*** DO NOT BUY DILUSSO KITCHENS UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS ***
*** DO NOT BUY DILUSSO KITCHENS UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS ***
I am all for taking these unprofessional and devious people to court. My nightmare started with 21st February 2006, with payment of deposit. Full payment was made on March 24th. Fitting took place, Monday 27th March.
Today is Sunday, June 25th 2006. 3 months later, my kitchen is still incomplete.
I paid (and I am ashamed to say I paid upfront too) a total of ? 12,139 in cash.
I was also looking at the Small Claims but I doubt this would reach a satisfactory conclusion ? has anyone had a successful claim?
I think we owe it to the general public to ensure they too are not seduced by cut prices, by quick and easy fitting, the over friendliness of the sales man.
I am going to create a website so that everyone around the world will know ?Disastrous Dillusso Kitchens.com???watch this space.
The following provides you with a brief account of the people I dealt with and the shocking experience:
Salesman, Steve Loonie (Tunbridge Wells Office) fed me in accurate information regarding the credit agreement. Indicating that if I took out the credit agreement with First National Bank Plc I would receive an additional cover for the fitting. He continued to mislead by stating that I could, at anytime, terminate the agreement and would not suffer any penalties. He also gave me a ?discount? if I took the agreement. But my calculations of the interest repaid meant I would be paying even more. I reviewed the credit agreement after signing and decided to revoke my credit agreement and pay upfront. The penalties were horrendous.
Andrea Loonie (wife of Steve) tried to help, but upon reflection, I feel that she too was unprofessional and unable to assist blaming everything on Headoffice, Monton, Manchester. I also asked for a breakdown of the units and appliances for insurance purposes- needless to say, I still have not received anything.
Empty promises of Julie McKenzie, the so-called After Sales Director that the ineptitude of the Dispatch team to accurately deliver information would be resolved. That the right-hand magic corner would be delivered rather then the left hand! And that the 50/50 split fridge freezer would be replaced with the correct 70/30.
Whose fault is it anyway?.......dispatch? Delivery? Order input? Delivery? Dispatch? Fitters? According to HO, the fitters should have checked all items were present before commencing installation. But they?re contractors. Well the delivery should have checked against the delivery note. But they?re contractors. Well dispatch should have checked before mindlessly loading items onto the truck. But they, appear to be illiterate ? left hand, right hand. Easy mistake I suppose!
The incompetent fitters of Watkins UK Ltd, Stockport. And their surprise that, "Oh, we don't normally have this problem." Their complete disregard for Health and Safety while manually hoisting a 3.5m long worksurface up approx 20m to my balcony using ropes. I even took video in case there was a disaster so that I would not be incriminated. DiLusso reimbursed me the extra ?350 I paid to the fitters in cash!
Why hoist? Because the surveyor did not measure the access. In fact the surveyor was unable to measure correctly which caused the fitters to make changes to the units on-site.
I was amazed at one stage when I returned home during the day how many people were in my flat. These guys apparently were being trained ? on the job. I didn?t realize that that was in my contract. The Lithuanian fitters from Orpington, Kent made an absolute pigs ear of fitting.
The ?fitters pitch? when I phoned Charlie Watkins on the first day of fitting to complain. He assured me that, ?It?s like watching a play; at the front of the theatre everything looks good, but you have no idea what is happening behind the scenes.? I think now he was describing DiLusso??..
The patheticness of Peter Gibson, the ?Senior? Installations Manager. Despite examining the fitting and concluding that over a dozen ?snags?(that?s what they call it in the business) was needed to remedy the installation to satisfactory, Peter has lost all ability to use a mobile phone or any communications device to return my numerous voice mails to arrange for new fitters. I has left so many that his answer machine was full.
And finally, good ol? Dougie Millward, MD. I cannot believe that the man can sleep at night. That he can be proud to be the managing director of such a shoddy company.
Some tips:
NEVER pay upfront. Only pay a deposit. If the company are as good as they say, then they will have financing arrangements with their Bank to deal with any cash flows.
ACCESS ? always ensure that you can get large items (length, width and height), in to lifts, up and around stairwells, from corridors into the room to be fitted.
ALWAYS read credit agreements especially early termination penalties.
GO WITH INSTINCT ? if you think something is not right, question it, chances are you?re right.
INSPECT all aspects of the fitting. Tops of kitchen units, corners, joints, opening closing doors/draws. Remember Charlie?s metaphor!
I hope that anyone reading this mail, will reconsider and seek an alternative manufacturer.
So for all those people who have suffered like I have, what shall we do next? I?m based in London and would happy to take part in anything which will uncover these people so that they do not con anymore people out of their dreams and hard earned money.
Bad Dilusso et al. I have logged mine on to the BBC Watchdog Website too. Lets see if enough of us do it then they may take it up as a cause. Their practices are worthy of public exposure, I must admit all I want is a decent kitchen not more hassle, but having read all these reports the likelihood is fast diminishing. We have been fed the same lines by everyone, not least Katie Fowkes who came to see the shambles and agreed with me that it was. She mentioned compensation to me, but I see this disappearing into oblivion. We had bare wires left coming out of the walls and a cornice that fell off and hit me on the head because it had been balanced and not fitted. I still have all the rubbish in my back garden, plus the contents of a fitters van that he unloaded before he had even started, he said a skip was coming for it!! Guess what??
I have videoed this and have photographic evidence, we need to warn other people not to use them, or at least ask to speak to those people on their website who appear to be pleased.
Our kitchen was finally finished last week after 3 months of trying and 3 different fitting companies coming out to us.
