Shaker Kitchen Company?

6 years ago

Does anybody have any recent (2017) experience with Shaker Kitchen Company? We are considering placing an order with them but have found their customer service very poor to date. We are very clear on our design and have seen the product in person (which looks good). However, they take days/weeks to respond to any correspondence and never return any phone calls. We thought we were there but unless we can get any recent positive feedback on them are sadly going to have to return to the drawing board again and go elsewhere

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LTS

6 years ago

I'm getting the vibe you like wine, Claire ;)

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Comments (14)

PRO
Sustainable Kitchens
6 years ago
Hi Brian

Sorry to hear about your troubles. That's definitely not the right approach to customer service! I hope it gets sorted out for you. If it doesn't we're a bespoke kitchen company based in Bristol and we specialise in Shaker style cabinetry. Get in touch if you'd like to have a chat about what we can do for you :)
Claire Nicholson
6 years ago
We were in a very similar position at the back end of last year / start 2017 and found exactly the same thing.

We went and saw the product, really liked it and then couldn't get any answers, dates or anything else from them.

We went with a different company in the end and achieved exactly the same look but with excellent customer service.

Sorry it's not more encouraging.

Best wishes,

Claire
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briantaylor90
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks Sustainable Kitchens. We have had a look at your website and just sent over our design for your thoughts. Any queries, please get in touch. Claire - would you mind saying who it was you used. Think we will have given up on Shaker Kitchen Company for good by the end of today, which is a shame given that they are only one phone call away from
An order!
Claire Nicholson
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Hi Brian,

We used a company called Unfitted in Moreton-in-Marsh (North Cotswold's) but they install Nationally.

The website looks a bit dated but the quality of the product and the finished look is excellent. It is also owner run and the guy is very helpful, skilful and knowledgeable.

http://www.unfitted.co.uk

Here are a few pics of it in situ, let me know if any others / close ups would be helpful.

Probably worth noting they have two very slightly different ranges and this the their Original Shaker kitchen.

Hope it helps

Claire
briantaylor90
Original Author
6 years ago
Claire, that looks stunning. Thank-you for sharing. Do you know what the colour is out of interest?
Claire Nicholson
6 years ago
Hi Brian,

Yes, they'll do any colour you want and we had it done in 'Como Blue' by Zoffany

Here's a couple more close up pics of the units from when they were being fitted if it helps.

We also go them to fit our pantry and box in the boiler and they made a really nice job of that too.

The chap who helped us was Mark, the owner.

Just let me know if there's anything else I can help with and good luck- it's all great fun :)
Claire Nicholson
6 years ago
Haha! Good guess! No kitchen and pantry are complete without plenty of storage for wine ;)
briantaylor90
Original Author
6 years ago
Interesting to see the pantry thanks as that's a big priority of ours and their pantry product is one of the main attractions of Shaker Kitchen Co. We've sorted the wine storage by installing large diameter pre-cast concrete manhole sections and lining them with reclaimed brick headers to look like a large old well under the floor. The proprietary wine cellars on the market are a bit too bling for our old house (and about £30k more expensive!). Was also interesting to see your rack on the wall too, as we've just bought 2 bottle (side-by-side) versions of the same to line the walls, but not installed them yet. Sadly I don't think they'll be funds left at the end of the build for any wine to put in there though. Told building control officer the vent pipes into it under the floor were for when the children misbehave and we put them down there - am sure he actually thought I was serious!
Claire Nicholson
6 years ago
Thats hilarious!

Wow! It sounds like you're putting some fabulous features into the house! :)

Well I am sure it will all look brilliant and loads of luck finding a kitchen company- a fab kitchen really does make the world of difference to how a property looks!

Make sure you share some pics- would love to have a peak :)
briantaylor90
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks for the feedback Claire and a big thank-you to Sustainable Kitchens for all of your hard work in the background in looking at this for us at short notice (from our limited experience with them they seem like a fantastic company to do business with). We have now finalised an order with Shaker Kitchen Co and hope that our first impressions prove, in time, to be wrong (and not representative of their normal levels of customer service). In the interests of fairness, and for the benefit of other potential customers, we would be happy to provide a update later in the year of how it all goes... and hopefully some pictures of a kitchen that we love!
briantaylor90
Original Author
6 years ago
In the interests of fairness I thought I should follow up on
my previous posts on this subject.

We now have a stunning kitchen, perfect for our family and
the culmination of 3+ years of meticulous planning. The Shaker Kitchen Co product
is very well built and of high quality. Although aspects of the product are simplistic
(roller catches, shelf supports etc) this IMO only adds to the appeal and takes
nothing away from the well crafted product. BUT...

I would find it very hard to recommend others using them
unless you have a very high threshold for pain and a bucket load of patience. For
us the gamble (which we always knew that it was) paid off though.

We walked into their Fulham showroom in July very clear
about what we wanted and armed with our credit card to sign on the dotted line
there and then. We weren’t browsing, we meant business. It was many weeks
later, and 6+ iterations of the same design before they finally managed to (just
about) draw what we wanted. Each subsequent iteration of the design rectified
one mistake but bizarrely introduced several new ones each time. Their emphasis
on you fully owning and signing-off their production drawings suited me fine as
I know every millimetre of our kitchen and am famiilar with working drawings), but watch out if you are not technically
minded and are reliant upon their design expertise – attention to detail is
certainly not their specialism (nor is returning phone calls). You need to
re-check the same dimensions/production notes each time you receive a revised
design and watch out for the unexpected/unrequested little changes. In the end
I reluctantly signed off a drawing which was strictly correct but badly
annotated and which would inevitably lead to the eventual production mistakes
which I knew were coming 14 weeks later.

We never did receive all the promised colour samples, but
again this was no great concern as we were pretty clear what we wanted.

Delivery team were professional and efficient (I’ve met them
twice now as they’ve been back to deliver the wrong size products more than
once!)

Mistakes in the units were pointed out to them promptly
(predominantly items manufactured to incorrect dimensions). Again not a problem
if you are confident enough in your knowledge of joinery to dismantle units and
rectify mistakes yourself. Excuses provided were polite but laughable. If we
waited for them to resolve themselves we definitely wouldn’t be using the
kitchen this Christmas. Apparently if we had used their fitters they would have
fixed these mistakes themselves at no extra fitting cost (err, yes). Have had a
couple of attempts to get the pantry slate shelf the correct size. Not a
problem if you work from home and are happy to take the ‘will they turn up when
promised’ gamble. Have finally cut this to size myself now. Am no geologist but
suspect the slate itself originally formed in the ground faster than their customer service. They
have however, reimbursed all additional costs incurred (I think).

So in summary, they do the difficult part well (or at least
their joiners in Czech Republic do) and the easy part badly. I suspect that, as
the product is actually good value, that they are simply very busy and cannot
cope with demand at present. The finished kitchen will continue to please us
long after the memory of the short-term experience has faded. If they could
just sort out their ’designers’/admin/customer service etc in the future - or even just provide their staff with some training on how to slow down and actually read customers' correspondence properly - then I suspect
they could be charging much more than they currently are. I personally think their product is better than DeVol, but I so wanted to place an order with the lovely
attentive diligent people at DeVol or Sustainable Kitchens at the time just
because of how nice, professional and responsive they were. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!
PRO
OnePlan
6 years ago
That is a brilliantly written ‘review’ !!
LTS
6 years ago
Happy to hear you have your kitchen & can enjoy it. We initially considered TSK too but didn’t proceed. Would love to see pics of your kitchen :)