Kitchen nightmare

sisalka

We have been badly let down by our kitchen company. After they took our money (without ever providing an invoice so far) by threatening to not keep to the fitting date if we literally didn't pay up in the next five minutes (literally!), they now don't engage or return phone calls to get the numerous issues resolved (mismatching veneers at the front, wrong height of units, a small storage space that is only usable if you open the fridge, week side panels that buckle if you gently lean agains them - never mind roughhousing teenagers.... to name only a few). We have no doors and no front to drawers either.
Whenever we try and talk to anybody staff is hostile and give is the run around, so far we have dealt with five people, none of whom has taken responsibility to engage with us and resolve the problems with the kitchen.

I was wondering if anyone has similar experiences because this company is supposedly reputable, features on RTE etc. So we thought this was a good company to deal with. We are moving in two weeks time and don't have a functioning kitchen despite paying quite a bit of money for it. Does anybody have a creative idea of how to deal with something like that? Anything you tried and it worked? Litigation is just too cumbersome and you never know the mood of judges on the day anyway. We are pretty desperate and were thinking drastic measures like banners on the road, youtube warnings about the company. I hate the fact that they can just go on pretending that they are a reputable company when there is no accountability and no customer service. Any suggestions appreciated.

BryanF

a terrible situation to be in, especially when you dont appear to have an written agreement in place?

apart from bringing in a third party to mediate, it sounds like its a visit to your solicitor.

before this thread continues, just to note that, Any defamation found in this forum will result in the thread/post being edited or deleted. Defamation is when something is said about another person (legal, natural or otherwise, that means companies can be defamed) that is untrue and damaging

DOCARCH

Tell them you are going to contact Jooooooe Duffy! Seriously.

mfceiling

Never mind joe duffy.

A quick call to them telling them to resolve the issue within 24 hours or it's in the hands of your solicitor from there.

martinn123

A dreadful situation to find yourself in.You say they produced no invoice, was there a quotation, listing the items you expected, and the price?
The attitude, to produce the Funds within 5 minutes, is unusual, but can indicate a pre_ liquidation situation where it's a case of getting in any available cash.
You say they appear on RTE, do you mean advertisements?. If so Joe Duffy will be useless.


As it's a consumer issue, maybe the Consumer Issues Forum, check with the Mod's there.


Post a review on your Facebook page, and get all your friends to "like"


Last drastic action, is to "picket" the premesis, notify the local Press, and use the Rogue Trader angle. They may send a photographer.
Go in between 4 and 5 on a Friday, when they can't get an injunction.
But check this first with a solicitor.
Bit drastic, but often produces results through adverse publicity.

sisalka

Thanks all, yes there is a written agreement but it is not a very good one. Our problem was that we trusted them as they came recommended. The agreement for example says that the height is 'standard', whose standard? Every company seems to have different one and we actually wanted storage up to about 2.3 m. Which is shown in the drawings for final approval - and they are part of the contract as there are no measurements for the elevations. There are three different terms for the wood that was used in the 'contract'. Everything is handwritten and has only key words, no details at all. We were definitely too trusting.

On the other hand, the reality is that it is not very clever to shrug off your customers when they are coming to you with a problem, in the long term that will cost them a lot of money - even if it doesn't end up with Joe Duffy or a mini movie on Youtube. Both last resorts just like picketing. Like everywhere else, bad reviews cost the company money, all our friends will get to hear about it if don't have a proper kitchen by the time we move. If only ten people decide not even to look at them rather than buy from them it would cost upwards of 50.000. Solving our problem is small fry in comparison.

Re Moderator, there is nothing defamatory about the fact that we have half a kitchen in our house that looks like a Harlequin put it together. And neither is the fact that we have tried for two weeks to get the kitchen company so resolve the issues. I would think that a warning about unclear contracts and unhelpful customer service is legitimate. How else is it possible to let people know what to look out for?

BryanF

sisalka wrote: »

Thanks all, yes there is a written agreement but it is not a very good one........... Our problem was that we trusted them as they came recommended........ Everything is handwritten and has only key words, no details at all.......
We were definitely too trusting........

If only ten people decide not even to look at them rather than buy from them it would cost upwards of 50.000. Solving our problem is small fry in comparison.

5k is a very cheap kitchen - it sounds like you went 'off-standard' from their cheap product and when they messed up it wasn't worth their while to rectify , so their giving you the run around

is nothing defamatory about the fact that we have half a kitchen in our house that looks like a Harlequin put it together. I would think that a warning about unclear contracts and unhelpful customer service is legitimate. How else is it possible to let people know what to look out for?

i totally agree with you.

(the mod post was a copy&paste from the C&P forum charter, and it was ONLY to point out that we dont allow naming and shaming here -just incase thats what this thread turned into)

i wish you the best of luck finding a resolution to your kitchen problems

sisalka

We payed 5 800 Euro for the kitchen alone! No appliances or top included. All in all the kitchen comes to about 12,000 Euro. The 5,800 is the carcasses and a limited number of shelves and drawers only - we will need more of them anyway as about a third of the carcasses is empty air.

I really do not consider that a cheap kitchen!!!