Wickes Kitchens any good?

JulianW_3

I've only been dealing with Wickes so far and I can't say that I'm too impressed. The first store couldn't see us on the day we visited so we left a message for their kitchen designer to contact us to arrange an appointment, 3 (yes three!) days later the call arrived so we made an evening appointment. At lunch time on the day of the appointment they called to cancel the appointment and didn't even offer to book another appointment for us. We then phoned another local Wickes store, booked an appointment and went to discuss what we wanted. The rep there took dimensions off us and which kitchen we liked the look of along with certain requirements that we have for the kitchen like the placement of the hobs, washing machine and dryer as they all require some external venting so would make it easier for my fitting if they were on the external walls (That visit took 2 hours!) The next visit was supposed to be to see what had been drawn up and see what ideas their designer had come up with, we spent nearly 3 hours with them straightening up the design to get the appliances where we'd asked for them (on the outside walls!) and there are still some bits in what they've designed that I can't stand. We're going back again tomorrow night to see if they've managed to finish off the design and maybe even give us a price, hopefully it won't be another 2 hours lost. I'm going to be checking out Howdens next if nothing else to see what their design service is like as a comparison to the amount of time I feel I've wasted in Wickes.

Doozergirl

Howden's arrived at our house with a piece of graph paper this morning so I wouldn't rely too heavily on them either!

Is fine for us because we know what we want now, but I'd have been a bit disappointed if that was a design consultation!

atforrest

Thanks everyone for all the tips and thoughts. particuclary cdjoa for the industry insights. we are very close to ordering a Wickes kitchen and on our next visit i intend haggling my @rse off, so wish me luck

cdjoa - although not from MFI, do you have any tips (apart from not saying "is that your best price?") for beating down the price? i have noted your advice about faking a comparison quote, but i just wondered whether there were any buzzwords or phrases that sales staff listen for? one that indicate i (the customer) know what i'm talking about and really deserve a discount. in my favour, the kitchen we are ordering is quite large (lots of units); what would be the best approach? i'm pretty sure the cut off point for freebies would be less than half the value of our kitchen (e.g. free dishwasher if you spend over £4k) so could we feasibly ask for two appliances if we're spending more than £8k? i notice one person on this thread managed to convince the salesman to put it through as two separate orders to get more freebies, is this common, should i take this approach.

Any advise welcome.

Thanks

Bob78

Anyone know of a place to get hold of returned kitchen units from Wickes, B&Q, ...?

E.g. Boxes that have been openned and then return but can't be sold at fully price or an ordered kitchen that had to be return for some reason.

Meepster

Nowhere - they just repackage them and resell them...

Butterfly_Brain

I have a wickes kitchen that I bought 2 years ago and am very dissapointed with it - the laminate on the doors has blown and the drawers are not a good fit - so I am saving hard to get one from Ikea

sach_1999

We just spent 10k on a new kitchen from Wickes including granite worktop, fridge freezer, washing machine, dishwaser and extractor.

We used a independent fitter to install and the completed work is amazing.

We did find a few bits and pieces missing, and called Wickes customer services, and they are probably the best customer services I have ever had to deal with.

Everything we needed was ordered and delivered without any arguments and they answered the phone call right away.

A++ for customer services.

sach_1999

By the way, I also checked out B&Q kitchens and the build quality is nothing compared to Wickes kitchens.

Moben...far too expensive, think the sales people make a lot out of all the add ons they make you buy.

Kitchen_Designer_2

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I have a wickes kitchen that I bought 2 years ago and am very dissapointed with it - the laminate on the doors has blown and the drawers are not a good fit - so I am saving hard to get one from Ikea

If you have got the 'showroom' wickes kitchen which are better quality then the takeaway range then you have a 5 year guarentee on the doors. Why not go back to your store and they will arrange replacements?

Ikea kitchens have harboard backs and no surface gap at the back of units for pipework so are actually of poorer quality compared to the wickes showroom range.

krona

know you had your kitchen few years ago now, but just about to order same, are you happy with quality, did you need those end panels they said you needed next to the dishwasher etc