Kensington Scott

Be warned: if/when things go wrong Kensington Scott’s customer service is dreadful. There was an existing, fairly new, Mereway kitchen from Kensington Scott when we moved into our house. We planned an extension and approached Kensington Scott about changing the kitchen layout, reusing some of the existing units and adding some new ones using our builders to fit the kitchen. Jamie said that was not a problem. When the units eventually arrived all of them were fitted without any issues except that a storage unit had been provided instead of a bin unit. Kensington Scott said they had ordered this in error and a replacement was arranged. The replacement was the wrong size and third unit sent. By this time all the other building work had long finished but our builders came back again to try and fit the bin unit. Our builders are a well-known Tonbridge company with a great reputation but they were unable to fit the unit due to not having the correct fixings. The owner of Kensington Scott became quite unpleasant and accused our fitters of being incompetent. Throughout the whole process communication with the company was very tricky. It often took weeks for them to return telephone calls or reply to emails if they ever did reply. Eventually they sent their own fitters out who sheepishly admitted the fixings were wrong. Nine months later than planned we had a bin of sorts although no fixings for the lid. After more unanswered emails we have given up getting that sorted out with Kensington Scott.

Thankfully Kensington Scott weren’t doing an entire kitchen as I can’t imagine how long it would have taken from initial conversation in the office to final completion. The design stage was quite good - I only wanted a lot of new appliances and knew roughly what makes. However, Mark was often on ‘holiday’ when I needed to discuss specific items and messages from the office staff didn’t always reach him correctly and it took a long time for me to get the right answers. The fitting stage was a nightmare. Two days were confirmed by email but only one fitter turned up on the first day. He made a start on fitting the two ovens and the warming drawer. It was only on the second morning, when I telephoned the office to ask why no one had come, that I found out that nobody would be coming to fit the rest until the following week - seven days later! The hob, the extractor fan, the sinks and taps, the Quooker unit and a cupboard would have to wait. Six months later - December 2023, just before Christmas, - one of two new under counter sinks fell into the cupboard. There was a very small amount of glue attaching it to the countertop and it had no other support at all…. To be fair, a plumber arrived two days later, and he did an excellent job. Luckily the Quooker unit and tank weren’t damaged! I hate to write a review like this but there is no way I could recommend Kensington Scott to design and fit a kitchen.

One of the kitchens here - the one in Mark Beech (not Mark Beach) is ours. We found Kensington Scott great in the design phase and they did a very nice job of fitting the kitchen - overall we're very happy with the quality. We had an issue with a couple of finishing details; they were initially quite good albeit very slow, then they just stopped responding. In particular the large mirror above the Aga has slipped down a bit - they don't know how to rectify that so eventually apparently just gave up. The biggest issue is that we accidentally damaged a door and have been asking them for a replacement for over 18 months. Every time I call someone says "that's dreadful, we'll help, we'll get back to you shortly", then we never hear anything again. Which leaves us with a damaged kitchen we can't get fixed.

We had our kitchen designed and fitted by Kensington Scott, the whole team are absolutely amazing! We had no clue about the sort of design we wanted our kitchen updated to and the designers had great ideas. Execution of the work was quick and the kitchen was fitted to perfection. The companies professionalism and business etiquette are outstanding. I highly recommend Kensington Scott to anyone planning a new kitchen or a make-over. I will definitely be using Kensington Scott again when I update any other rooms in my home.