New Kitchen - My Experience!!!

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New Kitchen Review

After suffering a kitchen which I disliked for 17 years but was reluctant to rip it out because it was practically brand new, I decided to take the plunge. I spent around a month researching kitchens, hence the reason I thought I would share this information on Martin’s money tips which I hope will help others to save their time and money.

My brother in law has a joinery business and uses Howdens for all his kitchens, he says the 18mm carcass of the kitchens are sturdy. So I toddled along to one of their showrooms and tested out one of the drawers and to my disappointment it wobbled. Also they only supply certain sizes of units and I wanted my kitchen to go right up to the ceiling. I also wanted a 70/30 fridge freezer and they only had a 60/40 cabinet available and I wasn’t willing to compromise as I was always struggling to find space in my fridge so Howdens was out.

With various companies advertising 50% off all kitchens I thought this would help keep the costs down…how wrong I was!! I had Mobens and Space kitchen reps round to the house to give me ideas and prices. The rep from Mobens spent 5 hours measuring and pricing up my kitchen and boy were they expensive even with what was to be an excellent discount, they were still way higher than I expected. A colleague recommended IKEA but we couldn’t find anything we liked. I looked in MFI and some of their kitchens were quite reasonable but after reading the forums I was put off by many negative comments on their after sales customer support. If I had any problems with the kitchen I wanted it to be resolved quickly with as little hassle and stress as possible.

I just happened to mention to a close family friend that I was looking at kitchens and she told me that she had just installed a new kitchen. It was called a William Ball kitchen so I checked out the William Ball website and the choice was fantastic. William Ball had also received a Gold award for their kitchens from the Furniture Industry Research Association and is an environmentally friendly company that has signed up to the FISP (Furniture Industry Sustainability Programme). The company takes a responsible and positive attitude to the recycling of waste which in my eyes is a worthwhile policy. They are also members of the KBSA, ASFI and the Furniture Ombudsman so with this track record I couldn’t go wrong.

The helpful staff at William Ball directed me to a company called “Home World Design” in Glasgow who, at that time (March 2007), was the main distributor in Scotland for William Ball. I visited their Kirkintilloch showroom and was very impressed with their helpful, friendly service. Joe who is one of the directors of the firm informed me that any kitchens are dispatched to their store first to allow them to check that all parts are available and to ensure that there has been no damage to the units during transit. This all happens before they dispatch the kitchen to their customer which means that any issues are resolved before the kitchen is even delivered to the customer’s home. If any kitchen parts were damaged during transit, replacement parts would be couriered up in 24 hours. This is the kind of stress free service I was looking for so I supplied Joe with kitchen measurements and gave him some details of what I would like and he designed my kitchen for me. He even came to the house to check everything was ok which was a 4hr round trip for him. The kitchens are supplied with clip on doors so if I want a change the look of my kitchen 5 or 10 years down the line then I can, at a much lower cost than the price of a new kitchen, which is something my husband is very pleased to hear!!! The carcasses of all William Ball kitchens’ are 18mm so sturdy enough to last.

Alex who is co director of the company overlooks the installations, and all their fitters are employed by them so no cowboys!!! They were happy to deal with trade customers so I asked my brother in law to fit my kitchen. The kitchen I chose was less than half the price of Mobens and a substantial amount less than Space kitchens and I am very pleased with the quality of the kitchen. Joe, Alex and their staff couldn’t have been more helpful and I highly recommend them. Their service is second to none and it’s their reputation on the line if any issues are not resolved quickly and to the customer’s satisfaction!!! They have recently received an award for National Retailer of the Year 2006-2007 which doesn’t surprise me.

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Ok thanks.... didn't know there was such a board;)

nodwah

Thanks very much for this post, I've been trailing around kitchen showrooms and I really want someone to point me somewhere, I'm glad I spotted you!

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nodwah wrote: »

Thanks very much for this post, I've been trailing around kitchen showrooms and I really want someone to point me somewhere, I'm glad I spotted you!

Glad you found this info helpful;)