Order No: XXXXX - Reid/Dickens Mr Alan Dilworth
Operation Director
Moben Kitchen
7 Brindley Road
Old Trafford
Manchester
M16 9HQ
3rd June 2002
Dear Mr Dilworth,
We are writing to you today as we feel we have received a dissatisfactory
and totally unacceptable level of service in the approach to and during
the fitting of our Moben Kitchen.
After a visit by the kitchen designer and impressed by the quality,
service provision, and timing of the fitting itself, we were suitably
impressed to place our order for our £8,800.00 Moben - "The
Marks & Spencer's of kitchens". One of the core reasons for
purchasing our kitchen was that we where promised a team of two fitters
would arrive at our house on Monday 13th June 2002 and complete the
work within 3 days. A kitchen fitted in a previous home took one week
fitted by one fitter, so two fitters three days seemed reasonable and
less painful in terms of disruption to our daily lives.
Given that there where such a catalogue of events after this point
it is probably best we approach this on a point-by-point basis:
We were promised that fitters would call us prior to the installation
to confirm their arrival time on the 13th. By Saturday the 11th, just
one day before we had not been contacted and became worried that, after
surrendering half of our money, the fitting might not even take place.
After various calls to the retail outlet to enquire as to the whereabouts
of the fitters and to complain that no contact prior to fitting was
unacceptable we finally managed to get a call from Head Office. Head
office told us not to worry the fitters would be there at 9am on the
Monday the 13th.
The fitter then called us later on the Saturday afternoon to totally
contradict Head Office and give us the delightful news that they would
not be with us until Wednesday the 15th May. This was not the agreed
fitting date. We expected our kitchen to be finished by Wednesday -
not starting on the Wednesday. This delay was disappointing to say the
least, however, safe in the knowledge that the kitchen would take three
days we decided not to take this further as our kitchen would be complete
by the weekend.
Unfortunately, at this point we had already booked the Monday morning
to be off work to let the fitters in. We wanted to be at home initially
as in reality these were strange men shortly to be given the freedom
of our property. As a result a days leave was wasted and my partner
ended up having to go in work late on the Wednesday to welcome the fitters
into our home.
The fitters arrived on the Wednesday and proceeded to check the items
of the kitchen off and then strip our kitchen out, placing it right
outside our back door (please see attached photographs). We were not
happy with this as we have two young dogs and a driveway that was kept
free for this rubbish. We stressed this point to the fitters who assured
us it would be gone by the Thursday/Friday. Upon our return home, and
expecting our kitchen to be well on its way to completion, it turned
out that the rubbish was not gone. For the whole weekend and for the
duration of the fitting, which you will shortly find out became a long
and procrastinated process, we spent the entire time taking nails, paper
and sharp shards of wood out of our two puppies mouths.
During the extraction of our current kitchen our walls were left in
a very poor state for which the fitters quite rightly arranged a plasterer
to put right for us. It was at this time (Thursday evening) the fitter
broke the news to us that the kitchen would take longer than three days,
in fact it was more likely to be not completed until the following Tuesday.
Not only this, but to complete the job by Tuesday they would also need
to work the Saturday. This is some 6 working days - twice as long as
the basis this was sold to us on.
In order to meet this extended six day deadline the plasterer was booked
for the Friday. This was to allow the walls to dry for 24hrs prior to
the cabinets being fitted on the Saturday. On arrival home on the Friday
night we noticed no units had been fitted, we were without water, no
sink or electrics and the plastering had not been done. Our kitchen
was a concrete shell three full days after the fitters had been with
us. This was not the service we expected and were very disappointed.
After another of many calls to our fitters mobile phone we discovered
the wrong parts for the sink had been sent to us. To put this right
the fitters had ordered the correct parts two days earlier. These had
still not arrived as scheduled by the Friday but head office again assured
us that these would be delivered on the Saturday. At this point we had
been without running water in our kitchen for three days but were assured
we would have water on the Saturday.
Enquiring as to why no units had been fitted either we again contacted
the fitter who explained that they had not fitted the units as they
were certain the design was incorrect. Quite rightly they wanted to
speak to us before fitting the kitchen incorrectly. The initial design
had an extractor fan. This was later taken out during the final design
specification visit as this meant we would lose nearly one whole foot
along a 9ft room in a 9ft by 8 ft kitchen. Not the sort space you would
want to lose.
The designer, during his second visit clearly failed to re-design the
kitchen without the gap as we had requested he do. The fitters later
put this right but we now losing confidence in Moben. As a result of
this incompetence we have paid for a work surface that was far larger
than what was needed, at an extra cost to us. We require a refund for
the difference in cost of these work surfaces.
