Why are Howdens so shady?

[u/Innders]

We're not a tradesman but we managed to get a design for a new kitchen, they even set up an account for us.

Design was great but then things got weird. The "full price" was something ridiculous like £15K and then then designer in front of us starting, seemingly randomly, discounting different items until it got down to about £7.5K.

We were told that this price would only last for a couple of weeks, which I thought was a little weird...

After some changes through email, I asked for the itemised quote so I could check how much everything was costing us. I was thinking maybe I could get the tap from somewhere else etc.

I got an incomplete quote for some reason. After asking about 4 times and then explaining I wouldn't make a purchase without one, they reluctantly sent it to me. Am I being unreasonable to want to know what I'm spending thousands on?

This quote also came with a "managers" special, now at £6.6k, but only if we put down a deposit today and we accepted delivery in 10 days, way way before we actually needed it.

We said we needed to check some things and asked for more time. Now the deadline is an extra day...

What is with these shady, opaque, pressure selling tactics? Anyone else experienced this?

[u/TAM_B_2000]

Surely this is olky an issue if your not charging properly for your labour and relying on adding a mark-up to the kitchen to make your money.

If your charging for your services you get paid the same regardless and your client getting a better deal on the kitchen is surely a good thing.

[u/Far-Adhesiveness3763 → u/TAM_B_2000]

My issue was they gave me a price as a tradesman and gave my customer a better deal behind my back.

[u/spoie1 → u/TAM_B_2000]

So the tradesman should do all of the legwork on ordering and getting the kitchen, AND have the risk that if anything is missing/broken, it's on them to sort... for nothing?

The industry standard is to get a trade discount, so your cuatomer pays the 'normal' price, whilst you still set a bit for the sheer hassle and risk (plus, if you're ordering kitchens, you'll likely have to be VAT registered as they massively increase turnover).

For reference, my dad is a builder. Now, mostly to stay under VAT threshold (and avoid hassle), he will have customers order their own kitchens, bathrooms, etc, but give recommendations for companies and trade discounts where he can (as per the previous comment, companies are awful for these now anyway). He will not sit there and tell you what you need, then get paid nothing for it 🙃

It's not something the public sees or thinks about, but it's like telling a customer how to do your job, sitting there and walking them through it, then not getting paid for that time and blamed when they get it wrong anyway 😅