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Comments:
I am amazed (and a little suspicious) that some contributors feel able to be positive about this sham of a company.
The words of the current Space salesman who has concluded he's too nice for the job seem realistic though.
How anyone cannot consider their approach as oppressive hard-selling is beyond me.
I won't bore you with reams of detail, but a Space prospector called and advised that they could give us a kitchen quote guaranteed for two years. This suited our long term planning well, so we made an appointment.
We advised the salesman that we would not under any circumstances sign up that evening, but would retail the quote for two years time. Once he'd measured up we suggested he draw the kitchen up and send us a quote through later as we had no desire to watch him drawing for another hour. He refused to leave, saying this was how Space did things!
He eventually came us with a ludicrous price, knocked it down significantly following a call to his boss (supposedly) then called me a ****head as he left without a sale.
Yobbish salesman, hard sell tactics, totally unprofessional. DO NOT GO NEAR THEM!
Space Kitchens - I entered an online competition last week to win a "free kitchen" from Space Kitchens. LIterally within minutes of entering I started receiving telephone calls from them. I don't answer numbers I don't recognise so I simply made a note of the number and searched for it online - turns out, it was Space Kitchens. The phone calls then persisted with me receiving up to 30 calls a day from them from 8am to 9pm. Finally, yesterday, I answered. The salesman immediately tried to arrange for someone to visit me and design my new kitchen. I refused and told him I wasn't interested. I asked him to take my number off of their register as the constant calls were very annoying. He said it was the first time the company had called and I told him that was a lie as their number was being registered on my phone numerous times each day. He then asked me what website I had registered my details on as they have "several different websites" which all sounds very fishy to me - if he got my number from HIS website then surely he should know what website I used. I haven't had any calls today so hopefully that's an end to it now. In fairness, the salemsan was very polite, but horribly pushy. He also sounded like he was working in a call centre which wouldn't surprise me given what other stories I've read on here.
To cut a story brief so you don't have to read on unless you want to, save yourself some time and find another kitchen company.
But, the long winded version of those simply goes when I received a called from Space (who had already visited us last year in 2008) around a month and a half ago saying about a free kitchen blah blah. As my parents are looking for a new kitchen, I took a message and gave it to them when they got home. My dad called them etc and sorted out a time for the guy to come round.
When it came to planning, admittedly, it was done well, but, the cost and figures were a joke. Firstly, he started with saying £18,000, the same as last year, but, as my father is a tough nut to crack, he brought him down to £5000, with no appliances however. A £13,000 drop is a bit, hmmm, "weird".
Anyway, they kept calling us saying to do this and that and that they wanted us to move a radiator in the kitchen before they came, where, my dad gave him a lesson on customer relations. This was in key with us ordering tiles for the floor to be fitted at a certain time etc.
They then, a few weeks ago, called saying they could move the delivery and installation forward, however, we couldn't because of the dates we had already set for the tiling and appliances to be delivered.
It then got to today, where they were meant to start removal of the kitchen, where we had spent yesterday removing everything. They now gave us a story about starting on Monday to remove the kitchen, when the tiler is already coming tomorrow.
The overall experience was a negative one to be quite honest, there whole working with customers is very poor as at one point they threatened my father on the phone, a 65 year old man, to which he replied to the salesman, "you don't actually know who you're talking to". This company seem to think that as a customer, you are meant to do some of their work for them, plus, they feel that your don't have anything else in life that needs doing so they can make you wait for them to feel ready for starting.
And by the way, the installation time are contracted by Space so if they say they aren't going to install, Space don't really have any option.
There do seem to be a lot of negative comments about this company so I thought I would provide you with my comments about my recent exoerience with Space Kitches, which have been very positive.
My wife and I were thinking about having our kitchen refitted when Space happened to cold call us.
Sure they mentioned a "free kitchen" but we took that with a pinch of salt as nothing in life is free.
The sales person/designer turned up on time. It took him a couple of hours and some discussion to come up with a design that met our requirements. We have to live with this kitchen for the next 10 years so we were quite happy that he took time to listen and incorporate our ideas.
He came up with a price for what we/he had designed, there was no hard sell just hard negotiation to reach a price we were all happy with.
Kitchen was delivered when promised and fitters turned up when scheduled. The fitters were excellent, paying attention to detail and installing to a high standard.
The end result is a kitchen we are very happy with and of good quality.
In all my dealings with Space they have provided good or excellent customer service.
I hope others will be as satisfied as we are with our kitchen from Space.
I am shocked by the other comments I have read on this site. We have just had our kitchen refitted and it looks really good. This is of course, largely in part to the fitters who were very professional, thorough and worked quickly and tidily. There was always somebody at the end of the phone to speak to and not only were they always polite, every question was answered quickly. Would I recommend this company - yes I would unreservedly. Even after the job was completed and I retrospectively decided to have another integrated appliance added we were treated well and the new additional appliance was delivered and fitted within the week. We got an excellent quality kitchen at a fair price and I can't praise them enough.
The salesman...sorry "designer" visited our home one evening and was there from 7pm until nearly midnight! We had to eat our tea around him as we were starving!
He brought a cupboard in from the car after various cigarette breaks and proceeded to show us how scratch resistant the coating was (by scratching it...and leaving a scratch).
