"Shambolic customer services"

I ordered three lengths of oak worktops (1x 4 meter, 2x 3 meter) through solidwoodkitchencabinets.co.uk who are a sister company to worktop-express.co.uk so this review will be on both sites.

The full story is below but to summarise: I would not recommend these two companies to anyone as my order had missing items, non delivery when arranged, bad customer services and poor quality control of the items leaving their warehouse to the customer. I have lost money from having to cancel carpenters and had to take unessesary time off work.

Grab a cuppa if you want.....
I ordered the more expensive deluxe prime oak worktops as these were advertised as having fewer imperfections and an even appearance from hand picked staves.

Ordering and arranging delivery was straightforward and quick however when my order arrived i was missing one of the 3 meter worktops. The company contacted me to say that they were experiencing low stock but could get the outstanding worktop out to me on the following Monday. This meant I now had to cancel my carpenter who was on £200 a day! Out of the two worktops they did deliver one of them was full of knots, imperfections and deep gouge marks. I suspect they delivered me the lower grade worktop and not the deluxe. This was mentioned to their customer services who requested photos which were sent on to them.

The next delivery day came and there was no sign of my delivery. I contacted the company at the end of the day to see what was happening but they informed me that my worktops were not in stock and would be a day or two before they come in. A simple telephone call from the company out of courtesy to let me know this would have gone a long way as I took additional time off work and waited around the house for most of the day for this.

The customer services team were very apologetic towards me and stated they will arrange my delivery for the following day and look to get all the worktops changed to ensure they are all consistent in appearance to each other and they would contact me during the day to arrange delivery.

I never had any update calls from them and always found myself having to chace them up asking for updates as I desperately needed to get my kitchen completed as we are a family of four and having the kitchen out of use was difficult.

The response I got from the company now was that they could not replace all the worktops as they only had stock to deliver the one 3 meter length that was still outstanding.

I explained that this was not good enough and I needed another 3 meter length as the one I had was damaged and had a significant amount of flaws. I made the suggestion that they should send me out a 4 meter length instead as these were in stock with them but they stated I would have to pay the additional cost for this. I felt this was not acceptable from a customer services point of view and requested to speak with the manager. The manager was never available to speak with me and it was now entering the second week from the initial delivery.

After the second weekend I then received an e-mail staying they would swap the lower grade 3 meter length for a 4 meter worktop as a gesture of good will!!!! I’m sorry but I hardly find this a gesture of good will as I will not benefit from having a bit of left over worktop! The only benefit I would have is to get on with completing my kitchen.

Anyway the delivery of my outstanding 3m worktop and exchange of the lower grade worktop had been arranged and I re-booked my carpenter to come the following day. On delivery of the worktop I was again disappointed and shocked to find they delivered me another lower grade worktop which was full of knots and flaws but this time they even left the stock sticker on the worktop which identified it as the prime grade and not the deluxe prime!!!

I immediately rang the company to explain this and their responce was that they didn’t have any more stock to send me. I feel the company never did have the worktops I ordered in stock so were deceitful and sneeky in delivering me the lower grade in the hope I would not notice and accept it - even though I had paid for the higher grade. Again the carpenter had to be cancelled whilst I tried to sort this matter out.

In the end I loss patience and trust with this company and could not delay my kitchen any further so requested they refund the difference between the prime grade they delivered and deluxe prime I paid for. My kitchen now has two deluxe prime worktops and one prime worktop which I am not overly happy with as there is clearly more knots on this prime worktop. In addition to the bad service I was also disappointed with the finish of the oak as they were not sanded evenly to 150 grit finish. Some patches were smooth and others rougher than a badgers a**. To get these worktops to a nice smooth finish still required a lot of hard work.

There has been no offers of compensation or discounts from this company and I will not use them again or recommend them to anyone.

"Fantastic service."

