Wren Kitchens

I don't normally write reviews, but so poor was our experience of Wren, and just how much stress they put my wife under, means I feel compelled to document the following. There were so many opportunities for Wren to make good in some way and address the issues, but my overall feeling is no one wanted to take accountability for the failings and so they've just stuck their head in the sand of a situation that's progressively worsened.

The "too-long, didn't read" list of issues we've had throughout our journey are as follows (be warned it is still pretty lengthy):

My wife was told she was "taking up too much time" by her first sales rep, pre-deposit.
The surveyor missed a pretty obvious and visible box corner which turned out to have an immovable water pipe there, prompting a hasty redesign of the kitchen with my wife having to revisit the showroom on work time
Said redesign made some pretty poor aesthetic choices to work around the pipe. Essentially, stick a plank of wood asymmetrically on one side. Not quite the upscale design we'd paid for.
Our second designer ordered the wrong colour profiles. Rather than admitting fault, she doubled down and insinuated my wife had chosen them at the beginning. Who consciously picks a colour they hate?
These colour profiles took five working days to ship. My wife was on the phone for hours trying to find some option to get them faster, but there was no solution-focused approach, no help, no accountability for the mistake.
Our contractor began erecting the kitchen. Four drawer faces fell off before they'd even got out of the box. We had to use the contractors time to fix drawers rather than installing the unit we paid for.
The second designer over-sold us on panels, to the tune of £450 in extra materials we have no use for and is now just sitting in our living room.
Both my contractor and my wife rang the showroom almost daily trying to deal with the issue of the colour profiles and drawers and no one would answer the phone. To get the designer on a call, she had to call from my phone so she didn't recognise the number (guess what she picked up)
The whole kitchen is erected and it turns out they sent the wrong unit for the oven and microwave, one that has no dividing shelf. This is pretty critical as you can't balance the microwave on the oven without it. But the whole kitchen's fitted in place now. Wren customer service just wanted to send us a unit, so I guess we're meant to just start over?
My wife then spends 45 minutes on the phone, on hold, and is offered £50 for her trouble. Oh and it'll be another two working days for the shelf to arrive (which my contractor will have somehow bodge on).

What have I learned from all this? Firstly, my wife is amazing. Like the sheer amount of work required from her to keep this to even where we're at now has been Herculean. And second, don't use Wren. Not if you want to have a working kitchen by Christmas.

Great product. Informed and most competent design staff (Fabiola). Super supportive customer service personnel.

Bought a Wren kitchen a year ago, nothing but issues with delivery being wrong, final print out wasnt the same as on the screen, was incorrect and kitchen fitted when I was away, units ended up in wrong place, oven next to fridge. Wren said just move them, at my expense. Now I have 4 doors with chips in them. I live on my own, so no high footfall and dont cook much. They said its accidental damage. Im appalled, it wasnt a cheap low range kitchen and expected more from Wren. My old cheap kitchen was in situ for over 20 years and lasted better than my new one. Seems very badly made, bad quality
So after my 1 star review Wren replaced 3 doors of by NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE J design kitchen. They want to charge me £62 + VAT for the fourth. Why would I pay for more poor quality doors that wont last long.? My kitchen is just over 1 year old, I live on my own so it doesnt have much footfall. Wren said its my fault the doors are falling apart as I havent looked after it. The amount of complaints on different sites about the poor quality of the J design kitchen is unreal, yet Wren still carries on selling them. Somone said i was "spray painted Cr@P" and I should have done my research first. I expect a decent quality for what I spent on my kitchen. My old chep one was better quality than this. Im disgusted with Wren. Sales lady Naomi in Newport all sweetness and light, until issues arose, then she and the branch dont want to know. Appalling service. Dont be fooled with the smiley sales people and definately dont buy the J design kitchen. I dread to think what my kitchen will look like in 12 months:(
AVOID AT ALL COSTS

I really had the best experience with Wren's Kitchens, all the people that helped are the best and I love my kitchen.

Had measurements done by their "surveyor" then had appointment with their "designer". Had to travel 20 miles to be there at 9 am. Upon reaching quivkly learned that the "dedigner" had no knowledge of what he was supposed to do.He asked me to start designing by telling him what cabinet should go where! Luckily I had done my homework for past 2 weeks so was able to plan a little but was confused with their measurements. I kept asking if they had my measurements right and he confirmed affirmative. Once the design was complete he started showing it to me proudly without even realising that the entire range cooker was missing in it! Nevertheless when he tried a second time to show the projected 3d design I was absolutely sure my kitchen measurements were messed and he quickly agreed.So he had some discussions with his manager who absolutely confirmed my doubts but the manager never came out to meet me and appologise or anything in that matter. Inspite of that the "designer" continued to ammend and shuffle the kitchen cabinets to complete it somehow?!? Which was total nonsense for me so I decided to leave.Not to mention I wasted my extremely expensive fuel travelling 40 miles to and fro but also my precious 3 hours in total.
To top it all at 12 pm I recieved a text from Wren kitchens stating my 9am appointment (which I already attended) was cancelled!
The "designer" was embarrased beyond limits and did appologize for the invonvinience caused but nothing further in that matter from Wren kitchens the so called No. 1 in the UK.

The quality of the kitchen is fine for what you pay for. The sales reps are not fully trained and I ended up spending a lot more money because they did not ask questions that would have been crucial to the design, that I as a lay person, would not have known to ask/share.

Installation was fine. Took two days - however, be aware that installation does not include cleanup, and there will be a lot of boxes, left over materials and trash, left for you to deal with. The fridge would not fit through my front door, so they took it back and said they would reach out within 48 hours. Two weeks later I had to call them to check on status. It should not be on me as a client paying over 20K to have to nudge them to do their job.

The major problems for me started with the quartz countertops. I was told at the salespoint that they would reach out once they got notice that the kitchen was installed so they can send someone to remeasure and that it would take about two weeks to get it installed. I had to call them a week later to ask about it, I had zero communication from Wren. Once they got a measuring date, they told me it would be an additional three weeks to get the countertops installed. I complained and the attitude I got was the equivalent of sucks to be you - meanwhile, I have a largely unusable kitchen sitting there. I asked to cancel the countertops so I can get something in quicker and that was not an option.

They finally sent some temporary countertops - they are too big, and once I call, they tell me that now that they are onsite they will send installers to cut - which was not at all communicated to me, as I would have declined. I have zero interest in having anymore dealings with Wren than necessary. Their customer service has a severe lack of communication skills - the experience would have been better with actual follow ups, full explanations, and appropriate expectation settings from the salespoint.

Customer service only works from 9-5p, monday through friday. The experience has been dreadful. Highly regret choosing them.