Then he procedeed to design our kitchen on paper without much consultation about where we wanted to place the items - in face he moved our cooker and fridge freezer to the other side of the room.
After four hours he finally worked out the quote and arrived at the random sum of £18000, bearing in mind that our kitchen is about 6 foot wide by 9 foot long!
Then he applied a "special discount" (by calling his colleague) the next quoted figure was £13000 - a £5k drop? Just like that? Are they going to GIVE this away if i hold out?!
At this point, his "colleague"...or boss(?) tried to reason with me on "what would make me take the kitchen this evening" to which i said that as he was the first quote we wouldnt be signing up to anything - at which point he hung up!"
Now, a week later, my wife has received a call from Spac saying that they can do a better deal...surely they would get more business if they gave the best price at the start instead of overinflating the cost to get the salesmen a better commission?
Intrusive financial questioning..."how much can we afford to pay each month"?
Why did they ask that BEFORE we were told the price?
Because they want to sell the finance option - work out how much you can pay, this determines how much they will lend, hence the kitchen price is around that amount!
I joined Space as a kitchen designer four weeks ago and underwent a thorough training week. I have been on the road for about 10 appointments now, and not made a sale, though some of my colleagues are incredibly successful, and have not been here much longer. I am just a nice guy who was unemployed and in severe financial hardship, and I am probably in the wrong job. I have been told that we a reputable company with excellent customer service, and was never told of any of the bad feedback that is apparent on this site. I am unhappy with our techniques and try to be as honest and genuine as I can to the prospective customers I meet. They often have unrealistic expectations due to what the call centre staff tell them, stuff that is technically possible but fairly unlikely. Consequently I am not selling kitchens, though I really am trying to using my own personality. I'll probably have to quit soon, because of lack of success, also because I am disturbed from what I have read about the company on this site.
May 2009 - Such a non professional company!! a real joke!!
My story is quite similar as all comments below (will look at adding comments on other website such as money savings and all that to tell eveyone not to sign up with them)..
Basically got told that I was elligble of free kitchen.
Designer came in (Friendly polish lady but very persistent!!!) to take measurement and start selling her products. when I realised how long this was going to take (at that point already over 1hr), I said that I wasn't interested and only wanted to get a quote only.. she said that she had to call her manager as i interrupted the flow of the procedure (!!!).. spoke to manager and told him , i was not interested as looking at quality as I just wanted to have a quote to have an idea... was told the designer had to carry on with the design in order to get a quote...anyway cut story short, i was getting rather unpatient and very p***d off of losing my time with her..at that point almost 3 hrs!!! anyway got a quote of 10K (joke!!!) but as a special customer (yeah right!!), price will go down to 5K!!!! she then asked what my budget was and said less than 2k, real max but more looking at £800... anyway after listening to her various stories which lots of them I believe were enmotional bullying... (like she lost her dad and all that).. I obvisoulsy did not believe in her and emotional blackmail and ask her to leave!!
few days later received a phone call from factory saying they would do a much better price and wont be pushed by kitchen space sale staffs ..(!!!!!)... her main phrase was "keep an open mind".. "keep an open mind".she was so pushy, she really wanted to get an appointment for another designer to come around... i told her it was not conveninent at the present time... anyway really had to deal with this as they not only became persistent (at time 10 time a call per hour!!) which to my view become arrassment.
She called again this morning and I told her that i could not carry this furthwer as my role has been made redundant! (true as well!)..anyway she hardly paid notice and she asked what price i was quoted on the day .. so i said, the starting price was 10k but went downt to 5k... she asked me what was my budget and I told her less than 1k and more likely £800... she replied "you are joking" and put the phone down on me!!!!!!!!!!! what a JERK!!!(i am still laughing at their behaviour) .... i am going to look at reporting them to trading standard for not only using pushy selling technique but also arrassin people on the phone.
ps-1st time I am using this type of feedback comments (blagger) but I really feel i had to do it to pre warn people...
I recieved a phone call from Space Kitchens on 18th July 2009 offering me a free kitchen! Unfortunately I was not in at the time and my partner took the call, telling them it would be better to call back and talk to me. This they did on the following day and once again said they were looking for homes in my postcade area to feature in their magazine and probibly send a few people round to view the kitchen, and that I had been chosen for a new fitted kitchen. I'm not a stupid man and realise there is nothing for free in this world ( unless you win a competition! ), but I decided to have the designer come round and see what he had to say.
When he arrived he asked me what I had been told on the telephone. When I told him I had been offered a free kitchen, he said well.... that's not totally true ( I thought here we go ), He wanted to give me two prices. One if I signed up for a new kitchen today, this he said could become free if I was able to get enough family and friends to buy a kitchen from them and for each one signed up I would reieve 5% off the total bill, and the second deal was a price if I was prepared to let hin re-design the kitchen, but have a price they would honour for 24 months.
I told him I was not interested, the kitchen could wait and I was very angry, as the offer of a free kitchen was just a ploy to get into my house, where people are very vunerable. He called his sales manager whom I refused to talk to and after he drunk my coffee left the house.
How are these companies allowed to get away with this? Is there no law ( trade descriptions ) for misleading customers? I also work in a public sector company, and if I tried to get business in this way would be heavily fined, but more so, would feel ashamed of myself for giving out false information. I can only imagine how vunerable or elderly people would feel by this kind of intimidating cold selling. This company should be reported to companies house, and trade discriptions for gross misleading and incorrect information selling.
