sq mtrs) all electrics, moving rads, downlights, kitchen fit, 2 x new windows and painting and dec. a complete room transformation