Howdens - Salford Reviews 

I am using this branch last 10 years on and off always happy. Friendly staff and always happy to help

I have recently bought a kitchen from the Salford Howdens Branch. The service prior to delivery of the kitchen was excellent. I had no complaints. The issues started after delivery. There are two faulty items and the branch are showing no willingness to resolve the issue and are In fact incredibly rude and accusing us of having caused the damage despite the damage being in a place where it would have been impossible for us to have caused it. I would never ever buy anything from Howdens again and never recommend them. It is so disappointing, a kitchen is such a big and expensive purchase. To be now left with faulty items for the next however many years is very upsetting. The serivce is shocking and the 25 year guarantee offered not worth anything when you can’t even get them to resolve an item that was defective when delivered.

Great service from Jade on the design side, she visited my home to measure and provided an excellent design, which matched what I was looking for, can’t fault her. It was only once Howdens had taken my money that the problems started, in total I had 8 separate deliveries before my kitchen was completely received. Constantly having to call and ask for the missing items. Manager Danny made it out that he was doing us a favour by providing units which were included in the design but missed off their quote. Expected better.

Great services

I got a quote for a kitchen from one Howdens depo and found it expensive. So when I queried and asked if a Trader's discount have been given and I was affirmed that all the discounts have been applied etc.
Then I shopped around and then decided to visit a different Howdens depo and their price was a lot cheaper than the price I was originally quoted.
It shouldn’t be like that.

Great service from Danny at Salford after being let down by irlam Howdens

One of the unit drawers did not match the size and they did not want to correct it

Please be careful before committing to Howdens. My experience was with Salford, and I'm sure standards vary from store to store, (as do prices if some reviews are to be believed), but I can only relate mine.

They mis-measured my new open plan kitchen by 300 mil (that’s 12 inches) on both sides then refused to refund me in full for the 300 and 500 mil units which didn’t fit, replacing them with 2x200 mil units which are about as much use as a chocolate teapot for storage, and which, more importantly, I did NOT agree to have. They hide behind “only selling to the trade fitter” and I eventually got a refund for the difference, after chasing the store - the delay was because they had to get the fitters permission to refund MY money. They belatedly offered to refund my card, which would have been difficult as I'd paid by mobile banking transfer.

I had paid Howdens, not the fitter. (I checked and it was their sort code and account number).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you pay someone directly for products which are simply not fit for their specific purpose, surely you get a full refund?

Once you’ve paid them, don’t expect them to deal with you - and certainly don’t expect a full refund for units that simply don’t fit because of their measuring errors. Luckily I had found a brilliant fitter.

You pay Howdens direct for the kitchen but their ‘business model’ says the contract is with the fitter, so they say no contracts exist between who they call the “end user” (the customer) and them. Reviews on here seem to suggest that that is not always the case.

Their standard feedback says "rest assured that they will share your feedback internally" but there is no complaints section on their website, and my complaint was summarily dismissed. I emailed the complaint handler directly this month, as not all my questions had been answered, and her auto "Out Of Office" message mentioned that she would be away until a date late in November. Hmm.

They say their measuring service is "complimentary" but I'm not sure anyone would buy a kitchen from any company without the comany measuring it first !

All in all such a shame - looking at the 26 bad reviews posted in the past week, I hope the fall in standards is temporary and not permanent.

Thank goodness for review sites like this, BBC Watchdog, and other similar platforms.

EDIT:29/12/21 - Standard reply as expected, apart from one intriguing element. The mis-spelling of the word "alternatively", with the second "a" erroneously preceeding the "r". (interestingly, a word not used in reply to any other one star reviews today).
This leads me to believe that, either the staff member who mis measured my kitchen has been transferred onto typing replies to Trustpilot reviews equally efficiently, or more tantalisingly that it was a deliberate subliminal attempt at a side swipe on my completely honest and accurate review.
I'm opting for the former, in good humour and good faith !