I've just been cold called by this company and I am on the TPS register. Naughty of them.
I've tried e.mailing them, using the link from THEIR web site. The E.mails come back as no such address!
Reading what other people say, them seem to be operating like 'certain' double glazing companies. I would certainly not touch them based on all the evidence available.
I would say to anyone looking to buy a kitchen from this company DON'T!!!!. I received a cold call from them and as I was thinking of changing my kitchen I agreed to a home visit from a saleperson. After 3 hours they left as they couldn't come up with a design I liked and the price was way too high. A week later I got another call from the 'factory' who could give me a better design and price. It took four hours but the salesperson did come up with a good design and a reasonable price so I signed up.All monies had to be paid up front. Next they sent out a surveyor who was doing this for the first time alone who fumbled along but confirmed that I could have the design I wanted - this was not to be so... Before the fitters turned up the company was bought out and stopped making their own cabinets. This meant that I did not get the bespoke sizes and cabinets I was expecting but had standard ones instead. I did not find this out until the fitters started work. They fitted the kitchen with the adjustments but the units were so tightly packed that I was only able to open my fridge door half way and I was missing one door for a re-sized larder. It took six weeks to get the door and have the fitters back to look at the fridge after many phone calls to the installation team and having to deal with rude receptionists and unhelpful managers! They did manage to adjust the cabinets so that I can now open the fridge door fully. However to open the freezer door fully it now bangs against the newly fitted larder door! Then I noticed a leak under my sink unit. The fitters cam back and tightened the waste joints and another joint behind the sink. There was some minor water damage to the sink unit but I decided I could live with that rather than have the kitchen stripped out again! The waste joint didn't hold for long so thoroughly fed up with Space by this time I contacted my insurance company. They sent out a qualified plumber who told me that the waste joint was cross threaded and I should have a new waste fitted. He stopped the leak with PTF tape and that is holding for now. I contacted Space again but they say that I have invalidated my guarantee by having someone else look at the problem and so will not replace the waste! Never again will I use large national companies - I will stick to small local ones where I know I will get good quality and service!
After reading all the blaggers comments on this company I can 100% agree Space Kitchens are a waste of time. As per alot of people we went for the sale and gave deposit of £100 but could not get in contact with any one regarding calls that we had cancelled which we didnt.
Call tonight was from a so called manager (seems to be a few of them) and again as a blagger commented he endeed up putting the phone down on me. Oh my goodness as writing this i have another call from a (Manager) offering me a further reduction on the kitchen ! so in a space of an hour they have underpriced us and then on the second phone call they offer us reduction. Where is this company coming from ? I suggest that some money is put into this company training up their personel. Please please be very very aware of the phone calls and the costing that you are given on design, because after three visits from reps that will take up a very large chunk of your evening the price you are told is not true. They have wasted my time and effort because had to organise structual work but at end of day have gone for a more respectable company to which i TRUST.
I had my kitchen done recently by space. And i am absolutely delighted. The workmanship is outstanding. The only complaint is that i had to chase up my cashback.But Helen at Blackburn was wonderful and kept up good communication. Overall i am really pleased.
be careful very very careful the feature home is an advertizing ghost get the retail rep around then kick the person out retail amnagement then have 7 days to make you an offer and get you on board. If this does not work they will try to appoint you with the trade department. If at this stage you are happy check out the origiunal retail price that you was offered then take off approx 3000 that was added onto the price so the retail rep could try and sell to you on price to get most commission then take another 75% off the new price that trade has given you as the real retail price and you will get a good bargain as the kitchens are then being a sold at a reasonable price.How do I know that this is a reasonable price quite simply they buy the furniture from a company that supplies many other kitchen suppliers in the country so as for bespoke individuality and quality try having a good look around. If you do purchase at the 75% reduced rate then you will no doubt get a phone call asking trying to blag you for more money but just ignore this request. Appliances are more over priced than the cabinets how can it cost just under 1000 for a sink and tap. The new regime now under wetherseal but still in reality the same company under the original owner so nothing apart from a 10% rise in pricing of the kitchens has changed. Customer care incredibly poor leaving customers without a kitchen for over 5 weeks(as they stripped it out in anticipation to save the fitting time) They also have difficulty in maintaining delivery times and an even greater ability to lose customers deposits and even deliver the wrong style of kitchen. So buyer beware they do not even have samples for the reps (whoops designers)to show potential customers so think on as i said buyer beware.
i currently work ( or in the process of leaving ) space kitchens. I have been in the construction design trade for 14 years and this is by far the worst kitchen company i have seen. Not only are there tacticts highly unmorale, but they promise to many things, which always seem to good to be true. if you are in the position of having a ' design ' done by one of there design proffesionals ( ie ex British gas, Npower, Eon, BT staff ). i would say this, they will go down to any price as long as they don't lose profit, so hang out for the bargain. But be prepaired to have your kitchen planned against Health and Safety you have been warned. If you are one of these people who are looking for a kitchen here are my recommendations, MFI, because at least they are trained to do you a proper plan although sometimes the service sucks. Ikea, don't touch with a barge pole! bad quality, DIY places, Don't touch with a barge pole bad quality. The best place to buy a Kitchen is your local Builders Merchant, why?, because they sell brilliant quality kitchens and give good customer service. you might pay a bit more than the rest but hey at least you will get the job done properly. Builders merchants include: Jacksons, Travis Perkins, Buildbase, Jewson etc. if you live in the Nottingham area i can recommend Frank Key Builders Merchants.
