Baby Melissa Skye born on Saturday 29 March 2008. Nearly 21 months old now, running around and into...
Baby Melissa Skye born on Saturday 29 March 2008. Nearly 21 months old now, running around and into everything! Not been on Ciao for a while, been busy with Melissa and part time work, hope to be back on here soon. 091209.
Member since:22.04.2001
Reviews:226
Members who trust:26
This is quite a saga so bear with me on this one, but I feel that other people should be warned!........................
STAGE ONE +++++++++
We went to our local MFI in Barnstaple on 27 December to order a kitchen. We wanted to take advantage of the sale which ended on 12 January (however since this date, the same sale has been ongoing, Easter, Spring etc!!!).
We were not aware that we needed to make an appointment for the design, however they were able to squeeze us in, but the bloke at first said, "sorry, busy" and walked off! I chased after him saying" well, can I make an appointment then?!!".
The kitchen planner was very good at first. We gave her all of our measurements and told her the kitchen that we wanted and she started to fit everything in. She was a bit forceful though and I had to be forceful with her to get what I wanted in the design. For us, living in a small house, storage space was the ultimate requirement, yet she was putting the hob where I didn't want it making wall cupboards impossible! Eventually I got her to see my point of view.
When she printed out the picture, there was no worktop and no sink, so she amended it to include these items.
She
insisted that we had five year warrantees on the appliances (fridge, hob and double-oven). I insisted that I did not want them, however she just kept saying "we'll leave them in for now". She kept on about MFI's reputation and how they needed the warrantees to provide a good service! Also, it gave her leverage with her manager for a discount?............
She pressured us into a quote with fitting included, after we were assured that we could remove it at any time, even after the fitter came to our house. She made a note that we could only have the extra warrantees if we kept the quality of the appliances.
The total came to around £3,350 and I said that I did not wish to go over £3,000, so she discounted that for us back to £3,000, however without the extra warrantees, the cost was only £3,000 anyway!
At this point, we did not notice that the sink, taps and plumbing kit was missing.......
STAGE TWO ++++++++++
After getting home and talking to a few people, we discovered that whilst MFI were charging £1100 for fitting (not including plumbing and electrics), we could get the job done for £500 by a local carpenter. MFI fitter came out and measured the kitchen and agreed that we could fit in a couple of extra cupboards etc, and quoted an extra £90 for plumbing and £600 for electrics. This now brought the total cost for fitting the kitchen up to £1800. We decided NOT to have MFI fit the kitchen.
The paperwork then arrived saying that the kitchen would be delivered and fitted on 18 February, and the cost was now up to £3500. WOAH! I cried! and got straight onto the telephone to cancel the fitting. I also noticed that , she had missed the sink off altogether!!!!
This is when it started to go wrong............ I telephoned and spoke to our designer and said that we did not want MFI to fit it. She went mad and said that we couldn't have the discount and the extended warrantees and that they couldn't deliver it for months. I asked to speak to a manager and she practically cried down the phone that I was harrassing her and being really unfair! I was nice on the phone, but stated my case quite plainly, that I would not be paying over the odds, and that she had said everything was dependant on quality of appliance, not on the fitting!!!
She agreed to rework the figures. I did the same, and rewirked them with the 20% discount only, no warrantees etc and the missing sink, and it came to £2,200. So I asked MFi to do the deal for £2000. They did agree to this, and threw in the sink and taps etc for free, seeing as they had already missed it off the invoice twice. The planner got a colleague to ring me back as she refused to talk to me herself!
The kitchen was now scheduled for delivery on 10 March, being a Thursday this meant that I had to take a day off of work. A Saturday delivery was not available until 10 May!!
In the meantime, I suddenly panicked when I remembered that we had added a small extra cupboard, top and bottom. Would the worktop and cornice be enough? I checked the original details and sure enough, they had not reworked those items, so I got on the phone again, and spoke to the planner. She got huffy and said that it was up to my Fitter to ensure that we had enough and they could not be responsible if he cut it incorrectly!! I said, NO, we are ordering it from you and it is up to you to ensure that there is enough!
STAGE 3 +++++++
Delivery - no problem there, arrived on the day, and was brought in via back door, kitchen window and lounge window, due to awkwardness of house!
STAGE 4 +++++++
Kitchen was fitted while we took ourselves off to Cornwall for the week to get out of the way. When we returned, we discovered that various bits were missing or damaged:
Downlighting kit - missing
Cornice - Not enough supplied
End panels for cupboards - Not supplied
Fridge - damaged (door hanging off, would not seal properly)
Worktop - damaged
I got straight on the phone to MFi. The main problem being the fridge. Luckily I spoke to a manager straight away. At first he said that if the fridge was damaged it should have been reported within 7 days, but I explained that it had not been opened until that same day, that the feet were broken and the door hinge hanging off. He agreed to get a replacement delivered within 2 weeks, along with some more cornice and the missing light kit.
END RESULT +++++++++++
Now it is 4 April, the kitchen is now fitted, total cost for plumbing, elecs etc, comes in at around £600 less than MFI would have charged.
I still have to paint and tile it, and the fitter has to come back to finish the cornice and put the fridge door on, but it is mosly done.
I am mainly pleased with it, however if they had provided the correct panesl, our fitter would not have had to bodge a couple of things.
RECOMMENDATION? +++++++++++++++++
No way, never!! I would not use MFI again. I would not recommend them to anybody.
I love the kitchen, but have since discovered that we could have got it from Howdens (who supply MFI) and it would probably have been cheaper.
MFI did sort out the problems, but once we decided not to have them fit it, they basically didn't want to know.
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Apr 4th, 2005
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