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Comments:
What can i say about moben kitchens that can be posted on here.........not a lot really but i'll try.
Me and my partners mother both had a rep out from moben and i have to say i wasn't impressed from the start, he turned up 45minutes late, he was very rude and pushy you could tell he just wanted a sale and to get the hell out of there.
i had the common sense to have a look but not to sign for anything, unfortunatley my partners mother didn't she was quoted £12,000 and paid £1,500 deposit for a 'fully fitted kitchen' when the delivery turned up half the units were damaged and the other half was nowhere to be seen.
its now 4 months down the line and after numerous phone calls, emails and letters we are still nowhere finished,i have now started legal procedings and hopfully this might get the ball rolling.
if i could give any advice it would to be avoid this company like the plague!
Tempted by a new möben kitchen? The new brochure looks great. But hold on. Check out the reviews first. The reality may not be what you expect, it certainly wasn't for me.
Lets take a look at the brochure.
Page 8: “...your design consultant can start to understand what you need from your new kitchen....do you need a double oven...how about choosing an induction hob..”
Well, yes. I would. I would like two ovens side by side, preferably two that match from the same range design consultant John Garnett, and while you are at it how about getting your delivery team to provide the control knob for the induction hob so we can use it straight away instead of 4 week later?
Page 9: “It ends with you beaming at the quality, fit and finish.”
No. It may end one day, hopefully. But for a good while it will not look like the end is in sight.
What was billed as a ‘4 day fit’ ended up taking three months to complete, and then not to my satisfaction. I am not ‘beaming’ I can promise you. The fit has been a disaster and still with issues unresolved.
What about the fit and finish? Nothing to beam about there, either. Screws too long for the job driven right through the cabinets, doors not straight, hob not secured in place, screw heads in cabinets not flush, I could go on.
“From your design plan, it’s all systems go: For you, its time to sit back as we take you from plan to finished perfection with ease. The word that crops up every step of the way is ‘quality’.”
Sorry to disappoint you, but, I would not use the word ‘quality’, or ‘finished perfection’. What about shabby, bodged, damaged, unfinished, unprofessional, dangerous?
Page 10: “Good old fashioned customer service where nothing is too much trouble. When you choose Moben, you’ll be looked after properly...”
Well, just try getting through to ‘customer service’ in the first place and if you do, try getting somebody to ring you back to help you out. I had more than my fair share of problems and did not get much response.
What about this one:
Water leaking through the back of the kitchen sink, because Moben failed to fit an overflow pipe, water ran down onto the electric socket they fitted for the dishwasher. The electrics blew, not me thankfully. Rang ‘customer service’, “somebody with you in two days time”
Is that good customer service? I or a member of my family could have been electrocuted.
And now just to cap it all off, Moben have gone silent on me, failing to call me back despite several messages left with their customer service department, project manager Andy McClarence and senior project manager Laurence Gough.
Just watch out for these people!
Page 11: ‘Technical survey and fit.’ “..then its over to our team of craftsmen to do the bit you’ve been waiting for.”
I had hoped the technical survey would have sorted things out, that the appliances match for instance. Their ‘team of craftsmen’, by the way, would appear to be independent fitters, in my experience. The first of three fitting teams I had were an independent company for sure, and not very good, who stated they are not exclusive to Moben. Their work was poor and caused many of the problems detailed in my initial complaint to Moben.
‘Project Management’. “Organisation is the key to a successful project. Our team will go out of their way to ensure that everything happens in the right way, at the right time. They’ll also supervise everything, even dismantling and taking away your old kitchen...”
I did not see a ‘project manager’ until 11 days into the fit, when a lot of the damage had been done and after I made several phone calls and sent a letter of complaint by recorded delivery to Moben. And as for taking away the old kitchen, it took 25 days to clear up the mess in my garden. I would rather they had taken the new one away!
Page 129: ‘quality and construction you can trust’.
Here is a list I sent recorded delivery to Moben, 8 days into the fit. I also handed a copy to their project manager, Andy McClarence, when he finally showed up. He said he was unaware of the letter. I spoke to the man I addressed the letter to, Richard Hill, and he denied ever having received the letter. I have yet to receive any acknowledgement from Moben, Sheffield or their Head Office that I have lodged a complaint!
• Neff ovens supplied are from two ranges, 3 and 5, and do not match. (was I badly advised by the kitchen surveyor?)