In this time I wrote several letters to Julia McKenzie and Dougie Milward (I always sent these recorded delivery so that I have evidence of sending if I needed to take the company to court.) When I managed to get through on the phone Julia McKenzie`s PA just kept promising that she would get back to me with dates of completion that never happened. I have logged my complaint with Trading Standards (however they said they wouldn`t investigate them unless they had a lot of complaints against them) and also on the Watchdog website. We paid for our kitchen by credit card and was advised to contact the credit card company as they have a duty to ensure that the kitchen was finished fully. I was fully ready to take Dilusso to the small claims court in order to get our kitchen completed if needed and kept a diary (plus photos) of every conversation, letter sent etc (our problems included very poor standard of fitting, rubbish left in back garden which we finally cleared ourselves, missing parts and bad plumbing). I researched our rights and after 3 months of waiting sent DiLusso a letter informing them that if the work was not completed by a certain date we would take legal action against them (Under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (as amended), you are entitled to expect work to be carried out using reasonable care and skill, and fit for the purpose intended. If there are faults then there is a breach of contract.). The deadline was 20th June and funnily enough that was the day that we received a call asking if one of their fitters could come out the next day. Since the kitchen has been finished we have had no contact from Dilusso, I would have thought they could at least call to apologise for the sub-standard service.
I would never recommend DiLusso kitchens to anyone and haven`t seen them advertising anywhere lately.
I hope Watchdog take up the investigation as I would hate other people to go through all the problems that we all have.
This is my 3rd post about this appalling company. Still not completely satisfied with the kitchen, still need the magic corner replacing. Again I have requested compenstation, but do not think I will get any. I have also reported my issues with the trading standards. How many do they need before they take action?
Again I have thought about small claims court, but you are unable to claim for stress and frustation.
I just hope anybody buying a kitchen checks here before buying?
The company is inapt and are now starting to get rude when I ring them up.
We have had ongoing issues in the same vein as other posts. The delivery was incomplete, we are still missing parts after 8 weeks and are still waiting for a response to a formal request for remedial action.
Although we are now getting some movement, it has been solely due to some direct requests sent by recorded delivery.
If you are having issues, I'd recommend that you write in (recorded Delviery) with a list of issues you want resolved, with a reasonable deadline for their response.
Thankfully, I'm a pretty calm person, otherwise I'd be going up the wall by now.
The sad part is that the units, the worktops, the appliances and the fitting are really good. It's the time, the inability of DiLusso to resolve fairly simple matters and the sheer impossibility of getting a productive response over the phone from Customer Service that makes it so darned painful.
Update. Sent a recorded delivery letter as suggested and got an immediate response. They were very suprised I had to write in such a way!!! Had claimed compensation, I now have to supply receipts for meals eaten out and a breakdown as to how the money I am claiming was arrived at!!!! If you are eating out keep receipts for everything. I still have a mountain of rubbish in my garden, so I will be charging them rent for looking after it. I agree with the previous comments, the actual units are lovely but the finishing off is horrendous. We still have gouges out of the walls, where cables were channelled in, fingermarks everywhere, brick and wood dust in all the appliances, I had to sweep the patio 5 times to get up all the sawdust and vacuum several times as it had been walked through the house. The fitters stressed the cat so much I had to take her to the vets and that cost ?53.
Watkins called us yesterday to arrange a time to come and rectify (again) and then didn't give us a date! It is 67 days since the first fitter arrived and the kitchenis still not complete. It is my daughter's 21st birthday party at the house on 16th July, if it is not finished by then I will be asking them to come and remove the kitchen which is what I threatened in the first place.
?Dilusso Direct have supplied and successfully installed over 1500 high quality kitchens in 2006, at extremely good value to our customers, you can see from our website www.dilusso.co.uk there are pictures and comments from genuine customers who are delighted with their kitchen installations. We do though acknowledge that a kitchen makeover is a highly complex event and from time to time there will be minor problems develop, which may have resulted in some inconvenience. We are constantly reviewing our operation to improve our levels of service. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to any of our customers who?s installation may not have run as smoothly as we would have liked.?
Has anyone had any dealings with or had a kitchen from Dilusso Direct Kitchens? If so what did you think of them and what are their prices like? Thankyou.
?Dilusso Direct have supplied and successfully installed over 1500 high quality kitchens in 2006, at extremely good value to our customers, you can see from our website www.dilusso.co.uk there are pictures and comments from genuine customers who are delighted with their kitchen installations. We do though acknowledge that a kitchen makeover is a highly complex event and from time to time there will be minor problems develop, which may have resulted in some inconvenience. We are constantly reviewing our operation to improve our levels of service. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to any of our customers who?s installation may not have run as smoothly as we would have liked.?
Mid July (over two months from start) now and still not finished. We had a parts delivery last week, but have yet to hear from anyone about when the fitting is going to be completed.
Our kitchen walls are unfinished, with lots of filled channels. DiLusso are being exceptionally vague about whether they are going to plaster skim the walls - they are not in a fit state to decorate.
The statement in the previous post is a bit optimistic. Minor problems from time-to-time? More like Major issues ALL the time.
The only means of communication that elicits a response from DiLusso is the Recorded Delivery letter.
I am still having problems with Dilusso 6 months after my kitchen was allegedly finished !
My worktops where incorrectly fitted, the joins between the worktops are not flush this was original disguised by what looks like black marker ink which has now worn off and the wooden core is now visible, the worktop is no longer waterproof and there is also still no sign of my document 'P'.
My partner and I where left for over a month without a kitchen from 10th Dec 05 until 18th Jan 06, no sink, no cooker, no washing machine not even a fridge right through the Christmas holidays.
Watkins spent a total of 20hrs 15min fitting our kitchen, this was spread over 6 days! not including the 2 days they just didn't turn up.
I have now got my solicitors involved and am threatening legal action, so lets see what happens.
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