A woman has slammed home improvement store Wickes over a £20,000 kitchen that hasn't been finished a year later.
Susan Bradshaw shelled out for the kitchen before work started in her home.
But she and her elderly mother are furious work still hasn’t been completed over a year since it was promised.
Susan, of St Ives, Cornwall, paid in advance for a kitchen with the help of her mum, but now doubts will ever get done.
CornwallLive reports she moved into her home with her husband and 82-year-old mother, Ann Steel, in March 2021.
In April, her mum bought and paid for a new kitchen to go into an annex for the disabled 82-year-old so she could live more independently on a single floor to herself.
Wickes gave them a quote and Susan was told the price would be inclusive with no additional charges for installation or extra parts.
She said: “We were told the kitchen would be fitted by the end of June, start of July 2021,”
“No sooner after we paid the money, they changed the date to August and said, sorry, they had other jobs come in and it’d be done by the 25th of that month.
“We weren’t best pleased but thought, okay, fine. The fitter arrived in August to inspect and told us everything was fine. He also damaged a manhole cover while looking at the drainage.
“Again, we thought, accidents happen, no worries. He took the screws with him and said he’d pop back in to fix it. Wickes told us two days before he was due to do it that the fitter had died suddenly.
“Wickes rang and said it’s obviously something which can’t be helped, which it is. And that another fitter would fill in on the original date.”
Susan recalled a lorry driver came to deliver the kitchen to be fitted, but was not allowed as there was no fitter employed.
Unfortunately, due to the death of the fitter their new date wasn’t officially confirmed and the deliverers were told they weren’t allowed to drop the supplies off.
Susan added: "A month later, I’d heard nothing from Wickes and a man on the phone replied, ‘what do you want us to do, magic in a fitter?’"
She was then told there was a new date for the kitchen fitting at the end of October 2021.
But October came around and she received another call to say a fitter wasn’t available.
She was then asked if the new tradesman had discussed prices and an extra few thousand pounds would be required - which wasn’t covered by the "all inclusive" deal.
Susan said: “Wickes told us he has his fees to charge, and that we had to take it or leave it.
“By this point they’d had our money for six months and we didn’t know how long a refund would take.
“We agreed but were not happy about it. He turned up on November 25, after the new delivery drivers brought the new kitchen in a few days before - and dropped several boxes, damaging it with their old clapped out trolley.
“The tiles were scratched, chipped and otherwise damaged. The fitter kept going backwards and forwards between our job and another and told us he couldn’t finish ours because there were parts missing.”
In December, Mrs Bradshaw was told once again to expect the fitter on December 28 and would be compensated for damaged worktops by receiving some extra parts for free.
On January 6, the fitter called Mrs Bradshaw again and asked for £500 to fit the extras which Wickes had promised as compensation.
She said: “The fitter said Wickes had emailed us, and Wickes admitted they didn’t see any email telling me this.
“Then the fitter said it turns out his computer was broken and that’s why the email wasn’t sent. Mum just wanted to see the back of it, so we paid again.”
The confusing and increasingly frustrating saga continued when the fitter came to find there were more missing parts.
Susan's kitchen was installed at this point, but much of it was left unfinished.
Complaint were made to Wickes and the the Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman
She was given October 22 as another new date for her kitchen to be installed, but insisted she would not be put to the back of the queue.
But no fitter arrived after more rescheduled dates and as of July 13, Susan has still to have her kitchen fully installed.
Parts of it have been put in place, but it remains cracked, damaged and unfinished.
With tens of thousands of pounds seemingly gone for good, she’s unsure it ever will be.
A Wickes spokesperson said of Mrs Bradshaw’s and her mum's case: “We are very sorry to hear about the experience Ms Steel had with the installation of her kitchen as we always strive to deliver outstanding customer service.
"On this occasion, a series of extremely unfortunate and unavoidable events impeded the installation, including supply issues and the tragic passing of Ms Steel’s original installer.
“Additionally, we arranged a full and independent inspection to be completed by The Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman to help us understand the causes of the delays.
"Another fitter was due to visit Ms Steel’s property to complete the first stage of remedial works on Saturday, July 2.
“However, this fitter was consequently made aware that a customer he had worked with earlier that week had tested positive for COVID-19 and as such, the fitter could not attend.
"Ms Steel was informed over email but has since reported this email was unfortunately not received.
“We're working hard to book another installer from Truro in order to replace the worktops and finish the kitchen as soon as possible.
"Once all the work is complete, we will liaise with Ms Steel and her daughter on an appropriate level of compensation."
