Wren kitchens… anybody have one that's not moaning?

Ordered a new kitchen recently from them … was impressed with the products in the showroom, went on to have a proper measurement done and was happy with their design consultation. Originally signed up for their fitter to install but after a ludicrous additional cost following a pre-fit survey, I’ve sacked them off and got my own guy… Now, all of a sudden I’ve been made aware there’s pages on the internet slating wren with all sorts of horror stories 🙁
Somebody please reassure me I’ve not made a massive mistake …

We looked at them, found they were a complete bunch of arses. Quoted us over 7k for a kitchen and we have managed to get the equivalent for about 3k from diy kitchens.com. Sorry thats probably not helped much.

i must admit i was sent a wren kitchen link the other day on facebook where their upper units had come off the wall.

strikes me as a bad installer rather than the kitchen.

equally i got one on sunday where it was captioned “what happens in an oil downturn – fixing a “handymans” work”

looked like he had fitted the kitchen with a trebuchet from across town.

You’ve made a massive mistake.

Next door neighbours had a wren kitchen as part of their shiny new extension. They are still waiting for some cupboard door fronts 3 months after it was first installed.

A friend had one. They ended up exchanging about 50% of the kitchen as most of the units arrived scratched or not right. They drove a hard bargain and their builder fitted the kitchen. They seem happy enough apart from the high number of exchanges.

We’ve got one, and like you, didn’t use their fitting service. It’s almost 4 years old, and don’t have anything exciting to report either way. It’s no better or worse than the Homebase one we had fitted in our previous house.

Had one for about 2 years in my old house – we put it in (or rather got someone else to do it).

It was their most ‘modestly priced’ offering. Everything arrived as it should in perfect condition, it went in ok and it worked 100%, nothing fell off, it looked nice and felt solid. The worktop didn’t wear that well – wasn’t looking so shiny and had lost its lustre a wee bit. But no significant problems. The kitchen was noted as a high point when we sold the house.

That make you feel any better?

thanks (to some of you)… Feel much better 🙂
I guess if I’d put the same post up replacing Wren for Wickes. B & Q etc I’d get similar mixed bag responses ??

We’ve got one that’s a few years old now.

The dishwasher cupboard front delaminated from escaping steam. They replaced it no problems. The replacement has done the same, so I think it’s more likely an issue with the dishwasher seal.

The fridge cupboard front has warped very slightly.

Otherwise, it’s been absolutely fine. Our installer was impressed with the solidity of the units, and the fact they were preassembled meant we saved a bit of money on his time.

Dunno – but I haven’t read a bad thing about diy-kitchens.com as mentioned by benjamins11. Very happy with ours when we bought from them and there’s quite a few on here that have used them as well. Comparable quality but a lot cheaper.

I’m sure Wren Kitchens are the same people responsible for eBuyer – and if you’ve ever dealt with them….

We’ve got one, and like you, didn’t use their fitting service. It’s almost 4 years old, and don’t have anything exciting to report either way. It’s no better or worse than the Homebase one we had fitted in our previous house.

Is our experience to a t.

We used them and the whole process went scarily well.
The quality is fine, but I think in all honesty it comes down the designer / measurer and their skills and experience followed by the sub contracted fitters they use. Ours were Hungarian and were excellent (Portsmouth area)

I have no personal experience but assume that Wren sell a lot of kitchens and a certain percentage will have issues. Those folk will be straight into the Internet to let the world know. On the other hand loads of folk will have a nice new kitchen and will get on with their lives without shouting from the rooftops.

I’m in the process of buying a new kitchen and have only had time to visit Wren, Avanti and a small independent so far. I discounted Avanti straight away as the high gloss style of doors we liked had a slight rippled finish when you looked down the length of them. That and the staff seemed disinterested. Wren seemed good to start with and from the start I stated I was just browsing and looking for ideas. I have done my own cad drawing of the empty room which they said they could quickly come up with some ideas which they did and gave us a rough idea of the price £3700. I left it with them and booked an appointment to go back for a proper look and to discuss options. All the time I told them I have a loads of structural work to do before starting and I’m probably around 2 months from needing the units. Skip forward to the appointment and after about 2 hours we were told the actual cost would be just shy of £10k. After numerous fake sales and “speaking with the manager” it came down to around £7k. I have fitted a fair few kitchens but I left completely baffled about what I would actually receive. The salesman was cagey and wouldn’t give me a breakdown of what bits I would need. He also added appliances I didn’t ask for and outright lied about a few things.
Then the phone calls started. He kept ringing me saying I needed to order it by Wednesday in order to qualify for another fake sale. If not it would cost more etc. I kept telling him that as discussed I’m not ready to purchase at the moment. A few more phone calls and the price was getting cheaper with more fake discounts added. Again I told him I’m not ready and have some other companies to look at. He then started telling me about their price match. He said they match any other supplier as long as they are exactly the same doors. Previously he had told me that their doors are exclusive to them so I asked him how he would price match and in the end he indirectly admitted that that is another made up way of bringing the price down to what it should be in the first place.
What annoyed me the most though was how he kept telling us how the most important thing it is that he gets our business. The most important thing is that I get the kitchen I want and all I hear is that he want the commission.
I’m fed up with them to be honest but as I said to the salesman on his last call I will pick the kitchen I like most regardless of cost and fake sales.

I’ll second diykitchens fantastic service, fitted it myself then had granite installed by a local firm, everyone asks where we got it from, solid oak doors and so on better quality than Wickes or Howdens that we looked at.

My Aunt and Uncle are in the process of buying a Wren Kitchen.