I received a call from Space Kitchens offering to install a kitchen free of charge if I participated in their magazine show home deal. To good to be true? Read on.
An appointment was made for the following day. This was cancelled and re-booked for the day after. Sales guy shows up half hour late. Spent the first half hour with the usual chit chat - hows life etc. I told him exactly what I wanted right down to the type of door handles I liked. He produced a sample cupboard/drawer/worktop model from a box and on the whole it looked quite solid. One thing I expressed was that I did not want a Chipboard kitchen and he told me it was high pressure moisture resistant sealed laminated timber. When I removed the shelf from the cupboard it was clearly Chipboard. He couldn't put the shelf back in quick enough and moved the conversation on to the soft closure doors and quick release hinges. He spent the next three hours drawing a kitchen plan with the cupboards and drawers etc that would fit the space. My kitchen measures approx 8' x 12' containing 2 doors a fitted under stair cupboard and a window. Not massive then. I couldn't have the sink & taps I wanted but they could be ordered by myself and fitted by them at a cost of about £1000. After the obligatory additions on his calculator he came up with the figure of £14,500, he had taken off the cost of the sink & taps that he had accounted for. Less the magazine deal and recommendations to family & friends discount brought this down to £8,600. This price did not include extra cupboard fittings, under cupboard lighting, flooring, wall tiles, plumbing, electrics or any appliances. As it was a joint desicion I said I would need to talk it over with my partner as we would be paying in cash and would not sign anything there & then, so he called his boss. You could quite clearly hear him getting lambasted over the phone and after a few minutes his boss wanted to talk to me. I said that the price was slightly over what we wanted to pay. He tried to broker a special deal regarding the sink & taps without the sales guy hearing. I told him that the magazine deal was not a deciding factor to my agreeing, more so getting the kitcken I wanted and not the one they wanted me to have. I explained to him that my partner had to go to work and that due to his type of work he was uncontactable. He was annoyed that my partner had left and told me to sign anyway and that I had a 7 day cooling off period. I refused and with that he told me that I wouldn't call back at all and put the phone down on me. Great sales technique. I felt like a scolded child who had not done as he was told. They expected me to sign up to a £8,500 kitchen roughly drawn up on paper with only a picture in a magazine to go by and then give a deposit. Not this side of sanity.
So not a free kitchen after all then. Just a waste of 4 hours of my time. Glad we looked at this site and that of Companies House, which helped us to decide not to go ahead, although after his bosses arrogance he had made that decision for us.
My advice. Avoid them like the plague.
This company sent a non corgi registered workman to my property who caused a lot of damage the work was poorly done and he caused a major gas leak.
The company agreed to fit a new boiler for me as part of my kitchen installation however they have now refused to aknowledge any responsibilty for the workman and have said that it was nothing to do with them.
The company did not provide any documentation as they needed to have the work surveyed first they then visited the property while I was out an a friend was at the house. They began the work (removed the old boiler) without my consent and left me with no hot water or heating for a number of days before returning with a replacement.
I still recieved no doccumentation and the work was carried out without my consent and without me signing anything.
The damage caused has cost me a further £3000 which the company has refused to pay back they also demanded a half payment for the boiler before leaving my home. They have refused to refund any ammounts paid and left me in a lot of debt.
This company installed my kitchen about 4 years ago. I was lucky in that I had competent installers and the kitchen still looks good.
However, this is a warning about a new sales technique I experienced in February. I was called by Space Kitchens offering me a no-obligation 10% cashback on the cost of my kitchen if I accepted a quote on installing new doors and windows from one of their sister companies. I agreed to a visit from the salesman and he gave me a verbal quote. Since then, I have received no money from Space Kitchens or any response to my letters and calls. I have reported this to Trading Standards. If you have had a similar experience, please report the company to Trading Standards and then some action might be possible.
Good news, they went into administration 11/07/08. Bad news, they took a number of companies for a lot of money;and then re opened for business on the 14/07/08.
Just be careful if considering using them.
Space kitchens have recently gone into receivership and are now under the new name of 'Feature Homes'. Like a great number of others on this site, I have been taken in by this company to find that I cannot replace anything new through them and they owe me several thousand pound, that I am not likely to receive back.
I only had the kitchen in February and have waited for the cashback since then. I did get a cheque that bounced and by that time I couldn't get hold of anyone.
I am told that they have been bought out, but I believe that they are still the same people and haven't been bought out at all. Their practices are dreadful, not leaving you alone until you sign up. i just wish I had been stronger and told them to go away.
Please if you are approached by this company 'Space Kitchens' or even 'Feature Home', turn them away, never mind how good they make it sound.
