My Wickes Kitchen - The Delays

If you have read the Start page, you will have already seen that the Agreement was signed on the 2nd February, the installers quote was dated 26th (24 days after placing the order) and the planned installation date, according to the installer was 29th April 2013 - nearly two months after signing the Agreement.

Also, as a reminder, we were told that the lead time was approximately 6 weeks from the date of signing the Agreement, so we expected completion before we had a house full of visitors for a major family event in April. This was not achievable.

Note the planned start date was 29th April. I planned to be at home for the whole of this week and the following week, to ensure easy access and no delays.

The installer arrived at 3:30pm on the afternoon of 29th April, and left around 5pm. So, the installer met the planned start date. They were also on site on the next day. However, nobody turned up on the Wednesday. An electrician arrived Thursday morning, and the kitchen fitter arrived at 2pm on the same day. The kitchen fiitter was also on site on the Friday. So, I wasted time being at home one day this week.

At the end of this week, the cabinets had been put into position, according to the plan. However, you may have read my comment about the boxed in section against the wall with the window (in the plan image on the Start Page). The arrangement of the cabinets meant that there was a large inaccessible area in the corner, due to the boxed-in section. This can be seen in the image to the left. Wickes were contacted and two replacement cabinets were ordered. Two cupboard doors also had paint defects, and I was told that replacements had been ordered, although have no confirmation. Delivery was to be the following Thursday. I was told that the templating of the worktops was planned for the Tuesday, 14th May, so I assumed this would not be a problem.

On the morning of Tuesday 7th May, the fitter from the worktop company arrived to do the templating, at 8am. He was not able to do anything, and had to complete the form opposite. I asked if he would be back next week, as I was told, and he said that it might not be him, but someone else.

On the 14th May, I made arrangements to be at home again, and the kitchen installer arrived to be ready to disconnect the old sink, and the hob, so the templating could take place. Nobody arrived from the worktop company. I called them, as they start work at 8am (not 9am as Wickes Customer Service) and they know nothing about the job. I then contacted Wickes. They indicated that they were expecting the templating to take place on the 14th May, so would contact the worktop suppliers. After a few calls, it materialised that nothing had been arranged with the suppliers and the also the fitters time was being wasted.

On 15th I also reported a number of problems, for which there are images on the quality and workmanship pages.
I was also told on 15th May that templating could not be done until 30th May, and then fitting until 10th June. I was able to fit this in around my work schedule, but I felt it was an excessive amount of time to wait.

In an email recived from Wickes on 15th May, I was told that they had asked their installer to call me and arrange a visit to acknowledge the sizes of the doors so that they can order replacements for you and to obtain the PNC and Serial number from the cookerhood (see quality page) to enable us to order a replacement with the supplier. I thought the doors had already been ordered (see above). They went on to say that once they had this information they will raise replacement parts and inform me of delivery dates. On 11th June, I emailed Wickes and said that I was still waiting for this to be actioned.

On 12th June, I had another email from Wickes saying “I have just spoken to the fitter who has advised that he has been in touch with yourself and was in actual fact at your property yesterday? We have not been provided with the details of the cooker hood either from yourself or the fitter so therefore have been unable to order the part needed.Please obtain this information from the rating plate situated inside the hood where the filter would go and we can then proceed. I’m sorry if there has been some confusion with who should be supplying this information but the fitter believed that you were supplying us with the information. See paragraph before this. Wickes also later replied “I can only apologise, that is what I asked the installer to do and I entrusted him to do so.I have raised a complete replacement cooker hood for you and this will be delivered directly to yourself on Tuesday 18th June.

On the 14th June, I emailed Wickes again about the outstanding problems. There were 3 quality problems and 10 workmanship problems.

On 15th June, I emailed Wickes and said that the replacement door and filler trim arrived at 1pm that day. I opened them and inspected them, and the 500mm door was damaged. The packaging was intact and showed no signs of damage, so the door must have been packed in that condition. I also asked about the cooker hood replacement which was due to arrive in the branch on the following Tuesday, and if it would in fact arrive. I also had an email from the kitchen planner the Hedge End store who said that he had raised another replacement door and he had also forwarded my previous email to his store manager, so he is was also now aware of the outstanding issues.

On the 18th June, the kitchen installer went to collect the hood and the door from the branch, but they could not be found.

Later in the week they were located, but the kitchen installer was not available until Friday 5th July. On this date, 5 months after ordering, the kitchen was completed.

Next - Product Quality , although Workmanship is more interesting