They’re got a 70s 3 bed semi so a fairly small kitchen. Initial quote was £4k, upon inspection it was £7k, it’s now £11k and they’re still along with it! My Mum has begged them to get another quote, but they’ve paid a deposit and my Uncle being my uncle has ripped out the old one in preparation of them coming, in 3 weeks…

Anyway, I expect a horror story to follow but at least my Nutty Uncle will be stood over them the whole time with a spirit and a tape measure, so it’s be as bad for them as it is for my Aunt and Unlce.

I’ll third diy kitchens, good products and easy and prompt to deal with.

I fitted a wren kitchen earlier in the year , I know what the customer paid and thought some people obviously have more money than sense, wren had to replace a solid 60mm oak breakfast bar due to it being badly made and left the customer with the bad top , obviously making to much profit , b&q or Howden probably better option.

And this just popped up on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/wrenkitchenscancel/

We had one last year and employed our own fitter.

Beautiful kitchen at a fair price but the salesman measured up wrong. Also they sent wrong units, cupboard door instead of dishwasher etc.

This resulted in extra work from our tradesman which they refused to cover.

You just get put on hold from their call center so we kept on at the branch. After they have got your money they don’t give hoot, couldn’t care less what mess they’ve made.

After a long wrangle we got our money back through the Ombudsman.

We look back now and laugh but at the time it was a very stressful and unplesant experience.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

Our current kitchen is a Wren kitchen. There were a couple of design mistakes on the part of the sales chap which only became apparent when we came to fit the kitchen. There were also a couple of errors on the ordering front and we had a couple of units that weren’t the right ones. However it was all put right and swapped out with no fuss. We also had some things left over at the end which they happily took back and refunded us for. Even a couple of units which we changed our mind on when we saw how they would look in situ. I guess it helped that we fitted it ourselves to save their £!!! fitting charge and also we didn’t mind waiting a few days while they swapped units out etc.

Overall we’re very happy and would use them again.

I’d always be very wary of any company that has a salesman doing the designing and measuring.
They always then send in a ‘surveyor’ who normally has to redesign and requote, i.e. add on money!

I worked for Magnet and Howdens for 3-4 years in my 20s, and was given excellent training on the design side. The sales side actually came second with both those companies.

Shift forward a few years and I got back from travelling and working in Asia. I thought I’d put my old experience to good use and got a job with Moben Kitchens (spits on floor). They sent us on a ‘training’ course which purported to teach us how to design a kitchen.
I was the only person there with prior design experience, most of the others were ex phone, car, & double-glazing salesmen. It became apparent very quickly that we weren’t going out to customers to design the best kitchen we could, we were going out to sell the most expensive kitchen we could, preferably on finance (4 times the commission!) Any design mistakes would be sorted on the surveyors visit.

Suffice to say I lasted about 6 weeks with them 😆 I kept designing what the customers actually wanted, giving them far too nice deals, and not wanting to do the hounding for the sales that was required.

I hope the industry has changed since then, but I doubt it!

Wikipedia view of Wren

So they sound exactly like the shyster shits I was talking about above. I’d avoid like the plague.

So, who do we use then?

I need a new kitchen, and my wife was about to book an appointment with Wren.

looked like he had fitted the kitchen with a trebuchet from across town

You owe me a keyboard TR.

Your builder/fitter is bound to have a Howdens account.
Have a look at their range. Most kitchen companies these days offer pretty similar stuff, until you start getting into bespoke wooden stuff.
The advantage of somewhere like Howdens is that they sell directly to your tradesperson, if there’s a problem they can normally go down to the depot and pick up a new part straight away.

If you’re in the Teesside/North Yorkshire area I’d happily recommend Courts Homemakers.

They designed and fitted our kitchen (which included removing an internal wall and moving the back door) and the whole process went very smoothly.

Units are good quality and are delivered assembled (not flatpack) and rea very solid. The fitters were punctual, polite, helpful and tidy. They also did a couple of extra jobs (external socket and outside tap installation) while they were on site FOC.

We liked the experience so much we got them back a couple of years ago to do our bathroom.

Edit – Several of the kitchen cupboards had to be non-standard sizes and they were spot on.

So, who do we use then?

I need a new kitchen, and my wife was about to book an appointment with Wren.

Do you know any kitchen fitters?

We’re having our Bathroom done so went to Bathstore and they were both very pushy and completely useless. Their ‘design service’ was basically a really crap 3D model and trying to get you to buy every last part from their catalogue whether it was what you really wanted or not. And they wanted a 50% deposit there and then before they’d even quote for installation.

A family friend (not friendly enough to do mates rates, but known to us and has done all our bathrooms) is a bathroom fitter and came round to have a look and immediately pointed out better ways to lay the room out, went through the pile of catalogues we’d accumulated pointing out which were going to be in budget, which were rubbish (Bathstore) and which were unaffordable. And gave us a quote for both the bathroom and building an entirely new similarly sized en-suite (and making good the two bedrooms it’ll destroy) that’s only going to be about 30% more than Bathstores initial quote!

So, who do we use then?

http://www.diy-kitchens.com/%5B/url%5D

Already recommended 3 or 4 times in this thread and plenty more times in multiple other threads on this site.

They were great for us.

Howden’s seem competent but I don’t like the whole ‘Pot luck’ pricing strucutre – its not very transparent. Also some won’t give you a design unless you have a builder doing some work which they can link the account / design to.

Yet another +1 for DIY kitchens. The only thing I’d add is the premium (Gold?) delivery service is probably worth it, luckily the driver + mate gave us a bit of a hand with some of the heavier/more unwieldy carcasses.

Had a Wren kitchen installed in one of my houses several years ago. No issues at all, and good quality (I didn’t use their fitters). I would use again.