New Kitchen Advice

[Bunkermagnet]

Separate small oven in addition to a main oven, plus built in MW? Or no small oven but main oven plus microwave? And where’s your grill…? Just doing a bot of canvassing of option. We have a small oven with grill in our current standalone cooker, but I could count on one hand the number of times we have used the small oven. So we are questioning our need for a 2nd oven- but where then a grill…?

A single fan oven, (fan and grill) or multifunction oven (fan,grill, traditional, small grill ) and a combination microwave (mw, fan cooking, grill). Gives you a second small oven or grill if you need it plus the small fan oven would be cheaper to run than the big oven as smaller. Just be aware that most integrated combination microwaves are now rated more than 13A, so need to be hard wired on a relevant circuit, not the kitchen ring.
That would be my choice, as seen in my kitchen

 

[KenL]

Who, other than a restaurant really needs 2 ovens? ?‍

 

[larmen]

Who, other than a restaurant really needs 2 ovens? ?‍

Every 2 dishes that ever need to be ready at the same time bake on 2 totally separate temperatures. It’s the law, I think. ;-(

 

[KenL]

Who, other than a restaurant really needs 2 ovens? ?‍

Every 2 dishes that ever need to be ready at the same time bake on 2 totally separate temperatures. It’s the law, I think. ;-(

Totally separate or just slightly different? Any skill in the kitchen and timing would allow you to get by.

Oh, and folk spending a fortune on the likes of Neff are just snobs. ?

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Who, other than a restaurant really needs 2 ovens? ?‍

Totally separate or just slightly different? Any skill in the kitchen and timing would allow you to get by.

Oh, and folk spending a fortune on the likes of Neff are just snobs. ?

Neff....snobs?? You have no concept.
I hope you play Slazenger irons and not Mizuno or Titleist

 

[KenL]

Neff....snobs?? You have no concept.
I hope you play Slazenger irons and not Mizuno or Titleist

???

 

[Piece]

Separate small oven in addition to a main oven, plus built in MW? Or no small oven but main oven plus microwave? And where’s your grill…? Just doing a bot of canvassing of option. We have a small oven with grill in our current standalone cooker, but I could count on one hand the number of times we have used the small oven. So we are questioning our need for a 2nd oven- but where then a grill…?

We went with the biggest (decent) single oven, at 76L. This has a grill too. We have a totally separate built-in microwave. The only consideration, like @D-S, was not having a double or second oven. Do we miss not having a double oven? Only occasionally, in big events such as Xmas, Easter.

 

[KenL]

That's the bit with Wren is that customers are at the mercy of a fitting contractor they haven't vetted.

And as mentioned, the drip finance is a Wren selling point.

But, with Wren you can just buy their units and get your own fitter, if you know one or find one. Not that easy.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

How is the Optiplan quality… we have a showroom in the area but never considered it

Well…its now non-existent as on Monday Optiplan went into administration. Never recovered from pandemic closedown exacerbated now by cost-of-living crisis.

Pity that as we paid our deposit 6 weeks ago…that’s £2k I’m unlikely to see again as HMRC will as ever be #1 creditor. So it’s off to Howdens we have trotted as our builder will get a good deal from them and our existing kitchen is a Howdens kitchen and it‘s held up very well (though we won’t be going down the route of Lamona appliances - more likely Neff).

But as frustrated and disappointed as we are about this there will be many customers much worse off than ourselves, who will have paid up all but a small retainer and may well have just been about to have their kitchen delivered for fitting - may even have had their existing one ripped out - all to be done for Christmas. What a mare that would be.

And feel for the designer at our branch as a really nice and helpful guy, with young family and recently moved to a new house. Never good to lose your job but terrible timing for them.

 

[Mudball]

Well…its now non-existent as on Monday Optiplan went into administration. Never recovered from pandemic closedown exacerbated now by cost-of-living crisis.

Pity that as we paid our deposit 6 weeks ago…that’s £2k I’m unlikely to see again as HMRC will as ever be #1 creditor. So it’s off to Howdens we have trotted as our builder will get a good deal from them and our existing kitchen is a Howdens kitchen and it‘s held up very well (though we won’t be going down the route of Lamona appliances - more likely Neff).

