Howdens Kitchens pricing

mug2007

Rosa_Damascena said

I'm after Shaker rather than modern - hate anything gloss. But I dislike missed opportunities, and I consider the cake to be one such.

  .  I have had two shakers,  one plain slab with handles, now it’s time for a true handleless.  Aiming for a German true handleless in our final home. Always Matt, never gloss.
To contribute to the original post, there are a number of howdens quotes posted in the subsection of this category called “Is this quote fair”

timtaroo

Howdens - Utterly Awful Experience
Absolutely everything went wrong!!  Starting with their kitchen designer who was completely useless and ending with their customer service who don't take complaints.  The designer drew up a plan but completely mis-represented my very accurate drawing.  The result - the units did not fit.  They sent a small sink and housing unit when the normal size did fit.  Result I had to start the work all over.  Every wall was the wrong length on the plan so space on other walls was wasted too.  

Worst of all is they of course have small print disclaiming any responsibility for their designer getting it wrong.  Outcome - I ended up with a kitchen design I did not want.  

And to make the situation even worse they don't have a complaints dept, just a customer service dept who are completely spineless and just went along with what the branch manager told them.  So claims I made for compensation were completely ignored.  The message 'well that's just tough' ie the customer is always wrong!!  Will never ever buy anything from Howdens ever again. 

Doozergirl

There's not a kitchen company in this country that will take responsibility for room measurements if they don't do their own survey and measure. 

The responsibility is entirely on you to ensure that the plan fits your room.  The first thing to check when you go over the shopping list and plan would be the overall dimensions of the room against the plan.  The second thing to check would be the same thing again.  Only then do you check to see that the units fit into that plan.  

Even if something is wrong, a good thing about Howdens is that if things don't look like they're going to work on the day, you can take the units back and get new ones.  

It's gone pretty wrong at your end if you've not checked anything between handing them a drawing of the room and physically fitting the units.  

goodwithsaving

I've had Howdens matte handleless, Wren shaker, and Wickes shaker. Howdens was best, but I wouldn't get their appliances because you can get better elsewhere. My kitchen, when I do it, will be shaker handleless from Howdens with local companies for the stone worktops. Unless DIY do that style by then. My friend's kitchen is a DIY one and it felt great. I think the quartz worktop was sourced through them too. I was really impressed with it.
Another friend just had a beautiful bespoke German kitchen imported and fitted which far surpassed anything I had seen/used before.....but it cost a fair bit!

timtaroo

Doozergirl said:

There's not a kitchen company in this country that will take responsibility for room measurements if they don't do their own survey and measure. 

The responsibility is entirely on you to ensure that the plan fits your room.  The first thing to check when you go over the shopping list and plan would be the overall dimensions of the room against the plan.  The second thing to check would be the same thing again.  Only then do you check to see that the units fit into that plan.  

Even if something is wrong, a good thing about Howdens is that if things don't look like they're going to work on the day, you can take the units back and get new ones.  

It's gone pretty wrong at your end if you've not checked anything between handing them a drawing of the room and physically fitting the units.  

Well yes, if I'd had any idea their kitchen designer would be so utterly incompetent I would of course have checked that they had transcribed my dimensions correctly.  But why would I possibly think such utter incompetence was possible???  It should be one of his core skills!!!  He just made up his own dimensions!!!  He should have been fired!!  It is a rental property and I live 200 miles away so much easier to send him my drawing with dimensions than arranging access with tenants etc.  As they say the problem with assumptions is you only find out when things go wrong that you've made them.  Why wouldn't a customer assume their dimensions would used???

The worst thing was Howdens' taking no responsibility for this designer's incompetence and therefore not giving me an compensation for the waste of time involved in fitting it and that I ended up with a kitchen design that was not optimal for the space.  

BUFF

When I was in the trade it was common practice for studios to make slight changes so that their designs couldn't be simply hawked around everywhere for quotes.
Of course, it was incumbent on them to be aware what changes that they had made so that if the order was placed they ordered the correct sizes ...