• Neff induction hob supplied without magnetic control knob. This makes hob virtually unusable. (eventually supplied 1 month late)
• Franke sink fitted without overflow pipes connected. Water flows from sink basin down back of unit and onto electrical socket directly below which was fitted for connection of dishwasher. This has left sink and dishwasher unsafe and unusable. (overflow eventually fitted after two and a half months!)
• Franke sink should be supplied with inserts, drainer and chopping. These are missing. (apparently not fitted as standard)
• Tecnik dishwasher has not been fitted securely and moves when door is opened/closed. Brackets used to secure unit not fitted correctly. (refitted 3 weeks later)
• Hot and cold pipes under sink not fitted correctly or neatly. (refitted two and a half months later)
• Worktop unfinished with 2.3 mtr edging missing.
• Worktop end not finished and edging below door level prevents cupboard door opening.
• End cupboard should be fitted with touch open device, missing. (eventually fitted two and a half month later)
• Deep drawer side rails not fitted. (three weeks later)
• Corner double hinged doors not joined satisfactorily and screws protruding.
• Oven housing units, doors not straight.
• Oven housing units not connected professionally. Screw roughly put through between two units.
• Tall larder units, doors do not close well. (refitted three weeks into fit)
• Swing out larder mechanism not fitted securely. Catches on side of unit. Screws in unit loose therefore unable to use items.
• Tops of larder units, screws protruding through cabinet from larder unit.
• None of cupboards fitted with hole covers, leaving unsightly finish. Some plugs/covers found amongst rubbish left in garden.
• Kitchen/appliance packing and items of old kitchen, left in garden. (collected after two months)
In addition, I later discovered the whole worktop had not been secured to the base units, the whole thing moved, all 6 metre of it, a wall unit started to fall from the wall, the sink was not secured in the worktop, the hob was not secured into the worktop.
It took Moben 29 days from the date of my letter to rectify the potentially lethal situation of the overflow running onto the electrical socket, and only after it blew the electrics! And Moben apparently a registered member of the NICEIC, ensuring that “your kitchen electrics are installed to the highest industry standards.”
Page 131: “Even the finance fits around you...”
One of my greatest regrets is that I took the option of the 6 month interest free finance. I had the money to pay cash. But why pay now when I can pay in six months time? Better in my bank than theirs, I thought!
The problem is, Moben have their money. They were paid, presumably, by the finance company, Hitachi Capital Finance. It will be to Hitachi that I owe the money, tied up with a contract. If I don’t pay up, Hitachi may take me to Court and I would have the extra interest to pay if I went beyond the 6 month agreement. It could affect my credit rating.
After speaking to Consumer Direct, I wrote to the finance company asking them to assist in sorting the matter out as under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, they are jointly responsible for these matters. Hitachi Capital Finance wrote back saying it was a problem for Moben to resolve.
If I had not taken the finance option, I would owe Moben on their completion of the kitchen fit. In the event, I would not be paying Moben anything until they upheld their side of the deal.
It makes me wonder if I would have had the kitchen fitted in a more timely and professional manner!
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you have more luck than I did.
First of all. Visit the Moben website and try to put a review on there....
You've guessed - only the reviews they want you to see are there.
A year on we are still suffering from the Moben kitchen we had installed. The quality of the components are very good, but do make sure you get kitchen fitters from Moben and not subcontractors who have been given twenty quid to do the entire job. Moben cannot wash their hands of the subcontractor issue. There were no quality checks from Moben and the only way we got Moben to take any interest was to complain vigorously. Then they sent a "surveyor" whose brief was evidently to give as little away as he could.
The disaster started after we had visited MFI in Shrewsbury and been very unimpressed with the laid-back and disinterested attitude of their sales staff. No wonder they have gone tits-up. My wife wanted some plant pots so we visited Do-It-All and I filled in some time wandering around their in-store Moben showroom. The sales person was very helpful and after only a little persuasion a rep visit was organised for that very day. I was impressed with that and also with the professionalism and attitude of the rep. The price was about the same as the MFI price so we signed up.
The problems began with removal of the old units. They had sent a stripling of a boy to take out the old kitchen, equipped with a screwdriver and a hammer. A day had been set aside for stripping out the old. The guy was very willing but the old kitchen had been well installed and wasnt coming out easy. The plywood units in particular were hell to get out, and eventually I had to help the guy all afternoon by using a car jack and some cunning ideas to break the old stuff out. I have to say that without my help he would still be doing it, and of course the customer should just sit back and watch things happening, and not get his hands dirty. We finished the job at about 8pm and both me and the Moben guy were knackered. Clearly Moben had not adequately resourced the job. Bad planning.
