[deleted]

Purple-flower

[deleted]
......

TELLIT01

Howden's pricing policy is a black art.  There is a nominal retail price, but as they don't sell to the public that is meaningless.  I did receive a full breakdown showing discounts and they ranged as high as 90%.  It's really down to what your builder can negotiate. 

Without knowing exactly what is included in the quote it's difficult to say whether or not it's too high.  Our kitchen is approximately the same size and cost us about £7.5k including worktops, splashbacks, double oven, microwave, hob, soft close hinges, pull out larder, etc etc.

Quality is first class and most of their kitchens are solid carcase, not flat pack.  Howden's are very quick to sort out problems too.  Ours arrived with some wrong doors, and the correct ones were here the following day.

SameOldRoundabout

Does that quote include fitting? That seems very high for something of Howdens quality. I work for a handmade kitchen company and our cabinet only prices are averaging around £7-8000, for fully bespoke, made to size, handmade door cabinetry. Fitting, appliances and worktop obviously bump the overall cost up but if your quote is cabs only I’d say it’s very costly and I’d look elsewhere for other options before committing. We also never recommend people have builders fit a kitchen regardless of the source, but again plenty of people are okay with the end result. 

wilfred30

My personal experience of buying from Howdens with a trade account, albeit many years ago, was that they produced two invoices, one for the tradesman and one for the tradesman's customer.  The amount of discount on the customer's invoice was less than on the builder's invoice!  Obviously, I don't know whether that practice still goes on.

bris

Howdens do provide 2 invoices, the customers invoice doesn't contain any discounts.
The tradesman invoice contains their level of discount, some get more than others, up to 80% but not on everything. The Howdens discount is a bit of a con really as the prices are very over inflated, a 500mm wide base unit for example can be priced at £200 without the 80% discount so it's all kidology.
Compare with the likes of B&Q, DIY, and visit a local builders merchants who do comparable ranges but without the practices that Howdens use.

As for the OP's quote then yes the quote is high. Personally I would want to see the fitters quote, if he refuses then you know he has something to hide.

Purple-flower

TELLIT01 said:

Howden's pricing policy is a black art. 

Tell me about it....

SameOldRoundabout said:

Does that quote include fitting? That seems very high for something of Howdens quality. I work for a handmade kitchen company and our cabinet only prices are averaging around £7-8000, for fully bespoke, made to size, handmade door cabinetry. Fitting, appliances and worktop obviously bump the overall cost up but if your quote is cabs only I’d say it’s very costly and I’d look elsewhere for other options before committing. We also never recommend people have builders fit a kitchen regardless of the source, but again plenty of people are okay with the end result. 

Quote is for cabinets (although I don’t see any doors so I’m assuming it’s a two in one cost), a tap, sink and several plinths, cornices and endings. No fitting, worktop, appliances so it’s ridiculous!

wilfred30 said:

The amount of discount on the customer's invoice was less than on the builder's invoice!  Obviously, I don't know whether that practice still goes on.

I think it does..

bris said:

As for the OP's quote then yes the quote is high. Personally I would want to see the fitters quote, if he refuses then you know he has something to hide.

I’ve asked him for it, this is just not right!
 

TELLIT01

SameOldRoundabout said:

 We also never recommend people have builders fit a kitchen regardless of the source, but again plenty of people are okay with the end result. 

Who do you recommend if not a builder?  Many kitchen installations require electrical, plumbing, gas, plastering, tiling as well as kitchen unit installation.  Surely somebody with a wider skillset is exactly what you do need.

FreeBear

TELLIT01 said:

SameOldRoundabout said:

 We also never recommend people have builders fit a kitchen regardless of the source, but again plenty of people are okay with the end result. 

Who do you recommend if not a builder?  Many kitchen installations require electrical, plumbing, gas, plastering, tiling as well as kitchen unit installation.  Surely somebody with a wider skillset is exactly what you do need.

A local independent kitchen installer will have contacts for the assorted trades and will oversee everything. A local company quoted me for a small kitchen, and their "all in" price undercut Magnet/Howdens by an appreciable amount. Due to budget constraints, I ended up doing it myself.

TELLIT01

Surely the same is true of a competent builder.  We had ours installed by a builder who managed all the other trades.  I installed my previous kitchen myself and the basic installation job isn't exactly rocket science.

wilfred30

bris said:

Howdens do provide 2 invoices, the customers invoice doesn't contain any discounts.
The tradesman invoice contains their level of discount, some get more than others, up to 80% but not on everything. 

You're absolutely right, I remember that now - thanks for the correction 

SameOldRoundabout

TELLIT01 said:

Surely the same is true of a competent builder.  We had ours installed by a builder who managed all the other trades.  I installed my previous kitchen myself and the basic installation job isn't exactly rocket science.

Not strictly true. Once, and only ever once, we allowed a customer to buy from us and have their builder install into the extension. He made an absolute hash of it. Started one end and worked round, by the time he got to the opposite end they were so out of level the end panels didn’t touch the floor. Also, we come across bodge jobs by builders daily, they don’t take any care and the difference in fit quality is glaring if you know what a good fit is supposed to be. Ditto kitchen quality. So we’d always recommend a kitchen fitter fit kitchens! We do our own fits using our cabinet makers and coordinate with plumbers and sparks etc as one team.