Wren kitchens. Any good?

LV_426

Anyone used Wren to supply and fit their kitchen?
What was your experience of them?

ashe

Like any brand they can be ok, but they have a lot of issues 

there is a group on Facebook called wren customer complaints - it's full of horror stories so I would start there

the tried and trusted method seems to be to go to howdens and get a design / quote, take that to diykitchens and price match their quote with howdens to save a lot. 

FreeBear

ashe said: the tried and trusted method seems to be to go to howdens and get a design / quote, take that to diykitchens and price match their quote with howdens to save a lot. 

Then take the plans that Howdens supply to a local independent, and see what they can do (in terms of both design and price).

When I was doing my kitchen, Magnet wanted to stick cupboards up everywhere.. The local independent came up with a few suggestions that I hadn't considered, and their price was lower. Ended up with just installing base units (no wall cupboards) which made the space look much bigger. Did the work myself, so saved even more money.

Clive_Woody

Never used them personally....one of the reasons being all of the negative reviews.

No supplier is ever going to make everyone happy, but from what I have read Wren have strong sales teams, who make all sorts of promises but once you've signed a contract and paid your deposit then it is a very diffrerent company to deal with.

We got our kitchen from Howdens and we're really pleased. We used a local fitter who came recommended and that is one key are to look into. I believe that Wren "recommend" fitters, but absolve themselves of any responsibility.

LV_426

FreeBear said:

ashe said: the tried and trusted method seems to be to go to howdens and get a design / quote, take that to diykitchens and price match their quote with howdens to save a lot. 

Then take the plans that Howdens supply to a local independent, and see what they can do (in terms of both design and price).

When I was doing my kitchen, Magnet wanted to stick cupboards up everywhere.. The local independent came up with a few suggestions that I hadn't considered, and their price was lower. Ended up with just installing base units (no wall cupboards) which made the space look much bigger. Did the work myself, so saved even more money.

Wish I could do more myself, but I'm no good at this kind of thing. Would prefer to get professionals in, to do a professional job.

travis-powers

Wren has really bad online reviews, I’ve just quoted to fit one, my first Wren and asked on some carpenters sites should I add a “Wren tax?”
 The general consensus was, quality was better than Howdens and Diy and 9 times out of 10 all is good however customer service is dire and they can be tardy with replacement parts.
 I may update this in September!

daivid

Unless you buy truly awful units then the fitting makes or breaks the kitchen. If you get a Wren kitchen and pay them to fit they subtract to whoever they can get, if the accounts on places like here are to be believed with potentially disastrous results. If not fitting my own kitchen my first step would be to find a recommended fitter, then consider where to source the units and worktops. My only direct experience of Wren was trying to browse the store, within five minutes I'd been accosted 4 times and was on my way out. As to the units I think equally good are available elsewhere at the same price (possibly less) and without the hard sell.

LV_426

daivid said:

Unless you buy truly awful units then the fitting makes or breaks the kitchen. If you get a Wren kitchen and pay them to fit they subtract to whoever they can get, if the accounts on places like here are to be believed with potentially disastrous results. If not fitting my own kitchen my first step would be to find a recommended fitter, then consider where to source the units and worktops. My only direct experience of Wren was trying to browse the store, within five minutes I'd been accosted 4 times and was on my way out. As to the units I think equally good are available elsewhere at the same price (possibly less) and without the hard sell.

That's a good point. I can see that fitting is crucial. I'd like to be in control of who does this.

TELLIT01

FreeBear said:

When I was doing my kitchen, Magnet wanted to stick cupboards up everywhere..

I had a similar experience with Magnet.  Despite telling them that we only wanted wall cabinets in one specific area, they completely covered the walls.  This in what would be a 20' by 10' kitchen.  Needless to say, if they couldn't get the design brief right we weren't going to trust them to do the job.

d0nkeyk0ng

We went to Wren and told them we were after a quote. Briefly told it'd be around £13k for cupboards, appliances and quartz worktop, and that they'd book us in for design appointment. At the actual design appointment, we told them we wanted to get a precise quote before we started, and that they were the first ones we had approached, and that we were still going to look at other places. Designer was happy with this.

Did the layout, quote came to something like £22k. Even taking out appliances and going for laminate worktop, it was around £16k. Chap duly went up to manager and got another 10% discount. High pressure to deposit just £200 that day. We said no. And got a right bollocking for wasting the designer's time, Wren's time and money etc. Needless to say, we never went back.

We went to an small independent who wanted around £7k for units and fitting. We sourced our own appliances for around £4k, and found a quartz supplier who could supply and fit quartz worktops and upstands for about £2k. So about £13k for something that Wren wanted £22k for. We even found a splashback company who could fit a mirrored splashback which was half the price of what Wren were offering.

Honestly, shop around.

SJE89

One of my colleagues has a Wren kitchen and said she is very happy with it. We're in the process of getting a new kitchen and have been to Wren. The guy has designed exactly what we wanted, and has even recommended to us that we get our own fitter to keep cost down. We're using the same fitter my colleague used. 
I've often found when someone says they have bad experiences with these companies, it's usually around the fitting stage that issues crop up.