What's a reasonable cost for this Howdens kitchen?

ka7e

If you use the online planner on diy, it automatically adds trim, plinths and end sections There is a toggle to show VAT-inclusive prices. .https://planner.diy-kitchens.com/

tallac

ka7e said:

If you use the online planner on diy, it automatically adds trim, plinths and end sections There is a toggle to show VAT-inclusive prices. .https://planner.diy-kitchens.com/

I've included VAT already in that so that's accounted for. I did have a look at the planner tool you linked a while back but apparently it is only in Beta testing so it is not open to anyone new registering (I have sadly missed out). Shame, as it would have been more useful.

£2.7k is quite a big difference in cost, as much as I would love to go with Howdens, hard to justify with such a big price difference.

tallac

Just spoken to Howdens and they wouldn't budge at all. Even if I assume that I've got an extra £1k of costs with DIY Kitchen for the things I've not included, that's still looking at over £1.5k cheaper. That's extremely hard to ignore. I've just tried to ring DIY to ask them if they can assist with me getting all the right bits for the design I want, they've told me they can but their response time for logging a support ticket is 48 hours which I feel is a bad sign for how things will be in future when I need immediately resolution of an issue.I think the savings are big but the hassle I'm going to incur will be a lot. If I need to do an immediate trip to their showroom then that's going to be 4 hours drive there and another 4 hours back (effectively it'll be a day off work and a whole day of driving). £1.5k is a large cost to swallow with Howdens but I can't ignore the hassle of addressing some issues with DIY.

Can advice from people for or against to help me out in my dilemma?

Doozergirl

tallac said:

Just spoken to Howdens and they wouldn't budge at all. Even if I assume that I've got an extra £1k of costs with DIY Kitchen for the things I've not included, that's still looking at over £1.5k cheaper. That's extremely hard to ignore. I've just tried to ring DIY to ask them if they can assist with me getting all the right bits for the design I want, they've told me they can but their response time for logging a support ticket is 48 hours which I feel is a bad sign for how things will be in future when I need immediately resolution of an issue.I think the savings are big but the hassle I'm going to incur will be a lot. If I need to do an immediate trip to their showroom then that's going to be 4 hours drive there and another 4 hours back (effectively it'll be a day off work and a whole day of driving). £1.5k is a large cost to swallow with Howdens but I can't ignore the hassle of addressing some issues with DIY.

Can advice from people for or against to help me out in my dilemma?

What kitchen have you gone for? 

I have to say that initial trip to Howdens with a DIy kitchens quote was exactly because of the 48 hour reply thing.  I've bought a lot of kitchens and just wanted to clarify a few things.  Every time to you send a message back you go to the bottom of the pile!!  After 10 days of what should have been a 10 minute conversation, max, I gave up.  

What about Benchmarx?  Similar proposition to Howdens, but usually cheaper.  

ka7e

I ordered my diy kitchen a year ago and it was mostly plain sailing. I can still access the planner with my design -maybe if you search for it and don't use my link you will be able to use it (mine was done on the beta system too). The planner highlighted areas of concern - door clashes etc. When I finally submitted an order, the company raised some issues and pointed out things like max depth of sink to fit into a base unit. Tickets were used maybe 8 times but response was within 24 hours. One unit drawer front was missing, but it actually arrived by courier before we realised it was AWOL. My fitter also managed to break a fitting on 22nd Dec and it was replaced the first week of Jan - I imagined it would take much longer. Delivery was expensive for me as I had the Gold 2-man service plus they had to use a van rather than a big lorry because of access issues.

There have been some horror stories about diy on the net, but probably no more than about other companies. It does however require a bit of a leap of faith. I am very pleased with my kitchen, designed by me, for me and saved about £3k on a totally bespoke product. But I might not have gone down this route if there had been an off-the-shelf kitchen that suited my requirements.

Working_Mum

I have just placed an order with DIY - I got all of my queries answered within a couple of hours. I had made a mistake (wrong coloured plinths), they spotted it and contacted me to suggest the correct colour.
So far I have been really pleased with their offering. My kitchen is due to be delivered w/c 23rd November so I will update once I am on the other side!!

TELLIT01

I haven't had any dealings with DIY Kitchens and their response to problems, but when our kitchen from Howdens had a few problems with missing or damaged items the replacements were provided in 24 hours.

bpj

tallac said:

Just spoken to Howdens and they wouldn't budge at all. Even if I assume that I've got an extra £1k of costs with DIY Kitchen for the things I've not included, that's still looking at over £1.5k cheaper. That's extremely hard to ignore. 

This suggests you haven't managed to get a comparable quote before talking to Howden's - which IMO will have sent them a clear signal that at the moment you have nowhere else to go. I suspect they would have been more likely to budge if you showed them a proper comparison - assuming of course that the price difference remains large once you account for all the extras.