Kitchen nightmares before Raw Deal steps in to ensure families are now cooking with gas

Two families can finally see light at the end of the tunnel after Raw Deal stepped in to smooth out long-running kitchen disputes.

In June 2020, Paul and Kate McGill paid £19,000 for a kitchen from home improvements giant Wickes. Kate helped design the room and the couple were looking forward to it being fitted at their home in Castlemilk, Glasgow.

“I’m a bricklayer and would have organised the job myself but the deal from Wickes to have the kitchen supplied and fitted was so good I couldn’t have competed with it, so we signed up,” said Paul, 59.

Work was due to start in August 2020 and take two weeks. However, almost 18 months later the kitchen still wasn’t finished and the house was a “disaster zone”.

“The place was an absolute mess and the stress of it all was unreal,” said Paul. “Our old kitchen had been ripped out and it lay outside for weeks.

“The team of installers that we were promised turned out to be one man and for almost two months we had no cooker.

“Our dream kitchen had turned into an absolute nightmare.”

Paul turned to Raw Deal. After we contacted Wickes, it wasn’t long before a new schedule of works was proposed and the job is due to get under way again this month.

Wickes said: “We’re sorry to hear about Mr and Mrs McGill’s experience and our customer relations team is resolving the matter in conjunction with Hitachi Capital plc. A refit of the kitchen is booked for later this month.”

Paul said he was relieved things were finally moving in the right direction and thanked Raw Deal.

In Burntisland, Fife, Melanie Hindle wrote to us after delays with a kitchen she had bought from B&Q. It was ordered in April last year and was scheduled to be fitted two months later. However, it wasn’t long before Melanie was informed that there would be a delay in receiving her new work tops.

“When this was eventually sorted out I received a message from the delivery driver saying his van was too big to get along my road but he would return later in a smaller vehicle,” she said. “This meant I had to rearrange my carpet fitters.”

When the delivery finally arrived, a worktop and other items were missing, Melanie said. “I had intended to move out for three days while my old kitchen was removed but I ended up being out of the house for almost a month because of all the delays and hassle.”

Melanie wrote to Raw Deal after she felt she had come to an impasse with B&Q over compensation. After we contacted the DIY chain it moved swiftly to issue Melanie a refund of £850. B&Q said: “We want all our customers to have a great experience and sincerely apologise to Ms Hindle that this did not happen on this occasion. We have been in touch with Ms Hindle and have resolved the matter.”

Melanie was delighted with the outcome. She said: “I could not have done this without Raw Deal’s help. I had been as good as ignored in recent months.”