The installation staff then arrived. I did not like the attitude of the guy in charge, who seemed to look down on customers. He was obnoxious.
However, we were paid and committed. Through the installation process he tried to find reasons for extras to be paid for outside the Moben contract. I was having nothing of it, and the relationship soured rapidly. Here's a list of the idiocies they managed to perform
1. Units installed so that the American fridge-freezer was about 6" proud of the front of the units.
2. Exhaust outlet for the cooker hood was so positioned that it could not come out through a wall and eventually had to be re-planned through an adjacent roof. With better planning it could have been routed via the old outlet. The cooker itself was approx 1/2" lower than the surrounding work surface as the fitter hadnt bothered to raise it. An easy job I did myself later. Just a matter of screwing the legs upwards. Too much trouble for the Moben guy.
3. In order to fit the cooker hood shroud, they left coving 6" short of the shroud at both ends in order to get a screwdriver in. They considered the job "done" in that state. I lost it at that point and told the fitter that I had never seen anything that incompetent. His response was to say that Moben werent paying him enough. He said "stuff it" and left site not to return. I later had my own builder complete the job and had Moben pay for the work.
5. When it came to connecting the gas to the cooker a cretin "fitter" turned up and spent an afternoon telling me where the gas bottle could not go. Constructive suggestions were not in his repertoire, and he went round with his little CORGI book telling us the gas bottle could not be here because of X and could not be there because of Y.. He must have finished training the day before as he did not have a clue. He could only tell you what could NOT be done. He eventually suggested that the gas bottle be installed at the front of this property with a 25m run of gas line at £40 per metre. Nice little earner. At this point I lost my rag and my wife had to take me away before I lumped the idiot. I am a mild-mannered and reasonable guy, but Moben had driven me to a point I didnt know existed. Eventually our own builder found a solution to the gas problem that didnt cost us anything extra.
6. We had committed and paid for another new kitchen in our granny flat in order to have both done at the same time. Moben had set aside a day to strip out the kitchen in the granny flat, but after my experience with the Moben stripper outer, I got my own builder to do it. A "day of work" planned for and charged for by Moben, was completed in 90 minutes.
7. I wasnt going to write a review, preferring to forget the entire Moben experience, but yesterday, a year after the kitchen was "fitted" the pull out kitchen unit nearly landed on my wife when the bottom securing plate came off the bottom of the casing allowing it to topple over. Fortunately I was there and able to stop it crashing out over the marble worktops. We had to completely unload it, in order for me to find what had gone wrong. The fitter cretins had used screws with heads just big enough to fill the fitting holes for the bottom bearer plate, but eventually the screws had pulled through. I have just spent an hour dismantling the unit and fitting screws with adequate-sized heads.
Conclusion.
Dont touch Moben with a barge-pole. We went for them because of their "reputation" but they are trading on a good reputation that has gone that-away long ago. The whole experience was frustrating and appalling. I wish we had used our own builders. I got them later to price the Moben job out of interest and it would have cost half the money.
I would not recommend Moben to anyone. Their customer services are not good and it is almost impossible to get through to the contact number you are given. The designer did not use much common sense and in my first design he put a deep drawer behind a kitchen door. I had to pay when the kitchen was delivered and would not advise anyone to do this.
The surveyor came and corrected some of the details, including moving the drawer to another location on my suggestion. He made mistakes in his calculations and when the installers arrived (a day earlier than I was told) they had to put the top cupboards lower to compensate for the mistake. The installers went through my kitchen wall into the bathroom when drilling to install a cupboard. On my request they did plaster over the resulting hole in the bathroom wall. The stainless steel splashback behind the stove is not flush with the stovetop. I had to have intallers back when I noticed a bad blemish on a cupboard door and when they had changed the door they installed the handle higher than the one on the other door to the cupboard. I found the people I spoke to at Moben were not very helpful at times (this is when I could actually get through to speak to them). I felt I had been pressured into making a desicion too quickly after the designer's visit and found that I was unable to get out of the deal next day. The designer gave me an approximate timescale for the job and when Moben contacted me it was a much later date than he suggested so after complaining about this they eventually got back with an earlier date. I had to keep ringing the office to get this officially confirmed. My mistake was not to check on reviews before I committed myself.
Don't buy a kitchen from Moben without first reading the all the reviews. It's obviously apparent from the lower rated reviews that there are pervasive and serious concerns with work quality and customer service.
