Talk to me about Wren kitchens

[James6112]

vixen1700 said:

James6112 said:

For What It’s Worth.
Mention Wren.
The usual suspects turn up.
Bearing some kind of grudge, as a few do.
Some often serve a ban, forum rules.
A tad obsessive ..
The other 99% are very happy.
I wonder why builders push Howdens!!

In other words having experience of something and an opinion of something on a discussion forum.

Some seem happy, others not.

You don't appear to like a difference of opinion.

Obsessive?

Of course not you
But mention Wren, a regular few pile in.
Same old same old.
There is no discussion with those obsessives, For What It’s Worth.

Anyway why do builders push Howdens, which receipt is passed on?

[FWIW]

James6112 said:

Of course not you
But mention Wren, a regular few pile in.
Same old same old.
There is no discussion with those obsessives, For What It’s Worth.

Anyway why do builders push Howdens, which receipt is passed on?

Your posting style is weird.

Bring on

the discussion.

Why mention

Howdens?

Why are

you here, obsessive.

[sic]

[judas]

James6112 said:

vixen1700 said:

James6112 said:

For What It’s Worth.
Mention Wren.
The usual suspects turn up.
Bearing some kind of grudge, as a few do.
Some often serve a ban, forum rules.
A tad obsessive ..
The other 99% are very happy.
I wonder why builders push Howdens!!

In other words having experience of something and an opinion of something on a discussion forum.

Some seem happy, others not.

You don't appear to like a difference of opinion.

Obsessive?

Of course not you
But mention Wren, a regular few pile in.
Same old same old.
There is no discussion with those obsessives, For What It’s Worth.

Anyway why do builders push Howdens, which receipt is passed on?

You say this, yet when I posted my experience your immediate reaction was that it must be my fault, even though Wren lied through their teeth to us? Have a word with yourself

Edited by judas on Friday 29th March 21:24

[princeperch]

In 2015 I got a quote for a wren kitchen, supply only units nothing else. It wasn't a small kitchen but it wasn't enormous. The quote after all the back and forth was about 8k which was a bit more than I wanted to pay.

I said thanks to the guy but it's a bit more than I really wanted to pay and said if you can adjust the price a bit more give me a buzz. He was visibly very very pissed off.

Anyway both him and his manager called me every other day for about a week basically saying have you changed your mind, and how about it then etc

It was funny at first but I basically had to say to the guys manager, look mate I want to spend 6k on the units if you can't do it for that then don't ever call me again. And he didn't.

I ended up buying an almost identical kitchen from magnet, units plus the sink for 6.1k. The bloke was crying me the blues the whole way through our negotiation saying he's not making anything on it at all and the Rrp is is 25k etc. I know the finishes differ and they have large overheads etc but fk me it's mostly just bks wood which presumably costs them next to fk all. Their profit margins must be enormous.

[Little Lofty]

I’m a builder and I use Howdens because I can order a full kitchen on a Monday and collect it all on Tuesday, if they have a part missing the branch a couple of miles away will have it, if I have mis-measured and need to swap a 600 unit for a 500 I can do it within an hour, no other kitchen company I have dealt with offer that service. Their pricing is bizarre, no doubt about it and thats why I recently used DIY, cheaper, but no where near the same level of support for the trade.

[KAgantua]

princeperch said:

In 2015 I got a quote for a wren kitchen, supply only units nothing else. It wasn't a small kitchen but it wasn't enormous. The quote after all the back and forth was about 8k which was a bit more than I wanted to pay.

I said thanks to the guy but it's a bit more than I really wanted to pay and said if you can adjust the price a bit more give me a buzz. He was visibly very very pissed off.

Anyway both him and his manager called me every other day for about a week basically saying have you changed your mind, and how about it then etc

It was funny at first but I basically had to say to the guys manager, look mate I want to spend 6k on the units if you can't do it for that then don't ever call me again. And he didn't.

I ended up buying an almost identical kitchen from magnet, units plus the sink for 6.1k. The bloke was crying me the blues the whole way through our negotiation saying he's not making anything on it at all and the Rrp is is 25k etc. I know the finishes differ and they have large overheads etc but fk me it's mostly just bks wood which presumably costs them next to fk all. Their profit margins must be enormous.

