Howdens - how to get the best quotes?

haguiera

Good evening.

I recently had a kitchen designed, delivered and paid for it without a trade account or consulting any kind of builder at all. A builder friend found this very strange.

When it was delivered, over half of it was missing or damaged, but before calling at the store, my partner rang head office and they were adamant, that without a trade account we should not have been able to purchase it. They checked my details and could find no trace of an account in my name, my payment or anything related to my address. The delivery firm actually had an address a 100yds or so down the road. Yet our address is on all our invoices???

Anyway, we queried how this was possible and were immediately offered a full refund!

Just 4wks before Christmas and currently without a kitchen, my partner said this was unacceptable and we would like the missing items AND it fitted as we had now lost our very busy builder!! The store manager that sold it to us is coming here tomorrow to discuss it.

But I’ve been thinking, and as I don’t have a trade account and Howdens have no record of my transaction, then who did I pay (in store) my £4.5k to???

I suspect, that the very nice designer that sold it to “us” at her first offer price has actually sold it to “Bob the Builder” through his trade account, for maybe £1000+ cheaper and I have then bought it from Bob.

Far fetched? I don’t think so.

Clever? Yes.

Devious? Definitely!!

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

dunroving

haguiera wrote: »

Good evening.

I recently had a kitchen designed, delivered and paid for it without a trade account or consulting any kind of builder at all. A builder friend found this very strange.

When it was delivered, over half of it was missing or damaged, but before calling at the store, my partner rang head office and they were adamant, that without a trade account we should not have been able to purchase it. They checked my details and could find no trace of an account in my name, my payment or anything related to my address. The delivery firm actually had an address a 100yds or so down the road. Yet our address is on all our invoices???

Anyway, we queried how this was possible and were immediately offered a full refund!

Just 4wks before Christmas and currently without a kitchen, my partner said this was unacceptable and we would like the missing items AND it fitted as we had now lost our very busy builder!! The store manager that sold it to us is coming here tomorrow to discuss it.

But I’ve been thinking, and as I don’t have a trade account and Howdens have no record of my transaction, then who did I pay (in store) my £4.5k to???

I suspect, that the very nice designer that sold it to “us” at her first offer price has actually sold it to “Bob the Builder” through his trade account, for maybe £1000+ cheaper and I have then bought it from Bob.

Far fetched? I don’t think so.

Clever? Yes.

Devious? Definitely!!

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I'm currently in the process of having a Howden's kitchen fitted, and so have recent experience of how their system does/does not work in my own case. This may or may not be helpful to you.

First off, yes, they are a "Trade only" business, or this is the message they consistently regurgitate. This means that they will only sell to trades people, who consequently have a trade account with them. The Devil is in the detail, though, and mixed messages happen all along the chain.

HYPOTHETICALLY, the way they work is that the customer works with the trades person, and the trades person deals with Howdens. This process can begin in one of at least two ways:

1) Customer approaches Howdens, who then connect the customer with one of the trades people who have accounts at their branch.

2) Customer hires a kitchen fitter (builder, whatever), who either already has an account with Howdens, or opens a trade account with Howdens in order to supply a Howdens kitchen which they then fit.

The trades person gets a discount from Howdens, which as far as I can tell, depends somewhat on how much business the trades person brings to Howdens. The trades person passes on some, or all, of this discount.

Ambiguity occurs when Howdens communicates with the customer. For example, the customer may visit Howdens to plan the kitchen. The customer may also be directly involved in negotiating pricess, bringing comparison prices, etc. This is when things get murky - it seems that different branches will enter into these discussions to a leser or greater extent.

Happy to share other details of my own experience, but in your case, I'd ask who were you dealing with when you made the payment? Were you speaking directly with a Howdens rep? If so, call and talk to that person and ask him/her whose account your kitchen is lodged.

I gave my credit card details to a Howdens' rep, and the amount was used to pay off the kitchen on my kitchen fitter's account. Some kitchen fitters carry the cost of the kitchen on their account until the job is completed, and then they include it in the total cost of fitting the kitchen. My situation was a bit different for reasons that would only muddy the waters in this thread.

Sometimes it's better to ask the relevant person directly, rather than ask the question on a forum - though doing both is probably double helpful.