Portsmouth couple have year-long battle with Wickes to fix wonky kitchen

Instead of a culinary dream their experience turned into their worst nightmare.

They lost faith in the company soon after the work was completed when they insisted the firm’s installer just wasn’t up to the job.

The units were all out of alignment, the replacement oak flooring hadn’t been laid correctly, the dishwasher had been installed with one leg missing, and the worktops hadn’t been treated with protective oil before they were fitted.

Maria Cross, 48, and her partner Gary signed up with the Havant branch of Wickes last February, when they decided to enlarge their small kitchen by extending it into their lounge.

They’d used Wickes to upgrade a bathroom in their previous home and agreed to settle for the firm’s installer do the work rather than employ an independent tradesman.

Initially they were proposing to spend around £6,000 on the project paid for by an interest-free loan, but they were told to qualify for it they’d have to spend a minimum of £12,000.

After visiting the branch and consulting with the kitchen designers they decided it might be prudent to go for a kitchen improvement plan which would enable them to pay an interest-free loan back over a period of four years.

Maria said: ‘The work was scheduled to start on February 11 last year but the promised two weeks turned into three.

‘The installer who did the work was a lovely guy but it went into three weeks because he was working alone.

‘I was in tears after two weeks. The house was in such a mess with dust sheets all over the place and what with me having to go into hospital for surgery it was all just too much and so unprofessional.

‘He broke utensils in our kitchen and didn’t even apologise for it, my partner had to help him carry four solid £600 walnut worktops upstairs that were something like 70kg each and needed preservation oil to be applied.

‘He said he hadn’t oiled them and asked us to do it, but when we pointed out it wasn’t our responsibility he agreed to get it done.

‘We took photographs of them the very next day which clearly showed they’d been oiled post installation which would not get to the joints and potentially invalidate the guarantee.

‘We were so concerned about the situation we took time out to discuss it with the Havant branch kitchen designer and the store manager.

‘They expressed disgust that we’d been asked to do the work, so we then spoke to the regional manager who took an entirely different line.

‘He was adamant they’d been treated to specification prior to installation and queried why we were questioning the installer’s work.

‘From then on the discussion got rather heated and he refused point blank to talk to my partner because his name wasn’t on the contract.’

Relations having already significantly soured with the company’s regional manager, they were about to get a whole lot worse when just three months later the oak wall-to-wall flooring developed a mind of its own and started separating and moving underfoot.

Initially, hedge fund administrator Maria was assured it was nothing to worry about, because it was simply the wood temporarily expanding and contracting.

Another war of words quickly gained momentum when Wickes concluded the problem was down to a manufacturing fault, but the manufacturer denied any product defect and it subsequently transpired it had been incorrectly laid.

Three further months down the line despite the wood being re-ordered the flooring still hadn’t been replaced and in exasperation Maria called in the Dispute Resolutions ombudsman for assistance.

In the meantime more installation faults came to light.

Some of the kitchen unit doors had dropped, and when Gary decided to give the entire project the once-over, to his fury and astonishment discovered their £500 dishwasher had one leg missing and had simply been propped up with wood.

The couple’s hackles started to rise further when the firm’s customer relations team expressed ongoing concern about their dissatisfaction but failed come up with solutions when they complained.

Installation management appeared to take a dismissive contradictory tack, leaving their complaints falling on deaf ears and efforts to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution going around in ever-decreasing circles.

Maria decided after the ombudsman wasn’t getting anywhere with their complaint it was high time to call in Streetwise to see if we could break the deadlock.

When we got onto Wickes things quickly started to move.

We reminded them they’d a statutory duty to deliver kitchen installation services with appropriate care and skill in a reasonable time.

The response to the couple’s complaints was atrocious, leaving them in the lurch for months on end with no one taking control of the situation to ensure the bodged job was sorted.

Maria accepted that following negotiations with a Wickes company service specialist, a series of steps were in hand to fix the installation problems.

An apologetic company spokesperson said: ‘Ensuring customers are happy with their installed kitchens is important to us here at Wickes.

‘We’re sorry to hear that the customer was unhappy with the service provided and we are in conversations to ensure that the situation is resolved as soon as possible.’

Maria was grateful that there was now light at the end of the tunnel, and the year-long stand-off with the company was nearing closure.

‘We just didn’t know what to do,’ she said. ‘We’d never come across such a situation before and didn’t know how to proceed without your guidance.

‘For example we’d been storing the replacement wood for the floor for six months but no one would come to install it.’

‘Thank you so much for your all your help and assistance.’