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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
Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
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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