It’s now a year since we first signed with Moben Kitchens. This is a long posting, and I make no apology for that. Simply ranting or making unsubstantiated protests is no good to anyone. I am going to lay out my own experiences and opinions, and I hope they are useful. You must come to your own conclusions.
OUR KITCHEN IS STILL NOT FINISHED and we have had a YEAR of stress and anguish at the hands of Moben, and it is not over yet.
Perhaps the most alarming experience of the last year has been Moben’s apparent efforts to gag me. On at least two occasions I was asked to sign an agreement that both parties would keep our dispute confidential. This was presented to me as a pre-condition of Moben completing the contract. Yes that’s right - I was asked to sign a confidentiality clause before they would do any more work. I refused on the basis that confidentiality was not, and never had been, part of the contract, and they had not as yet fulfilled their side of the contract. This stalemate continued for a while until they gave in. I was THEN told that this was a standard clause they used in correspondence with unsatisfied customers like me, and it was up to me whether or not I signed it. I note that this choice was NOT stated on the documents themselves, and up to that point I had been verbally led to believe the complete opposite, i.e. that it was a requirement for me to sign the clause before we could move on. Of course I cannot be sure, but I can only assume that this was in fact an opportunistic attempt to gag me, in order to limit bad publicity. I wonder if there are others who may have been prevented from writing bad reviews here because they have been tricked into signing a gagging clause.
Judging by the reviews here and elsewhere, there are a small minority who get good service from Moben, and I am genuinely pleased for them. I think it is probably the case that if you’re one of the lucky ones for whom things just happen to go without a hitch then all is rosy. This probably depends mostly on how lucky you are with your fitter. However, as soon as something goes wrong - which in my experience is an almost certain outcome - then the Moben house of cards collapses. And once the house of cards has collapsed Moben doesn’t have the capacity or the mechanism to rebuild it. In my (now considerable) personal experience of Moben, they are motivated only by sales. If anything goes wrong once you’ve signed on the dotted line there is simply no motivation within the company to put things right.
The fact that they take payment on delivery of the materials, before you ever see a fitter, means that beyond delivery day they have no incentive to do a good job. Beware of this; we were suckered on this point. The hand written quote from the salesperson referred to the total ‘all inclusive’ cost, including fitting, electrics, and plumbing. The large print on the front of the paperwork I signed, directly beneath my signature, refers to a contract for the supply and INSTALLATION of the kitchen.
In order to qualify for a 10% discount we opted for a finance agreement (which we would be able to pay off immediately, incurring negligible interest). The terms of the finance agreement state that payment would be due 1 month after the goods and SERVICES had BEEN SUPPLIED. The salesperson explained that a deposit was required up-front, and that the balance would be due on completion of the work. I queried that with her, and she was quite clear. It wasn’t until later that we discovered that the small print on the back of the contract says that full payment is due on delivery of the goods. And because we had taken out a credit agreement, this happened automatically. In my opinion we were misled. The bold and prominent print is at odds with the small print, and the salesperson not only failed to draw this to my attention when asked, but actually stated the opposite.
The ‘fitter’ may have some incentive to do the job properly because (my fitters tell me) that Moben does not pay its fitters until the installation is ‘signed off’ as complete. Therefore, it is in Moben’s financial interest to delay completion of the job because that means they can withhold funds from the fitters.
Moben is no more than a glorified selling agent. They don’t manufacture the stuff, they don’t employ any tradesmen; they are just like any other DIY chain you care to think of, accept they claim to be different. All the stuff they advertise about personal designers, dedicated project managers, and using professional tradesmen employed exclusively by Moben is all absolute nonsense. The ‘designers’ are just pressure salespeople. With hindsight, I’m convinced beyond any possible doubt that our ‘designer’ had no idea what she was doing, other than being highly skilled at pressure sales. This is proven by the design gaffs she made, leading to our design having to be changed and watered down from the original ‘dream’ she had promised. She also made specific statements to us regarding technical issues which turned out to be completely false. If the subject was outside of her knowledge I would support her saying so and then finding the answer for us. But what she did was speak with authority, ensuring us she knew what she was talking about, but what she said was completely incorrect.
