Howdens Trade Account

[canalsiderenovation]

We are looking into prices for a fitted furniture for the office and my dad has kindly filled in the forms to open a trade account.

 

His local Howdens is different to mine and I'm just wondering how this will work in practice. Can I log into his account as him and do a design and get a price or should he send me as a 'customer' of his into Howdens and let them do a design and then send the price to him.

 

Obviously my dad won't be charging me any profit and will let me have items as trade prices, e.g. what Howdens charge him and I'm presuming they will be a lot cheaper than the prices we would get just going in without any discount but I don't know just how discounted they are!.

[ProDave]

You can probably go into your local Howdens and get them to design it while you sit there and guide them.

 

Our local Howdens are happy to meet the end customer like that, as long as the actual order is placed through an account.

 

I have had no problem using my Howdens account at a different branch when I have been working closer to another branch.

[saveasteading]

It is a few years since I used them.

They were wary of blurring the line between trade and customer, and it is best to be straight with them. If you explain the relationship they may then tell you if there is any further discount. Not the sort of thing to shout out to the whole shop though.

They used to have 2 different price books, so the professional could hide some margin (or realistically allow a sensible margin and risk). That may have changed.

Also I once found that there were sudden changes in the discount structure, for example adding a £20 plinth (that I didn't want) caused a jump in the discount applying to the whole order, and the price dropped  a lot.

[ProDave]

And NEVER accept their first price.

[nod]

56 minutes ago, ProDave said:

And NEVER accept their first price.

Plus one 

Usual drop by a third 

[joe90]

I had an account with them for years and found them good BUT I always got a better quote from elsewhere and they always matched it ?. Different branches work in different ways. My local office were very helpful (avonmouth, Bristol) but their centre Bristol office were offhand and not as customer focussed.

[Tony687]

I found good article on howdens, wren ect https://medium.com/@am51rmm/wickes-howdens-wren-and-tkc-kitchens-how-do-they-compare-4c0c22abf57

[MJNewton]

14 minutes ago, Tony687 said:

I found good article on howdens, wren ect https://medium.com/@am51rmm/wickes-howdens-wren-and-tkc-kitchens-how-do-they-compare-4c0c22abf57

 

I hope the author 'Andy M' isn't 'Andy Marshall' (Sales Director for TKC Kitchens)... ?

Edited February 1, 2022 by MJNewton

[JohnMo]

I always found them overpriced, so never used them, always felt ripped off.

[Tony687]

On 01/02/2022 at 15:09, MJNewton said:

 

I hope the author 'Andy M' isn't 'Andy Marshall' (Sales Director for TKC Kitchens)... ?

They seem good compared to the rest I'm about to buy my kitchen from them it's this place https://www.tkckitchens.co.uk/ourkitchens/ I asked if they have some called Andy Marshall they said no one with this name works here. Do you fit kitchens? can you fit my kitchen in Manchester?

[MJNewton]

14 minutes ago, Tony687 said:

They seem good compared to the rest I'm about to buy my kitchen from them it's this place https://www.tkckitchens.co.uk/ourkitchens/ I asked if they have some called Andy Marshall they said no one with this name works here. Do you fit kitchens? can you fit my kitchen in Manchester?

 

It must just be an unfortunate coincidence.

 

I do indeed fit kitchens from time to time!

 

Are you sure you want to go with TKC? I haven't heard good things about them, but I don't have any personal experience. Have you had a look at DIY Kitchens?  They are generally very highly rated (Trustpilot can be handy to get a feel for a company, particularly once thousands of reviews have been left as the bias of extreme views tends to reduce leave a good overall picture - which in their case is particularly good). I think they came out second in a recent whole-of-market Which? review (I think it might have been Ikea in the top spot!). I don't know where TKC came - not sure they were even in the lineup.

Edited February 2, 2022 by MJNewton

[CotswoldDoItUpper]

I second DIY kitchens, good value for money. They were my first choice and SWMBO’s second choice. 

[jack]

On 02/02/2022 at 17:39, MJNewton said:

It must just be an unfortunate coincidence.

 

Turns out it wasn't a coincidence at all - well spotted! Sorry we missed it at the time. If anything smells off in the future, hit the "Report" button and we'll take a closer look.

 

On 01/02/2022 at 14:57, Tony687 said:

I found good article on howdens, wren ect https://medium.com/@am51rmm/wickes-howdens-wren-and-tkc-kitchens-how-do-they-compare-4c0c22abf57

 

Your email address (which forum staff can see) has a LOT in common with the user name in the link above, so you plainly uploaded that article to Medium. The article itself is a thinly-veiled ad for TKC Kitchens. All of your posts on BuildHub have involved pushing this company.

 

Overall, it's clear you work for them (we're 99% we know exactly who you are, but it doesn't really matter).

 

Since you've breached BuildHub's Terms and Conditions, we've locked your account from further posting.

Quote

4.2   You may register to use the website for your own personal use and you must not use our website for any other purposes. When registering to use the website you agree that:

a) Your registration is for personal use, and is not connected in any way to a business, or other commercial organisation;

 

Please note that TKC Kitchens repeatedly linked to in posts by Tony687 seems to to be a separate company to TKC, which is also a kitchen supplier. It's not immediately apparent whether there's any connection between these two companies, so please be sure to check which one you're looking at before making any decisions.

[jack]

On 02/02/2022 at 17:39, MJNewton said:

Are you sure you want to go with TKC? I haven't heard good things about them, but I don't have any personal experience. ... I don't know where TKC came - not sure they were even in the lineup.

 

Please note the comment I've added to my post above. It appears TKC Kitchens might be a different company to TKC (TK Concepts Ltd), which is also a kitchen supplier.

[LnP]

8 hours ago, jack said:

 

Please note the comment I've added to my post above. It appears TKC Kitchens might be a different company to TKC (TK Concepts Ltd), which is also a kitchen supplier.

I'm not sure if this helps, but we bought kitchen cabinets from these people, TKC which is TK Components Ltd. It worked out well for us but might not work for everybody - they were supply only and would not sell direct to us as the client. We had a loose arrangement with a builder, who had an account with them, and had a joiner who installed the kitchen for us on day rates. TKC invoiced the builder (50% discount), we reimbursed this to him and paid the joiner to do the installation. TKC's design service was pretty basic but fine for what we wanted on that job. There were a couple of mistakes and we were happy we had an excellent joiner who could sort things out. The cabinets are fine for what we wanted. Very happy with the end result and the price. We bought the quartz top elsewhere.

 

P.S. Well done mod @jack for sleuthing the conflict of interest with TKC Kitchens.

Edited Monday at 22:45 by LnP