They also came round to my place and lowered the price enough for me to go with them but I would never recommend using space kitchen (they don't even deserve capital letters) unless you like misinformation, stress, constant errors, laziness, rubbish excuses and massive unapologetic delays. When I signed on the dotted line I was informed the work would be project managed (now that's a laugh) and that it shouldn't take any longer than 2 to 3 weeks. Space kitchen's think they completed the task, which had no structural changes, but only 5 months later. Even then they hadn't finished. They installed a wrong appliance which I have signed documentation from them admitting their error but still they won't replace it for what I actually ordered. ' Oh, they will but at an additional cost.
We had a similar experience to most of the rest of the people on this page - The 'designer' came round and took three hours to try and sell us a kitchen and kept lowering the price. Called his boss on the 'phone three times. He was actually quite a nice bloke but we had said repeatedly that we didn't want a credit deal and that, no matter what the price, we would not be making a decision there and then. He kept on trying but eventually lost interest and we packed him up and sent him on his way.
I actually found it slightly entertaining as he tried every trick in the book and we got quite a nice kitchen design out of it for free. But we won't be buying it from Space Kitchens! We are both young and strong willed, it worries me that they were calling on a street where a lot of elderly people live alone who, after 3 or 4 hours may just get too tired or confused to make a rational decision.
Incidentaly Space Kitchens seem to be using the name 'Fashion Home' in their advertising material, possibly because of the bad press that they are receiving.
We were approached by this company, and the pattern of pestering phone calls led to us setting up a meeting. I didn't realise my partner had done this, so I did some research and came up with this site. We tried to cancel and all of their numbers were withheld so we couldn't.
When the salesman arrived we told him there was no way we were going to deal with a pressure selling company, and handed him the pages of bad feedback.
He was aware of it but said that had been posted by 'their competitors', and that there were some good comments there. I responded saying that some of the good comments looked as though they'd written them themselves, and the bad comments were written in different styles so I knew which ones I was more inclined to believe.
We held our ground and insisted we wouldn't deal with a company that did pressure selling.
The thing that really confirmed for me that I was right was that the guy got his mobile phone out, and started dialing his boss. He said he needed to tell his boss he wasn't just down the pub, i.e. we would have to speak to him.
See the other feedback comments below and you'll find that getting the boss to speak to you is yet another of their pressure selling techniques.
We'd made it abundantly clear we wouldn't deal with them and he still wouldn't go away. We had to shut the door in his face.
They then rang us 10 minutes later to ask if we'd like to reschedule our appointment.
If you, like some other people on this website, get pestered with repeat calls from this company when you have told them you don't want them to contact you any more, this is a breach of your rights under the Data Protection Act and you can report them to the Information Commissioner's Office (website is http://www.ico.gov.uk/)
Space Kitchens - take note - we couldn't care less how good your product is - and feedback about quality varies - this sales technique takes advantage of people who are vulnerable and stressed - we would never buy from you on principle - I suspect we're part of a growing number of people who would feel this way.
Do not attempt buy a kitchen from Space kitchen!!!My wife and I we had a horrible experience with this company. The first appointment they came at 08:00Pm and left at 02:00AM!!!They are very aggressive in selling their kitchen, be aware of that. Anyway the first price was £13.000!!and then they dropped to £6.500 after calling the head office. Still not happy they pursued us come on I am sure you really want it! We said still too expensive, that's it the sale closed.
After a few days we received a phone call from Space kitchen, and they said that we could have the same kitchen a fraction of the cost!We said ok, here we go, booked an other appointment, they came and draw the design in 2 hours. Finished they said will cost us £3300 and we agreed with that, also they made a few changed that we asked. When the surveyer came (this the 3rd appointment by the way!) to finally add the design and measurements in his computer.Finished with that we were very excited in looking our new kitchen. Fine at this point we signed the contract and paid the deposit of £330,and they arrenged the delivery for the coming wednsday. So at this point we ordered our fully integrated dishwasher form the internet.
A few days later they called us to say that the delivery date was postponed to Saturday.
Once again they re-called us saying that the kitchen could not be delivered unless we were prepared to pay an extra £800!!!At thi point my wife and I went furious, disappointed and stressed due to the fact we have already ordered the fully integrated dishwasher!!!After all this nightmares we decided to call customer service to complain. The women said the person responsible is not available at momnet its in meeting right now, just give me your mobile telephone number we'll call you back, this never happened. Once more I called them back to complain again, this time they said they could not deliver the kitchen because they could loose money in building it. Still not happy I explained that I have a contract in front of me which stated the order total of: £3300. My message is simple to the other consumer who want a new kitchen, do not buy a kitchen from Space Kitchen. I never had as bad experience as this one, they also not personally apologised. They will use the same system as they used with us. I never see a kithcen drop in price from £13000 to £3300. You dream kitchen, becomes a nightmare if you buy form them, they are the classic cowboy.Good luck to you all.
I am a property developer covering quite a large area, i have been stung in the past by various companies, due to poor quality kitchen furniture, badly fitted appliances and disappointiing installations that have sometimes taken a matter of months to complete.
I purchased my first space kitchen about 18 months ago, the designers proffessionalism and attention to detail set the standard for the rest of the work that was done.
last week i bought my 3rd space kitchen, i will continue to do business with this company as they have exceeded my expectations with quality, level of service and workmanship.
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Comments:
The words of the current Space salesman who has concluded he's too nice for the job seem realistic though.
How anyone cannot consider their approach as oppressive hard-selling is beyond me.