Would absolutely recommend this company. The staff at Chesterfield, particularly Rosie, were incredibly helpful and spent lots of time with me while we ordered our kitchen. There have been small hiccups (of my own making) and all have been sorted out quickly and efficiently.
The kitchen was delivered today in the middle of a storm and a quagmire of a garden! No complaints from the delivery men, again a swift and efficient service. Thank you chaps!
I have now had the opportunity to unpack the kitchen with the kitchen fitters. They are super impressed at the quality, everything I ordered has arrived. The bespoke paint on the island doors is beautiful.
Typically I over ordered on end panels and pilasters, but they kitchen fitters are going to make me some shelves and a spice rack to match the rest of the kitchen.
Can't wait to see it all finished now!
Fantastic value for the price paid. There are loads of kitchen suppliers out there but I would definitely say give this company a look.

"Excellent finished kitchen and very reasonable"

I am really happy with the finished kitchen. I chose 2different bespoke colours for the units, all came as ordered. You need to be sure about what you want. I didn’t realise that I needed end panels, but the company sent them within 2 weeks in my bespoke colours. Very pleased with the service and delivery.

"Great kitchen from a helpful company"

We're very pleased with our new kitchen! And would certainly recommend Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets to friends.
Kitchens are very complicated, so we took time to work out exactly how we wanted the kitchen to work. Then we planned it down to the millimetre, but built in some centimetres of wriggle room for adjustments (you find walls aren't straight, etc. etc.). Then we visited a showroom to look at some of the possibilities and talk our ideas through. Then we discussed our detailed plans with the experienced kitchen fitter who was going to install the units, focussing on any tricky areas.
Only then did we actually make an order (we went to the main showroom in Gloucester and worked through the order with staff there to be sure we all thought it would work).
Since kitchen overhauls involve pulling together people and materials from a range of suppliers it's wise to schedule in some time for delays! Solid Wood Kitchens did in fact have to re-schedule delivery for a week later than planned but we'd allowed for that so no problem at all.
The kitchen was delivered by a couple of incredibly helpful lads who took a lot of care getting the stuff into the space we'd prepared for the units. I wish all deliverymen were as good. We'd taken a few things out of the hall to make sure they had a clear path.
We had to return one slightly damaged item, and chase a cutlery drawer that didn't turn up - Solid Wood were onto the case very quickly and sorted it out. In fact they were extremely helpful during the whole process.

"Let down by Solid wood kitchen cabinets AKA direct online services"

Placed order 1/11 given delivery date of 16/11. Booked fitters, plasterers,sparks etc. WE HAVE NO KITCHEN> SWC called 15/11 to cancel delivery. Fitters on £300 per day no new date, what to do now ?? I am another who should have read the reviews here.

"The worktops they delivered didn't match"

Having delivered non-matching worktops, which wasn't discovered until my kitchen fitter was installing them on a Saturday, instead of taking responsibility for their error and refunding the worktop and delivery charge, they blamed me for choosing to get the correct worktop from B&Q myself instead of waiting for them to fix their error. I did try and call to find out my options but they were closed on a Saturday. They refunded and collected the incorrect worktop but I had to insist that they refunded the delivery charge and, over a month later, they still haven't.

They have a director of customer relations who should have arranged an instant refund, acknowledged the difficult situation that their error had put me in, and put in place a process whereby they spend 5 seconds checking that the worktops they are putting in or taking out of their van match. This would help improve their quality and avoid similar problems in the future as well as make me feel better about their customer service. However she did none of this. Either she is so busy because they mess up so many orders, in which case they seriously need to improve their quality, or she is not performing her role at all and needs to be replaced.

"Great quality, Great services, Huge money saved."

After many search and looking around, I eventually decided to choose Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets. With the price of same, or even below those designed chipboard kitchen, I got top quality cabinets. Even the carpenter installer keep saying ‘Good Stuff’.

I measured my kitchen and purchased the assembled cabinets. I believe I have saved more than half, if not two third, had I bought same quality kitchen from a kitchen company.
The only point that not perfect is that Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets do not produce Oven House cabinet. What I did is bought a flat packed standard cabinet, carpenter changed to an oven house. I advise them to add this product on their list.

"great customer service"

I found all of the office staff at Solid Wood Kitchens very helpful during the purchasing and installing of my new kitchen. Some of the delivery drivers where a little less helpful. I had a number of issues down to my own lack of experience which the customer support team along with my kitchen fitter helped me with. The product is of a very good quality in particular the wooden worktop. Delivery was good with all of the items packaged well to protect them. There was an issue with the late delivery of one unit due to a stock issue but they were able to help ensure I received this in time for it's actual fitting. Overall a great service.