If you're still willing to take the risk then don't, under any circumstances, pay upfront and in full for your kitchen. If you want to find out why, then visit moben.org for insight into Moben's sales practices, and the risks associated with paying upfront and in full for kitchen services.
All work is subcontracted out and it is pot luck as to the competence of the workers provided. A kitchen which should have taken 3 days by two people turned into a one-man-job nightmare over several months. Work by the original workman had to be re-done by a second contractor (after an enormous amount of correspondence with Moben). Live wires were left exposed, plasterwork and electrics damaged, kitchen sink left unsealed (leaving water dripping through to the cupboard below), cornice fitted so badly the cupboard doors would not open properly, cupboard shelving incorrectly fitted......the list is almost endless. Even now the kitchen is way below the standard promised in their catalogue and by the salesperson. Then they had the audacity to charge for 're-installing' the original dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer - even though this only meant plugging them in (they were not integrated) - or the kitchen would not be guaranteed.
No matter how good the deal sounds in the brochure, do not be misled - you are likely to pay for it with stress and unforseen costs in other places.
Because of the abysmal job that Moben did on my kitchen over a period of 19 weeks, and because of their refusal to compensate me, I am forced to take them to court. I've filled in the County Court form and will be taking it along to court tomorrow 1 March 2007.
If you'd like to see why I'm not pleased with their service then pop along to my website at www.kitchenhell.co.uk or www.yourespecial.org.uk
We had a terrible 8 months in the hands of these incompetent unskilled thugs. The idiot that they sent to fit our £16000 kitchen messed up everything - and left the place in a complete mess- we claimed against them in the end and managed to get some of the money back.
We have decided to replace our rather tired old kitchen, and having seen Moben's advert for "Spring Sale - 60% off", decided to invite them to design our kitchen.
The Designer arrived promptly - a good start. He explained that he was an interior designer who had chosen to work for Moben because of the superior quality of the kitchens and good service. He also warned us against Magnet, MFI et al and also said we shouldn't go anywhere near an independent retailer. At this point he presented us with our very own Moben Platinum Card.
We selected the "Paris" door in ivory with a long brushed steel handle, which luckily was in the sale. We were passed a brochure showing the Technik (Moben's own) range of appliances. When I asked if they did any other appliances, the designer reluctantly produced a Neff brochure but added that the Technik products were made by Neff so they were basically the same product. We were quickly warned away from the granite worksurface (well, I can dream!) but also told that the wood worktop was in the same sort of price range - which I find difficult to believe.
After about 1/2 hour, the "Designer" (read salesman) measured up in the kitchen and started his paper design (no CAD package here). After about another 3/4 hour the Designer revealed his design. The design was OK, he had crammed in a few too many cupboards for my liking - but OK.
Then came the price. Bearing in mind we had chosen units with 60% off, and the kitchen is 9' x 8' and we had chosen the cheaper appliances and worksurfaces, the total cost was £14,240!
We were also told about the "Moben Platinum Account" - if we used the account to buy the kitchen we could get £250 of the price. I asked for the APR of the card and was told that it was 1.49% a month- extortionate when you consider the current interest rate. The other catch is that you have to keep an outstanding balance of at least 50% of the cost of the kitchen for at least a year - do they think that we are complete mugs!
I told the "Designer" that I was not interested in the finance.
Then the Designer told us about some special offers that had ended on the previous Sunday, but, if we were prepared to sign up today, he would backdate the paperwork so we could still take advantage of the "special offer". He spent a long time recalculating the figures and passed us a sheet showing two calculations one with finance (even thought I had said that I wasn't interested) and one without.
And this was where he tried the hard sell. Basically, if we were prepared to sign there and then, take the finance and take delivery in the next 14 days we can get the kitchen for £9,750! - nearly 5k off.
He asked if we need to talk it through together, I replied that we would need a couple of days to think it over. He didn't seem too pleased with this and said that we would be losing a lot of money on the special offer etc if we didn't decide now. I replied that this was a lot of money to spend and we would need time to think it over.
He seemed to get the message and packed his stuff away quite quickly and left, taking his design with him.
What has really annoyed me about this is the type of technique that Moben use to sell kitchens. From reading other comments/Watchdog website their kitchens aren't that great and there after sales service isn't up to much. Needless to say, I will not be going anywhere near Moben again.
For info, we've had quotes for similar kitchens from MFI and Magnet, with quotes of £5,000 and £8,000 respectively.
