Advice on buying an MFI kitchen, please

majjie

Whits wrote: »

As usual, there is loads of !!!!!ing about MFI :rolleyes:

Just to clarify, Howdens was a part of MFI but has never supplied to them. MFI was sold off as it was 'losing money'.

The parent company of both MFI and Howdens used to be the MFI Group. In October 2006, MFI Group changed it's name to Galiform plc, sold off the MFI retail chain and kept Howdens. The business press stated that Galiform plc would continue to supply the new MFI until summer 2008. I suspect this is still the case, whatever one employee of MFI thinks.

Like many people I always used to assume that Howdens was the sort of poor relation - the trade arm of MFI. However, in the first year since the sale, Howdens supplied 15% of all kitchens sold in the UK, MFI supplied 7% and all other DIY multiples sold 17%. Howdens is huge!

Saying that Howdens sold off MFI, and that they still supply some of their kitchens, is not the whole story but in my opinion it fits the facts quite well and is easier than explaining all of the above every time someone says that Howdens and MFI are the same.

Whits wrote: »

However, Howdens was set up using MFI money so it was obvious that it couldn't make a loss.

I don't understand this statement - any business can make a loss wherever their money came from - and it's now obvious that Howdens was the larger part of the business that used to be the MFI Group.

As I've already said, I sympathise with MFI for trying to avoid giving out free plans which are touted round their competitors. But I think they're going about it the wrong way. The new policy must make it very difficult for your girlfriend Whits.

I can, in a way, also sympathise with MFI's distribution problems but everyone in business knows that disgruntled customers make ten times as much noise as happy customers. If I was them I'd have a really efficient system for sorting out problems once they had occurred. Even if only, say 2%, of their customers are unhappy, that's still an awful lot of customers when you're a company that size.

Actually ... apologies ... Galiform stopped supplying MFI on the 21st December 2007. They negotiated an early end to the initial agreement (which was to stop supplying in March but to fulfil orders up until June 2008). So, now I guess the competition between Howdens and MFI really starts!

gsf600y

I went into MFI in Milton Keynes (Bletchley), and gave them my measurements, and the lady designed the kitchen on the computer, then printed out the plan, 3D views, and full price list and gave it to us. Didn't have to sign up to anything.

Dick_here

Whits wrote: »

As usual, there is loads of !!!!!ing about MFI :rolleyes:
I know I am biased as my girlfriend is a kitchen designer for MFI, but it annoys when people say they are crap. My GF has sold over £200,000 of kitchns since january and she tries her hardest to give the customer what they want.

I have no issues with them at the design stage. In fact they were much better than B&Q (useless designer) and Homebase (refused to visit!).

My grievence with them relates to the missing items when delivery occurred, with no warning or apology provided, and the subsequent stress of trying to source those items prior to fitting. Their 'customer service' at this stage was appalling.

StuHolmes

Whits wrote: »

I know I am biased as my girlfriend is a kitchen designer for MFI, but it annoys when people say they are crap.

Not as annoying as when they treat you like crap. They have nothing but contempt for the customer and their customer charter is only any good for wiping your !!!! with.

I'm sure your g/f takes great pride in her kitchen designs and provides the best service for her clients, shame the company she works for are incapable of delivering, time and time again.

Squiffy

zebidee1 wrote: »

Not just my store. Other forums have people saying the same thing too.

So how come that didn't happen when we went to MFI?

As I say, I don't believe it is policy, just over-zealous designers (who work on commission) wanting to focus their time on customers likely to follow through and order.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, and I'm certainly not saying it is right. I'm just saying that I don't believe that this is a policy laid down to stores from their head office. The MFI website is quite clear about home measurements being free - absolutely nothing about there being any sort of commitment.

Bean_Counter

For anyone who is interested, we have made a decision about where to source the kitchen from.

MFI had been firmly knocked on the head, partly due to the comments on here and partly due to the abrupt nature of the sales team when my wife went in for another look round.

Didn't see anything we like in Ikea.

In the end we had a small independent company in on Friday night. The rep did an excellent job of actually listening to what we wanted, providing some great design ideas and also steering us away from some of our less inspired ideas (which became more obvious once he had done the 3D design on his laptop.)

So we went with him to see the kitchen we liked in the flesh in his showroom on Sunday afternoon, really really liked it better and placed an order there and then. By far the best kitchen and best service we had seen.

Went a bit over budget, but I think it will be worth it for what will be a stunning kitchen.

Thanks again for everyone taking the time to post comments.

valk_scot

welshblob wrote: »

I completely agree and there are certain ranges of kitchens in Ikea that you have to wonder why nobody has mentioned that you can see the white carcasses. I'm not sure whether the doors are too small and exacerbate the problem as I think B&Q kitchens have white carcasses but I don't think I've noticed a problem with their range. I mean how much effort would it have for them to put some colour matching edging on it even if it's sold as an extra? This jars with what usually is very good quality and design by Ikea.
Also, as with other things in Ikea, they are designed for whats the norm in Sweden and not the UK. By this I mean all the base units go as deep as possible whereas the UK standard is to leave a 2" gap to allow for your services to run behind. This is good for using all the space available but could mean extra hassle for your fitter who may have to rerun certain services at skirting board height or within the units themselves.
Cheers
Rob

Having just finished getting an Ikea kitchen fitted, I'd just like to second some of these remarks.

