MFI Flatpack Kitchens

I recently decided to have my kitchen refitted. I had heard good things about MFI so i decided to pop into the showroom and check out some of the kitchens they had in store.

We eventually decided to go with MFI as there was a kitchen in the Stockholm range that we really liked.

We arranged an appointment with one of their in-store kictchen designers and decided that we were happy with what we saw and ordered the kitchen.

The kitchen was paid for and ordered in January 2004. The kitchen was due to be fitted late March 2004.

So far so good.

The kitchen was delivered a week before fitting but there was quite a lot of stock that didnt arrive.

I rang the MFI helpdesk and the advisor assured me that the remaining stock would be delivered on day 3 of the fitting week, and besides the stock that hadn't been delivered was stuff that didn't need to be installed until the very end of the week.

The day of the fitting came and the fitter looked through the list of stock that was yet to be delivered, and realised that this included my hob and also half of the base units, which is obviously stuff that needed to be installed first. This annoyed me considerably as it appears that either a) the advisor didn't know what they were doing, or b) they were just fobbing me off.

The fitter was understandably concerned about this so he rang MFI and he was told that indeed they were going to be delivered that week but was told to ring the stock warehouse to confirm this. He rang the stock warehouse and was told by them that they weren't actually in stock and couldn't be delivered for a further 2-3 weeks. We were also told that the hob that we had paid for was discontinued.

Grrrrrrreat! A half finished kitchen with nothing to cook on. As you can imagine i was thrilled.
To be honest with you I can survive perfectly well without a gas hob as I dont need an excuse to eat out every night but this isn't the point.
When you spend £5500 on a kitchen you expect to see your old kitchen at the beginning of the week and your new COMPLETE kitchen by the end of the week.

My partner and I decided to go into MFI and complain to the manager. When we arrived, the manager was talking to us for about 15 minutes before we realised she was actually the manager. We had nothing in the way of an apology and they actually said to us "you must understand that sometimes certain items can go out of stock".
This really isn't good enough as I would imagine a good way to run a kitchen supply business is to get the payment off the customer and then order all the stock in the months between payment and installation to ensure a good customer experience at the end.

My fitter went to MFI and managed to get hold of a few base units that were in stock, still leaving us without ANY base doors and still without the required amount of base units that we needed.

We had to go elsewhere to get a gas hob, as the alternative hob that was offered was not anywhere near as good as the hob we ordered before it became discontinued.

Eventually, through sheer frustration we have had to have different base units to the ones we ordered so we can have our kitchen fitted. Luckily you cannot tell but the bottom line is THEY WERE NOT THE UNITS WE ORDERED AND PAID FOR IN GOOD FAITH.

The Cornice then arrived which was the wrong colour. Can you imagine how much i laughed?

My fitter once again had to go into the store and after much bartering has managed to get the correct parts.

My kitchen is now virtually fitted (minus 5 base doors that will be arriving in the next 2-3 weeks).

so here is a breakdown of my overall MFI experience.

QUALITY OF KITCHEN MATERIALS - 10/10

I really cannot complain about the kitchen (or whats actually here) . It looks better than it did in the plans and i am absolutely thrilled with the final result.

FITTING - 11/10

The fitter that MFI contracted out was absolutely amazing. He kept smiling all through the problems that we encountered where others could have quite easily have downed tools in disgust until all the parts arrived. He went above and beyond what he was required to do to try and ensure that we were happy at all times. He even drove 15 miles to collect the alternative gas hob we ordered. He has done a stunning job and i shall be using him for anything i need doing in the future.

VALUE FOR MONEY - 10/10

I spent £5500 on my kitchen and to be honest it looks so good i wouldn't be suprised if it has added £10000 to the value of my house. The only problem now is that it has made the rest of my house look terrible!

CUSTOMER SERVICE - 1/10

MFI proudly boast in their brochures that a kitchen fitted by MFI is fitted with minimum stress and hassle. This wasnt the experience i had. The one mark out of ten reflects the fact that there was actually someone there when we had to visit them.

OVERALL - 9/10

Even with the APPALLING customer service and problems that we had, I would still have to say that the kitchen I ordered is fantastic. This makes the overall rating so high. I would recommend the actual kitchen but to be honest if you could get the same kitchen from somewhere else, but with the same quality of fitter, then that is what i would do in the future.