Upon further enquiry as to why no units were on we were then to discover
the plastering had not done. The fitters informed us "head office
cancelled the fitters and sent them elsewhere. They'll be here on Saturday"!.
Unfortunately by cancelling the plasterers you delayed the fitting by
a further day as the plaster was wet on the Saturday and the fitter
spent most of the day waiting for the delivery of the sink parts to
give us water over the weekend. The parts delivery did not turn up.
We ended up spending a whole weekend with no water or electricity in
our kitchen and had to eat out for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Again we called Head office, very distressed and run down at this point,
as we both work very hard in the retail industry ourselves. My partner
was getting very upset at this point and close to tears. Our weekend
was a time to relax not clean up after the fitters (as our house was
still full of dust and we wanted to live in decent conditions through
the weekend). Unfortunately our weekend was ruined as we had a building
site in our back yard, dirt everywhere, no water, no power in our kitchen
and a concrete shell to stare at with no means of preparing food at
all.
Over the weekend after many phone calls, trying to get hold of an area
manager or someone who could help us we finally spoke to a young man
in head office who told us Moben would pay for our meals. We have kept
three receipts to value of £87.65. We also require compensation
for further meals we had to pay for unexpectedly for the duration of
the fitting, some 10 days for which we have no receipts. For us paying
for our meals alone was paltry compensation for the distress the kitchen
had caused us up to this point. Unfortunately more was to come.
Into the following Monday now, we called KF, the contact name we were
given on the Saturday. I was assured KF was at a level to help us, apologise
and offer compensation. KF was not in but someone took a message and
promised she would call us back. After three further attempts to contact
Miss KF over the next two days again none of the calls were returned.
KF did not bother to call us. We were feeling let down, disappointed
and annoyed at the level of service not only in terms of your operations
but also in terms of your customer care and level of proficiency, especially
given this was the person we were promised would help put us at ease
and take control of the disaster.
By chance on the Tuesday an area manger followed up a stray call ref.
the fitter's arrival date from a week ago. We told him our story. He
was disgusted and promised to help us in every way possible and assured
us Moben would put this right immediately "pulling out all the
stops". He promised to call on the Wednesday. He also assured us
that Moben would compensate us for the inconvenience caused to us, meals
we had to buy, travel and the weekend we lost. The area manager was
PY.
The fitters at this point were still battling with incorrect items
in the delivery. A prime example was the cornice, which was labelled
cream but was actually bright green. By this time our kitchen was still
not finished a full 7 working days since the start. More than twice
the time we were promised.
A final straw, if there could possibly be one at this point was that
PY failed to call us back as he had categorically promised. This enraged
us as we were at the end of the tether and wanted to speak to someone
who could help. We were plain and simply stonewalled. KF had also not
returned at least four phone calls at this point.
PY finally called us a day late and when we enquired as to why he had
not called us, as he had promised and assured us, he stated quite simply
and stroppily 'have you never forgotten to call a customer before!'!!!
This just simply is not acceptable, especially given PY was are of and
appalled with how we had already been treated. This is not a way for
any company representative to talk to a customer, never mind to question
the way we operate in our daily careers.
Losing the will to try and get our kitchen finished, as at this point
we had lost hope, we contacted someone more senior in the company. We
were put into contact with Mrs R (PA to the Op's Director) as the head
of customer service/relations had still not deigned to call us to enquire
as to how we were.
Finally, after taking our issues to this level extra efforts were made
to ensure the right parts arrived and our kitchen was completed by the
Friday. This was last minute timing, as we had a housewarming party
planned for the Saturday. Unfortunately, as we had planned to have a
week spare to complete the kitchens finishing touches we had to pay
the fitters £300 cash in hand to complete the jobs for us. This
was not an additional cost we were prepared to pay but had to under
the circumstances in order to get our kitchen completed for our party.
Again we expect to be compensated for this unexpected and unnecessary
cash outflow caused by Moben's incompetence.
As you can understand from the above nearly 20 points we are extremely
dissatisfied with the level of service we received from Moben. Under
these circumstances we expect a full apology. In addition to this we
also expect compensation for:
· The additional food costs we had to bear for two full weeks
· The hassle of constantly trying to keep the house clean for
two weeks
· The distress of a lost weekend with no water, power or kitchen
to prepare any food in
· Having to pay for the fitters to complete the finishing touches
we planned to have time to complete in time for our party
· Having to leave the house for a meal, even breakfast
· Trying to project manage our kitchen and find someone who could
help us
· Numerous calls and hours trying to put this right
· Finally rude and ignorant staff and sheer incompetence.
I have tried my best to calmly explain the chain of events but want
you to understand that we are very angry and upset and feel extremely
let down. I trust that you will give this complaint the attention that
is deserved and look forward to your speedy reply.