The project managers are nothing of the sort. In my experience they have NO prior knowledge of the job, and have NO involvement whatsoever until things start going wrong; in my case this was by their own admission. They are just trouble-shooters. Getting them involved is a real struggle. Once you do get them involved they are good at making promises, terrible at keeping them, and apparently have no authority to get anything done. They are also responsible for huge regional areas meaning that there is no possible way they can actually manage all the projects within their area.
Then there are the fitters. As expressed by many reviewers here and elsewhere, Moben pushes the fallacy that they do not use contractors.
We, as many others, were told that Moben DO NOT use contractors. This was stated specifically. The claim was backed up with an explanation of how this sets Moben apart from other kitchen companies, because Moben have full control over their dedicated team of EMPLOYED tradesmen including builders, electricians, plumbers, and carpenters. We were told how this dedicated team approach, controlled by a dedicated project manager, allowed Moben to install bespoke kitchens of the highest standards. This mythical team of highly trained and experienced professionals are claimed to have an intimate knowledge of the Moben range, and the ability to ‘build’ rather than merely ‘fit’ your kitchen. Well all that is total rubbish in my experience! In reality Moben sub-contracts your installation to a local contractor, who is NOT tied to Moben at all. That fitter then sub-contracts to other tradesmen. My first fitter was responsible for choosing, and arranging the attendance of the other tradesmen. He discussed with me the problems HE had experienced in finding others to sub-contract to. Furthermore, I happen to know a local plumber who I have confirmed has been approached by my first fitter to work on Moben installations on a sub-contract basis. I have now had 3 different ‘fitters’ working on my kitchen; all of them tell me they are self-employed contractors. They ALL say that Moben are not a good firm to work for, but they continue to do so because it provides them with a steady flow of work. They have told me that they do not receive a wage from Moben, and that they are paid on a per-installation contracted fee basis.
When challenged on the truth of that statement the explanation provided was that Moben pays the contractors for doing the work, so therefore they are employed, which makes them 'employees' of Moben. Therefore it is true to say that these sub-contractors are Moben employees. This was explained to me, in my kitchen by a Moben project manager. You must form your own opinion whether these creative semantics amount to a misleading or fraudulent claim. But to date, nobody at Moben has been able to explain or justify why I was told at point of sale, very clearly, that Moben DO NOT USE contractors. In my opinion that is a blatant misrepresentation of the truth, especially when it is used specifically as an incentive to secure a sale.
So my fitter was effectively my project manager. My Moben project manager was not involved at all until five days into the installation after I demanded he attend because things were going wrong. If I had not made that demand, a local tradesman (and not a very good one at that) with no real affiliation to Moben would have held sole responsibility for fulfilling my contract with Moben.
We originally thought the product (hardware and materials) was quite good but, as the weeks and months have passed, it is failing, e.g. doors/drawers/storage units sagging or warping; plinths warping; worktops becoming discoloured, plumbing problems.
The service has always been, and remains terrible. There is endless confusion over failed or incorrect deliveries, people not turning up when promised, and un-kept promises of action. The contractors and Moben staff constantly blame failings on each other. The customer service staff just palm you off to someone else saying they can’t deal with your problem. Delivery men (whom I have now met a lot!) constantly complain of misinformation, incorrect orders, and poor instruction from above. The contractors complain about the project managers, and head office staff. In short, not only does the left hand not know what the right is doing, the flailing limbs seem to belong to an amputee!
While trying to excuse one of a chain of mess-ups, a senior individual (who claimed to be THE senior customer services manager) told me that all he could do was pass on an instruction to others, but there was nothing he could do if they did not do their job! What!!?
I have written (recorded delivery) to and emailed the Managing Director to complain. I strongly suspect that my letters and emails never actually reach the MD or anyone of any real authority within the company. All the evidence I have points to my correspondence being intercepted many rungs down the ladder, despite having been addressed ‘for the personal attention of’ the MD. My correspondence always ends up back in the hands of the staff in the customer services department. This is ludicrous given that they are part of the problem about which I am complaining! I have received one letter of acknowledgment, which referred me back to customer services. It was signed on behalf of the MD, but unfortunately the signature is an illegible scrawl and the true signatory is not identified. I’ve tried to find out who signed it but I can’t get through to anyone who knows. The letter appears to have been written on Customer Support headed paper.
I have tried to speak to someone in senior management on the phone, but I am constantly met with an impenetrable wall which always brings me back to the customer services line. On occasions I have been promised that I am being put through to someone of authority, only to find that I have been lied to as I am transferred back to the customer services switchboard.
