Wren Kitchen issues

kennydies

Yes. I have done that and found them to be really responsive. I have also had acknowledgment ftom the furniture ombudsman. Watch this space...

Builderbob

Wren kitchens are to be avoided as they have the strangest policies with regards to sales , which are deadly suspicious

I had been comparing prices with magnet and howdens , both of which gave full breakdowns so certain parts could be haggled , such as plynths , which should always be 90 % discounted due to their overpricing in the first place

When I asked wren to provide a breakdown of the 8000 pounds they were quoting , the salesman said its against policy to provide this , which is deeply suspicious and an utterly dishonest business practice

Needless to say , I will never be entering a wren store again

ppegoraro

So I had Barclays Finance look into it and they were very prompt and to the point, however Wren have turned around and told them that I am turning away acceptable items, What a joke that is, how can they just accept that on their word alone.


It’s off to the furniture Ombudsman I go. What a flippen headache

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....

wealdroam

Totallybonkers, that's now six times you have posted this stuff.

Did you read the rules?

Particularly:

What's spam?

Forum users mustn't post comments more than once on the forum (the only exception is members of the MSE Team; when needed). It's called spamming and most internet forums forbid it. Where spam is reported to the Forum Team, the posts are deleted and the user's posting privileges may be removed.

billhicks1994

Hey all,


pity we didn't find this forum before we ordered.. this is my tale of woe and I again have to agree that dealing with Wren is a painful process and they do not care about their customers at all.....


Dear Directors Office,


I am writing to vehemently complain about the bad customer care and lack of resolution to the design error that we have experienced since the delivery of our kitchen on Tues 5th June.


We have been dealing with XXX at your Oxford branch and found him to be extremely professional and personable throughout. He designed an inventive and thoughtful kitchen with us and took care and time to make sure it had everything we wanted and needed. We had preferred the kitchen range in Howdens however his attention to detail and interest in us as people and homeowners rather than just as customers made us decide to chose to try Wren for our purchase.


On Monday 11th June, our builder alerted us to the fact that the base unit for our sink - as we had chosen to retain our own Belfast sink within the design - was not the correct height for the sink. Our builder had already begun the build and had ripped out the old kitchen in our cottage completely so we were without any appliances.


My partner Doug rang the Oxford store to speak to our designer on 11th but was told by staff that he was off ill, so he explained to staff that there was an issue and he was told to ring back on Tuesday.


