2009 NEWS
NEWEST NEWS IS NOW AT THE TOP!
The
same old story
19
March 2009 Now that we're a few months into the new year
and into the peak kitchen buying season, the tales of woe
reaching my inbox are on the increase. There's nothing much
new, just the usual stories of salespeople promising the
earth, late deliveries, late installations, missing items,
faulty items and poor workmanship, unhelpful 'customer
service' staff etc.
A few weeks ago the Homeform Group agreed to spend £15m on
advertising over the next five years. So we'll be seeing
lots and lots of 50% off ads when we all know there isn't
really 50% off. £3m a year on ads when sales are as low as
they are now means that each Homeform customer's kitchen
price includes quite a high contribution to advertising
costs. That's in addition to the Homeform 'Greed tax' and
'Incompetence tax'.
I've been asked to remind readers that this site welcomes
any information, comments, pictures etc relating to any
Homeform product (Moben, Kitchens Direct, Sharps Bedrooms,
Dolphin Bathrooms) - even if you're a happy customer.
Recent
reviews
28
January 2009 Dooyoo have quite a few recent reviews of
Moben's salesmanship and installation skills.
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/home-furniture/moben-kitchens/reviews/
Moben's
finances
27
January 2009 My 'moles' tell me that the Homeform Group
(Moben, Kitchens Direct, Sharps Bedrooms and Dolphin
Bathrooms) are, like many other companies, losing rather a
lot of money in this recession. Their sales have
drastically diminished but many of their overheads haven't
reduced. The owners, Sun Capital, are known to be not short
of a few £millions - but even they won't want to pour money
down the drain for ever. See also :
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article5446680.ece
Kitchenhell
is back from short break in service
26
January 2009 A few days ago I reduced the site to one page
which said that the site had been taken down for a
redesign. I did this because the site needed freshening up
because much of it has not changed for a long time.
Unfortunately it now seems I'm not going to find the time
for the redesign real soon. The reaction to the site being
taken down was a stream of emails which show that Moben's
service is still in need of improvement. Also Moben's
misleading advertising continues. So maybe the old site is
better than nothing.
Thanks again to those who contacted me. Keep sending the
news in.
Please contact me at
mw@kitchenhell.co.uk if you have any news on Moben etc or if
you have experience of their 'service'. I'm particularly
interested to know how customers of 'new' Moben (ie
since 5 April 2007) are getting on. You can contact me
even if you've been happy with your Moben Kitchen. There
must be some happy customers?