mfi

[hugoboss]

I ordered a kitchen from them at the end of January, at which point I paid a deposit. They then sent me a bill for the remainder to be paid 1 month before fitting (which would work out to be end March). The customer service I have experienced since putting that deposit down has been unimpressive, and the fitter seems to be avoiding my phone calls. He came round to double check the measurements, and said he would send me a quote for the electrical work, but hasn't done so, despite me reminding him three times. I've heard MFI are in trouble as a company, and my local store may even be closing, do i have a case to cancel my order and request my deposit back.

[JustSia]

When you placed an order you must have signed an agreement. Have you checked the small print? What did it say re. your deposit. If you signature is on it and they don't guaranty deposit back then you might possibly lose it. But check your agreement first.

S.

[gammaray]

I would suspect only if they fail to supply your kitchen.

[andyjevs]

Oh blimey....i'm soooo sorry. I had an MFI kitchen fitted by one of their fitters. The kitchen and appliances cost �4 grand and the fitting was 2K.

I was told that it would take 2 weeks to complete......but 19 weeks later, the fitter still hadn't finnished. He kept going off to other jobs, bodging mine and generally leaving the place in a total mess.

He turned up at 11 am every day and left at 3pm and when he was here, he bought the wrong stuff and was both slow and untidy.

I ended up having 4 new work tops as he couldn't cut the joins and god knows how many plinths and cornices etc as all the mitres were wrong.

I ended up with a �400 refund but i still have bits missing and screws sticking out of cabinets.

If you can get your money back....do so and get someone to fit it out of the local paper.

[markja]

i don't know how you stand by law but i wouldn't pay another bean untill the work was done fully and to my satisfaction. if you are worried about mfi i would speak to their head office and tape any conversations you have with them.don't forget, you are the person with the money. if they want your money they have to give you a decent level of service. if they don't go to the bbc watchdog web site and tell them, they are allways featuring fitted kitchens and the like.

[Kenzie]

The fitter will dodge your phone calls, because he is self employed and whilst he is sorting out your problems he isn't making money on another installation. We purchased a kitchen from MFI (Nov 04) and it took 6 months from date of order to completion. Because we were having it installed only one month after order we had to pay in full. I must admit that we delayed the installation initially as we could not get someone to board out the floor in the short timespan but it took MFI 4 months when they finally got started. We were glad that we chose to use their fitters as they pull out all the stops if something goes wrong - eg parts not being delivered or damaged; if you use your own fitter I wouldn't like to vouch for you getting hiccups sorted out. There were all sorts of delays and I got pretty frustrated - in the end I threatened them with exposure on my local radio station and they immediately responded to that. Also, our built-in fridge stopped working after 3 months - we had purchased the insurance to cover this and the company who are subcontracted to deal with this were the most inadequate and disorganised bunch I have ever dealt with. I just couldn't get them out after the initial visit and christmas was approaching (what engineer would turn up without a thermostat, especially after they had diagnosed the fault on my original call?). In the end, I wrote to the MD of MFI and threatened Watchdog - I had a replacement fridge within a week. I have to say, though, that I've ended up with a fantastic kitchen - good quality and well fitted - and I really wanted to stick with it because I couldn't buy this particular kitchen anywhere else. And, in defence of all the MFI staff that I ever spoke to (quite a few!), they were all really nice people - but how I would love to get in there and organise that company!

[Kenzie]

Ran out of room on last post. Don't know about the legalities of getting a refund - look at your small print like JustSia suggested. It might be better to apply very firm pressure and get your kitchen in quickly.