KBBC Kitchens - www.kbbckitchens.co.uk

Same people - they just walked away from their many previous liabilities. Oh and interestingly the same glorious reviews.....really???

I bought from KBBC, they were truly terrible, they have now gone into admin as my kitchen falls apart....and this new company appears again and off they go again.

I’m posting my review on KBBC Kitchens; we’ve not had a great experience although it all started off so well….

They were actually recommended to me by 2 friends from work (who are now kicking themselves); and the initial home/design visit in Feb went well. Having had an extortionate quote from another company, we were receptive to what seemed possible, although looking back, it was quite a hard sell – we wouldn’t normally sign up to something there and then; but having had personal recommendations made us feel confident to go ahead.

Things started to go downhill after that. Originally estimated delivery would be in late May but as we were having building work done which got delayed, we had to move delivery of the kitchen to July;. In the period between April and July, we’d both get calls asking us when we could accept delivery – even though I called on several occasions to advise of the new date. Shame I never got any calls giving me information later in the process….

I finally confirmed delivery for 21 July, and was told a fitter would be onsite the day after the kitchen came. On 21 July; not all of the kitchen arrived - the people delivering didn’t have a delivery note, so I couldn’t check what had come and what hadn’t.

Queue more calls to customer services to track down missing pieces – which it turns out had been missed off the order. They were rushed out to me the following day. At this stage, I was still ok with it – you kind of expect a bit of hassle.

As fitting progressed, we realised we had been mis-sold some things and other bits had either been damaged or not arrived – sink was too big for the worksurface; recycling bins wouldn’t fit, extractor fan had been damaged in transit. It took nearly 3 weeks to get this resolved.

The granite templaters were not able to come onsite until a week after the kitchen had been fitted – so we were left with no sink/worksurfaces. When I called KBBC to ask why the delay, I was told it was a busy time of year…. Yes, but if I’ve booked my kithen in to be fitted; why not book the templaters at the same time???

When the granite arrived 2 weeks after the templates had been done, there had been a mix up between templating and the new sink we had chosen (after being told the original one wouldn’t fit) – the hole in the granite was too large for the new sink to fit. After 3 weeks with no sink/working kitchen and 2 small children, I was in tears by this stage. Granite people saved the day by sorting out the correct sized sink – dread to think how long it would have taken KBBC to resolve this…..

One of the promises /selling points on their website is

“When an order has been placed, we will arrange for a Technical Surveyor to visit and re-plan your kitchen with you and run through an extensive checklist to minimise errors. This normally takes about 2 hours. They will also double-check all model numbers and colours of the doors and cabinets, worktop, handles, sink, taps and appliances to ensure that every component has been ordered correctly and that your new kitchen fits into your room”.. so how did we end up with the original sink being too large? We’ve also since discovered that the dishwasher only just opens, due to the size/angle of the drawers in the next unit… again, how could this happen?

Every time I called Customer services I was made to feel as if I was asking too many questions/being difficult. There appear to be only 2 people in Customer Services; and a very inefficient call tracking system, so if the main person who was dealing with my order was unavailable, the other lady couldn’t help. I was told someone would call me back; but invariably, they never did. In the end I found it easier to call them back – on one occasion I was told ‘the phone never stops ringing, not had a chance to call. ‘ They either need more staff, and/or a better call logging system to track what’s going on

In the end, I contacted the fitter directly myself to arrange the final fitting; can only assume KBBC know I’ve spoken to him, as I’ve had no call back from them to confirm dates. Fitter wasn’t gas safety certified – he had the number of someone who could come out, but am sorting it out myself now.

One of the promises as part of the initial design phase is ‘we’ll take care of everything’. Can’t say I found this to be the case…. None of the packaging the kitchen came in was taken away; luckily we had a skip outside. None of this is made clear to you from the outset.

Highly recommend the kitchen fitter and granite people - The fitter was excellent however the service and project management was non existent, there were no courtesy calls to see how the kitchen was coming along and no courtesy calls once the kitchen was fitted.

Be interesting to see if I get any follow up calls……

UPDATE: Since this article went live, I have been contacted by KBBC and asked to remove it. I don't want to do that, as feel that doesn't give other consumers/customers a fair representation. I do accept that my initial star rating may have been low, as I was writing too closely after the events had happened, so I have amended that. But I stand by my comments about communication and have given my feedback to KBBC also.

We had a reasonable size kitchen fitted out (9.5m x 4m). The service was genuinely very good/helpful and the fitters were excellent.

We had quite a major change in the wall structure as a result of the building work (a 12 inch pillar sticking out where a cabinet was supposed to be) but the fitters and even the director were able to help resolve even though I know they did not have to (they essentially built around the pillar so that you can not even tell it is there externally).

My wife and I also kept changing our my minds on things (the change to glass doors for the wall cabinets, the make of one of the appliances etc) which I totally accept was not KBBC's responsibility to help resolve but they did anyway. Of course we paid for any material changes as you would expect and the problems with the builder and our design changes caused a slight delay but we were very happy with the end result. The kitchen looks great.

Thanks

I would definitely use KBBC Kitchens again!

I'm really happy. There was no hassle. The designer came and designed our kitchen, the kitchen was delivered and fitted on time, the quality is 1st class. The fitter was no trouble at all, and did a very professional job. I could not of asked for anything more.

Thanks chaps

I have just had a kitchen fitted by KBBC Kitchens and it's been fantastic!!!

I now have a beautiful kitchen just as I imagined it. I can not stress how pleased I am with it. All the people we have dealt with at KBBC Kitchens have been polite and helpful. I decided to go with them because of how genuine everyone seemed plus they had the kitchen I wanted, and I am so pleased I did.

I recommend Kbbc to anyone thinking of buying a Kitchen.

My husband and I had building work done to our house. I was so excited I called KBBC as soon as the plans were approved and I must admit now that this was too too early. I highly recommend to anyone that is having building work done to their kitchen space to wait until you have actual walls you can measure. Our actual kitchen space and shape had changed by the time it was built, due to drainage problems and other small decisions we had made during building work, this affected the kitchen design and the kitchen order and therefore price. The designer agreed to design our kitchen for us at the time, but did warn us that from his experience it would probably change by the time our extension was finished.

I have to thank KBBC for their patience and the gorgeous kitchen they have fitted for us.

I definatley recommend KBBC Kitchens

Andy and Claire

Maidstone

My husband wanted a grey glossy kitchen which I wasn't sure about, so the designer designed the kitchen on his laptop and showed us how it would look in our kitchen space. I was wowed it was quite something! It really helped to see in 3d what the kitchen would look like when finished.

We are very happy with the finished product. And as much as I hate to say it my husband was right about the colour :)

Kbbc Kitchens is a pleasant company to deal with.

Angela and chris

Braintree

Considering I had never heard of kbbc I was very much impressed by their service - very professional.

I especially want to thank the fitters who worked nonstop to get the job done on time.

J Lyons

Went to visit a few different kitchen companies. My main priority was quality, as I wanted a kitchen that is going to last. After checking a few I found kbbc the best quality of all. Kbbc doors are solid and heavy, and the units inside are nicely finished and can take any weight work top. Most other kitchens we saw had very light weight doors with white backs (yak) and the units inside we're very cheap.

There was no comparison.

Our kitchen is now fitted.

Brilliant!

Mrs Wells

I don't usually write reviews but I felt I really had to this time.

I was over whelmed with everything from start to finish. Extremely high quality for a reasonable price, saved a fortune. John and Becky in customer service was on the ball. I had plenty of follow up calls to make sure all was ok during fit. Down to earth company and easy to talk to.

Thank you From a very grateful customer.