Howdens and Consumer Rights

davidw1234

I recently bought a kitchen from Howdens to be installed by a small local joinery business. The purchase included four Bosch appliances. All of the payments were made to Howdens. The design service was fine. However, soon after completion, there was a small problem with one of the Bosch appliances. I naturally went back to Howdens expecting them to resolve the issue. However, they told me it was nothing to do with them and I should go to directly to Bosch. I was surprised, but did so. Bosch were quite helpful, but they did make it clear that they were only helping out of goodwill because the issue wasn’t covered by the warranty. I did not think I should have been talking about warranty; I thought this was a matter of ordinary consumer rights relating to a defective product. After some discussion with Howdens, I discovered that I had purchased nothing from Howdens. All of my payments were taken by Howdens on behalf of the joinery business including for the Bosch appliances. In reality, I had purchased my Bosch appliances from a small local joiner which is where I needed to go to exercise my consumer rights. I’m just telling the story because no-one at Howdens explained this to me before purchase and it might have changed my purchasing decision if they had. Everything felt like I was buying the kitchen units and appliances from Howdens and paying the joiner for installation.

Am I the only one who finds this misleading?

eskbanker

The purchase included four Bosch appliances. All of the payments were made to Howdens.

What paperwork supports the purchase of the appliances - if you paid Howdens for these, then surely the invoice/receipt is in your name?

Edit: posters below are better informed about this company and how they work!

Aylesbury_Duck

Is it still the case that Howdens require you to have a trade account to purchase? Are they therefore still treating contracts as B2B instead of B2C?

Alderbank

Am I the only one who finds this misleading?

Yes you might well be, in view of all the information they plaster all round their showrooms and brochures.

A few examples are:

How To Buy

It is important to know how to buy from us as we only sell to the trade, so a builder is essential to purchase our products.

Get a builder on board

We only sell to the trade as they have the know-how to fit our products to a high standard, so you will need a builder to buy from us. Although we don't directly recommend tradespeople, we can help you find one if you need help.

It's the way they have always worked and they don't exactly make a secret of it. In fact as a consumer you can't buy from them because they don't publish any prices. Under commercial secrecy they generate individual price lists for each builder who holds an account with them. Each price list includes both units which Howdens manufacture themselves as wall as prices of appliances, which they often sell under their own brand names. The prices are linked to the amount of business each builder brings to them so the more kitchens and cabinets and stuff a builder puts their way, the better the price he gets.

The builder then gives his own quote to his customer, adding on his own mark-up. The customer has a consumer contract with the builder.

You can pay the builder directly or Howdens will manage the the billing finance for him, but your contract is with the builder.

https://www.howdens.com/help-and-advice/buying-from-us/how-to-buy

Okell

@davidw1234 - as has been said, Howdens claim that they only sell to the trade and that they do not sell direct to consumers. Which means that you have no consumer rights against Howdens

Usually people buy from Howdens via a tradesman, meaning that if there is an issue with anything from Howdens, you take it up with the tradesman and not Howdens.

How is it that you came to buy directly from - and made a payment directly to - Howdens?

The purchase should have been made by your builder. And he should have told you that.

(This doesn't necessarily mean that you have no rights against Howdens if you have been misled in some way into buying direct from them - which you shouldn't be able to do. So long as you didn't buy as part of your trade or profession, this should still be treated as a consumer sale. But we need to know how you bought direct form Howdens when you should not have been able to)

Aylesbury_Duck

It's been remarked upon before that Howden's controls for ensuring customers are trade can sometimes be lax. If that is the case here, I don't think they can wriggle out of their consumer rights obligations. A trade-only retailer can't have it both ways.

Grumpy_chap

Howdens work by only selling to the trade.

They will accept payment on behalf of the Trader to be made by the Trader's end client but all the paperwork from Howdens will be made out to the Trader.

TELLIT01

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867456#Comment_81867456

That's exactly how it worked when I purchased a kitchen. The only difference was that my built in oven was their own brand, so when that did play up I dealt with them directly. They did resolve that problem by replacing the oven.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6653458/howdens-and-consumer-rights

You need to read your paperwork… the standard operation your local joinery business will have bought the goods from Howden rather than you but you just paid Howden their supplier directly. As such you have no contract with Howden and so have no rights with them. It's the joinery business you would pursue to enforce your consumer rights.

As others have said, sometimes Howden will allow a retail customer to open a trade account because they are a little lax on their checks but you would presumably remember going through the steps to open an account with them. Again the paperwork will confirm.