B&Q Kitchen Disaster - Reported to Furniture Ombudsman

swingaloo

maxilee wrote: »

No, it's been discontinued.

My sister has the same kitchen in a different colour. She has no issues but her kitchen gets minimal use (no children and cooks pasta once or twice a week as they eat out a lot).

If it was a known manufacturing defect, surely they'd be replacing without blaming the customer and all the nonsense and backside-covering that's gone with it. Or maybe I'm being naive in expecting common decency from a brand that I'd previously trusted.

Exactly, they would have replaced if it was a manufacturing defect as the quantity they sell it would be obvious f there was a mass issue which is probably why they are not accepting responsibility.
I did 12 years in the call centre which manufactured the kitchens for BQ and dealt with thousands of customers over that time. The cost of replacing a door is peanuts for them. Most doors had a trade cost of less than £10. Because they have such great buying power they would insist on products being produced for very small cost.
In fact, if the wrong door was sent to a customer we would send out a replacement and ask the customer to dispose of the incorrect one as it was cheaper to throw it away than to pay the courier to bring it back. You are not getting a quality product. You are getting the cheapest product BQ can buy, made to their specification, not to the manufacturers.

hollydays

I would find out who manufacturers the kitchens and speak to them.
Maybe they have been discontinued because of problems
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?128901-B-amp-Q-Kitchen

swingaloo

hollydays wrote: »

I would find out who manufacturers the kitchens and speak to them.
Maybe they have been discontinued because of problems
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?128901-B-amp-Q-Kitchen

The problem with that thread is the kitchen in question was a Bernstein kitchen and they changed suppliers years ago. They were the company I worked for and some of the things BQ did in order to sell cheap was insisted on by them and then of course blamed n the manufacturer when the product failed.
When I worked there I was abe to deal with a call from a customer IF we had delivered the kitchen straight to the home. If the kitchen went to store first and then delivered to the customer, or, it was bought direct off the shelf rather than special order then on no account could we speak about the product on the stores behalf. They do not want a manufacturer of their products admitting any liability on their behalf.

maxilee

Just read that CAG thread - very helpful to know that this has happened/is happening to others and we're all getting the same response.

How are they getting away with such awful manufacturing? I know what you're saying about the doors actually being cheaply made - can't believe how much markup they're banging on such shoddy products though. They must be laughing their heads off.

hollydays

Obviously I'm just posting these threads to suggest that the problem ' could ' be with the kitchen, I'm not saying it is.

Here's another thread, again old, about problems with glue.
http://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/replacement-kitchen-cabinet-doors.375784/

swingaloo

maxilee wrote: »

Just read that CAG thread - very helpful to know that this has happened/is happening to others and we're all getting the same response.

How are they getting away with such awful manufacturing? I know what you're saying about the doors actually being cheaply made - can't believe how much markup they're banging on such shoddy products though. They must be laughing their heads off.

Because like any big company they want to buy cheap and pile high. A prime example was when they wanted to do a hob, oven and hood for under £100 as an offer incentive to get people to buy a kitchen. To get the price down to an acceptable level for them we were told to remove a shelf (which resulted in thousands of calls from customers thinking there must be one missing), put cheaper knobs on and take out the thermal cut off (which resulted in them having to send out engineers all over the country as the ovens overheated).

The company also did a better standard of doors which they sold to other outlets which sold a much more 'expensive' kitchen and called them 'Branded'. Nowhere near as many complaints from those doors! Its not the manufacturing- its the specification BQ put on the products to keep the cost down.

hollydays

As for your wall unit that's delaminated, that could be because your kettle was under it?

maxilee

So disheartening. I think the best solution would be to start saving up to replace all of the doors with wooden ones...

maxilee

No, my kettle is right down the other end where there are no top cupboards, so I can't even blame that.

maxilee

swingaloo wrote: »

Because like any big company they want to buy cheap and pile high. A prime example was when they wanted to do a hob, oven and hood for under £100 as an offer incentive to get people to buy a kitchen. To get the price down to an acceptable level for them we were told to remove a shelf (which resulted in thousands of calls from customers thinking there must be one missing), put cheaper knobs on and take out the thermal cut off (which resulted in them having to send out engineers all over the country as the ovens overheated).

The company also did a better standard of doors which they sold to other outlets which sold a much more 'expensive' kitchen and called them 'Branded'. Nowhere near as many complaints from those doors! Its not the manufacturing- its the specification BQ put on the products to keep the cost down.

That's shocking. If something is cheaper, there's a reason, eh? I've definitely learned from this. At least we went for a quality worktop (but it was still B&Q so possibly not).