Di Lusso Fitted Kitchens Review

Overall Rating

Good quality product

Non-existent Customer Service and unfulfilled promises

Early in 2006, the one in our house who likes to be called 'The Boss' decided that we needed a new kitchen - I don't for the life of me know why, because she only ever goes in to put the kettle on, but she is 'The Boss' so my mind was made up (for me!).

Anyway, wanting to take a structured and sensible approach to this we did a little bit of homework and decided that we wanted a good quality kitchen, made to a higher standard than the offerings to those on display in the local DIY stores, or MFI. In fact, if we had our choice we wanted a solid wood kitchen with high quality appliances - I only drew the line at Granite worktops when I saw the actual price of them - we have a galley kitchen (runs down both sides which are nearly 4m long each).

So having set ourselves a budget (£10,000 to do everything), we started the long and laborious process of eliminating the cowboys (A Yorkshire man and his money are difficult to part, and I like to do some investigation before I start, to make sure I'm getting value for money!). We trimmed it down to 5 companies, who we were prepared to let quote us - some of these were national companies and some local. All who specialised in bespoke kitchens. Amongst them was a company I hadn't heard of before called Di Lusso (found in the Sunday Times), and searches on the net were proving fruitless. Their website looked professional, and they were backed by a Furnishing Standards agency called Qualitas; membership of which not only assures members are following a code of practice, but also offers some security for your hard earned readies, so we decided to give them a chance on the basis that if I didn't like the salesman's approach then we wouldn't bother.

Now I should point out at this stage that I wasn't bothered whether one company did the whole job, or whether I project managed several companies to do the work (which is what we ended up doing). Quotes were coming in and nothing really jumped out at us - some were spookily bang on our budget, even though we hadn't disclosed this (maybe we'd picked a common figure). One company - who I will name - Kitchens Direct - came in with a quote of £18,000, which when I laughed at, quickly came down in price, and within half an hour it was £7,000. We then had the obligatory phone call to his manager (do people really fall for that trick any more?), at which point I took the phone off the salesman, and told the manager he could offer to do it for £4,000 and I wouldn't go ahead because I had lost all trust. So the day arrived when the nice salesman from Di Lusso turned up.

He told me all the background about the company - and these are his words not mine (I have nothing to substantiate it, so please don't take it as true) - they were actually a manufacturer/supplier of kitchens and had always supplied to the industry, never the general public (hence the reason I'd probably not found anything out about them). Their clients included people such as Moben (a very well known and high quality brand), but a new MD had taken over and was pushing for them to go direct to the public, cutting out the middle man and saving the customer £'s - music to my ears. We were then shown samples to peruse whilst he did a very thorough survey of the kitchen, and asked what, if anything we had in mind. The samples he supplied were excellent quality - all solid wood and very high standard fittings (including anti-slam cupboards and draws that sucked themselves shut). I was dreading the price, because you could feel the quality oozing from his samples.

After a short wait the salesman then showed us a design for the kitchen, not dis-similar to those come up with by the other companies. The things he was advising us to do and not do were very similar to what we'd been told by others, and everything seemed above board. I warned him that I was not into a coming up with a price and then bartering down - I wanted his first price to be his only one, to which he advised that was the only way they worked. I even relayed the Kitchens Direct story, and he told me he used to work for them - their kitchens are excellent and on a par with theirs (which seemed to be underselling to me), but their sales techniques did let them down - hence he was now with Di Lusso - blimey, an honest salesman.

He talked us through the design, and then I asked the question about appliances - Ah yes, we recommend NEFF, and the price I have come up with includes all NEFF appliances - my heart sank. I would absolutely have loved NEFF, but I knew from my own investigations there was nearly £4,000 worth of integrated appliances on their own, so this was going to be a whopping price. Then came the crunch. They were offering to supply and fit the kitchen, including all appliances, re-plumbing and electrical work for £8,000 - my chin nearly hit the floor - Utopia. We still had £2,000 left over for flooring and tiles and decorating, which would be more than enough. All the prices were broken down clearly for me to see, and nothing to hide. He then proceeded to point out that the labour costs made up a good chunk of the overall price. If I was prepared to take the old kitchen out myself, it would reduce the amount of time they would need to have men on site and thereby reduce the labour costs (it also meant I would have to pay for and arrange the skip, rather than them). Save money - that's a term to me like Doughnuts is to Homer Simpson. How much I enquired - £500 off. I wanted to kiss this man and have his babies!!

