More on the Kitchens Direct Saga

Things did not get off to a flying start with Kitchens Direct back in March. Yesterday was meant to be the longed-for day when the kitchen was finally delivered, ready for installation today and tomorrow.

So I waited in all day, having removed everything from the cupboards and stacked it all in various places all over our small flat. Every room has boxes of pots and pans and spices and oils and pasta and pulses and crockery in it. I can't open my built-in wardrobe door now because of all the boxes so to get my clothes I have to climb in through J's door and stand in the wardrobe and rummage in the dark. Miff followed me and then got trapped and cried to get out.

The new kitchen was meant to be delivered at 9am yesterday. By 11am I had phoned twice and been told various stories. An 'eighteen foot lorry' had 'been and gone' because it had 'not been able to park'. No lorry had been anywhere near my flat, and there was seventy feet of parking space outside my front door. I rang again and was told the lorry was in North-West London, the driver was just delivering something to another customer and would definitely be there by one. I sat in the sitting room, working and looking out of the window. A van delivered wine to my neighbour. The postman came round. A man went past on a skateboard. Two women with prams. The local eccentric who has a walking stick decorated with silk flowers smiled and waved at me through the window. I waved and smiled back. I rang again and was told that the lorry had been, rung the door bell and gone away again. It was 1.30pm.

'No it hasn't.' I described the morning's proceedings and gave my address. They said perhaps there were two customers with the same name in London.

Eventually, after seven calls from me, they admitted that the lorry had not been booked or given our order to deliver and this was a mistake, and it would come tomorrow instead.

'The fitter is coming to install the kitchen tomorrow. Allegedly, ' I reminded them.

They said that they were sorry and the lorry would definitely come at 7am. 'It's on the system now'. An hour later a cheerful person called to see whether the kitchen had been delivered and whether anyone had contacted me, and was crestfallen when I said it hadn't and after numerous calls and various tales being told to me, I had managed to get them to promise delivery the next morning. They said they were sorry.

Today, the kitchen lorry arrived at 7am, to general rejoicing, having driven down from Manchester, and delivered 41 boxes and flat-packed objects, which I signed for, and the driver relieved me of over £3000. I looked at the boxes filling half the sitting room and crossed my fingers.

The fitter arrived at 8.45am and removed the kitchen; everything including the kitchen sink, uninstalled the washing machine, stacked the old kitchen in pieces outside on the street, promising it would be removed tomorrow. Then he counted what had been delivered, and said that all the bloody top cupboards hadn't been delivered and it was too late to order them for delivery tomorrow.

Then he said he was leaving. It was 12.15pm.

'What? I thought you were going to install the new kitchen? And work all day? I'm not in on Monday or Tuesday so the idea was it would be done by the weekend' ( it's only a small kitchen).
'No, I have some other work to do'.
'Will you be here tomorrow?'
'After I have been to the dentist'
'And Saturday?'
'Not sure. I might have other work to do'
And off he swanned, leaving me with a pile of boxes and a fridge and a kettle.

I called Kitchens Direct and politely explained that things were less than ideal. So far Kitchens Direct had had over £4000 off me and now I had a pile of boxes and no kitchen. The girl at the other end suggested I wrote a letter.
I suggested they could pull their finger out and deliver the missing cupboards tomorrow. To her credit, she said she would try.

Then a passing man rang the doorbell and asked if I knew that there were a pile of unopened brand new boxes with some nice pear wood in them outside on the street. Could he have them?I said I thought they might be my missing cupboards so he helped me bring them in out of the rain.
'It's a good job that I am an honest person' he chortled. I agreed that it was very kind of him.

I rang the fitter. Were these my missing cupboards? No, they were 'extra stuff' that he was 'dumping'. He congratulated me on getting the missing cupboards delivered tomorrow instead of Monday. 'You must have scared them'.
'Yeah, I'm good like that.'

I put the boxes of pear wood back outside again. And went off to buy myself lunch in a local restaurant. I think I may become a good customer over the next few days. Or possibly, weeks.

Kitchens Direct: the saga so far

Kitchens Direct came round in early March to give us a quote for a new kitchen. It was a reasonable price, better than the others we had quoted, and we managed to keep it down by just fitting new cupboard doors, not replacing the whole cupboards for the top part of the kitchen
( because there was nothing wrong with the cupboards, which were four years old, also from Kitchen Direct and covered by their 5 year guarantee. It was just that the doors wouldn't match the new kitchen).

The surveyor came round in mid-March and said what they had quoted wasn't do-able; the whole cupboard carcasses would need to be changed. I pointed out that they had drawn up a contract stating doors replaced only, and agreed a price with us, so if what they had quoted wasn't do-able, that was really their problem and they should have said so at the time. He agreed, called the branch who first demanded more money, then caved when I pointed out they had a contract with us, and said they'd replace the cupboards for the same price. Two weeks later, almost £1000 was removed from our account (the deposit), so we took up the floor and tiles as instructed a few days before the delivery of the kitchen on April 2nd and waited for it to arrive and be installed the next day.

Nothing.

Nothing the next day either.

I phoned them up-the branch said I needed to speak to head office, the head office said I needed to speak to the branch. Back and forth. Eventually I managed to speak to someone. They couldn't deliver, apparently, because they needed to get some more money off us - the price had gone up. Why? Because of the cupboards.

'But we told you we only wanted cupboard doors, and you said fine, signed a contract to that effect with the price broken down and then agreed that you'd made an error and said you would stick to the contract price after the surveyor came round. And you've taken nearly a grand off us, and failed to deliver the kitchen, and not got in contact with us, and in the meanwhile we have no floor and the kitchen tiles are all taken off so the kitchen is a mess and is damaged. And now you're holding us to ransom and demanding more money.'

Claims that they called us. Oh no you didn't. Claims they will call back. But they don't.
More chasing. The amount of money they are demanding goes down, but they still want more money.

'Is this good business practice, drawing up contracts, taking nearly a grand out of customers' bank accounts, getting people to rip up floors and then demanding extra money after failing to deliver kitchens without explanations?' I ask them.
No, they say.
'Is it your normal business practice?'
No, they claim.

Eventually they agreed a new price with us, and promised to get in contact about a new date to deliver and install the kitchen .

That was on Friday.Nothing happened and nobody called.

Yesterday, someone called from Kitchens Direct. Was he arranging a delivery date? No, he was asking for more money - the extra that we had finally agreed with them in order to replace the cupboards and deliver the kitchen.

I explained that they had already had the best part of a grand off us, that they had made an error in pricing which was technically their problem and failed to deliver a kitchen on April 2nd with no explanation for not doing so and I was buggered if I was going to give them any more until they delivered the kitchen. They could add the extra we had agreed onto the delivery price, at which point we would pay the balance.

He called back to say this had been agreed and someone would call with a new delivery date that day. Did they call back? Nope.

Last night I was down the pub with Kings Cross United and the phone rings. It was Kitchens Direct.

Would I like a surveyor to come round and give me a free design and quote for a lovely new kitchen?

I laughed hollowly.

'You have no idea, do you?' I asked the salesgirl.

'No' she said.

I explained, she went away.

I have given up waiting and managed to chase them and they have agreed to install and deliver the damn kitchen. In mid-May.

We shall see what happens next.

*Sigh*