Howdens Joinery - Newcastle Under Lyme in Newcastle, England Closed now

Reviews about Howdens Joinery - Newcastle Under Lyme

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  2017-04-05, by Nicola Gater
  I have recently bought new kitchen cabinets from Howdens joinery through my kitchen fitter on his recommendation. I was initially pleased with the service offered and the design put together. Having shopped around I ended up choosing a combination of my sink and worktop from IKEA, cupboards from Howdens and handles from EBay. When I found the sink I reconsidered getting everything from IKEA, after showing the designer from Howdens what I'd seen she assured me they could make it work with their cabinets. I ordered the kitchen weeks in advance, day one after my fitter arranging delivery with them first thing the cabinets still hasn't arrived at 11:30am, they ended up leaving sight to collect wasting an entire morning, to quote Howdens website 'time is money' they certainly know how to waste their customers. Some of the units were delivered later that afternoon and then informed us it may be a couple of days before the rest arrive since they had been discontinued. Once fitted it became apparent that the design hadn't really been considered all that well, drawers opening onto the radiator, the largest corner base unit doors unable to open further than 20cm. After emailing and calling them several times to chase up my complaint (not really delivering on their no-call back guarantee either), the designer came out to see the issues who then said this is the problem when you go with different products from our range clearly unable to 'make it work'. The designer at the house visit also refused to return a unit because is was not in it's original packaging, when I told her I have no use for it she replied with "skip it" which would have cost me £103! They have now suggested I take the sink unit out remove the wall tiles and make a hole in the wall at the back of the sink so that the cupboard door will fully open. They have refused to take into consideration the additional fitting costs lost because of their late delivery and poor design. I now wish I had bought everything from IKEA, their products are great and the delivery service has been far superior. Since there is not a great deal of information on their website to give feedback, I've contacted their head office and I eventually got a response from the branch manager who at no point has apologized for the poor service and inconvenience caused. I will not use Howdens again and I wouldn't recommend them either.