Wickes Kitchens any good?

cdjoa

Hi all, you may be surprised by this but i actually work for MFI, designing kitchens (no sympathy please!) and i was just having a look to see what people's experiences and thoughts were towards the competitors, and, of course ourselves. I'm not on here to rave about MFI, just thought i'd offer any advice, or answer any questions you may have. A couple of 'our' fitters also work for Homebase, Wickes and Magnet, therefore i have a welfare of knowledge on the products and series of these companies.

To start you off;

1. Interest free periods arise throughout the year. What you will find is that many companies increase the cost of the units during this period, as to protect the company's profit margin. It will also commonly have a relatively high spend level, i.e. £5,000.

2. The companies are only allowed to use the word 'sale' for a certain amount of weeks in a year, however during these 'non-sale' periods, MFI, for example, will do what is called 'working towards the margin'. Which can commonly result in the product becoming cheaper than during a 'sale' period (although advertised at nearly double the cost). The reason they do this is because a) The footfall is less, but the store still has to meet targets, and b) The managers get paid for the percentage above target they are at the period end. As the targets are low, their bonus can be big.

So there's my introduction! Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Have a nice day.

hollydays

hollydays wrote: »

On the subject of MFI-when we went in the young planner could hardly disguise his glee when we gave him the Wickes plan,then we went to look at the kitchens with him,went back to his desk where we had left our paperwork-and another customer was now sitting there.Said planner more or less kicked us out and told us he would ring us(without even taking time to talk to us).By the time he rang us back it was about a week later-he seemed surprised we didnt want to take up his offer!!

ok- welcome-what do you think of this idiot!!

Didn't bother to have an in depth chat about what we wanted,could only think of his commission,didn't realise the importance of making the customer feel valued,didn't realise that by ringing back 3 days later than he said he would,might be a signal to us of the bad service to come. I am guessing he had been "overtrained " in the "we can beat anyone on price" school of kitchen planning,and undertrained in the "customer service" side

zebidee1

Welcome cdjoa. I fear you have put yourself in the firing line somewhat. Most people here dont have many positive thoughts towards MFI, lol.

The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter what offers etc MFI run compared to their competitors, or how good or otherwise their kitchens are............simply because the level of customer service usually sucks.

I was about to shell out thousands on a Shreiber kitchen until I spoke to a sales assistant who informed me about MFI's policies. That was enough for me to walk out the door and straight to Wickes, where they have bent over backwards to help me with no pressure at any point.

It's nice you are trying to offer help, but you are only one person and that wont make any difference the reputation MFI (deservedly imo) has. This forum is only a drop in the ocean, there are many MFI reviews all over the net with posts by disgruntled customers. No matter how nice or helpful you are, it wont change that, lol.

cdjoa

Haha!

At the moment I would be the very LAST person to alter people's perceptions on MFI, that's definately not why i'm writing here! I am in full and total agreement that the service provided by MFI is totally shocking at present. There are a select few staff at our branch that actually HIDE from customers, you can't get through to speak to either the store or customer services to make a complaint (i actually have to give my mobile number to every customer, as when somebody leaves an answerphone message on the store's service, more often than not it will get deleted before even being listened to!).

To be honest my main aim is to find out how good services at the competitors are, as i am looking to move jobs. I'm getting to the point where i'm embarrassed to be associated with MFI. Day after day i'm having to sort other colleague's problems out, as they believe they shouldn't have to wait until that particular sales person is working. They fail to realise we're on £3.96 an hour if we don't sell anything, therefore day to day time management is crucial!

Wickes is of most interest top me as i've read many good reviews so far of their service and product. MFI has pumped massive amounts of money into making their product the best on the market, however they should be throwing money into the delivery service, customer service, and young and vibrant management!

Anyway, gotta get to work! Hehe!

Jon.

hollydays

£3.96..what age staff get paid that? Under eighteens?

cdjoa

Yes, because it's a commission-based job, they can literally pay the staff what they like! Hammonds (bedrooms) for example don't even pay a basic wage - the wages are purely commission. Kitchens direct are the same. Which is why I can't get my head around colleagues arriving at work and not being arsed to approach customers!

cdjoa

(sorry, i forgot to add that that's the basic wage full-stop, regardless of age.)

hollydays

Thought it was illegal not to pay the basic wage?

cdjoa

Well what they actually state is that if you don't earn enough commission to get your average hourly rate over the minimum wage, they have to pay the remainder. But anyone doing that poorly at work wouldn't have a job for too long anyway!

sassybooboos

screwfix now do kitchens.

i got wickes to come out and do my plan then i ordered kitchen from above and got a local fitter to fit it.

cost me £6400 including fitting, tiling, electrics and plumbing.

just sold house and everyone said what a good quality kitchen it was.