MFI - 6 months to fit Kitchen!

juliec · May 23, 2006

I have just compiled a letter of complaint for my friend to MFI as it has taken them 6 months to complete her kitchen! Its taken 3 pages to list all the dates when MFI fitters turned up, didnt turn up, phone calls to chase MFI (they never called back) & MFI fitters excuses, eg blade too blunt. Tool bag stolen. Then on next visit the excuse for not fitting cornice was again blade too blunt, so it seems the toolbag thief noticed the blunt blade & left that behind!

I printed off her last 2 phone bills to highlight the numerous calls she had made to the fitters & the store. When she went through them she found that days she had left the fitter in the house alone, he had been using her phone to call his brother (another MFI fitter!)

If you're thinking of having MFI to fit your kitchen, think twice before paying up in full beforehand! Infact think twice about using MFI to fit your kitchen!!

alftupper · May 23, 2006

We made the mistake of ordering a dining table and chairs, paid in full told 6 weeks you'll have your order. Got a phone call two days before delivery to confirm that we would be in, guy appears at door on delivery day with a table and informs us that chairs out of stock and will in in another 6 weeks. Refused delivery went back into store to see what was what, usual platitudes so we had a look around to see if any alternatives saw another set we liked at £200 extra we reckoned due to their ineptitude that they should split the additional amount, but hey no they reckoned twenty quid off was a good offer (paid more than that to get back to the shop). Complaints to head office went unanswered - they just do not give a damn how much they inconvenience people.

trc · February 7, 2007

In September 2006 my wife and I visited the MFI store at Patchway and purchased a kitchen. I paid the deposit of £2,000.00 and paid the balance of approximately £7,000.00 by the 13th October 2006 as requested to ensure delivery and fitting of the kitchen by the end of November 2006.

It is now February 2007 and after numerous telephone conversations, the kitchen is still not finished and the problems reported over and over again to both the store and to the MFI work hub have not been addressed and put right.

Both the hub and the store were kept informed throughout the time that the kitchen was supposed to be fitted and a salesman has also visited my home to see the kitchen for himself. I am now writing a short résumé of the events and a list of problems still outstanding.

The fitting of the kitchen was to take approximately ten days and was started in November 2006, part way through the fitting the fitter realised the wrong breakfast bar top had been delivered (a new top was delivered the same week only after I was forced to get involved because I would not wait the three weeks the fitter informed me it would be).

This work top was used as an excuse for the fitter to stop fitting part way through the job. It was then noticed that two of the work surfaces were bubbling along the joints and new work surfaces were ordered.

On the day that the fitter arranged to resume work I took the day off work to allow access to our property, The fitter did not turn up because MFI had started him on a new job.

A week later the fitter was booked in to start work again and this time my wife took a day out to allow access to our property again the fitter did not turn up. After numerous phone calls to the hub and to head office we were informed the fitter had hurt his hand; it was very annoying to later learn from the store that the fitter was in fact doing another job for MFI.

The following weekend we were forced to cancel a very important leaving party at our house (we had discussed at the time of purchase; it was the reasons why it was important for us to have the kitchen completed in time). I can only assume the other customer was more important than us or that MFI care little for all their customers once they have paid.

We have also spent Christmas with an unfinished Kitchen and had we not wanted a kitchen until this year we would have waited until the January sales and saved ourselves over one and a half thousand pounds.

As of today the following work is still required to finish the kitchen.

One of the fridge doors has never closed although this was reported to the fitter, the hub and the store on numerous occasions during and since the fitting took place. We are, at present, still using our old fridge which we have set up in the garage. We have, sat in our hallway, the replacement fridge door (for the second fridge) to replace the dented fridge door fitted in November. This still requires fitting.
The cupboard covering our water heater is positioned wrong, has no door and is still not finished.
The trim fitted to the end of the work tops does not sit flush to the worktops and is continually snagging.
Two of the work tops are bubbled along the joints (for the second time).
Whilst fitting the kitchen the fitters broke the fan assisted radiator fitted into the plinth under the cooker hob. At the time Wayne assured us it was an internal fuse and the electrician would fit a new one during the week. This heater (the only heating in the kitchen) has not been fixed.
The splash back board behind the sink has never been fitted. The splash back is lent against the wall in our living room.
The splash boards fitted around the work services are not fitted and finished to an acceptable standard, in fact, my ten year old daughter could do a much better job.
The backs of two of the cupboards are away from the cupboards allowing items to fall through.
To fit the kitchen it was necessary to move the electric supply three meters from one wall to another, I agreed to pay the extra for this and have done. I returned home from work on the day in November to find that the electricity supply had been taken from the fuse box in a different room and that an unsightly ducting had been positioned around the top of two walls in the adjoining guest room.