But as frustrated and disappointed as we are about this there will be many customers much worse off than ourselves, who will have paid up all but a small retainer and may well have just been about to have their kitchen delivered for fitting - may even have had their existing one ripped out - all to be done for Christmas. What a mare that would be.

And feel for the designer at our branch as a really nice and helpful guy, with young family and recently moved to a new house. Never good to lose your job but terrible timing for them.

Sorry to hear… never a good thing to happen. Sad state of affairs at the mo… we shall overcome

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Sorry to hear… never a good thing to happen. Sad state of affairs at the mo… we shall overcome

Need to see if I can get any of our deposit back through the chargeback route as we paid using our Mastercard debit card - don’t know if that’s possible. We should have used a credit card as we do for all bigger purchases where there is a risk of cancellation or loss, but we just never thought to do that as we did not imagine for a moment that Optiplan would go bust.

But as mentioned, we will cope with losing some money…coping with losing your livelihood in these times is another matter.

 

[chrisd]

Well…its now non-existent as on Monday Optiplan went into administration. Never recovered from pandemic closedown exacerbated now by cost-of-living crisis.

Pity that as we paid our deposit 6 weeks ago…that’s £2k I’m unlikely to see again as HMRC will as ever be #1 creditor. So it’s off to Howdens we have trotted as our builder will get a good deal from them and our existing kitchen is a Howdens kitchen and it‘s held up very well (though we won’t be going down the route of Lamona appliances - more likely Neff).

But as frustrated and disappointed as we are about this there will be many customers much worse off than ourselves, who will have paid up all but a small retainer and may well have just been about to have their kitchen delivered for fitting - may even have had their existing one ripped out - all to be done for Christmas. What a mare that would be.

And feel for the designer at our branch as a really nice and helpful guy, with young family and recently moved to a new house. Never good to lose your job but terrible timing for them.

Not good news but if you paid your deposit by credit card you can claim it back from them

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Not good news but if you paid your deposit by credit card you can claim it back from them

Didn’t pay by credit card but by my mastercard debit card and I am not sure if that has the same customer legal protections as a credit card.

 

[chrisd]

Didn’t pay by credit card but by my mastercard debit card and I am not sure if that has the same customer legal protections as a credit card.

Ask the bank to do a chargeback - but I wouldn't hang about

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Ask the bank to do a chargeback - but I wouldn't hang about

Done…?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Ask the bank to do a chargeback - but I wouldn't hang about

Email from bank/Mastercard this morning, and deposit has been refunded in full.

However they have advised that further info from the Optiplan Administrators might change things - I guess they need the Administrators to confirm that my claim is genuine. The bank advises that if I don’t hear further from them by 28.02.23 then the refund will not be taken back. But a big result ?

 

[chrisd]

Email from bank/Mastercard this morning, and deposit has been refunded in full.

However they have advised that further info from the Optiplan Administrators might change things - I guess they need the Administrators to confirm that my claim is genuine. The bank advises that if I don’t hear further from them by 28.02.23 then the refund will not be taken back. But a big result ?

That's really good news.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

That's really good news.

…and thank you sir! ?

And a lesson learned by me about my rights…even when using my (MasterCard) Debit Card - are all Debit Cards now MasterCard - maybe it’s the ‘chargeback’ scheme that makes the difference and not whether it is MasterCard.

 

[chrisd]

…and thank you sir! ?

And a lesson learned by me about my rights…even when using my (MasterCard) Debit Card - are all Debit Cards now MasterCard - maybe it’s the ‘chargeback’ scheme that makes the difference and not whether it is MasterCard.

This is how I understand it

"A chargeback (otherwise known as a dispute) is a way for your bank that issued your card to reclaim money from the retailer’s bank when you do not get the goods or services you paid for, including if the retailer or supplier has gone out of business."

I guess you were lucky that there was a way for the bank to grab the money back. It's always more safe with over £100 paid by credit card then there's no danger of not getting your money back

 

[need_my_wedge]

Was looking at kitchens recently. We’re moving and want to upgrade, all I want to do right now is find a price list for units so that I can see if my budget will work. Seems no one gives basic carcass price lists, we have to go sit down with a designer to get a cost. A complete waste of time for them and us when all I need right now is a basic idea.

Anyone know where I can get a cupboard unit price list from?