Wren Kitchen shoddy and many delays

Lavender23

A Wren Kitchen installation began in my home 18 months ago, we experienced very shoddy installation, incorrect and faulty units and many many delay which has been very distressing and inconvenient. It is still not finalised. they have offered just less than 7% off the total price in "full and final settlement" I am going to pursue a more acceptable discount, which is the best route: The Kitchen Ombudsman, Small Claims Court, or something else? any advice would be very welcome.

naedanger

Lavender23 wrote: »

A Wren Kitchen installation began in my home 18 months ago, we experienced very shoddy installation, incorrect and faulty units and many many delay which has been very distressing and inconvenient. It is still not finalised. they have offered just less than 7% off the total price in "full and final settlement" I am going to pursue a more acceptable discount, which is the best route: The Kitchen Ombudsman, Small Claims Court, or something else? any advice would be very welcome.

Not an answer but some information: "The decisions made by The Furniture Ombudsman are not binding on consumers; which means they remain free to pursue the complaint through other channels." So you could go to the Ombudsman first, and if unhappy, decline their proposed remedy and still go to the small claims court. However I do not believe you can do the opposite - if you start legal action then the Ombudsman cannot ever consider the case.

http://www.thefurnitureombudsman.org/faqs

AnnaE_2

We purchased out kitchen through the store using one of their designers and have had various issue after the other. First the kitchen was made up without our agreement so had to go into storage, luckily at their cost. Then we had a worktop that was not deep enough even though we asked the designer to check and gave him an architects planof the room. Then we noticed over 10 doors were damaged along with corner unit was faulty and they couldn't replace it for 15 days! We lost our fitter as he had other jobs. We managed to get a new fitter once the new items arrived but of the 10 items that were resent only 2 were any good. More were ordered and on the third delivery only 3 items were undamaged. The forth lot arrived all wrapped really well with QC checked all over it, finally! I thought. Upon opening however the first door had three faults on it. I have mailed them back asking to send someone out to open and inspect the last two items as I cannot bear to waste any more time, stead and energy on this. I also asked for them to cover the fitting costs but they will only pay it if it is a VAT invoice. I have explained that out fitter is not VAT registered and so please use their own but they are not responding that. I have also asked them to call me as my average wait time is 20mins but they teplied saying that they are an inbound call centre only!!! I have also sent mails to the complaints team and directors office but no response from these. I was delighted to see that Armando Sanchez put his direct line mobile and e-mail on another post, so I sent him a mail on Friday but no response as yet and then called his mobile this afternoon only to find out it puts you straight through to the customer service queuing system! We bought a Linda Barker kitchen expecting high quality and paid in full but not even tr shop wants to help us and just says they can't get involved - I look forward to to hearing how you get on and let me know of any tips.

Lavender23

What a shambles! I'll let you know how things go. Keep looking on here and see if anyone else has any useful tips for me, they may be useful for you too.

LilElvis

The small claims court can force the company to pay to remedy any failures in fulfilling their contract with you, including any provable costs such as charges you have incurred from contractors you have hired, e.g. lost days of paid labour due to non-delivery of items. It won't give you a sum to compensate you for frustration and annoyance, unless you have lost paid days at work.

You could accept the 7% compensation offered, but contingent on them completing the work to a satisfactory standard. Failure to complete the work would then still make them liable in court.

Lavender23

Thanks for your advice. I find it very depressing that you say that there is no compensation for the great inconvenience and hard work involved in emptying and refilling several kitchen cupboards everytime Wren have had to work on them. It has taken literally hours and hours of our time. Has my time no value unless it is 'lost days work' for someone else? My husband and I are self-employed and our time is very valuable to us.

wealdroam

Lavender23 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice. I find it very depressing that you say that there is no compensation for the great inconvenience and hard work involved in emptying and refilling several kitchen cupboards everytime Wren have had to work on them. It has taken literally hours and hours of our time. Has my time no value unless it is 'lost days work' for someone else? My husband and I are self-employed and our time is very valuable to us.

You can only expect compensation for your losses.
Those losses do not have to be full days - just provable losses.

if you can demonstrate that you actually lost money - you had to forgo some paid work - to empty and reload some cupboards, then you can claim for that loss.

Yes, you are right - your time effectively has no value if you have not suffered a loss.

Having said that, you are expected to mitigate your losses.
An example of that might be to not arrange for Wrens to come round at a time when you would need to cancel a paying appointment.