I would urge anybody who is thinking about buying a new kitchen to visit www.kitchen-secrets.com and read "21 kitchen secrets that many Kitchen Design Companies DONT want you to know" fortunately I had, before the Moben salesman arrived!
Sales, Kitchen Design, Kitchen Fitters, After Sales, Customer Care, Finance Partners are an embarrassment to the UK industry as we know it!!
All should be held accountable for each of their lack of actions which play part in so many individuals who fall foul to their con of QUALITY - which is also a breech of the use of the word according to the Oxford Englash Dictionary -
Quality~ a degree of excellence
characteristic
a distinctive attribute of a person or a thing
Add a comment about this blagger
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Comments:
Me and my partners mother both had a rep out from moben and i have to say i wasn't impressed from the start, he turned up 45minutes late, he was very rude and pushy you could tell he just wanted a sale and to get the hell out of there.
i had the common sense to have a look but not to sign for anything, unfortunatley my partners mother didn't she was quoted £12,000 and paid £1,500 deposit for a 'fully fitted kitchen' when the delivery turned up half the units were damaged and the other half was nowhere to be seen.
its now 4 months down the line and after numerous phone calls, emails and letters we are still nowhere finished,i have now started legal procedings and hopfully this might get the ball rolling.
if i could give any advice it would to be avoid this company like the plague!
Lets take a look at the brochure.
Page 8: “...your design consultant can start to understand what you need from your new kitchen....do you need a double oven...how about choosing an induction hob..”
Well, yes. I would. I would like two ovens side by side, preferably two that match from the same range design consultant John Garnett, and while you are at it how about getting your delivery team to provide the control knob for the induction hob so we can use it straight away instead of 4 week later?
Page 9: “It ends with you beaming at the quality, fit and finish.”
No. It may end one day, hopefully. But for a good while it will not look like the end is in sight.
What was billed as a ‘4 day fit’ ended up taking three months to complete, and then not to my satisfaction. I am not ‘beaming’ I can promise you. The fit has been a disaster and still with issues unresolved.
What about the fit and finish? Nothing to beam about there, either. Screws too long for the job driven right through the cabinets, doors not straight, hob not secured in place, screw heads in cabinets not flush, I could go on.
“From your design plan, it’s all systems go: For you, its time to sit back as we take you from plan to finished perfection with ease. The word that crops up every step of the way is ‘quality’.”
Sorry to disappoint you, but, I would not use the word ‘quality’, or ‘finished perfection’. What about shabby, bodged, damaged, unfinished, unprofessional, dangerous?
Page 10: “Good old fashioned customer service where nothing is too much trouble. When you choose Moben, you’ll be looked after properly...”
Well, just try getting through to ‘customer service’ in the first place and if you do, try getting somebody to ring you back to help you out. I had more than my fair share of problems and did not get much response.
What about this one:
Water leaking through the back of the kitchen sink, because Moben failed to fit an overflow pipe, water ran down onto the electric socket they fitted for the dishwasher. The electrics blew, not me thankfully. Rang ‘customer service’, “somebody with you in two days time”
Is that good customer service? I or a member of my family could have been electrocuted.
And now just to cap it all off, Moben have gone silent on me, failing to call me back despite several messages left with their customer service department, project manager Andy McClarence and senior project manager Laurence Gough.
Just watch out for these people!
Page 11: ‘Technical survey and fit.’ “..then its over to our team of craftsmen to do the bit you’ve been waiting for.”
I had hoped the technical survey would have sorted things out, that the appliances match for instance. Their ‘team of craftsmen’, by the way, would appear to be independent fitters, in my experience. The first of three fitting teams I had were an independent company for sure, and not very good, who stated they are not exclusive to Moben. Their work was poor and caused many of the problems detailed in my initial complaint to Moben.
‘Project Management’. “Organisation is the key to a successful project. Our team will go out of their way to ensure that everything happens in the right way, at the right time. They’ll also supervise everything, even dismantling and taking away your old kitchen...”
I did not see a ‘project manager’ until 11 days into the fit, when a lot of the damage had been done and after I made several phone calls and sent a letter of complaint by recorded delivery to Moben. And as for taking away the old kitchen, it took 25 days to clear up the mess in my garden. I would rather they had taken the new one away!
Page 129: ‘quality and construction you can trust’.
Here is a list I sent recorded delivery to Moben, 8 days into the fit. I also handed a copy to their project manager, Andy McClarence, when he finally showed up. He said he was unaware of the letter. I spoke to the man I addressed the letter to, Richard Hill, and he denied ever having received the letter. I have yet to receive any acknowledgement from Moben, Sheffield or their Head Office that I have lodged a complaint!