I personally can't see the white carcasses the way my kitchen is designed, but it might matter for a larger dining-kitchen. The IKEA planner did add in an extra decor panel section for adding to the outside of the units where my appliances slotted in however, just to cover the white.

My kitchen was fitted by an extremely experienced joiner, who liked the unit build. But he loathed the lack of service gap! I was moving the utilities anyway so we adjusted them to fit the Ikea units, but don't expect an Ikea kitchen to slot onto your existing utilities if you've had a UK build kitchen before. This could add a lot of extra expense. My joiner also found there were a couple of problems with fitting my built-under gas cooker due to the height of the units. Plus other small things, but he estimates they added up to four or five hours of extra work for him and consequently more expense for us.

One thing no-one has mentioned is Ikea worktops. The off the peg ones only come in lengths of up to 2.4m approx, so if you need longer runs either be prepared for joins or get them elsewhere. My joiner got me 3.1m ones from Howdens, which only meant one join in the whole kitchen.

Incidentally when it comes to design, Ikea have a very basic interactive design planner on their website, and a far more detailed one availible free of charge using their design team instore. Plus they'll take off the peg items back ithin a 90 day period if in original undamaged packaging, which is useful if like me you change your mind three times over the course of a refit! I did 90% of my own planning, with some technical input from my joiner and some tweaks and tips from the Ikea designer. It's not hard to use a tape measure (check everything three times though!!) and then spend a bit of time at the showrooms and on line. I wish now though I'd got it all from Howdens, rather than prat around tweaking the Ikea units.

(And for appliances, I bought the whole lot online, using tips, voucher codes and a lot of advice from MSE, and saved myself about £400.)

majjie

Glad to hear you got it sorted Bean Counter. I'm a big fan of small independent kitchen companies - I think you're likely to get a much better service that way.

paulsequenza

I have personally worked in MFI Canterbury for 14 years, some of what folk are saying is true, Howdens/Galiform (the same company now) actually caused unfortunately, all of the delivery issues experienced by MFI early this year, they stopped supplying to mfi because they fell out with MEP (our new owners). This was because MEP kept hassling them as to why they were delivering late and damaged goods, and why Howdens got priority over stock.
The supply chain was cut before we had finished delivering existing customers deliveries, resulting in a watchdog appearance.

Now we have our own warehouse, do not manufacture anything, get rigid units from Britain, flatpacks from abroad, and lots (maybe not all) doors from Italy, where all the best quality doors come from.

I personally went to delivery check 3 of my customers deliveries to satisfy my own negative attitude, that they were actually going out OTIF (On Time In Full), well bless me 2 were perfect, 1 had a wrong size handle. I was stunned at that standard.

The warehouse has been, for the last few weeks delivering at a very very industry high level of OTIF, one of the best in the country and to be honest higher than any of our competitors. There will be the odd error, obvious when you deliver to over 30,000 customers a week. Many of my customers come back again and again.

We do not give out floorplans, or full stock listings for reasons listed on other posts, and as we get commission. We only refuse to do a plan (2 hours of our time) if we feel you are not ready, i.e. You haven't chosen what you want (can't plan just boxes), or if your budget doesn't reflect your choices, i.e- you like granite worktops, installers and a solid oak rigid kitchen but your budget is only £4k, what's the point in planning something you can't afford to buy, what a waste of time.

We have a 0800 service number now, store managers are targetted on customer service issues, everything is looking rosy. Come to me and you'll never get better service, and I can sometimes get a small reduction on the book prices too, however small it is still a saving. I too have sold over £300k of kitchens this year and not one person has said they wouldn't come back.

Watch out for our stupendously top of the range bespoke German kitchens being installed on display in some of our stores. You want blue doors with pink spots? You can have it sir. Well almost if you get what I mean.

BenjysMum

I'm still in the middle of my MFI kitchen fit - I bought a high gloss, space cream kitchen from the Colindale store in March. They delivered on time, told me they would get me their best fitter after I told them of my bad experience with B&Q and my bathroom fit. The fitter arrived a day later than stated on their letter, then complained constantly that the kitchen was too small (both he and the Sales manager had been around to measure first before taking on the work!). I paid around £6.5K for my kitchen including some appliances, but had to pay another £850 to the fitter for extras like installation of the appliances. Some bits were not delivered, some things, like the cooker splashback was taken off the list accidentally so I had to go and buy it myself. The fitter walked out halfway through the fit because he said I didn't trust him to be in my flat alone with his various fitter colleagues. Then they didn't order the cornicing so now I have to wait another three weeks for them to order it in and come and fit it. I am disgusted and would not ever buy anything from MFI again. I have waited in for several weekends now thinking they would come and finish the job but they don't even ring. The showroom staff never answer the phone, customer services is rubbish and the manager told me he cared more about his fitters than about the customer's satisfaction. I am going to write to Head Office and ask for part of my money back. While I was waiting around for someone in the showroom to help me this morning I told one other couple looking at kitchens to try elsewhere, or at least see the website for comments on MFI. Utterly disgusted with MFI.