I wrote a letter to MFI on the 29th January to put in writing all the above points and asked MFI to, within 14 days, either

Refund to us the full amount paid for the kitchen and fitting and arrange a convenient time to remove the unfinished kitchen

Or

Put right and finish, to our satisfaction, all the points I have listed above.

I have received numerous phone calls from the store since they have received this letter but MFI will not answer my letter in writing and now think I should try the same work surfaces for the third time. The store has advised me not to use a kettle on the work surfaces as it may cause the bubbling.

The store Manager has called me today to say I should go into MFI today to choose replacement work surfaces so that after I have chosen them he can decide whether or not we can have them replaced; I explained that I cannot get to MFI today and am still waiting for an answer to my letter. Because I cannot get to MFI today he says I am refusing to pick new work surfaces and am therefore stopping MFI put the problem right

I found his attitude unacceptable, he was rude and totally unhelpful stating that I was refusing to pick new work surfaces and slowing down procedures and that because work surfaces (with the fault) are sat in my hall (blocking off my front room for yet more weeks) he has achieved enough to keep Trading Standards happy. Why do I feel like their enemy instead of their customer?

MEI · February 7, 2008

On 22/09/2007, I bought a Melbury range from MFI and then I had no end of trouble.

I bought this so that I could have the 2 tall wardrobes and a dressing table comme desk up and running when my relatives came to stay. I was shocked to be told that the goods would be delivered in October and I was told further that the panels would come even later. I was panicking, Imagine where my relatives sleep when all the bits and bots were lying everywhere.on 3rd November.

There were 3 pages of instructions all with a wardrobe similar to the ones that I bought. However, I could not find the holes holding up the panel above the cloth rails. I went to MFI, where a staff called Colin told me that there would be no bottom panel. In the end, I was so short of time, I fashioned two holes to hold this panel.

I then realised that MFI customers had to pick and mix the instructions from the 3 pages when they hit a snag. ADVICE: if you find the instructions different from the page you are reading, go to the next page where if answer cannot be found, move on to the next page .... It is like PICK and MIX. Do the buyers in MFI know that PICK and MIX instruction to build a heavy duty wardrobe is downright dangerous!

With the help of my 12-year-old son, I followed a photo from an booklet and fixed the hinges and brackets. The following morning, this panel door fell down and busted the veneer of the other unit. I was livid and questioned Colin of Romford MFI why the door fell when I followed the photo. He told me that it was an old photo. I had a look at exactly the same unit on display in the shop and it was done exactly the same way I did. My friend teased me that I must shake the door next time to see if the middle screws could hold the hinges! If my son had been there, he could be knocked out for six by that damned door.

The supplier was very crafty. They were no fully drilled holes. Some of the front panels came with holes drilled half way through. The reason: THE VENEER WILL INVARIABLY BUST LIKE A VOLCANO WHEN THE SCREW WAS USED:mad: . This was despite the fact that I drilled the hold from both sides before using the original screw given.

Another stupid thing :confused: was that the handle to the chest drawer is tiny and it came with two raised dots on each side. By the time I tightened the handle, there would be a circle drawn by these 2 dots. Which idiot designed this? If this designer had given me a handle with a larger base, nobody would see the cracked veneer. :mad:

MFI director sent me a letter giving me a 10% discount when I favour them with a next purchase. FAT CHANCE. This is purely add insult to injury! :mad:

Some woman called Debbie :mad: is suppoed to solve this problem for me. Whenever she called me, I missed her on the mobile phone and when I phoned her, it was an answering machine. When will this answering machine turn into a human. Today, I phoned the head office and this woman with a broad voice said that it was not MFI's fault. I became very angry. If it was my faulty, why would the director send me a letter offering me an apology and giving me a 10% discount on my next purchase!? Some woman had the gumption to talk like that? :mad:

msakbar · February 23, 2008

I have now seen so many complaints about MFI, I only wish I had been on this forum before I ordererd the Kitchen.

I ordered a complete Kitchen including fit out by their fitter. I have had nothing but trouble from day one. I am now entering the fourth month and the kitchen remains incomplete. My family has gone days without gas and water because items are missing, incomplete or just wrongly delivered.

I have written several letters to the head office and there has been no responce from them. Even the store Manager at the Croydon Branch where we bought the Kitchen from seems helpless and advised that I write to their head office.

On talking to a number of their staff, the issue of poor and disgraceful service is rampant with MFI.

I have now written to the consumer association and watchdog to alert them to this.

I have now got to a stage that I am npw seeking legal advise to sue them for the stress and inconvenience that MFI has caused.

I had heard about builders from hell. Here is a kitchen supplier from hell.

I would advise anyone to think very very carefully before buying anything from MFI that requires anything more complex than getting a single delivery item.

msakbar · February 23, 2008