Howdens quote

darkmattestand

Hi all,

We're in the midst of a renovation, including a roughly 3x3m kitchen refit - which i'd describe as mid-range - wood surfaces, taller cabinets, integrated appliances, no intricate extras. I'm in the process of trying to muddle through what seem to be very murky quotes from both Howdens/Benchmarx. The former is the preference in terms of design, however we will use their quotes as competition to get the best deal possible. 

I present below a quote we've received from Howdens, but given the purposefully unhelpful discounts/online pricing, I'm finding it difficult to get any assurance we're landing on a fair price. I've removed the appliances/sink/taps/hoods as areas we can clearly source from elsewhere for cheaper, largely leaving only the units, which are coming in just shy of £6k including VAT. 
To me this seems excessive but I don't have much experience in the area. Any guidance on how this quote looks is greatly appreciated!

1 FDG5119 Fairford Dv Grey 150 CC Pull-Out Base White Cab 20.00	146.46
1 FDG5146 Fairford Dv Grey 600 Upgrade CC 3 Dwr Base White Cab 20.00	494.86
1 FDG5226 Fairford Dv Grey 500 CC HiLine Recycling Bin Base White Cab 20.00	467.89
1 FDG5242 Fairford Dv Grey 700 CC HiLine Base White Cab 20.00	228.52
2 FDG5369 Fairford Dv Grey 931 CC HiLine Cnr Shelf Service Void Base White Cab 20.00	882.20
2 FDG5408 Fairford Dv Grey 300 CC 900 Tall Wall White Cab 20.00	273.74
1 FDG5414 Fairford Dv Grey 450 CC 900 Tall Wall White Cab 20.00	168.03
1 FDG5428 Fairford Dv Grey 500 CC 900 Tall Wall White Cab 20.00	164.60
2 FDG5438 Fairford Dv Grey 600 CC 900 Tall Wall White Cab 20.00	418.28
1 FDG5478 Fairford Dv Grey 631 CC 900 Tall L Shaped Cnr Wall White Cab 20.00	352.45
1 FDG5600 Fairford Dv Grey 600 Built Under Oven Housing Base White Cab 20.00	74.42
1 FDG5904 Fairford Dv Grey 600 HiLine App Door 20.00	98.64
1 FDG5907 Fairford Dv Grey 450 HiLine Dishwasher Door 20.00	80.27
4 FDG591A Fairford Dv Grey 30mm Cornice/Pelmet Square Profile 2.4m 20.00	63.36
3 FDG5920 Fairford Dv Grey Continuous Plinth 2.75m 19.99	71.67
3 FDG5933 Fairford Dv Grey 910 Base Decor End 19.99	69.63
3 FDG5947 Fairford Dv Grey 932 Tall Wall Decor End 19.99	74.46
2 FDG5955 Fairford Dv Grey 2310 Tall Twr Decor End 20.00	170.12
1 HJA2908 A Carbon Filter for HJA2480, LAM2401, LAM2302, LAM2410 and LAM2411 30.00	14.74
15 HKB1321 Pewter Effect Knob Handle 33mm 65.03	48.15
7 HKB1324 Pewter Effect Cup Handle 94mm 65.00	17.08
1 HKC0055 110 Degree CC Hinge Pack 50.00	9.44
1 KFR6145 Fairford Dv Grey 600 Tall Wall Door 50.00	72.25
2 LED0104 A LED Warm White Circular Plinth Lights (Pack of 10) 30.00	58.34
2 LED3701 A LED Natural White Upgrade IP65 Flexi Light Kit and 15W Driver 1m 30.00	42.42
1 LED3702 A LED Natural White Upgrade IP65 Flexi Light Kit and 50W Driver 2m 30.00	42.02
3 WOH0950 W Solid Oak Block Square Edged Worktop 3m 27mm 40.00	385.71

Total Goods	4,989.75
VAT	997.95
Estimate Total	5,987.70

MX5huggy

What are the discounts on this? Find a fitter that uses Bowden’s and ask them to get the price.

darkmattestand

The formatting from the quote was quite unhelpful to copy/paste out but the last 4 digits of each line is the ‘discount’ ie the first line is 20%, bottom line is 40%

scottiescott

You're lucky you got a detailed quote. Despite asking for same I got a single price. I insisted in asking what they were taking for the appliances and guess what?, they said they were charging the same as Currys. Aye, right! 
Haggle hard and they will move.

darkmattestand

@scottiescott I know! Trying to get this was a battle. Did you manage to knock their first quote down much?

TELLIT01

MX5huggy said:

What are the discounts on this? Find a fitter that uses Bowden’s and ask them to get the price.

I agree with the advice about finding a fitter.  Although I paid Howden's direct the account was with a builder and the breakdown of costs showed discounts in excess of 80% on some of their 'retail' prices.  Our kitchen is roughly the same size as yours and we paid just over £6k all in, including built in double oven, combi microwave, sink, taps etc, etc.  I can't remember the name of the kitchen now but it was toward the top end of the range, but not solid wood doors.

ashe

The usual advice is to get the quote from Howdens etc and then take it to DIYKitchens and see what they can do. You can then use this quote to bounce between the providers you want until they stop agreeing to knock any more off. This may be why they were shy around giving you the price breakdown, as its become so common. 

kboss2010

We have had nothing but mistakes, terrible service and problematic appliances from Howdens in the past 2 years.

Their kitchen designers don’t listen to what you ask for, they measured the kitchen wrong and delivered the wrong items then argued with us about sorting it and their aftercare is shocking. We’ve had our Lamona dishwasher repaired twice as it has a design fault where the filters don’t work properly so bits get stuck in the motor and the attitude of the engineer they keep sending to repair it is appalling. He’s patronising & rude every single time. Last time we got a lecture about putting dishwasher safe plastic into the dishwasher as evidently their terrible appliance isn’t designed for it even though it’s stuff we’ve put in every other dishwasher we’ve had with no issues. This time, a 3 minute phone call consisted of him telling me my name is weird, grumbling about it being a top floor flat and complaining that his on-phone trouble shooting didn’t work so he’d have to take a look at it - well, yes, that is your job!

What’s worse is that nothing stands up to wear and tear. 

Go elsewhere is my opinion.

TELLIT01

We can all only speak from personal experience but mine couldn't be more different to that of kboss2010.  My suggestions were incorporated into the kitchen design and the designer made suggestions I would never have thought of.  We did have problems with the original oven and it was replaced without argument after the engineer checked it out.  The biggest problem was getting the old oven collected.  It was stood outside, under secure cover but took at least 3 calls to get anybody to take it away.

Clive_Woody

Copy and paste the quote into the DIY Kitchens quote request and see what that comes back with. Take that to Howdens and ask them to price match. If they won't then order from DIY Kitchens.

We did this end of last year and they did price match and saved us quite a lot.

scottiescott

darkmattestand said:

@scottiescott I know! Trying to get this was a battle. Did you manage to knock their first quote down much?

Yes, but I did buy a couple of grand worth of other stuff ( doors etc)