Paula Ley
Regional Customer Services Manager
Kitchens Direct
Cornbrook
2 Brindley Rd
Old Trafford
Manchester M16 9HQ
21 October 2003
Dear Ms Ley
Order Ref: 66xxxx
At this point in time I feel the need to formally complain about
the appalling and farcical way my order has been handled by your
company and also to inform you that I have instructed Barclaycard
to enter into payment dispute with yourselves regarding this order.
I have a kitchen which after 3 weeks of constant phone calls,
4 separate deliveries and 2 aborted fits is not fit for purpose
and as I have not as yet been informed of any firm plans to sort
things out I have no confidence that they ever will be.
To detail the current faults with my kitchen:
1) 4 out of 7 cupboard doors are not fitted and one ifs faulty.
2) The wall mounted corner unit is not fitted correctly (as per
field installations report)
3) The dishwasher door will not open ( as per field installation
report)
4) There is no shelf in the under sink cupboard
5) there are no handles on any cupboard
6) The gas hob was disconnected yesterday and has not yet been
re-connected.
I believe the 4th delivery of worktop should be with me on Wednesday
( it should have been here today but the factory forgot to send
it!) -but have no idea of a fit date.
* Delivery 1 was fine - but rework is required and some parts
were missing,
* Delivery 2 (some of the replacement parts was fine)
* Delivery 3 was the wrong worktop and not all of the replaced
faulty doors
* Delivery 34 has a gouge out of the edge - this had to have been
like this from the factory as the packaging was not damaged,
* Delivery 5 was due today but did not arrive and is rescheduled
for tomorrow
Now for the detail of events....
Firstly I was rushed into placing an order due to special offers
running out - the basis of this was that if I placed an order
and had the survey done by the end of September. I duly arranged
for this.
I was happy with the kitchen design done by the sales man. The
surveyor highlighted that the sink /dishwasher configuration in
the original plan would not work and switched the sink configuration
over . I agreed to this on the condition that the sink was still
under the window - this has not proved to be the case.
In the letter confirming my order I was given a fit date of 2nd
October - I should also point out that on this letter I was given
a contact number for customer services which turned out to be
discontinued.
When no one turned up on Oct 2nd and I tracked down customer
services ( after being cut off more than once along the way).
I was put on hold whilst they rang the fitters and was told that
they were held up in traffic and would be with me in an hour.
10 minutes later I had a ring from the fitters customer service
line to say that they had received the order late and had me booked
in for the 3rd October pm start ( A Friday afternoon?) - so I
can only conclude that someone lied to me about the fitters. After
another 5 calls from myself ( 2 being cut off) and no one ringing
me back as promised I determined from the programming team that
someone was then coming in on Friday. This was confirmed with
a message on my home phone from the fitters to expect someone
first thing on Friday. First thing turned out to be nearly 10
am start and a 4pm finish - and I was left with a bare kitchen
only sink unit and kitchen connected with no work surface over
the weekend.
On Tuesday when they were due to finish I had a call from the
fitters highlighting a problem that the dishwasher wouldn’t
open cleanly and stating that the survey was wrong. Also 4 of
the cupboard doors had no hinge holes in them so hadn’t
been fitted. They left at 2pm before the gas man had been to connect
the hob - so I had to take the afternoon off work to be in when
he arrived. The fitters told me they were calling in the field
installations manager about the problem - but they left me with
an unuseable kitchen as 4 doors were missing and 1 was faulty
and no handles on anything that was fitted. I range the KD customer
helpdesk who seemed unaware of the problem - again no one rang
me back as promised with an update. I was told that Paul Garland
would ring me and arrange a visit on Wednesday -but this did not
happen. On Wednesday after several phone calls including one of
the customer services staff putting the phone down on me when
I wanted to hold to speak with the area manager - a time was set
for a Thursday inspection.
