Kitchen Woes

DeeGee1989 · 8 July 2015 at 1:24PM

Hi Everyone.

I've been having an issue with a kitchen supplier that I would really appreciate some advice on. Apologies if this goes on a while.

Early in May I ordered a kitchen from a large retailer (no name at the moment, as I'm trying to keep this amicable). The kitchen arrived quickly and we checked the items against the invoice. All looked good except for the upstands which were significantly damaged. We informed them straight away and were told these would be replaced.

We opted to use a builder that we knew and trusted to install the kitchen, he started on 18th May. Throughout the week the builder was in, we had nothing but problems with the kitchen supplier. Issues we experienced included but weren't limited to:

Incorrectly measured kitchen.
Items on the plan not having been put onto the order.
Faulty tap.
Bowed worktop.
Damaged upstands (4 times).
Replacement items not arriving when they were supposed to.
Calls not returned when promised.

In the end, due to the delays caused by the Kitchen supplier, we had to pay the builder for a days extra work. The job was finished with the majority of the kitchen installed, but with a bowed worktop and without the upstands (and with a cupboard door that needed to be exchanged). He has since moved on to other jobs and isn't available for a few months.

Since the builder finished, and after the fourth set of damaged upstands was received, we eventually (through blood, sweat and tears) agreed with the retailer that they would refund us the cost of the worktop and send us a cheque for £200 so we could source a worktop elsewhere. They also agreed that when the worktop arrived and we'd checked it that they would arrange for it to be fitted.

We found a worktop and we received it a couple of weeks ago. We then contacted the retailer to arrange for it to be fitted. Heels were dug and they claimed that they were unable to find a fitter that was available until October - A claim that I don't believe for a second - and told us to find one ourselves. I wasn't happy with this as I don't know any other fitters and didn't want to be potentially left with a cowboy. Eventually, they managed to find someone but claimed that they had no facility to pay him directly so would have to reimburse us through a cheque.

I spoke to the fitter last week and explained what needed to be done. He's since got back to the supplier and provided them with a quote. I had a phonecall this morning saying that the quote came back at £900 and that this was too much for them to cover. They're now claiming that they only agreed to cover one days fitting of around £150 (quite how that's a days fitting I don't know) and that we'll have to cover the rest. We're already out of pocket as we had to pay the builder for an extra day. It's also been almost 8 weeks now that we haven't had a kitchen entirely due to THEIR mistakes and incompetence. I told the adviser that this was unacceptable and asked him to get his manager to phone me, which he is apparently doing this afternoon.

Throughout all of this, the adviser has acted as though he's been doing us a massive favour by helping us out. He even claimed that we've already been compensated for the issues because they sent us £200 to cover additional expense on the worktop.

Obviously, I'm going down kicking and screaming but do I have any recourse on this? I find it had to believe that they can cost us money and refuse to cover it.

Apologies if this is a bit of a rambling post, I'm still pumped with adrenaline thinking about it.

Many thanks for any and all responses.

tykesi · 8 July 2015 at 2:01PM

I'm guessing Wrens

unholyangel · 8 July 2015 at 2:13PM

Goods didnt conform to contract (ie supplier was in breach of contract) therefore they are liable for reasonable losses incurred by the party not in breach (you). You do have a duty to reasonably mitigate your losses where possible but they're liable for them.