• Neff ovens supplied are from two ranges, 3 and 5, and do not match. (was I badly advised by the kitchen surveyor?)
• Neff induction hob supplied without magnetic control knob. This makes hob virtually unusable. (eventually supplied 1 month late)
• Franke sink fitted without overflow pipes connected. Water flows from sink basin down back of unit and onto electrical socket directly below which was fitted for connection of dishwasher. This has left sink and dishwasher unsafe and unusable. (overflow eventually fitted after two and a half months!)
• Franke sink should be supplied with inserts, drainer and chopping. These are missing. (apparently not fitted as standard)
• Tecnik dishwasher has not been fitted securely and moves when door is opened/closed. Brackets used to secure unit not fitted correctly. (refitted 3 weeks later)
• Hot and cold pipes under sink not fitted correctly or neatly. (refitted two and a half months later)
• Worktop unfinished with 2.3 mtr edging missing.
• Worktop end not finished and edging below door level prevents cupboard door opening.
• End cupboard should be fitted with touch open device, missing. (eventually fitted two and a half month later)
• Deep drawer side rails not fitted. (three weeks later)
• Corner double hinged doors not joined satisfactorily and screws protruding.
• Oven housing units, doors not straight.
• Oven housing units not connected professionally. Screw roughly put through between two units.
• Tall larder units, doors do not close well. (refitted three weeks into fit)
• Swing out larder mechanism not fitted securely. Catches on side of unit. Screws in unit loose therefore unable to use items.
• Tops of larder units, screws protruding through cabinet from larder unit.
• None of cupboards fitted with hole covers, leaving unsightly finish. Some plugs/covers found amongst rubbish left in garden.
• Kitchen/appliance packing and items of old kitchen, left in garden. (collected after two months)
In addition, I later discovered the whole worktop had not been secured to the base units, the whole thing moved, all 6 metre of it, a wall unit started to fall from the wall, the sink was not secured in the worktop, the hob was not secured into the worktop.
It took Moben 29 days from the date of my letter to rectify the potentially lethal situation of the overflow running onto the electrical socket, and only after it blew the electrics! And Moben apparently a registered member of the NICEIC, ensuring that “your kitchen electrics are installed to the highest industry standards.”
Page 131: “Even the finance fits around you...”
One of my greatest regrets is that I took the option of the 6 month interest free finance. I had the money to pay cash. But why pay now when I can pay in six months time? Better in my bank than theirs, I thought!
The problem is, Moben have their money. They were paid, presumably, by the finance company, Hitachi Capital Finance. It will be to Hitachi that I owe the money, tied up with a contract. If I don’t pay up, Hitachi may take me to Court and I would have the extra interest to pay if I went beyond the 6 month agreement. It could affect my credit rating.
After speaking to Consumer Direct, I wrote to the finance company asking them to assist in sorting the matter out as under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, they are jointly responsible for these matters. Hitachi Capital Finance wrote back saying it was a problem for Moben to resolve.
If I had not taken the finance option, I would owe Moben on their completion of the kitchen fit. In the event, I would not be paying Moben anything until they upheld their side of the deal.
It makes me wonder if I would have had the kitchen fitted in a more timely and professional manner!
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you have more luck than I did.
You've guessed - only the reviews they want you to see are there.
A year on we are still suffering from the Moben kitchen we had installed. The quality of the components are very good, but do make sure you get kitchen fitters from Moben and not subcontractors who have been given twenty quid to do the entire job. Moben cannot wash their hands of the subcontractor issue. There were no quality checks from Moben and the only way we got Moben to take any interest was to complain vigorously. Then they sent a "surveyor" whose brief was evidently to give as little away as he could.
The disaster started after we had visited MFI in Shrewsbury and been very unimpressed with the laid-back and disinterested attitude of their sales staff. No wonder they have gone tits-up. My wife wanted some plant pots so we visited Do-It-All and I filled in some time wandering around their in-store Moben showroom. The sales person was very helpful and after only a little persuasion a rep visit was organised for that very day. I was impressed with that and also with the professionalism and attitude of the rep. The price was about the same as the MFI price so we signed up.
