Can I haggle on this Howdens kitchen quote? If so, how?

shuandrew · 12 October 2018 at 6:30PM

Reading that really made me chuckle, Doozergirl! I can just imagine you there, knowing all you do about all of this stuff.

Speaking of percentage discounts, as I said above, we never received a quote that included them. Went to Howdens today and showed the Benchmarx quote. First comment from the salesman was that certain units from Benchmarx are flat packed and so they’d charge more to install. Didn’t know if that was true or not, but certainly not going to cost the £1000 extra Howdens has quoted for units.

But they dropped the price anyway, to £2800, beating the Benchmarx quote by £200. Whilst he was “seeing what he could do” in the computer, I was watching closely. In a tab off the list of items and quotes prices, there was a box where he could enter a figure to apply a percentage discount to the whole order.

Not 100% sure what that figure was originally, but saw he immediately changed it to 80%, then went back to subtotal. Still over £3000 from Benchmarx, so went back and tried 85%. Still no go. 86%. Nope. So then he just began manually reducing prices on the list of quoted items until we reached the £2800 figure, including free storage for 2 months and adding a set of drawer waste bins

- £1,200 off the previous discount.

Maybe we could squeeze some more out of it, but we have accepted and gone ahead. What do you think?

Thanks again for all of your help, Doozergirl.

Doozergirl · 12 October 2018 at 7:51PM

I think you've done well. I think the Howdens doors are marginally better than Benchmarx and anything in the 80% region is really good for them. I think taking in someone else's quote is the only way to beat them down on price properly.

Howdens have emailed me to chase up. I need to consolidate my price with DIY kitchens and I will give it to Howdens as it will make my life a little easier if they do beat it, but the difference is £6,900 to £3,800!! :eek:

I've checked the quality of doors is the same too, so it's just insanity.

SparklesJD · 14 October 2018 at 12:26PM

Howdens won't usually release prices to the end-user, only to the person with the trade account.

The Howdens sales guy came to do the final measuring on our new kitchen recently and I asked how much an intergrated dishwasher would be. Awkward silence. I said he could whisper it to the foreman who was there with us. He wouldn't speak to him either, only to the account-holder. It's just how they do business.

There are stories about Howdens providing two quotes - one for the builder to give to the client, one showing what they're actually paying (so a builder can make a margin on the kitchen supply), which might be what's happened here, but I don't know whether they're true.

Our builder told us that depending on the business a firm put Howdens way, the 'trade discount' can vary enormously.

It was an issue for us, as we were on a tight budget and it was very stressful having to get a new quote every time you wanted to change a cabinet!

We looked at DIY Kitchens and Ikea, Magnet and B&Q and a couple of local suppliers, but we liked the Howdens cabinets, they're good quality, supplied ready to install (as are most of the others) and they were ready to collect within 48 hours.

Our builder said Ikea build quality is fine, although 'not as good as it used to be' but they don't have pipe cavities in the cabinets, so aren't as tidy, (I think).

Once we factored in building cabinets from scratch and the cost of delivery, they weren't much cheaper for us against the final quote we got from Howdens. I was also put off by a friend's ongoing problems with her Ikea kitchen, which have been awful.

DIY Kitchens didn't seem to do a standard matt white cabinet with handles, which is what we really wanted, although we could've got them bespoked. We were also put off by the ordering process, i.e. needing to know exactly what you're ordering online, plus there was a 21 day lead time for us, even with a standard range. Having said all that, everyone we spoke to was very impressed with their build standard and prices.

In the end, our builders went back to Howdens and get us a bigger discount, so they wouldn't have been all that much cheaper either.

We got the worktops and appliances elsewhere (bamboo tops from Worktop Express, they look amazing, but they did deliver the wrong colour - we ended up choosing to keep them though! We got a range cooker from IdealKit and extractor from Marks Electrical - I'd recommend both).

Can I haggle on this Howdens kitchen quote? If so, how?

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