25k for a load of wood carcasses and a sink lol

They must think the public are stupid - I used DIY Kitchens, not everyone likes them but they were pretty easy to deal with think I spent about 4 or 5k in the end for a medium size kitchen excl worktops and machines

[B'stard Child]

akirk said:

We used DIY-Kitchens last year for a kitchen / home office area / utility / pantry - they were superb…

Was definitely worth a day trip from Bristol to Yorkshire to what was then their only showroom…

They've just opened a new showroom (Thursday 28th March 2024) on the same estate as the old one - doubled the number of kitchen displays and it's on two floors

Went on Sat (so a fair old trek for us to get up there) and worth it to see a product before you start fiddling around with their on-line configuration tool (which is a bit faffy on a good day)

Mrs BC said they must be more expensive than Wren to have a showroom of this std - I said they only have one and this is it - Wren have over 100 so I guess they can "splash out a bit" when they've only got one.

[Stick Legs]

As it was my wife’s vision for a kitchen she liked the Wren kitchen.

We had a local chippy fit it and make any alterations.

It’s worn well & the only issue was some hot oil was spilt on a door. She rang up & got a new door FOC within about 10 days.

My point of view is it’s a kitchen that works & she’s happy.

Based on our experience I’d use Wren again.

[akirk]

B'stard Child said:

akirk said:

We used DIY-Kitchens last year for a kitchen / home office area / utility / pantry - they were superb…

Was definitely worth a day trip from Bristol to Yorkshire to what was then their only showroom…

They've just opened a new showroom (Thursday 28th March 2024) on the same estate as the old one - doubled the number of kitchen displays and it's on two floors

Went on Sat (so a fair old trek for us to get up there) and worth it to see a product before you start fiddling around with their on-line configuration tool (which is a bit faffy on a good day)

Mrs BC said they must be more expensive than Wren to have a showroom of this std - I said they only have one and this is it - Wren have over 100 so I guess they can "splash out a bit" when they've only got one.

They have also been planning a showroom in Witney (where they have their ‘southern’ distribution centre - keep talking about it but not sure what the plans are…

[Mr Whippy]

In the end it all depends what you want.

For me it was DIY kitchens and Ikea’s design tools and clear pricing that made them desirable as I could just figure it out and buy.

The fitting is arguably fairly easy.


I don’t know how anyone even figures stuff out with Howdens.
It’s all opaque or impossible to search online.
Is the only approach to let them design it and then pick the parts for you?
Seems quite limiting as you can’t easily try various ideas out, mix and match parts, etc?

[zorba_the_greek]

When we had our kitcheen fitted we looked at Wren but decided to go with Howdens which we found was much better quality and the designing bit seemed more professional. Very happy with it and any after sales which was extremely straight forward. They have warehouses everywhere you can get most things off he shelf.

The one thing i would avoid is buying work tops from these kinds of brands. We purchased ours from Rock & Co. Way cheaper and huge choice!

[KAgantua]

judas said:

James6112 said:

vixen1700 said:

James6112 said:

For What It’s Worth.
Mention Wren.
The usual suspects turn up.
Bearing some kind of grudge, as a few do.
Some often serve a ban, forum rules.
A tad obsessive ..
The other 99% are very happy.
I wonder why builders push Howdens!!

In other words having experience of something and an opinion of something on a discussion forum.

Some seem happy, others not.

You don't appear to like a difference of opinion.

Obsessive?

Of course not you
But mention Wren, a regular few pile in.
Same old same old.
There is no discussion with those obsessives, For What It’s Worth.

Anyway why do builders push Howdens, which receipt is passed on?

You say this, yet when I posted my experience your immediate reaction was that it must be my fault, even though Wren lied through their teeth to us? Have a word with yourself

Edited by judas on Friday 29th March 21:24

Does the same on the COVID threads, ignore.

[Unreal]

Mr Whippy said:

In the end it all depends what you want.

For me it was DIY kitchens and Ikea’s design tools and clear pricing that made them desirable as I could just figure it out and buy.

The fitting is arguably fairly easy.


I don’t know how anyone even figures stuff out with Howdens.
It’s all opaque or impossible to search online.
Is the only approach to let them design it and then pick the parts for you?
Seems quite limiting as you can’t easily try various ideas out, mix and match parts, etc?