The problems began with removal of the old units. They had sent a stripling of a boy to take out the old kitchen, equipped with a screwdriver and a hammer. A day had been set aside for stripping out the old. The guy was very willing but the old kitchen had been well installed and wasnt coming out easy. The plywood units in particular were hell to get out, and eventually I had to help the guy all afternoon by using a car jack and some cunning ideas to break the old stuff out. I have to say that without my help he would still be doing it, and of course the customer should just sit back and watch things happening, and not get his hands dirty. We finished the job at about 8pm and both me and the Moben guy were knackered. Clearly Moben had not adequately resourced the job. Bad planning.
The installation staff then arrived. I did not like the attitude of the guy in charge, who seemed to look down on customers. He was obnoxious.
However, we were paid and committed. Through the installation process he tried to find reasons for extras to be paid for outside the Moben contract. I was having nothing of it, and the relationship soured rapidly. Here's a list of the idiocies they managed to perform
1. Units installed so that the American fridge-freezer was about 6" proud of the front of the units.
2. Exhaust outlet for the cooker hood was so positioned that it could not come out through a wall and eventually had to be re-planned through an adjacent roof. With better planning it could have been routed via the old outlet. The cooker itself was approx 1/2" lower than the surrounding work surface as the fitter hadnt bothered to raise it. An easy job I did myself later. Just a matter of screwing the legs upwards. Too much trouble for the Moben guy.
3. In order to fit the cooker hood shroud, they left coving 6" short of the shroud at both ends in order to get a screwdriver in. They considered the job "done" in that state. I lost it at that point and told the fitter that I had never seen anything that incompetent. His response was to say that Moben werent paying him enough. He said "stuff it" and left site not to return. I later had my own builder complete the job and had Moben pay for the work.
5. When it came to connecting the gas to the cooker a cretin "fitter" turned up and spent an afternoon telling me where the gas bottle could not go. Constructive suggestions were not in his repertoire, and he went round with his little CORGI book telling us the gas bottle could not be here because of X and could not be there because of Y.. He must have finished training the day before as he did not have a clue. He could only tell you what could NOT be done. He eventually suggested that the gas bottle be installed at the front of this property with a 25m run of gas line at £40 per metre. Nice little earner. At this point I lost my rag and my wife had to take me away before I lumped the idiot. I am a mild-mannered and reasonable guy, but Moben had driven me to a point I didnt know existed. Eventually our own builder found a solution to the gas problem that didnt cost us anything extra.
6. We had committed and paid for another new kitchen in our granny flat in order to have both done at the same time. Moben had set aside a day to strip out the kitchen in the granny flat, but after my experience with the Moben stripper outer, I got my own builder to do it. A "day of work" planned for and charged for by Moben, was completed in 90 minutes.
7. I wasnt going to write a review, preferring to forget the entire Moben experience, but yesterday, a year after the kitchen was "fitted" the pull out kitchen unit nearly landed on my wife when the bottom securing plate came off the bottom of the casing allowing it to topple over. Fortunately I was there and able to stop it crashing out over the marble worktops. We had to completely unload it, in order for me to find what had gone wrong. The fitter cretins had used screws with heads just big enough to fill the fitting holes for the bottom bearer plate, but eventually the screws had pulled through. I have just spent an hour dismantling the unit and fitting screws with adequate-sized heads.
Conclusion.
Dont touch Moben with a barge-pole. We went for them because of their "reputation" but they are trading on a good reputation that has gone that-away long ago. The whole experience was frustrating and appalling. I wish we had used our own builders. I got them later to price the Moben job out of interest and it would have cost half the money.
The surveyor came and corrected some of the details, including moving the drawer to another location on my suggestion. He made mistakes in his calculations and when the installers arrived (a day earlier than I was told) they had to put the top cupboards lower to compensate for the mistake. The installers went through my kitchen wall into the bathroom when drilling to install a cupboard. On my request they did plaster over the resulting hole in the bathroom wall. The stainless steel splashback behind the stove is not flush with the stovetop. I had to have intallers back when I noticed a bad blemish on a cupboard door and when they had changed the door they installed the handle higher than the one on the other door to the cupboard. I found the people I spoke to at Moben were not very helpful at times (this is when I could actually get through to speak to them). I felt I had been pressured into making a desicion too quickly after the designer's visit and found that I was unable to get out of the deal next day. The designer gave me an approximate timescale for the job and when Moben contacted me it was a much later date than he suggested so after complaining about this they eventually got back with an earlier date. I had to keep ringing the office to get this officially confirmed. My mistake was not to check on reviews before I committed myself.
