Wickes Kitchen Disaster

JPW1987

Hi Guys,

Looking for advise on how to proceed, given a hellish situation I'm dealing with Wickes.


In September 2021 I agreed to buy and have a kitchen by Wickes - Staines Branch.

After waiting 6 months I finally had a Wickes approved fitter come in. He was shocking, turning a 10 day job into over a month (not turning up for days on end and leaving early when I wasn't there) before I called out his shocking workmanship and he just left, never to return.

A few months later I had the kitchen flood. This was due to a cracked plastic pipe fitting on the piping that was under the island in the kitchen and could have only been caused by the fitter as I've never had access to it. I had an emergency plumber come out on a bank holiday and it was a few hours work to get it sorted, so I paid £775 - I appreciate this is a lot of money, but I didn't really have a choice, as I was in an inch of water when I called them and needed it sorted.

I spoke to Wickes and emailed their customer service team, who asked for an invoice and report from the plumber before they could repay me for this. I sent pictures of the pipe, the invoice and notes from the plumber multiple times and they've just ignored them.

Fast forward to present day and I've had another builder eventually come in and complete the kitchen. He was brilliant, called out lots of issues with the kitchen I couldn't even see and has fitted the kitchen, though I haven't yet signed it off with Wickes.

During this time, because they took so long, my credit agreement expired and they've changed providers. Today I got a message from Barclays Finance to say that I am going to be charged (even though I called and explained the situation) and it will start from 29th Dec.

During my repeated correspondence with the Wickes customer service team, I've made them aware that given the horrendous experience I do not expect to pay full price for the fitting, which has been ignored.

Keen to get feedback on anyone else's experience with getting a fair price agreed and this resolved. Also how should I escalate this to get my £775 back for the flooding? Is it worth going to an ombudsman?

Thanks 

Kancho

A client of mine has to take the company to court as they did a horrible job and put a family in danger. There were so many problems and all were noted including a leaking gas pipe into the property. Laminated flooring fitted over tiles and leaking water everywhere in that bathroom. The company was there for 3 months and they dint work more than a week during all this time. We took over and the client took them to court. After a few days in Court turns out that this was their quality and if she wasn't happy could have hired someone else. Turns out that she(the client) is responsible to ensure the person or people working at the property are qualified and the work is carried out properly the last was that she didn't give them a chance to finish their work. The client spends 20k to get that company to court and nearly lost the case which clearly was a huge problem. Hope this helps you out.

Forwandert

Kancho said:

Turns out that she(the client) is responsible to ensure the person or people working at the property are qualified and the work is carried out properly the last was that she didn't give them a chance to finish their work. The client spends 20k to get that company to court and nearly lost the case which clearly was a huge problem. Hope this helps you out.

That's a really vague court outcome, so they did win in the end? 

photome

why didnt you go through your house insurance for the flood

pinkshoes

photome said:

why didnt you go through your house insurance for the flood

Presumably because they had no idea at the time that it was going to cost so much, hence called a plumber to sort it. 

It might be now worth seeing if home insurance will cover this and get Wickes to pay the policy excess, but ultimately the flood was caused by the kitchen fitter supplied by Wickes.

@JPW1987 you will need to send Wickes a LETTER BEFORE ACTION detailing what has happened (keep it factual), what solution you want (e.g. a reduction of £XXXX to cover the cost of having to get someone else to fit the kitchen and cost of repairing the flood caused by their fitter) and then when you want the solution by. Give them 14 days to respond before taking them to small claims court.

How much did you pay them for the fitting of the kitchen, and how much did your own fitter cost? It would be fair to deduct the cost of your own fitter plus any other expenses.