Wren Kitchens - How much discount?

[conanius]

Kitchen purchase time.

It seems like everyone plays the same game, price high initially, and then slash them to make you feel like you've got a deal. I hate it, but its how the market seems to be.

We've found a kitchen we like in Wren kitchens, and I'm trying to work out how hard we can push for discount. We're looking at one of the Linda Barker kitchens, and we know the colour, handles, worktops, etc. We're buying the appliances we want off them too.

The appliances we've chosen are actually pretty reasonably priced through them (£30 difference here and there, nothing to speak of) but I still intend to say 'I can get these £x cheaper elsewhere, knock the money off).

We'll be going for supply only, with our builder doing the install.

So, how much should I be looking to get off.

The list price is something hilarious that I never even contemplated paying, and we're now just below half of that after some initial discussions. We're now in a position to sign on the dotted line over the weekend, and we'll be looking to make use of their 0% buy now pay later deal so we can keep our money in the bank.

Total cost is a smidge under £9.5k including nearly 3k's worth of appliances (Cooker, Cooker Hood, Integrated FF and Integrated Dishwasher of decent makes (Range Master for Cooker and Hood, Neff for Dishwasher and FF).

How much have people managed to get off? I think at a minimum I should be looking to get to £9k flat, but just wonder how much more people think we should be pushing. Kitchen is about 2.5m by 3.5m, building a U Shape, with clever corners, top cupboards, a larder, etc etc. Nothing abnormal.

All advice and guidance appreciated.

[Pheo]

Have you seen the stuff about recent Wren service on here? I would run a mile. Muncher on here is I think, more than 6 months in and Wren have still not managed to sort his kitchen out properly at the last check!

[Paul Drawmer]

I think if you want to negotiate - you should make up your mind on what you are prepared to pay, and make an offer.

[conanius]

Pheo said:

Have you seen the stuff about recent Wren service on here? I would run a mile. Muncher on here is I think, more than 6 months in and Wren have still not managed to sort his kitchen out properly at the last check!

It seems that you can find negative press about any kitchen company. Wren sell lots of kitchens, and they have lots of threads for complaints. Proportionately, I have no idea what this works out as for them, but I don't see any less threads for Magnet/Howdens/Anyone else

[conanius]

Paul Drawmer said:

I think if you want to negotiate - you should make up your mind on what you are prepared to pay, and make an offer.

Appreciate negotiation 101 advice, was just curious what others had managed to achieve

[CoolHands]

Don't forget part of the problem is making sure you get all the units you pay for. In many cases (it seems) you get half / three quarters of the order, and then you are stuck. The quality of the units (from what I've read) are ok apparently.

[singlecoil]

CoolHands said:

Don't forget part of the problem is making sure you get all the units you pay for. In many cases (it seems) you get half / three quarters of the order, and then you are stuck. The quality of the units (from what I've read) are ok apparently.

A significant problem with this make, as I understand it. If I was looking for this sort of kitchen I think I would look at DIY Kitchens instead.


http://www.diy-kitchens.com

[Muncher]

I would say run a mile. We are now 9 months in and they won't resolve out problems and won't correspond with us at all.

As for discount we paid £6,600 on a list price of £23,800. Customer service issues aside I would go with DIY kitchens in future, the quality is better and the price is lower.

[Neil - YVM]

To echo what some others have said, I would be. Very wary of Wren Kitchens.
I have recently helped 2 of their customers who have been on the wrong end of awful customer service. Made worse by the fact they had paid in full for the kitchen and the installation.

[bigweb]

I've just bought one from Wren. They were fine. My first quote was 14k and I paid around £3700 in the end. Supply only and without appliances.

I enjoy bartering so I had no problem with it but I'm sure other would

[RoyalVilla]

I've just bought a Wren kitchen, similar size to the OP. Our list was £18k and we paid £7.5k. Its from the designer range and is Cashmere gloss handle-less.
This includes 'bespoke' laminate worktops (though we might cancel these and go for a different supplier for quartz) and all appliances (all Bosch - 900mm hood, integrated dishwasher, integrated fridge / freezer, integrated oven and microwave and induction hob). I was going to buy all the appliances separately, but I just couldn't better Wren's prices as they had a sale on Bosch and I was going to buy those anyway.

Originally we were going to go with Howdens, but even with my builder's discount and the annual sale, Wren was more competitive on price.
I'm no kitchen expert, but I was impressed with the quality of Wren's carcasses / blum hinges etc.

Now is the worrying bit though as you do read some horror stories about their after sales service. The thing I liked about Howdens was the fact it was just down the road and easy to sort any probs. There was a big enough price difference for me to take the risk with Wren though. Also, the sales guy I dealt with seemed really good and there was genuinely no pressure.

Our back up is that we are also having quite a large utility built and we'll finish this first and get all the stuff from a different supplier.

[sidekickdmr]

Just to counter what everyone else is saying, we paid 11k for 25k's "worth" of kitchen, took a lot of haggling and pushing hard but know we got a genuinely good deal in the end.

It was delivered, installed and finished without hitch, happy customer all round!

[jgmadkit]

When we bought our Wren kitchen it was on one of their normal 70% discount offers, limited time etc etc. Price was just a little bit more than DIY-Kitchens so didn't try and haggle further plus I wanted their 0% interest deal.

I wouldn't ever buy a kitchen from Wren again though. 5 out of 20 units were either wrong, damaged or missing and it took several months to get the correct units with me doing all the chasing and eventually having to collect them from their store myself. Quality is ok, nothing special, it's just a chipboard carcass afterall. Some of our doors turned out to have a bend in them on the vertical, only noticed when you get the cupboards up on the wall. By this time I wasn't going to deal with Wren again so shuffled doors around so only the 'best' ones where on show. Never again will I buy from Wren.

John

[Zippylou]

This is not what I wanted to see on a Sunday morning when I've paid a deposit for a Wren kitchen. I had already made the mistake on Friday of popping into a new local showroom and seeing a Kesseler kitchen which I have been dreaming about since. Does anyone have one of these kitchens? I can't seem to find where they sit in the market in respect of price 😳

[singlecoil]

This PH member can tell you all about Kesseler kitchens, AIUI his family owns it. I've been to the factory and watched their stuff being made, and can recommend it.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?mem...

[Griff Boy]

I make a point of very, very ratel posting negative comments about other kitchen suppliers, but in the case of Wren I would advise strongly against dealing with them. There customer service is awful, truly awful, there method of business is unprofessional.. Pay in full, incl installation something like 14 days before the fit date, the kitchen being delivered into your house over a week before a self employed fitter turns up, who is on a fixed cost payment system, being told to pay cash to the fitter for any extras.... The list goes on.. My advice is steer well clear.