If you're still willing to take the risk then don't, under any circumstances, pay upfront and in full for your kitchen. If you want to find out why, then visit moben.org for insight into Moben's sales practices, and the risks associated with paying upfront and in full for kitchen services.
All work is subcontracted out and it is pot luck as to the competence of the workers provided. A kitchen which should have taken 3 days by two people turned into a one-man-job nightmare over several months. Work by the original workman had to be re-done by a second contractor (after an enormous amount of correspondence with Moben). Live wires were left exposed, plasterwork and electrics damaged, kitchen sink left unsealed (leaving water dripping through to the cupboard below), cornice fitted so badly the cupboard doors would not open properly, cupboard shelving incorrectly fitted......the list is almost endless. Even now the kitchen is way below the standard promised in their catalogue and by the salesperson. Then they had the audacity to charge for 're-installing' the original dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer - even though this only meant plugging them in (they were not integrated) - or the kitchen would not be guaranteed.
No matter how good the deal sounds in the brochure, do not be misled - you are likely to pay for it with stress and unforseen costs in other places.
If you'd like to see why I'm not pleased with their service then pop along to my website at www.kitchenhell.co.uk or www.yourespecial.org.uk
I've kept an online journal of our Moben Kitchens experience!
We have decided to replace our rather tired old kitchen, and having seen Moben's advert for "Spring Sale - 60% off", decided to invite them to design our kitchen.
The Designer arrived promptly - a good start. He explained that he was an interior designer who had chosen to work for Moben because of the superior quality of the kitchens and good service. He also warned us against Magnet, MFI et al and also said we shouldn't go anywhere near an independent retailer. At this point he presented us with our very own Moben Platinum Card.
We selected the "Paris" door in ivory with a long brushed steel handle, which luckily was in the sale. We were passed a brochure showing the Technik (Moben's own) range of appliances. When I asked if they did any other appliances, the designer reluctantly produced a Neff brochure but added that the Technik products were made by Neff so they were basically the same product. We were quickly warned away from the granite worksurface (well, I can dream!) but also told that the wood worktop was in the same sort of price range - which I find difficult to believe.
After about 1/2 hour, the "Designer" (read salesman) measured up in the kitchen and started his paper design (no CAD package here). After about another 3/4 hour the Designer revealed his design. The design was OK, he had crammed in a few too many cupboards for my liking - but OK.
Then came the price. Bearing in mind we had chosen units with 60% off, and the kitchen is 9' x 8' and we had chosen the cheaper appliances and worksurfaces, the total cost was £14,240!
We were also told about the "Moben Platinum Account" - if we used the account to buy the kitchen we could get £250 of the price. I asked for the APR of the card and was told that it was 1.49% a month- extortionate when you consider the current interest rate. The other catch is that you have to keep an outstanding balance of at least 50% of the cost of the kitchen for at least a year - do they think that we are complete mugs!
I told the "Designer" that I was not interested in the finance.
Then the Designer told us about some special offers that had ended on the previous Sunday, but, if we were prepared to sign up today, he would backdate the paperwork so we could still take advantage of the "special offer". He spent a long time recalculating the figures and passed us a sheet showing two calculations one with finance (even thought I had said that I wasn't interested) and one without.
And this was where he tried the hard sell. Basically, if we were prepared to sign there and then, take the finance and take delivery in the next 14 days we can get the kitchen for £9,750! - nearly 5k off.
He asked if we need to talk it through together, I replied that we would need a couple of days to think it over. He didn't seem too pleased with this and said that we would be losing a lot of money on the special offer etc if we didn't decide now. I replied that this was a lot of money to spend and we would need time to think it over.
He seemed to get the message and packed his stuff away quite quickly and left, taking his design with him.
What has really annoyed me about this is the type of technique that Moben use to sell kitchens. From reading other comments/Watchdog website their kitchens aren't that great and there after sales service isn't up to much. Needless to say, I will not be going anywhere near Moben again.
For info, we've had quotes for similar kitchens from MFI and Magnet, with quotes of £5,000 and £8,000 respectively.
I would urge anybody who is thinking about buying a new kitchen to visit www.kitchen-secrets.com and read "21 kitchen secrets that many Kitchen Design Companies DONT want you to know" fortunately I had, before the Moben salesman arrived!
All should be held accountable for each of their lack of actions which play part in so many individuals who fall foul to their con of QUALITY - which is also a breech of the use of the word according to the Oxford Englash Dictionary -
Quality~ a degree of excellence
characteristic
a distinctive attribute of a person or a thing
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