I won't bore you with reams of detail, but a Space prospector called and advised that they could give us a kitchen quote guaranteed for two years. This suited our long term planning well, so we made an appointment.
We advised the salesman that we would not under any circumstances sign up that evening, but would retail the quote for two years time. Once he'd measured up we suggested he draw the kitchen up and send us a quote through later as we had no desire to watch him drawing for another hour. He refused to leave, saying this was how Space did things!
He eventually came us with a ludicrous price, knocked it down significantly following a call to his boss (supposedly) then called me a ****head as he left without a sale.
Yobbish salesman, hard sell tactics, totally unprofessional. DO NOT GO NEAR THEM!
But, the long winded version of those simply goes when I received a called from Space (who had already visited us last year in 2008) around a month and a half ago saying about a free kitchen blah blah. As my parents are looking for a new kitchen, I took a message and gave it to them when they got home. My dad called them etc and sorted out a time for the guy to come round.
When it came to planning, admittedly, it was done well, but, the cost and figures were a joke. Firstly, he started with saying £18,000, the same as last year, but, as my father is a tough nut to crack, he brought him down to £5000, with no appliances however. A £13,000 drop is a bit, hmmm, "weird".
Anyway, they kept calling us saying to do this and that and that they wanted us to move a radiator in the kitchen before they came, where, my dad gave him a lesson on customer relations. This was in key with us ordering tiles for the floor to be fitted at a certain time etc.
They then, a few weeks ago, called saying they could move the delivery and installation forward, however, we couldn't because of the dates we had already set for the tiling and appliances to be delivered.
It then got to today, where they were meant to start removal of the kitchen, where we had spent yesterday removing everything. They now gave us a story about starting on Monday to remove the kitchen, when the tiler is already coming tomorrow.
The overall experience was a negative one to be quite honest, there whole working with customers is very poor as at one point they threatened my father on the phone, a 65 year old man, to which he replied to the salesman, "you don't actually know who you're talking to". This company seem to think that as a customer, you are meant to do some of their work for them, plus, they feel that your don't have anything else in life that needs doing so they can make you wait for them to feel ready for starting.
And by the way, the installation time are contracted by Space so if they say they aren't going to install, Space don't really have any option.
My wife and I were thinking about having our kitchen refitted when Space happened to cold call us.
Sure they mentioned a "free kitchen" but we took that with a pinch of salt as nothing in life is free.
The sales person/designer turned up on time. It took him a couple of hours and some discussion to come up with a design that met our requirements. We have to live with this kitchen for the next 10 years so we were quite happy that he took time to listen and incorporate our ideas.
He came up with a price for what we/he had designed, there was no hard sell just hard negotiation to reach a price we were all happy with.
Kitchen was delivered when promised and fitters turned up when scheduled. The fitters were excellent, paying attention to detail and installing to a high standard.
The end result is a kitchen we are very happy with and of good quality.
In all my dealings with Space they have provided good or excellent customer service.
I hope others will be as satisfied as we are with our kitchen from Space.
He brought a cupboard in from the car after various cigarette breaks and proceeded to show us how scratch resistant the coating was (by scratching it...and leaving a scratch).
Then he procedeed to design our kitchen on paper without much consultation about where we wanted to place the items - in face he moved our cooker and fridge freezer to the other side of the room.
After four hours he finally worked out the quote and arrived at the random sum of £18000, bearing in mind that our kitchen is about 6 foot wide by 9 foot long!
Then he applied a "special discount" (by calling his colleague) the next quoted figure was £13000 - a £5k drop? Just like that? Are they going to GIVE this away if i hold out?!
At this point, his "colleague"...or boss(?) tried to reason with me on "what would make me take the kitchen this evening" to which i said that as he was the first quote we wouldnt be signing up to anything - at which point he hung up!"
Now, a week later, my wife has received a call from Spac saying that they can do a better deal...surely they would get more business if they gave the best price at the start instead of overinflating the cost to get the salesmen a better commission?
Intrusive financial questioning..."how much can we afford to pay each month"?
Why did they ask that BEFORE we were told the price?
Because they want to sell the finance option - work out how much you can pay, this determines how much they will lend, hence the kitchen price is around that amount!
My story is quite similar as all comments below (will look at adding comments on other website such as money savings and all that to tell eveyone not to sign up with them)..
Basically got told that I was elligble of free kitchen.
Designer came in (Friendly polish lady but very persistent!!!) to take measurement and start selling her products. when I realised how long this was going to take (at that point already over 1hr), I said that I wasn't interested and only wanted to get a quote only.. she said that she had to call her manager as i interrupted the flow of the procedure (!!!).. spoke to manager and told him , i was not interested as looking at quality as I just wanted to have a quote to have an idea... was told the designer had to carry on with the design in order to get a quote...anyway cut story short, i was getting rather unpatient and very p***d off of losing my time with her..at that point almost 3 hrs!!! anyway got a quote of 10K (joke!!!) but as a special customer (yeah right!!), price will go down to 5K!!!! she then asked what my budget was and said less than 2k, real max but more looking at £800... anyway after listening to her various stories which lots of them I believe were enmotional bullying... (like she lost her dad and all that).. I obvisoulsy did not believe in her and emotional blackmail and ask her to leave!!
few days later received a phone call from factory saying they would do a much better price and wont be pushed by kitchen space sale staffs ..(!!!!!)... her main phrase was "keep an open mind".. "keep an open mind".she was so pushy, she really wanted to get an appointment for another designer to come around... i told her it was not conveninent at the present time... anyway really had to deal with this as they not only became persistent (at time 10 time a call per hour!!) which to my view become arrassment.
