Moben Kitchens
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Discussion

x5x3

Original Poster:

2,437 posts

284 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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i would appreciate people's thoughts and experiences on Moben, we recently had them round to quote for a new kitchen, we have seen others as well but would like to hear how others have got on with them.

m4ckg

625 posts

222 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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I take it you didn't see Watchdog last week yikes

dave_s13

14,031 posts

300 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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Moben were recently slated, badly, by Watchdog (aired last week and may still be on iPlayer).


We went through all this bks last month...I've a thread on it somwehere.

We looked at Howdens, Wickes, Wren, B&Q and Ikea.

In the end we went with Ikea....based on the utter pi$$take in prices charged by the others.

The only "bad" thing about Ikea is the flat pack nature of the stuff. I'm fitting the kitchen myself so this is a signifcant issue but for the sake of an extra £1.5k for the next cheapest (Wren) I'm prepared to spend a few evenings with a screwdriver and some PVA glue. All Ikea units have Blum fittings (which are very good quality apparantly) and a 25yr warranty. They ahave massively improved the quality of a lot of their carousel cupboards etc from when we had one 8 years ago.

Here is a rough idea of our layout



For all that including ALL applicances (induction hob, dishwasher, washing maching, drier, dble oven, extractor, sink, taps) it has come to £5200.

To tart it up we have ordered granite worktops (blue pearl, shiny shiny) that looks ffkking amazing and that's been fitted for £2800.

All in, when I've factored in sparky and a bit of plumbing we should have a very nice looking kitchen for about £8.5k

Sorry...I've gone off on one there smile

Moben...according to Anne Robinson....are sheeite (it seems the fitters made some monumental fck ups that were not rectified).


cs174

1,271 posts

251 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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My brother had a Moben kitchen fitted some time ago. The fitters were totally useless, they tried to fit units over the front of plug sockets, the worktop was the wrong size and blocked access and to top it all the upper units fell off a day later.

Don't do it!

x5x3

Original Poster:

2,437 posts

284 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
quotequote all
Thanks all - seems I do not watch enough TV!

Part of the reason I asked was they were actually cheaper than we expected maybe they are having a bad time at the moment due to the adverse publicity.

To be honest, I would expect a lot of fitters to be dodgy, we have experienced both brilliant and appalling fitters over the years (one plumbed a radiator into the hot water!), and if we do go the Ikea route then we will use someone who is very expensive but delivers a very quality finish.

On the Ikea kitchen - do they do the design for you? - oh and I love the piccie!


dave_s13

14,031 posts

300 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
quotequote all
Yep they will design it in store if you take the room measurements.

But, you can do it yourself. Just register and have a mess about, it's actually pretty good and your saved designs can be accessed in the store for further tweaking.

I would not discount Wren kitchens though. To be honest if I wasn't so strapped for cash this is who I would have gonce with. Their units come completely built up so literally just a case of fastening to wall and you're done. They were £1500 more though and would not budge on price.

Oh and I forgot, Ikea are doing £100 vouchers for every 1k spent on kitchens so we've got £500 for new bedroom wardrobes too.

dave_s13

14,031 posts

300 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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If you go to Ikea though try and make is mid week and NOT on a Saturday.... It's mental busy.

And if you have kids, get them looked after. We were in there for over 2hrs getting it sorted.

Tuna

19,930 posts

315 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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We had Moben round. Probably the best word to describe the designer would be arrogant. Wouldn't give an accurate figure for us, dashed off a generic design that took no account of the space it was going in and then went on at length about how he had some really rich clients who had kitchens the size of our whole house.

Wouldn't touch them with a sh*tty stick.

That said, do get a proper kitchen designer to do the layout. They will pretty much always do a better job than you can. It's subtle, but they know every last item in their product range and have some experience of how to deal with those little problem areas and clever bits of layout. Even in a completely square room, that can make a difference between an 'it does the job' kitchen and a 'pleasure to work in' kitchen.

furtive

4,503 posts

310 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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I had Moben round on Monday. The planner spent about 2 hours at the house and came up with some decent ideas, but he insisted on recommending an island that was far too big for the room, and also that we pay an £8k deposit by this Thursday otherwise we lose our 60% discount. Having read the reviews on the internet (the only place I could find positive reviews was on their own website) I won't be placing an order with them. They wanted £25k to do my kitchen!


MrV

2,748 posts

259 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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An ex had them fit a kitchen for them as she reasoned it would take me 6 months if I did it for her(True but not the point smile )It took them three attempts to get the thing right and over 6 months of back and forth before we where happy with it.

On a side note all their units are flat pack so no better than any other shed that stacks them high and sells them cheap.

m4ckg

625 posts

222 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, try your local indepenent, you'll get a better service and probably a better kitchen aswell.

furtive

4,503 posts

310 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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I've got 2 local independents, and 2 local joiners with Howdens accounts coming round to give me quotes.

Anthony Micallef

1,128 posts

226 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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m4ckg said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again, try your local indepenent, you'll get a better service and probably a better kitchen aswell.
Couldnt agree more, we had a new kitchen installed last Oct and got three quotes, one from B&Q, one from a high end local independant and one from a low to mid range independant.

B&Q wanted £7k for their kithen but get this, £7k to fit it!!! In the end we went with the low to mid range firm who put us in a lovely kitchen and only wanted £950 to fit. There were some niggles but was all sorted in the end. The fitter was only a young guy but he did a great job.

m4ckg

625 posts

222 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
quotequote all
furtive said:
I've got 2 local independents, and 2 local joiners with Howdens accounts coming round to give me quotes.
I don't know what the independents supply but thier kitchens will probably be a better option

Ferg

15,242 posts

288 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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I bought a fairly expensive kitchen and then required one more unit. It was a tall pull out larder and the cost from my original supplier was crippling! I bought a similar unit from IKEA, with Blum mechanism, for a third of the price. It's not as well made and I wouldn't have bought a whole kitchen from them, but it wasn't at all bad.
However, I've had to get involved with their base units and they had no plumbing gap behind and the sink was like a feeler gauge in thickness. Allied to silly flexible hoses the tap waggled about like a waggly thing. The wall unit fixings were a bit cack, too.

Engineer1

10,486 posts

240 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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MrV said:
On a side note all their units are flat pack so no better than any other shed that stacks them high and sells them cheap.
All carpentry stuff is flatpack at some point I've yet to see a kitchen unit tree wink

pano amo

814 posts

267 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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I would avoid Moben. Like others I had the 'designer' around my house for what seem like an age. After he was done talking, he asked for 10 minutes to do the quote. And thats what it was - a quote. One number. No breakdown, no detail and to make it worse he had scribbled it on the brochure. He told me only when we signed up would we be sent a proper quote. On top of all that, I didn't like the guy and the whole thing seemed very fly-by-night. I had images of unanswered phone-calls once I'd paid up. GO somewhere else, please do.

x5x3

Original Poster:

2,437 posts

284 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
quotequote all
this is just a can of worms - already feel like packing it in and buying a new car instead...

staceyb

7,107 posts

255 months

Thursday 4th November 2010
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Try one of their kitchens, comes in different price categories and sold through independent stores.

http://www.omegaplc.co.uk/index.shtml

Harry Flashman

21,961 posts

273 months

Friday 5th November 2010
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x5x3 said:
i would appreciate people's thoughts and experiences on Moben, we recently had them round to quote for a new kitchen, we have seen others as well but would like to hear how others have got on with them.
Don't. Go. Near. Them.

3 friends had them, all had nightmares. AFter care was appalling after initial installation problems. Kitchens themselves seem of reasonable quality, mind, if not the absolute best.