Damaged Kitchen - Purchased from and online DIY Kitchens

pencilpot1

Good Evening all

I have recently purchased a kitchen from a online kitchen provider, everything was fine until the kitchen arrived. The delivery drivers started by dropping two of the units. Then when it came to unboxing them there were damages.

There are:

Dismantled items that arrived with large gaps and not packaged well.

Poorly built items with large gaps in panels.

Chunks taken out of kitchen cabinets

Chunks  taken out of wooden doors

Deep scratches on corners of cabinets and doors & drawers

Black marks on many draws and cupboards. 

Scratch marks.

Poor paint on panels where you can see wood.

Chipped paintwork on drawers and cupboards

Items were dropped while being delivered to the door. (I have a video and pictures of this too)

 Door frames where screws have been driven in too far and blown the cabinet.

Broken hinges. 

End posts that have been delivered after the original order and in the post have been dropped and cracked and flattened on the end. I can't even report these items on the portal as it won't let me add pictures 

Cabinets built with screws put in the back because it doesn't fit correctly naturally with gaps at the top still. So the panels are forced together.

This is more than a bad delivery.  It's really really bad workmanship and really poor quality control. This is suppose to be their premium kitchen (top of the range) and it's miles away from that. There are over 40 things to remediate and i haven't even open all boxes. (There was little point continuing to do so)

Initially the customer service team were receptive to my concern until i said this is far to much damage to be acceptable please collect the kitchen in completeness and provide a full refund.

The damage was reported within the 14 day window for any online distance selling and i let them know how i feel about the damage being at an unacceptable level. They agreed the damage was awful as i and to upload pictures to the portal. They are now refusing to refund me. An assessor is coming out from the company.

I told them thats fine they can come and have a look but it doesn't change my view. My confidence in the product and Quality is at an all time low I'm shocked to be honest and this kitchen was the best in the range they do and was not cheap.

I feel like they are trying to ignore my request. I have also taken lots of pictures and videos of the damage. i also have videos of the delivery drivers dropping the units outside too.

Its my understanding if a product is damaged and of poor quality that i dont have to accept a product in this condition. As a consumer, I am entitled to a full refund for goods that are damaged, faulty, or not of satisfactory quality. This is protected by law, most notably the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Whats the next stage for me to progress this? any advice greatly appreciated. 

RipleyG

Oof, how frustrating for you 😕. I can't help with the consumer law aspect I'm afraid, but a plea for you to name the company involved. (We'll be ordering a kitchen ourselves in the next year - and with very limited energy due to a disability I'm hoping for the smoothest process possible!) 

Alfrescodave

Anychance that it was a WREN kitchen ?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

pencilpot1 said:

Its my understanding if a product is damaged and of poor quality that i dont have to accept a product in this condition. As a consumer, I am entitled to a full refund for goods that are damaged, faulty, or not of satisfactory quality. This is protected by law, most notably the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Within 30 days you are entitled to exercise the short term right to reject for a full refund.

After 30 days they get one repair/replace attempt.

You may either reject the goods that do not conform (have issues) or everything assuming it's all under one order. 

If you want the refund send them a clear email stating you are exercising your short term right to reject. Once done you either have to return the goods or if the trader has offered to collect them (by way of term for example), make them available for collection. Trader bears the cost either way. 

sonearandyetsofa

The short answer is it's best to a) make sure you have written records (emails will do fine) confirming you reported the fault and stated you are rejecting the faulty goods within the first 30 days from delivery and b) let them inspect the faulty items. For the 30 day right to reject, the onus is on the customer (you) to prove that the item was faulty when delivered. It's not unreasonable they would want to inspect it - granted from your description it sounds like they should already have all the info they need, but generally speaking it's not unreasonable. After 30 days but within 6 months it's assumed to have been faulty from the start but they're entitled to choose the remedy, and after 6 months the responsibility goes back to the customer again to prove the fault was pre-existing.

born_again

How did you pay for the kitchen units?

pencilpot1

Thank you so much for all your replies. I was on a forum for this company pre ordering and people had nice kitchens to be fair but this has been nothing short of a nightmare. The vendor is very close to the title name DIY company that sell kitchens online

sheramber

Why so coy?

Just name the company. 

pencilpot1

Thank you for your advise i have done what a couple of you have mentioned above and issued the right to reject based on the damage. Honestly i would not wish this scenario on anyone. I think you really find out the quality of a company when issues arise. In my case they are at scale and evidenced and I'm still getting resistance and blame on drivers when its production issues too. I appreciate the comments and assistance.

RipleyG

pencilpot1 said:

The vendor is very close to the title name DIY company that sell kitchens online

Alas, that doesn't narrow it down much. There are DIY-kitchens.com, onlinekitchensuk.co.uk, diykitchens4u.co.uk, onlinekitchenstore.co.uk...

Aylesbury_Duck

There's also B&Q whose URL is DIY.com

That would be my guess.