She called again this morning and I told her that i could not carry this furthwer as my role has been made redundant! (true as well!)..anyway she hardly paid notice and she asked what price i was quoted on the day .. so i said, the starting price was 10k but went downt to 5k... she asked me what was my budget and I told her less than 1k and more likely £800... she replied "you are joking" and put the phone down on me!!!!!!!!!!! what a JERK!!!(i am still laughing at their behaviour) .... i am going to look at reporting them to trading standard for not only using pushy selling technique but also arrassin people on the phone.
ps-1st time I am using this type of feedback comments (blagger) but I really feel i had to do it to pre warn people...
all the best
When he arrived he asked me what I had been told on the telephone. When I told him I had been offered a free kitchen, he said well.... that's not totally true ( I thought here we go ), He wanted to give me two prices. One if I signed up for a new kitchen today, this he said could become free if I was able to get enough family and friends to buy a kitchen from them and for each one signed up I would reieve 5% off the total bill, and the second deal was a price if I was prepared to let hin re-design the kitchen, but have a price they would honour for 24 months.
I told him I was not interested, the kitchen could wait and I was very angry, as the offer of a free kitchen was just a ploy to get into my house, where people are very vunerable. He called his sales manager whom I refused to talk to and after he drunk my coffee left the house.
How are these companies allowed to get away with this? Is there no law ( trade descriptions ) for misleading customers? I also work in a public sector company, and if I tried to get business in this way would be heavily fined, but more so, would feel ashamed of myself for giving out false information. I can only imagine how vunerable or elderly people would feel by this kind of intimidating cold selling. This company should be reported to companies house, and trade discriptions for gross misleading and incorrect information selling.
I've tried e.mailing them, using the link from THEIR web site. The E.mails come back as no such address!
Reading what other people say, them seem to be operating like 'certain' double glazing companies. I would certainly not touch them based on all the evidence available.
Call tonight was from a so called manager (seems to be a few of them) and again as a blagger commented he endeed up putting the phone down on me. Oh my goodness as writing this i have another call from a (Manager) offering me a further reduction on the kitchen ! so in a space of an hour they have underpriced us and then on the second phone call they offer us reduction. Where is this company coming from ? I suggest that some money is put into this company training up their personel. Please please be very very aware of the phone calls and the costing that you are given on design, because after three visits from reps that will take up a very large chunk of your evening the price you are told is not true. They have wasted my time and effort because had to organise structual work but at end of day have gone for a more respectable company to which i TRUST.
An appointment was made for the following day. This was cancelled and re-booked for the day after. Sales guy shows up half hour late. Spent the first half hour with the usual chit chat - hows life etc. I told him exactly what I wanted right down to the type of door handles I liked. He produced a sample cupboard/drawer/worktop model from a box and on the whole it looked quite solid. One thing I expressed was that I did not want a Chipboard kitchen and he told me it was high pressure moisture resistant sealed laminated timber. When I removed the shelf from the cupboard it was clearly Chipboard. He couldn't put the shelf back in quick enough and moved the conversation on to the soft closure doors and quick release hinges. He spent the next three hours drawing a kitchen plan with the cupboards and drawers etc that would fit the space. My kitchen measures approx 8' x 12' containing 2 doors a fitted under stair cupboard and a window. Not massive then. I couldn't have the sink & taps I wanted but they could be ordered by myself and fitted by them at a cost of about £1000. After the obligatory additions on his calculator he came up with the figure of £14,500, he had taken off the cost of the sink & taps that he had accounted for. Less the magazine deal and recommendations to family & friends discount brought this down to £8,600. This price did not include extra cupboard fittings, under cupboard lighting, flooring, wall tiles, plumbing, electrics or any appliances. As it was a joint desicion I said I would need to talk it over with my partner as we would be paying in cash and would not sign anything there & then, so he called his boss. You could quite clearly hear him getting lambasted over the phone and after a few minutes his boss wanted to talk to me. I said that the price was slightly over what we wanted to pay. He tried to broker a special deal regarding the sink & taps without the sales guy hearing. I told him that the magazine deal was not a deciding factor to my agreeing, more so getting the kitcken I wanted and not the one they wanted me to have. I explained to him that my partner had to go to work and that due to his type of work he was uncontactable. He was annoyed that my partner had left and told me to sign anyway and that I had a 7 day cooling off period. I refused and with that he told me that I wouldn't call back at all and put the phone down on me. Great sales technique. I felt like a scolded child who had not done as he was told. They expected me to sign up to a £8,500 kitchen roughly drawn up on paper with only a picture in a magazine to go by and then give a deposit. Not this side of sanity.
So not a free kitchen after all then. Just a waste of 4 hours of my time. Glad we looked at this site and that of Companies House, which helped us to decide not to go ahead, although after his bosses arrogance he had made that decision for us.
My advice. Avoid them like the plague.
This company sent a non corgi registered workman to my property who caused a lot of damage the work was poorly done and he caused a major gas leak.
