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Everybody
wants to be happy with their brand new fully fitted kitchen.
Everybody
wants to be in a position where they’re gazing at their new kitchen
in wide-eyed glee, very happy indeed - not even thinking about
the guarantee.
Unfortunately
some guarantees aren’t worth the paper that they’re written on.
They don't mean anything atall.
In the past,
some kitchen companies have offered a guarantee for 25 years.
When analysing the small print it did however culminate
in meaning that as soon as the kitchen flat-pack arrived at your
house, the guarantee itself proved to be as useful as a chocolate
teapot.
I’m sure that some of you would like a chocolate teapot, but that
isn’t the point! Too many people think about a kitchen guarantee
before purchase and not enough people think about ensuring that
they’re happy with the kitchen once it’s fitted.
Too many people
aren’t happy with their new kitchen. Small things are wrong with
it. The plinth isn’t fitted on properly. Doors are squint. You
phone up the kitchen company and they’ll phone you back when they
have a fitter available. One finally comes back to your house
– not the same fitter as before. He doesn’t have the right equipment
with him to sort out your problem – he promises to come back later.
He doesn’t. You phone back the kitchen company. They won’t have
any more fitters in your area for the next couple of weeks.
Great guarantee.
Don’t waste
your time concerning yourself with the length of the guarantee.
A guarantee
doesn’t matter if the job is done properly to begin with. If you
have taken the time to make yourself of all the other Kitchen
Secrets, you’ll have a great knowledge of the domestic kitchen
industry. You’ll be in charge of when to buy and when to not.
If that’s the case then you won’t have made a reactive decision
and suddenly purchased something you might regret in the future.
As soon
as you receive delivery of your new kitchen you will be asked
to sign that you have received it in satisfactory condition.
A lot of kitchen
companies will ask you to accept delivery of the kitchen by yourself.
Without the fitters. Don’t sign until you are happy with everything.
It doesn’t matter if the delivery driver is left sitting in his
van for half an hour. You have to check to see that the quality
of the product is the same as the quality shown to you bythe kitchen
designer. You need to check the doors, the worktops and the handles.
A lot of companies
also expect another part of the balance payable upon delivery.
You need to decide whether this is fair or not.
With regards
to the guarantee, what you need to do is isolate everything down
to the fitting.
If you’re
happy with the delivery of your appliances and furniture, then
you know that the only thing that could go drastically wrong is
the fitting of your kitchen. This is why you need to stay on
the right side of your fitters. They have total control over
whether your final product will be a success or failure. (refer
to Kitchen Secret 20)
However, apart
from looking after the kitchen fitters yourself, the only significant
‘lever’ that you have over the kitchen company is the value of
your outstanding balance due. We’re not talking about having self-employed
fitters and you paying them directly after the kitchen is fitted
– we’re talking about actual cash due to the kitchen company.
If you’ve already paid the kitchen company much more than half
of the cash due to them, their incentive to correct any problems
diminishes. You need to keep that ‘lever’ as significant as possible.
There is one
other way of improving your guarantee and it relates to Kitchen
Secret 19. If you have chosen to purchase your kitchen via the
finance package offered from the kitchen company, you will probably
have paid a small deposit. Should this be the case, then the finance
company tend to ‘back up’ the guarantee offered by the kitchen
company. This does offer increased ‘peace of mind’ as they would
act as an independent body within a dispute and also maintain
the guarantee after kitchen company liquidation. However, as we
have emphasised already, the best guarantee that you have is to
check, double check and check again yourselves that you are happy
with everything. Don’t rely on anyone else.
Now
make sure you register for your 3
Free Remodeling Kitchen Quotes
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