Howdens advice error

Kaipa88

I recently bought a fitted kitchen from Howdens. There was a lot of back and forth between myself and the designer to make sure everything was right. The process of planning has gone on for the best part of 6 months. I purchased the majority of my appliances once I’d got the dimensions confirmed with Howdens. My fitter has started today only to find the extractor fan I bought (and was confirmed by Howdens would fit) is too deep and won’t fit in my unit. I spent best part of £1000.00 on this to match all my other Miele units. I have email screenshots showing I double checked with Howdens prior to purchasing it. What do you suggest I do from here as it well outside of the returns period with Miele and they don’t make an extractor fan that will fit according to my fitter. Should I be asking Howdens to make this right or is it all on me at this stage?

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Ayr_Rage

Reported for personal information in public view.

Doozergirl

Can the unit be adjusted to accommodate the extractor?  eg. By removing the back of it? 

Kaipa88

Doozergirl said:

Can the unit be adjusted to accommodate the extractor?  eg. By removing the back of it? 

The back is just a thin strip of MDF. The extractor fan I’ve bought is designed for narrow wall units over 30cm. Mine are 29cm

Doozergirl

Can you swap them for 390mm depth cabinets or do they round a corner? 

Kaipa88

The width is also out as the internal width on my units is 56cm. It’s misleading because they didn’t factor in the sides so basically said asking as it’s less than 60cm it will fit.. Too late to change all the units as they’re already up now but I feel I need to hold Howdens to account.. Just not sure where to go from here 

WIAWSNB

How experienced is your fitter? What has he said about this? Has he discussed it properly with you, and suggested any possible solutions?
(A standard get-out in this kind of situation in my day as a k'itter would be to run a couple of required-thickess (~1cm) battens along the wall to mount the units on to, and hold them out the required cm. Beadings top and bottom to seal gap - which can't be seen in any case.)
Some of this literally doesn't add up.
I presume that is a 600mm wide wall unit, and I presume the extractor (haven't looked it up yet) is also designed for a 600mm 'space'? So, it either replaces the unit, or it fits inside it. For the latter, 18mm-thick unit sides are pretty standard for decent quality units, so it must surely be designed for this width?
If the inner width is fractionally too narrow, then your fitter could replace these sides, or the whole unit, with a 15mm-panel equivalent.
Anyhoo, I'll have a look at the actual item when I have time.

WIAWSNB

As to what you can make Howdens do about it, if they definitely got it wrong, then I'd like to think they'd replace it. If you have Legal Protection in your home insurance, call them up for advice.
Worst case, I guess, is that you have to sell it off privately, and take a sizeable hit.
Edit: yes, the depth dimension, in particular, is tight! The width element can, I think, be overcome easily. But, bottom line - this can be made to fit. A fitter shouldn't expect plain-sailing. 

Kaipa88

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately my joiner didn’t suggest this as an option but there may be an element of time being a factor at this point as all the wall units are up now. Howdens provided me a Lamona (own brand) extractor fan free of charge which fits. Not ideal because I’m now left with an expensive Miele extractor fan I’ll have to sell at a considerable loss!

WIAWSNB

Could you measure the distance from the bare wall to the front edge of the unit, please - hold the tape under the unit. And how thick are these doors - 18mm?
I presume this unit will have no other function for storage, as there will be a large duct running inside it?

Lamona are ok, I think, but clearly not a patch on Miele. Where higher quality extractors usually win is in features like lower noise levels - very important - and max extraction rate - ditto.

It sounds like an admission they got it wrong?