However, putting my 'Mr Level Head' hat on again, we didn't rush into a decision and said we'd let him know. No problem he said - no phone call to the manager or anything like that - this has to be too good to be true.

Anyway, to cut what's becoming a very long story short, we decided to use Di Lusso. We paid a small deposit (can't remember exactly how much, but it was below £100, so I wasn't overly worried, and I was told the kitchen would be ready in about 5 weeks, but a surveyor would be out within the week to conform the salesman's plans etc. Sure enough, as promised he turned up 4 days later. There was a minor adjustment to the plans that had to be made due to existing plumbing, but nothing untoward. Then 3 weeks later we got the phone call to say the kitchen was almost ready and could they delivery it next week (a Thursday), and the fitters would be there the following Monday to install. The job would take 2 to 3 days at the most (I was reminded that I'd opted to remove the old kitchen myself - not a problem, as I had the weekend to take it out). At this point I was told that I would have to pay for the kitchen on delivery. I later discovered that this is because Di Lusso don't actually fit the kitchens themselves, but use sub-contractors. Although a little uneasy I knew I had the security of Qualitas behind me, and to be doubly sure, I asked if I could pay for it on my credit card (if you don't know, this also gives you extra protection, and if need be you can ask the credit card company to chase up problems on your behalf. If not resolved the credit card company can simply recall the money from the vendor), and I was told this was no problem.

The day of the delivery came, and as promised Mr White Van Man turned up with my new kitchen and appliances. After he'd gone however, I noticed that the fridge freezer was missing, as was one of the cupboards, and there wasn't enough worktop. I phoned Di Lusso and they advised that yes they knew about the Fridge freezer. It was delayed being delivered to their warehouse, but it would be with us on Monday when the fitters turned up, at the latest, if not before. They were sorry about the cupboard and the worktop, and that would be sorted also.

Then nothing. Monday morning came and the fitters arrived as promised. All cheery and how do you do. They checked off the kitchen and said - wait for it - "Do you know your freezer's missing, you're a cupboard short, and we haven't got enough worktop" - quelle surprise - "Yes" I replied. You're supposed to be bringing them. "Oh we know nothing about them" - You can see where this one's going can't you?

So - several phone calls from both me and the fitter to Di Lusso, and still no one can tell me what's happening. Invariably we just get an answer phone recording to leave a message on, and if we do manage to speak to someone, it's "oh - I just need to dig your file out and call you back" - the phone calls of course never came.

After 3 days, the fitter, quite understandably has done everything he can. We're fitted as much as possible and have a working cooker, dishwasher etc, but still no fridge freezer to keep things cool/fresh - bear in mind this is June as well, and a fridge is an essential - for the beers if nothing else! I won't bore you with details of all the broken promises, but I will inform you that we were a total of 5 weeks with an unfinished kitchen and no fridge freezer. The fitters, to their credit were superb. The standard of workmanship was superb, particularly as they had to do some bespoke work whilst they were there, and as soon as I phoned them to say we had finally had the missing items delivered, they were there the next day to finish off.

So at the end of it all, what is my opinion of Di Lusso? Well, they have a good range of products from the lower end of the market to the very expensive (we opted for a mid range cupboard). The quality of the cupboards is not quite as good as I'd hoped, in that yes the doors are solid wood, but they still use a chipboard carcass. This carcass however IS better than the standard type you see, in that it's 18mm thick, rather than the cheaper 15mm that most people use, and they colour code them both inside and out, so when you open the doors it's the same colour and does look like real wood. The anti-slam doors are a German design, and I've since learned one of the best on the market. We had all NEFF appliances installed, which are superb, but if you don't want to stretch to them, they do have cheaper options available. You can also source your own if required. I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but at the end of the day, it did come in under budget and allowed us a little weekend away as well!.

This has been quite a ramble, and if you've got this far you either have nothing better to do with your life, have actually enjoyed reading my rant or are actually considering using Di Lusso. So what's my opinion of them? At the end of the day Di Lusso weren't the cheapest quote we had, but on paper, they were by far the best value for money. I'm just not convinced that it's worth all the aggro, and if I had my time again, and with hindsight, I'd use someone else. The replacement of a kitchen is the worst experience I've known in decorating/upgrading terms. The upheaval is indescribable (you never realise how much you use a kitchen until it's not there) and you really can do without the hassle. If they could sort out the appalling, and almost non-existent, Customer Service, then they have the makings of a good company.