We decided to take advantage of the New Year 'sales' and buy a kitchen and some bedroom furniture. Total spend around £4,500, which was at least a £2500 saving on previous prices. I found the store staff (Preston) to be very helpful and accomodating in firstly booking us an appointment to sort the kitchen details out and then in actually helping us to design the kitchen requirements (we have elected for a delayed delivery on this item as we do not need to fit it yet so cannot comment on this product at this stage). We also ordered a suite of bedroom furniture in the design Amelie, which we elected to have delivered earlier as we needed it more immediately.
This comes to my first irritation about the process - delivery charges. These guys kind of have you over a barrell with this one as they do not stock anything in store and so, you have no option but to have it delivered at a cost of £100 per delivery. This now links into my second grumble, which is the 'free appliances' issue. With our kitchen, we got a 'free' dishwasher
which we didn't really want. This was worth in the region of £400+ retail. I then asked if it was possible to have a different appliance for the same value - no apparently not, but I could have a £200 further discount which I opted for, only to find out at the end of the process, that this was cancelled out by delivery charges across two deliveries!!!!! So no real gain there, I should have opted to have the appliance and then sell it on, but by this stage I was quite ready just to get out of the store. The process of planning the kitchen takes ages.
On to the delivery aspect so far. You are given a delivery date and a number to ring two days prior to delivery to check out if your delivery is scheduled for the morning or the afternoon. This is an automated service into which you tap all your reference numbers and then you are given the relevant information. This I have to say worked very well, and the men arrived exactly on time and as described. They also carried all of the stuff into the house and put it where I wanted it to go. You sign for receipt of so many boxes and then have 3 days to check that everything is OK. So make sure that you order it to arrive on a day when you can make the stuff up within the next 3 days. I didn't realise this, but fortunately had it delivered on a Friday (by chance), which meant that it was OK for the weekend. The kitchen may be more of a challenge to get together in 3 days and I wonder if MFI need to take account of this. The more you order, the longer it takes.
OK so to the construction of the furniture. I have to say, this went up without any hitches and we are left with some very substantial beroom furniture. All the relevant bits were there, in fact we had a few odds and ends that were spare. At the very least, if you can't make the furniture up in the 3 days after delivery, unpack it all and check that everything is present. The only thinng I would say about the Amelile furniture (and this isn't really a negative) is that it is very very heavy - especially the wardrobe. So, make sure you have someone who can lift it into place for you.
Now comes my biggest gripe with MFI - a couple of weeks or so after we placed this order, the sales prices were dropped a further 10% which on £4,500 would have been a further £450. Not a small amount when you are trying to do a place up on a budget - this would have been half the cost of the new central heating system we are fitting. I am aware that other stores have policies that if this happens, they will refund the difference so I contacted MFI and got a very curt e-mail back saying that there was nothing futher they could offer us. So in the short term, MFI have gained a potential £450 from our sale. In the long term, I have lost all confidence in this company and I'll be less likely to use them in the future. I think this is important to bear in mind if you are taking advantage of any offers, but of course the dilemma is do you go for the initial offer or do you wait and potentially miss the discount??
Black mark for MFI on that one I'm afraid I'll think twice about trusting them again.
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£100 delivery cost is a bit much considering what you spent, what a rip off.
missydoc 13.02.2008 14:35
Excellent review, similar to my views about MFI. Have a read of mine!
However, I am sure MFI told us if the prices dropped within 30days they would pay the difference. I could be wrong but we did ask them at time of ordering.
donovan74 13.02.2008 13:41
Good review....................................................Donovan.
Advantages: The quality of their merchandise is much better than in the old days. Disadvantages: Customer service. Oh Dear, although not strictly MFI's fault.
docpov 27.11.2005 (27.11.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of MFI (Shop)
Advantages: Wide selection, hygine checked, charity aid, low prices, great name clothes and friendly people. As well as the thrill of the chase! Disadvantages: As with all things, there are some good and some bad charity shops. Don't be put off by one bad one, as the majourity are excellent.
Advantages: stores all over the country, always a sale on, not too pushy, payment and delivery Disadvantages: those annoying adverts, having to pay extra for everything
Feb 13th, 2008
exceptional by (8%):
very helpful by (92%):
