Amended 31st May 2025-Four years ago
Amended 31st May 2025-Four years ago, we spent almost £17,000 on a new kitchen using this company. At the time we were highly delighted with the outcome, giving them 5 stars. The quality of the units and the workmanship appeared superb and as a result four years later we used the same company for renovating our bathroom. Again, the result was superb and again, we gave a 5-star review.
Sadly, we now wish to revise our review to 2 stars. The reason being that the plumbing work in the kitchen has only lasted 4 years, has been leaking behind the kitchen sink and dishwasher for goodness only knows how long, completely ruined our kitchen floor and resulted in an infestation of drain flies!
Unfortunately, this came to light when we noticed the flooring was beginning to lift and upon inspection, we found that the main drainage pipe under the floor did not appear to be connected and every time the dishwasher or sink was used water just gushed out. Sadly, this came to light on a Sunday and since the kitchen company is closed on a Monday and we had no way of contacting them to ask for assistance in getting the problem resolved we left an answerphone message requesting a call back. The callback finally came mid-morning on Tuesday. When we explained the situation Jodie Everett promised to speak with the Manager and call us back which (credit where it’s due) she did. We were advised that she had contacted the plumber to see when he could come and inspect the pipework and they would let us know first thing Wednesday morning when a visit could be arranged but as the pipework was 4 years old the situation “was not ideal”. This gave the impression that they would not be willing to accept any responsibility for any or all the damage caused by the leak. When we heard nothing from the company first thing on Wednesday, we then arranged for an emergency plumber to come out to us as we could not use the kitchen sink, or the dishwasher and the fly situation appeared to be getting worse! Upon inspection, our emergency plumber advised that in his opinion the installation was faulty as the type of pipework used was inappropriate and the leak had been happening for some considerable time. It was not until late Wednesday afternoon that we received a message from Kitchens By Design saying a plumber would visit us to take a look on Friday of that week, meaning we would have been without a kitchen sink for the full week. We replied that this would not be necessary as our emergency plumber had resolved the leak and we requested that they post out to us the bathroom cabinet screw hole covers outstanding since March. Several days later we received a small parcel which contained a bathroom cabinet door hinge, not what we asked for!!
Had this problem come to light sooner we clearly would not have used the same company for the bathroom, and we are left wondering whether the pipework in there will last more than four years.
We cannot stress strongly enough the distress caused in dealing with the drain fly infestation which resulted from this problem, and it is this, together with the lack of empathy we received from the company, why we will no longer recommend using them.