""Best kitchen I've ever fitted""

“The best kitchen I have ever fitted” and “this must be £20k of kit” are two of the statements made by my builder and his kitchen fitter following our decision to purchase a kitchen from Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets in Gloucester. High praise indeed from professionals who have been doing home improvement projects for 20 years, and now our own project has been completed, I fully agree with their comments.

We decided in the summer of 2016 to renovate our downstairs and knock through our dining room, kitchen and utility into one large open plan room. The fitted kitchen was to be the focal point of our project and we wanted a painted timber shaker door which is currently the main kitchen trend. As would be expected, we started to trawl through the various retail outlets and builders merchants looking for what we wanted. To be fair most of the outlets had the type of door styles we were looking for, but as an ex-employee of a kitchen furniture manufacturer I couldn’t quite accept the fact we were going to have to pay over £10k for chipboard kitchen units.

I knew there was a solid wood worktop company in Gloucester, so I googled “Solid Wood Kitchens” and was delighted to see that the same company also manufactured solid wood kitchen cabinets too. After a quick look at the website and a rough calculation of costs, it appeared to me that I might be able to have a fully solid timber kitchen at a lower cost than the chipboard equivalents available on the high street. So, with a slightly sceptical mind-set, my wife and I visited the showroom in Quedgeley to have a look for ourselves. The showroom is small but well laid out, with examples of the types of doors, colours and units available. Lauren on the sales desk was very helpful and provided us with a proper quotation for a shaker style door, solid timber units and solid timber worktops. To say I was delighted is an understatement!! The total cost of the whole package was less than the quotes I had been provided elsewhere for just the cabinets. What’s the catch I asked myself?? Poor service, poor quality, long delivery lead time… There must be a catch somewhere…

Well, no, there wasn’t. We choose from the standard colour range (New White for the wall units and Mizzle for the base units, both from the Farrow & Ball colour range) which meant the lead time was only 2 weeks. Lauren also included in the quote a lovely ceramic sink and a brushed steel level tap which saved us having to shop around again for these, so we placed our order and waited for delivery. After a week or so, I realised I had made a small dimensional error and the original plan would no longer fit. I popped into the showroom I explained my problem to Lauren. She quickly checked the status of my order and was able to make a few amendments to the list of materials to ensure the design worked. No problems, no fuss and all done with a smile.

The kitchen arrived on the day it was promised, with a few odds and ends (a result of my measuring issue!!) following on the week after. The 2 man delivery team offloaded the units and worktops quickly and stored the items safely in my garage, again, all done with a smile and a great sense of humour both my wife and I appreciated.

The kitchen fitting went like a dream, the units are delivered rigid, there are hanging brackets for the wall units to avoid unsightly screw caps on the back panels, the base units come with adjustable legs and the doors came pre drilled for the hinges and were attached to the units. The only retrospective drilling required was for the door handles, but no issues with that. As I mention at the start of the review, the kitchen fitter referred to this as the best kitchen he had ever fitted and told me he will be recommending these kitchens to any new customers of his.

From a user’s point of view, the kitchen has all the features of a top end luxury brand. Soft close system built into the hinges, soft close drawer runners, matching painted plinth and pelmet to finish off the look, a host of wire work accessories to maximise the storage space and a solid timber cutlery drawer tray that has been carved (yes carved) out of a solid piece of timber.

To summarise, we are absolutely delighted with our new kitchen. It is everything we wanted and more. The quality is excellent, the Farrow & Ball colour choice is wide, the price was very pleasantly surprising and most of all the service from Lauren, James, Jade and the delivery guys was exemplary.

If you are looking for a new kitchen but want something different to the mass produced chipboard on the high street, try Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

"Beautiful kitchen"

Excellent quality at a very good price, 1/3 the price of the usual suspects from the quotes I received. However they provide a planning service.
I would advise anyone who has not done quite a lot of this type of work to use a kitchen planner or good fitter to help at the planning/ordering stage.
I have recommended them to others and will use them again on my next job.