I’ll give a few examples of what has happened to the kitchen since my first review almost 10 months ago. I have more examples than it is practical to list here, so here’s a sample.
After the initial plastering was bodged (they simply plastered over existing blown and damaged plaster with little or no preparation) we were left with uneven, bulging, hollow plaster. The plastering was not done until AFTER the kitchen units and electrics were fitted so there was a lot of plaster over-spill. Things that should have been mounted ON the walls were effectively plastered IN the walls. When we eventually got them back to clean things up they damaged some surfaces while digging the plaster over-spill off them, and they damaged our newly laid tile floor.
Because the bits they damaged were embedded IN the plaster, the plaster had to be damaged in order to replace them. Vicious circle!
We were still left with blown (hollow) uneven plaster, and with gaps around the electrical fittings and behind the upstands. We had weeks or months of wrangling over whether they were going to repair it. Eventually, the plasterer (a building contractor not a Moben employee) came to assess the work, together with a Moben Project Manager. The plasterer said it would take at least one full day, possibly two, to remove the existing plaster, seal the walls, apply a base coat, let that cure, and then apply the final skim. The plasterer turned up one morning during the World Cup when England were playing that afternoon. He announced that what he had said before about needing at least a full day was in fact wrong and he would be able to do the lot before lunch. He ripped off the old plaster and re-plastered the bare concrete block walls with a single coat. He was gone by lunch and was no doubt home or down the pub in time for the match!! The finish is not much better than it was before, and despite subsequent sanding and filling by another contractor the plastering is still of an amateurish sub-standard.
In my experience Moben’s so called 'repairs' are no more than bodges. For example our ceramic hob was fitted crooked. The problem was that the hole cut in the worktop was crooked. This was identified early on but nothing was done about it. The hole could not be straightened by making it bigger because the hob would fall through! The correct and professional fix would be to replace the worktop. Their chosen remedy was to wedge metal and wooden plates against two opposing corners to FORCE the hob straight, acting AGAINST its proper sprung mountings. Common sense tells me that the hob was designed to sit in sprung mountings not to be forcible wedged into the wrong shaped hole. It is now subject to forces or pressure that it was not designed to cope with. Therefore, it is almost certainly more susceptible to damage, and I have no doubt its life has been significantly shortened. But of course Moben have saved themselves the expense of replacing all the worktops, which have been bonded together.
Our fitted microwave cabinet was too big for the integral microwave unit meaning there is a large gap above the microwave (a Moben error because the designer specified incompatible items). They filled the gap with an off-cut from a door, leaving an unsightly, bare, jagged chipboard edge. After some resistance they said they would get a custom-made panel direct from the manufacturers. Several months later the panel arrived – this time it was TWO door off-cuts glued together with a very obvious and ugly join. Another DIY bodge job! It still isn't fixed. What they should be doing is replacing the microwave and/or cabinet with compatible items – but they won’t.
We have some deep 1000mm drawers. The brochure (the one we bought from) shows them filled with crockery with text saying they are ‘ideal for crockery’.
Ours are sagging so that they foul each other, the runners are getting rough, and the ‘soft closers’ are not as ‘soft’ as they were. My most recent fitter and the project manager have told me that the drawers are not designed to carry the weight of crockery, despite the fact that Moben sells plate racks to go in these drawers as an optional extra. The designer (salesperson) actively encouraged us to have these drawers for our crockery because they were more efficient and easier to access than traditional cupboards. This problem is still unresolved, and the discussion is one sided because I can’t get a reply to my calls or emails!
We continue to suffer from appalling customer services. The customer service line is useless because the staff can never help with anything other than the simplest most mundane issues. Promised return calls rarely materialise, and if they do it’s usually to be given another promise that goes unfulfilled! At the time of writing I have been waiting for just over a month for a call from my 'Project Manager'. My emails and messages are apparently being ignored.
We have asked Moben (in writing) to remove the kitchen and give us our money back. They have refused saying that we must give them the chance to put things right. That was EIGHT months ago and we’re still waiting.
Compare my experience to others on this and other forums and you will see an alarmingly consistent pattern. My advice is that unless you are a compulsive risk taker, and very brave, avoid them like the plague.
Extremely bad service from Moben Kitchens 
