Howden UK Group Reviews 21

Such a bad experience with Howdens. I bought a high quality engineered flooring from them which degraded and scratched within 3 months of use, despite being advertised for everyday use in high traffic areas of the house. The took a year of back and forth to respond and have palmed me off saying it was just ordinary wear and tear. I’m not someone that normally complains but they have been so difficult to deal with so I want to warn others to avoid them

Not very helpful - insurance brokers are supposed to be the middle party and are supposed to deal with any claims

If you are the injured person then this isn't the case - they won't fight or help you

My old insurance broker was more helpful but sadly he passed but had sold out to this company beforehand - he will be turning in his grave

The Oake & Gray Timeless Oak Herringbone Vinyl Click laminate flooring that they sold to us, didn't work on our floors - the laminate flooring boards are curling up after being installed, approximately 18 months ago. At the time of purchase, we were not informed by Howdens staff that a damp proof membrane was required to be fitted between the laminate floor and the concrete (sub) floor. Had we been informed of this at the outset, we would have laid the damp proof membrane, as specified by the flooring manufacturer, (which would have been easy and inexpensive to install) within our new build house.

Note for Howdens - the manufacturer's instructions for the laminate flooring are absolutely useless unless you communicate them to ALL of your customers PRIOR to the purchase(s) of the laminate flooring being made, which will reduce the likelihood of your customers wasting their hard earnt money within the future!!!

Unfortunately, at considerable expense we will now have to remove all of the affected laminate flooring, dispose of it and get a new floor laid, which will cost us around £3.5k to £4k to complete.

Hence to say, I feel cheated and I am extremely disappointed with Howdens!!!

Wish I had never used this company. Two items of theirs failed, one within 24 hours of being installed, and thanks to my plumber he got it replaced the next day. One week later the fridge/freezer failed, had to battle with them to send anyone out writhing 48 hours…..engineer did nothing and left me with a fridge that wasn’t working in my opinion. Now the freezer has failed and I cannot get a eginerr until next week…so have had to ensure my dog’s insulin is being kept in a friend’s fridge….had to throw out all the food in my freezer and as I have to order a special diet from a company in London I am just hoping I don’t get ill ! Just been a nightmare.

I recently renovated my house and had Howden's Herringbone Timeless Oak Luxury Rigid Vinyl Flooring with Integrated Underlay fitted through the kitchen and downstairs hall - a decision I immensely regret. Aesthetically it looks great, however, in my opinion, the quality is really not very good. In short, it makes creaking and cracking noises whenever I walk on it.

Jerry Drake at Howdens Marsh Mills Plymouth was an amazing help with designing and ordering my kitchen. We received it within 5 days. He had thought of everything for us to install it smoothly. Advice on style, colours, cabinets required has made this kitchen a fabulous updated workspace aesthetically pleasing.

I recently had a kitchen install and supplied by Howden Huyton. Steve's team were great, very helpful and Darren was a star. Knowledgeable staff who were willing to help. When I made a mistake they were very forgiving and turned my stress around by being approachable. Thank you guys. Peter

Howdens have recently installed a kitchen for my Elderly Mum.
The quality of the sink and conduction hob are shocking! Very very poor quality. She just wanted to support a local business and this is the thanks she gets. extremely disappointed I feel like she’s been conned and it’s very very sad.

Customer service is severely lacking, we had ordered a oven unit with a drawer, didn’t realise until the joiner had fitted it that there was no drawer. No help forthcoming, even though their ‘consultant’ had ordered the wrong unit.
Larder units are a good size, but shelf spacing is ridiculous. Have one larder unit with 2 drawers, the bottom shelf is 4” above the drawers so when you open the cupboard you can see into the drawer.
Shelves and cupboards very easily chipped.
Very expensive for quality received.
Would not use again.

Joiner did a great job fitting our new kitchen just before Covid. However Customer Service is non existent. They apparently can’t help you any more than the depot where you made your purchase. Our microwave burns food at one side.. they have the evidence in photos, yet they want us to purchase a new one at a discount?
It’s under guarantee. Our freezer was apparently a BAD DESIGN according to engineer who came to repair it a few times before it was finally replaced with a different model. Perhaps the microwave is also a BAD DESIGN

The staff at the Pinchbeck store are brilliant. Helpful, nothing too much trouble and always get a bit of banter to make the day a bit more interesting 😂 recently had a problem with doors and was sorted promptly without fuss. Carry on doing exactly what you are doing.

My sister purchased a kitchen almost 10 years ago from Howdens Charlton branch. She recently started to have problems with the product (now a discontinued range). I reported the matter to Victor who was very helpful. He referred the matter to Jason Banks (the branch Manager) who asked me to take photographs and to bring in some of the defective items for him to look at.
Jason immediately acknowledged what appeared to be a quality issue. He didn’t hide behind guarantee periods or the fact that the invoice had been mislaid. He searched the store records and worked with the accredited installer (Chris Lewis) to trace the order and to put things right.
He kept us appraised on progress and was honest and open throughout. This all took a lot of time and effort. Nothing was too much trouble for Jason, Victor and Chris who were professional, polite and courteous throughout.
Jason provided a very fair solution that my sister was absolutely delighted with!
Well done Jason and the team for going well beyond what was expected in terms of customer care and attention to detail.
Would I recommend Howdens Charlton and Jason to my friends…….without hesitation!

Recently purchased a fan oven from Howdens at their Skelton depot .They could not have been more helpful and the whole process was stress free.Thanks guys a job well done.

needed some pre finished doors from howdens in brimsdown and scott could not have been more helpful

Kitchen renovation
We asked Howdens Altrincham to provide us with a design and cost estimate for door changes and addition of two further cabinets. Chris Humphreys provided us with that in good time. We brought in our installer to review. Howdens delivered promptly and our installer installed the doors and extra cabinets. The result is a delightful kitchen. Thank you Howdens and Gary (our installer)

We required a re-vamped kitchen with new doors etc.
Graehme at Howdens St. Ives branch came out with a fitter he recommended and made a list and plan of all work required. The work has now been done and the results are excelent, we are very pleased and the price was very competetive.

Expensive but really decent quality! Andy was a pleasurable chap!

My wife and I purchased a kitchen through the Hayes store. The design process was very good with all goods delivered on spec in excellent condition.

We did have a couple of items to return , again a process made really simple by the Hayes team .

I would recommend this branch and Howdens.

Vinyl Flooring
We ordered a kitchen and a matching vinyl floor as shown to us in Howdens showroom manual, website and finished kitchen CAD print out. At the end of day inspecting our new floor, to our horror it was nothing like the samples we were shown.
Howdens refused any responsibility for misrepresentation and pointed out we were not their trade customers so we had no guarantee from them.
My fitters, claimed it was Howdens at fault and threaten us with legal action if we did not pay their bill. It cost us £1.000 for rectification. Some good news was we had a better-quality flooring at a lower price from another local supplier.
Mr & Mrs King

This is the worse therapy insurer in the UK. Rude customer service. Staff have hung up on me for two years running because of their incompetence and being asked to correct their payment method. To think i pay these staff to dish out this mess to public is unthinkable. PLEASE DO NOT USE THEM! NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE!!!
MY REFERENCE NUMBER IS: P19Q2763