I work out a couple of quotes with people like DY kitchens and Wickes and see how they compare with Howdens. Provided I know Howdens are in the ballpark it's just a question of how much I can get them to drop or what extras or upgrades I can get them to include. The only way I see Howdens pricing approach as a problem is if they are the only people you are approaching for a quote, which would be profoundly stupid with any major purchase.

[Sheepshanks]

zorba_the_greek said:

When we had our kitcheen fitted we looked at Wren but decided to go with Howdens which we found was much better quality and the designing bit seemed more professional. Very happy with it and any after sales which was extremely straight forward. They have warehouses everywhere you can get most things off he shelf.

The one thing i would avoid is buying work tops from these kinds of brands. We purchased ours from Rock & Co. Way cheaper and huge choice!

Did Howdens deal with you directly, as an individual?

We got a mid-range (I think the difference is just the fronts) Howdens kitchen, but the place we stayed for a few weeks had a brand new Wren kitchen and I'd say they were the same. As I've mentioned already in the thread, we preferred the Wren pan drawers - they were wider and deeper (front to back), with glass sides.

We used a local indie supplier for the Quartz, and tried another one too - they were both pretty well the same price as Howdens. It did strike me that there must be a lot of money in this - we needed more quartz than the estimate but the place we used didn't charge any extra, and they did a customised rebated "shelf" to hide a light strip at no cost.

[oblio]

We had a Howdens kitchen fitted 6 years ago. They came out to our place (20-odd miles from their local depot) and did a design for us. We then used a local chippy/kitchen fitter to order and fit. All in all it was under £12k and that included 4 AEG appliances and granite worksurfaces. There was no dramas on fitting; all the kit arrived on time and in one piece; and they even threw in a free extra door and fittings after we changed something on the design.

6 years on and it looks as good as new. They will be our first port of call when we move, if we need a new kitchen fitted.

[FourWheelDrift]

As with all kitchens like Wren it really depends on the company contracted to fit it. Good contractors will do a good job and spot defects and directly order replacements from Wren, then come back and make the change without a problem.

[MrJuice]

Unreal said:

I work out a couple of quotes with people like DY kitchens and Wickes and see how they compare with Howdens. Provided I know Howdens are in the ballpark it's just a question of how much I can get them to drop or what extras or upgrades I can get them to include. The only way I see Howdens pricing approach as a problem is if they are the only people you are approaching for a quote, which would be profoundly stupid with any major purchase.

What if they all operated like Howdens?

[Unreal]

MrJuice said:

Unreal said:

I work out a couple of quotes with people like DY kitchens and Wickes and see how they compare with Howdens. Provided I know Howdens are in the ballpark it's just a question of how much I can get them to drop or what extras or upgrades I can get them to include. The only way I see Howdens pricing approach as a problem is if they are the only people you are approaching for a quote, which would be profoundly stupid with any major purchase.

What if they all operated like Howdens?

They don't.

[gangzoom]

James6112 said:

2 years in, very pleased with our Wren Kitchen
Any problems resolved seamlessly (eg a door missing upon delivery, they told us, arrived a couple of days later as stated)
A year in, dinged a door A quick call to customer services, door easily identified from our record, duly arrived in a few days.
Great kitchen & service.
A few unlucky people in here who have a grudge to bear
Pop up whenever Wren is mentioned.

I'm glad your Wren experience was good, but am so glad we didn't go through with our Wren quote/order and went with a local independent. Nothing to do with the units but everything to do with flexibility and trust.

The installers are two days into a seven day estimated time frame. Their temporary work surface/tool station is more tidy than my desk at work where all I do is essentially send emails .

I had no issues with 'quality' of the Wren units, but the hard sell we had at show room and than persistent none stop chasing phone calls pushed us to look else where. When the local independent quoted essentially the same cost as Wren for much more personal and despoke sevice the only good experience we had with Wren is the two shopping bags which are still going strong 18 months on!!

[R6tty]

Little Lofty said:

I’m a builder and I use Howdens because I can order a full kitchen on a Monday and collect it all on Tuesday, if they have a part missing the branch a couple of miles away will have it, if I have mis-measured and need to swap a 600 unit for a 500 I can do it within an hour, no other kitchen company I have dealt with offer that service. Their pricing is bizarre, no doubt about it and thats why I recently used DIY, cheaper, but no where near the same level of support for the trade.

Me too. Exactly this.