The company agreed to fit a new boiler for me as part of my kitchen installation however they have now refused to aknowledge any responsibilty for the workman and have said that it was nothing to do with them.
The company did not provide any documentation as they needed to have the work surveyed first they then visited the property while I was out an a friend was at the house. They began the work (removed the old boiler) without my consent and left me with no hot water or heating for a number of days before returning with a replacement.
I still recieved no doccumentation and the work was carried out without my consent and without me signing anything.
The damage caused has cost me a further £3000 which the company has refused to pay back they also demanded a half payment for the boiler before leaving my home. They have refused to refund any ammounts paid and left me in a lot of debt.
The cheque was cashed at cash convertors!!!!
DO NOT USE be warned
However, this is a warning about a new sales technique I experienced in February. I was called by Space Kitchens offering me a no-obligation 10% cashback on the cost of my kitchen if I accepted a quote on installing new doors and windows from one of their sister companies. I agreed to a visit from the salesman and he gave me a verbal quote. Since then, I have received no money from Space Kitchens or any response to my letters and calls. I have reported this to Trading Standards. If you have had a similar experience, please report the company to Trading Standards and then some action might be possible.
Just be careful if considering using them.
simeon at 31st Jul 2008, 09:36PM
I only had the kitchen in February and have waited for the cashback since then. I did get a cheque that bounced and by that time I couldn't get hold of anyone.
I am told that they have been bought out, but I believe that they are still the same people and haven't been bought out at all. Their practices are dreadful, not leaving you alone until you sign up. i just wish I had been stronger and told them to go away.
Please if you are approached by this company 'Space Kitchens' or even 'Feature Home', turn them away, never mind how good they make it sound.
I actually found it slightly entertaining as he tried every trick in the book and we got quite a nice kitchen design out of it for free. But we won't be buying it from Space Kitchens! We are both young and strong willed, it worries me that they were calling on a street where a lot of elderly people live alone who, after 3 or 4 hours may just get too tired or confused to make a rational decision.
Incidentaly Space Kitchens seem to be using the name 'Fashion Home' in their advertising material, possibly because of the bad press that they are receiving.
When the salesman arrived we told him there was no way we were going to deal with a pressure selling company, and handed him the pages of bad feedback.
He was aware of it but said that had been posted by 'their competitors', and that there were some good comments there. I responded saying that some of the good comments looked as though they'd written them themselves, and the bad comments were written in different styles so I knew which ones I was more inclined to believe.
We held our ground and insisted we wouldn't deal with a company that did pressure selling.
The thing that really confirmed for me that I was right was that the guy got his mobile phone out, and started dialing his boss. He said he needed to tell his boss he wasn't just down the pub, i.e. we would have to speak to him.
See the other feedback comments below and you'll find that getting the boss to speak to you is yet another of their pressure selling techniques.
We'd made it abundantly clear we wouldn't deal with them and he still wouldn't go away. We had to shut the door in his face.
They then rang us 10 minutes later to ask if we'd like to reschedule our appointment.
If you, like some other people on this website, get pestered with repeat calls from this company when you have told them you don't want them to contact you any more, this is a breach of your rights under the Data Protection Act and you can report them to the Information Commissioner's Office (website is http://www.ico.gov.uk/)
Space Kitchens - take note - we couldn't care less how good your product is - and feedback about quality varies - this sales technique takes advantage of people who are vulnerable and stressed - we would never buy from you on principle - I suspect we're part of a growing number of people who would feel this way.
After a few days we received a phone call from Space kitchen, and they said that we could have the same kitchen a fraction of the cost!We said ok, here we go, booked an other appointment, they came and draw the design in 2 hours. Finished they said will cost us £3300 and we agreed with that, also they made a few changed that we asked. When the surveyer came (this the 3rd appointment by the way!) to finally add the design and measurements in his computer.Finished with that we were very excited in looking our new kitchen. Fine at this point we signed the contract and paid the deposit of £330,and they arrenged the delivery for the coming wednsday. So at this point we ordered our fully integrated dishwasher form the internet.
A few days later they called us to say that the delivery date was postponed to Saturday.
Once again they re-called us saying that the kitchen could not be delivered unless we were prepared to pay an extra £800!!!At thi point my wife and I went furious, disappointed and stressed due to the fact we have already ordered the fully integrated dishwasher!!!After all this nightmares we decided to call customer service to complain. The women said the person responsible is not available at momnet its in meeting right now, just give me your mobile telephone number we'll call you back, this never happened. Once more I called them back to complain again, this time they said they could not deliver the kitchen because they could loose money in building it. Still not happy I explained that I have a contract in front of me which stated the order total of: £3300. My message is simple to the other consumer who want a new kitchen, do not buy a kitchen from Space Kitchen. I never had as bad experience as this one, they also not personally apologised. They will use the same system as they used with us. I never see a kithcen drop in price from £13000 to £3300. You dream kitchen, becomes a nightmare if you buy form them, they are the classic cowboy.Good luck to you all.
I purchased my first space kitchen about 18 months ago, the designers proffessionalism and attention to detail set the standard for the rest of the work that was done.
last week i bought my 3rd space kitchen, i will continue to do business with this company as they have exceeded my expectations with quality, level of service and workmanship.
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