Wickes Quote - your feedback highly appreciated..!

Gowardo

Hi all,

I'm new to the MSE Forums (however I've been reading them for a while!) so hi everyone :beer:

Myself and my wife have been working to get our home extension done and have recently started works, finally. The next steps is to get a Kitchen sorted and we are closing down to a quote from Wickes.

The quote is this one here:


And this is what the kitchen looks like, in theory:


Take into account I have negotiated the quote down to £12k and it is a bit of a turnkey solution which includes everything:
- Kitchen Units
- Quartz top
- Appliances except fridge (including a £1.5k rangemaster and hood which cost nearly 2k alone, even ex-display)
- Installation
- Tap / Double Belfast sink

Basically absolutely everything except for fridge and handles as we already have a fridge and we want to get the handles separately.

I have gone onto DIY Kitchens and IKEA and the quotes from their online planners come to slightly under £8k just for the units, so this seems like a good deal, but even then, £12k seems like a lot to pay for a kitchen.

Like I said above, I have negotiated quite hard on this and got the sales rep at Wickes to say 'sorry, that's the best we can do' at 12k even after checking with his regional manager.

However, if someone on the MSE forums has some better info that can help us save some cash, I'd be really grateful!

Thanks in advance :j

shortcrust

I’ve no idea but I’d love to know what a ‘specialist worktop handling charge’ is and why it’s worth 380 quid.:eek:

Gowardo

shortcrust wrote: »

I’ve no idea but I’d love to know what a ‘specialist worktop handling charge’ is and why it’s worth 380 quid.:eek:

That's exactly my type of beef.... ! Hopefully someone can shed some light or offer some advice

Furts

You need to tally up all the worktop costs then do research. Included in the figures is a "care and maintenance" pack. Couple that with the handling charge that you have no explanation for and it is clear that you are failing to monitor and negotiate on what is being quoted.

As for the quartz, there is no brand name so who knows what you are being offered? Only you can price this, but beware if you are being offered Chinese dross here. Getting a web quote is easy, so what did that reveal in terms of the overall cost for the worktops?

With the worktops there is an obvious hint - nobody pays extra for templating because that is all part of the overall cost - it has to be because without templating the worktops cannot be manufactured. Only you know why Wickes have separated this out and given a cost to it.

My intuition is you believe you have been clever with Wickes. My further intuition is Wickes have the upper hand - they know what they are doing and are trained in this - and Wickes have taken advantage of your lack of attention to detail!

However, come back and tell me I am wrong, please.

Gowardo

Furts wrote: »

You need to tally up all the worktop costs then do research. Included in the figures is a "care and maintenance" pack. Couple that with the handling charge that you have no explanation for and it is clear that you are failing to monitor and negotiate on what is being quoted.

As for the quartz, there is no brand name so who knows what you are being offered? Only you can price this, but beware if you are being offered Chinese dross here. Getting a web quote is easy, so what did that reveal in terms of the overall cost for the worktops?

With the worktops there is an obvious hint - nobody pays extra for templating because that is all part of the overall cost - it has to be because without templating the worktops cannot be manufactured. Only you know why Wickes have separated this out and given a cost to it.

My intuition is you believe you have been clever with Wickes. My further intuition is Wickes have the upper hand - they know what they are doing and are trained in this - and Wickes have taken advantage of your lack of attention to detail!

However, come back and tell me I am wrong, please.

Hey Furts,

Thanks for the feedback - yeah the more I look at the quote, the more I think maybe just get the units from Wickes and leave the rest. However, while I appreciate your point about the source of the quartz, I haven't really looked at the details of the handling charge, templating etc due to the fact that, if I tally up everything source separately (do take into account I'm in relatively central London so prices tend to be a little higher) I come up with the below...

- Units 7.5k (I got two separate quotes to this note from both DIY kitchens and IKEA, so I'm thinking it's relatively fair considering there's lots of units and a walk in cupboard)
- 2.5K for the worktop installed
- 3.5k at least for all appliances as we are going to have a 110cm range cooker which costs (even ex display) about £2k with an extractor
- at least £1k for install I guess (my current builder is quoting me £2k which I won't pay)

So when I look at it this way, 12k seems reasonable, but to be honest I'm at a bit of a loss.

What do you think? Am I kidding myself thinking 12k a decent deal all in?

Thanks again for your advice.

Doozergirl

£1k is a very low expected price for a fit of a kitchen that large. £2k is fair.

The range cooker is available online for £1519.

The problem with the Wickes quote is that it still isn't transparent. They put prices down and then discount overall to make it hard to compare.

This is a better kitchen than Wickes. It might be interesting to see what they come up with.
https://www.theshakerkitchen.co
I have purchased bespoke but wonder what their pure range would add up to. Their fitting prices are really reasonable and worktop prices too, IMO. Some really beautiful kitchens in their galleries.

Gowardo

Doozergirl wrote: »

£1k is a very low expected price for a fit of a kitchen that large. £2k is fair.

The range cooker is available online for £1519.

The problem with the Wickes quote is that it still isn't transparent. They put prices down and then discount overall to make it hard to compare.

This is a better kitchen than Wickes. It might be interesting to see what they come up with.
https://www.theshakerkitchen.co
I have purchased bespoke but wonder what their pure range would add up to. Their fitting prices are really reasonable and worktop prices too, IMO. Some really beautiful kitchens in their galleries.

Hey - thanks that makes sense about the install.

On the cooker, we also have to take into account the extractor hood which normally comes in at about £500 so I'm epxecting to spend about 2k on both.

I completely agree that the Wickes quote isn't transparent or comparable. One of the things I really dislike about it and actually the shaker kitchen co is literally just down the road from us in Clapham, so we'll go see them!

Thanks