We then both tried the store individually on the morning of Tuesday 12th only to be told that our designer was on his day off but that he would be in and fix this error. I personally spoke to Jordan and explained the issue in full that morning and that our builder could not progress at all unless it was resolved. I asked if someone could ring our builder and get the dimensions of our own sink ( seeing as apparently it was not on our file or design notes anywhere) so that a possible resolution could be sought.
Our builder spoke to Jordan and gave the details - the resolution offered was that some panels and a smaller door panel would be dispatched and our builder would try to make a bespoke cabinet to house our larger Belfast sink. Our builder was told that the items would have to be authorised for order by head office but that all was ok and this solution would work. Our builder told us that we should expect a call from Wren to confirm things and delivery of these small items would take 3-4 days. We were also made aware that our designer was still off work, ill.
We heard nothing on Wednesday so I called on Thursday 14th June, to check on delivery times for the additional panels and parts. I spoke to Pete, who described himself as a 'senior designer.'
I again explained the whole scenario (still nothing on file?) as it now 4 days since the original issue was raised by us and our builder. Pete again asked for the sink dimensions and suggested that as a senior designer, he would be better at seeking a solution that Jordan was. I found this rather unprofessional as a comment, however he keenly said he would ring our builder, get the sink dimensions and then he would come up with a better solution to our issue.
I gave Senior Pete the builder's phone number and he rang him and got the sink details and apparently, the same solution as Jordan offered was all that was tabled.
So I rang Wren on Friday 15th, and spoke to Jordan again. He revealed to me that as it stood, nothing had been ordered in the five days since the issue was raised. He said he would sort it and he left a voicemail on our house landline stating that he had FINALLY ordered the items and they would be delivered on Tuesday 19th June.
During all of this time, 5 full working days, my builder has given up coming on site and we have had to needlessly employ a plumber to come on site to find no sink to be fitted.
We had no workmen on site during the follows few days as nothing can progress until the sink is fitted.
Finally, we get to Tuesday 19th June and myself and my partner call the Oxford branch no less than 5 times that day, asking for updates on the delivery of the panels with which our builder would attempt to build a bespoke unit for us to house our sink.
Your staff failed to provide us with the courier name or number or tracking number initially, despite telling us they would provide it to us by email, and we kept calling the store as we needed to be sure after the total mess of the previous week you could be depended upon to delivery the parts required. I spoke with Mark and he was polite but unable to assist and failed to provide us with any answers, mentioning that our designer was still off work sick.
By 5.30pm we had received no details of the delivery time, details, courier contact details etc. as requested so I walked to the Oxford store after work to make a complaint and get some answers.
What I was met with was the poorest customer service experience I have ever had.
I was sat down in the corner of the store by Mark when I arrived and he recalled my calls during the day and my complaint - and eventually after more than 10 minutes of waiting, I went back to the main desk area of the store to see why I was waiting.
I was met with the duty manager Leroy, who patronised me in no uncertain terms, when discussing my annoyance and disappointment with your company as a whole by this stage. He was facile and useless in my opinion, providing neither reassurance, solution or guidance. He was more concerned with the guy who was testing the fire alarm and giving me personal details about our designer and the nail in his foot, and basically dodging any level of responsibility on the issue which he says he was only made aware of a few moments prior to his speaking to me.
I was irritated by this attitude and his lack of professionalism ( does your company really tell customers the personal illness details of staff when they are out of the office?) and I left there without any contact details for the courier company who were apparently, Yodel, or a tracking number, and Leroy had no idea where the delivery was, as the items or a delivery card had not been left at our home and I may as well have saved my breath and shoe rubber for all the good that trip to the branch did me.
My partner rang again after 7pm to see if the store would finally give us the information we wanted as no-one else seemed to be interested in our delivery. He again was not met with any level of helpfulness or understanding. He was told the items we marked as delivered, and we should go and find them with neighbours as they might there.
Later that evening our neighbours brought some spare parts from Wren - however again another day was lost phoning, calling to the store, endless chasing to yield nothing. And we are now 8 days past the day the original issue was raised.
Luckily our neighbours had taken delivery of these parts from Yodel so we called our builder and asked that he and his team come back onsite the following day, Wednesday 20th June.
He arrived early that morning - 7.30am to be precise - only to find that only 1 of the three parts delivered were of any use to him in making the bespoke cabinet. The door and front panel he had been promised by Jordan and Peter were not there so he could not progress our kitchen installation.
So yet again, Wren have failed to properly correct the problem that THEIR DESIGN caused.
We were frankly getting a little tired of all of this wasted time and effort - and again our builder leaves the site without completing the sink installation or progressing the installation.
Our designer finally came back to work on Wednesday 20th and I called to speak to him; he had kindly left me a voicemail message with his mobile number on my phone so I could easily get in touch.
Our designer listened as I spoke about not just the design error but more so the comprehensive failure of his colleagues and the company as a whole to be able to handle and manage such a small issue as this appeared to be at the outset.
The level of ineptitude and incompetence we encountered in those two weeks was appalling - our calls not returned, mistruths as to who would sort things out, lack of action or attention to detail and widespread blanket shirking of responsibility with us finding that no-one in the store wanted to take ownership of our problem and resolve it.
Our designer agreed to come onsite the following evening - along with our builder if we could arrange it - to seek a solution to this problem. (One further wood panel was also delivered by Yodel to our neighbours that evening as well.)
He met with us at the house alongside our builder, our rather frustrated builder, and said that he was sorry for all the stress that had been caused and he said the only and simplest solution to resolve the matter was to provide us with a suitably-sized new Belfast sink free of charge and we retain the existing base unit we had been given.
He confidently told us he would arrange this, explained that even though Friday 22nd was his day off, he would go into the Oxford store and order our sink. The delivery time was unfortunately going to be a further two weeks - so we were looking at a possible FOUR week turnaround time to solve this design error. We were really regretting ever purchasing a kitchen with your company at this point...
Our designer said that our builder was not going to be able to make a bespoke cabinet from the incorrect panels dispatched to us in the previous days and told that Wren would provide us with the Belfast sink that went with the base unit we had taken delivery of.
Unfortunately, Wren not only are disinterested in this customers; they are happy to embarrass their caring staff as well. At 10.30am on Friday 22nd, our designer called to tell us that we could not have the sink he promised us the evening before. Wren had not agreed to supply the sink to us free of charge but for a cost of 50% of the retail price because (wait for it) the Belfast sink as requested was 'not on the original order.'
Well of course it was not on the original order - no sink was on the original order because we wanted to us OUR OWN sink. Remember?
And now we are back at square one and it is 14 working days since we first raised this matter with you. We will not pay for a sink, not after the treatment and nonsense we have had to contend with in these weeks. I called and spoke to the customer care team on Friday 22nd, for 18 minutes, only again to be told that he couldn't help me and I had to write an email to the Directors' Office.
Our designer is the only competent and professional member of staff we have dealt with in this whole process from design and order to delivery and failure of design. We do not at all blame him for the design error so much as we blame the whole of Wren as a company for their lack of customer service ability.
We await your response to this email and please note that if no sink is being provided then Wren will have to build the bespoke cabinet for our sink as I refuse to pay my builder £200 per day plus VAT to build a base unit for a design error that is firmly Wren's fault.
We await either delivery of the sink or a fitter on-site as quickly as possible to remedy this error or I shall be forced to take the necessary formal action via Consumer Affairs, legal routes and if I have to, Watchdog.
And neither myself, my friends or my building team will ever recommend your products or your company to anyone we know. Despite one member of staff's valiant efforts and wonderful customer service, you have failed us as customer and him as a member of staff.
Wren Living, you are a disgrace.