The inspection took place ( for which I had to take a further
day off work) and Mr. Garland took photos of the problem agreed
that the plan post survey was at fault ( in fact did not meet
surveying guidelines) and stated what would be done to put things
right. II stated that I needed the kitchen finished by the end
of the following week (17th October) and he saw no problem in
meeting this date.
On the following Monday (13th) having heard nothing I rang in
again and as I was on the phone they ordered the replacement work
surfaces and faulty doors. Paul Young the area manager stated
he would get a fit date and get back to me. When I rang back twice
on Tuesday they had not managed to secure a fit date. Eventually
on Wednesday and by ringing the fitters directly I managed to
find out that the earliest fit date was Monday 20th - though not
happy with this I accepted is as this was still before the Tiling
date of 22nd October.
In the meantime on Thursday 16th the wrong worktop was left outside
my door ( I live alone and had to get help to carry it into the
house!) When I reported this I was promised a replacement on Friday
( I presumed a.m. and remember asking the customer services operator
(Sarah?) to ask them to ring the door to wake me up rather than
leave it outside. When no delivery had arrived by 9 am on Friday
I went to work leaving a note for the carriers and a key with
a neighbour - after asking to speak to both Paul and Paula and
leaving messages for both to ring me back -to no avail I spoke
to Sarah who promised to speak with the carriers and ring me back
- after no such phone call happened I rang back twice to be informed
(by Sarah) a) that a morning delivery had not been requested and
b) that she never promised to ring back - and in fact was quite
rude to me about this. I returned from work to find that the delivery
had occurred.
On Monday - Bizarrely I had a phone call from KD asking if my
kitchen had now been fitted - did the system say it should have
been fitted at the weekend?) anyway at 9am the gas hob was disconnected
and the fitters arrived shortly afterwards- I left for work but
by the time I arrived I had an urgent message from the fitters
to say that the worktop was damaged and they had left site (there
was other work they could have done - fitting doors and changing
corner unit). Speaking with the fitters they had ordered a replacement
worktop and said if I confirmed its delivery - someone would be
here this afternoon (Tuesday) - on this premise I agreed to not
have the gas reconnected.
So having taken another day off work today (Tuesday) - no delivery
happened - I spoke with Paul - who apologised for the lack of
delivery - I explained that I would now need to rearrange Tiling
and that things absolutely needed sorting out this week. He said
he would get back to me but - unsurprisingly did not. I rang in
at 3:15 and could get through neither to Paul or Paula - I rang
back at 3:30 and could get through to neither - though after leaving
a message Paul did ring me back. Going through things again -
I stated that if no one was coming on Wednesday I needed the hob
re-connecting - Paul again said he would get back to me - but
did not.
So as things stand I have no gas hob - no idea of what to expect
on Wednesday (and an important meeting at work to attend). and
no clear plan to get things sorted.
I am expecting visitors at the weekend and as things stand I cannot
accommodate them. This is a long arranged family celebration which
it look as though I will have to cancel.
So to refute the claims on the web site..
Ÿ Professional design and planning -> Faulty surveys
and haphazard planning with no quality controls in place aas far
as I cna see.
Ÿ KD control the whole process -> give wrong fit dates
- lie to you on the phone , never return your phone calls and
don’t sort out your problems.
Ÿ Everything is organised for you -> I would have been
much better organising myelf - but as I have a very busy job thought
it would be better organised centrally - how wrong could I be!.
As things stand I have no confidence in the ability of KD to
sort the issues out and intend to explore the following options:
1) Escalate within KD - I need a director level commitment to
sorting this out (by the weekend of 25th)and to pay any costs
I incur on delaying other contractors.
2) A full refund of my bill £7990 so I can organise alternative
arrangements for putting the problems right. - I have instigated
this though Barclaycard now but can halt it should option 1 be
complied with.
3) I take arrangements out of KD hands and sue them for payment
- including copying local press, ombudsman and Watchdog of this
now well documented saga.
I require an immediate acknowledgement and response to this letter
Yours sincerely,
Caroline Coard
cc: MKD Holdings Managing Director
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