Smallbone Reviews 

Our experience this summer with Smallbone was truly exceptional. We ordered our kitchen several years ago for a second home. Although the kitchen had been made, we asked Smallbone to delay installation as we had other issues at the house to resolve. In short, Smallbone warehoused the kitchen for several years at no charge. Furthermore, when the company went bankrupt and was then acquired, the new owner showed outstanding flexibility when we asked for the kitchen to be re-designed for our primary residence in London. The designer did a superb job. Very creative / ingenious. The Smallbone installation team was busy and the company proposed to use Elmgrove Developments. The installation — including hand painting — was flawless. Bottom line: Smallbone showed true integrity over several years and ownership change. The company remained focused throughout on keeping us, the customer, happy. I would recommend Smallbone and Elmgrove without reservation.

Sadly, I am not one for reviews but I feel that for the price point being charged and the extraordinary level of poor service I am forced to let others know.

I personally have never experienced a company so poorly run or had such poor customer service with any provider of any kind.

I have spent an enormous amount of money for Kitchen, Wardrobes and Bathroom renovations and I have received not only the worst service, but I still have almost nothing to show for it.

It is now months overdue, and after multiple empty promises and rescheduled delivery dates I still do not have anything I have paid for. Not the product, and for certain not the service.

As with other reviews here, the design process and pre sales was great, but as soon as they had my money everything fell apart.

The planning, delivery and leadership team are some of the worst I have ever encountered.

I have now, months later after huge delays, still only got a kitchen carcass which had to be totally refitted after I formally escalated multiple issues. This was so poorly fitted that I had to request this to be completely redone.

I have had multiple deliveries cancelled without any communication that they would not turn up, I have received the same items multiple times and each and every time they are completely the wrong dimensions and could not be fitted.

At the time of writing, they still have not been delivered or fitted. I also have still not been given any dates as to when I will receive bathroom cabinets, kitchen items, kitchen units, wardrobe units, lighting, electrical goods and more.

I escalated this on multiple occasions to the senior leadership team and even reached the point that I requested a refund and to end this project due to the unbelievable amount of issues and still having not received anything I have paid for.
I was told that no refund would be offered on this project.

I am currently out of pocket thousands of pounds due to missed deliveries, days of off work, missed client meetings and more to essentially project manage this myself and to accommodate deliveries and fitters that never turn up and are never communicated as not coming.

Other major works have been held up and delayed and caused an unbelievable amount of issues.

I currently have no working sink, no fridge or freezer due to electrical goods paid for still being missing and delayed for months. After escalating this multiple times, a rusty fridge full of rusty nails and layers of mold was delivered as a "resolution".

To summarise, deliveries missed, fittings done completely incorrectly without being checked, months and months of delays on every aspect from lighting to units to electrical goods which have all been paid for in full.

I even double paid thousands of pounds for items which I had to battle for weeks to get a refund on.

I would strongly advise that you use another more reputable provider who can deliver.

I hate to have to go down this route, but as it stands it would seem my only option is to seek my funds back via a legal route as this is now ongoing for months and I still have nothing to show for it and nothing I have paid for.

Avoid at all costs, as unfortunate as it is.

I had extremely high hopes and was very excited for my first home, which to be frank has been completely ruined.

I wish things had been different but with a leadership team who cannot keep to their word, or offer any form or resolution let alone anything paid for in full it puts customers in an extremely awful and unfair situation which causes enormous disruption.

Absolutely shocking.
The very worst experience I can imagine ; After spending over £100,000
The design process was great, but there it stopped.
I put my order and deposit in over five months before I needed the kitchen fitted, as I was determined not to face delay issues and would be way ahead of schedule.
It is now almost three months after my installation date and I am still camping in the hallway.
Only half of the units are here. No worktop. No appliances.
It has also been very difficult to contact anyone and there have been no decent explanations.
This is way beyond blaming Brexit or suppliers. This is a company who think they can just ride on their name whilst reducing customer care and quality.
The fitting so far is not great. There are some seams that are unacceptable.
All the units are sitting on blocks of wood as the legs aren't long enough. In my desperation, I allowed them to convince me that this was ok??
Pathetic. They have had over £100,000 of my money during the last 8 months and I have nothing to show for it.

It has now been some 3 months since the Smallbone's Team completed our new kitchen complex which was a significant project. As the kitchen is openly acknowledged as being the most important room in anyone's house, I am pleased to state, since completion, there is not a day gone by where we haven't marveled at the result achieved. What was promised by Smallbone was delivered in drones. Craftsmanship, user friendly ergonomics and exemplary finish with the all important WOW Factor. They delivered as promised the Smallbone's experience - on time, despite the frustrations of the CV-19 crisis. Very many thanks to everyone involved.

We can not praise Smallbone enough. We initially placed a deposit on a kitchen for a project that did not proceed. The company subsequently went into liquidation, that resulted in new owners. The new owners could well have walked away from honouring our deposit, but they did not. Our kitchen was installed nearly a year ago. The process, from initial design through to installation, was well managed and the installation team highly skilled, as you would probably expect. Snagging issues were addressed efficiently and without question. We are now enjoying our amazing kitchen.

I found that Smallbone have an excellent reputation for a reason. Their designers are inspired, talented and respond with a truly bespoke solution that fits the environment they are working with and the brief you give them. The quality of the end product is some of the best in the world with huge attention to detail, a truly high end look that lifts your home to another level and a standard that you know will last for many years.

Our first experience with Smallbone was around 5 years ago when I worked with them to design and then install a complete kitchen in my town house. We were very impressed with the customer service experience and the attention to detail through design, installation and the hand painting of the units once the kitchen is installed. The quality of the kitchen and appliances (Wolf & Sub Zero) was outstanding and when we recently moved we were very disappointed to leave it behind.

Now settled in our new home one of the first things we have done is work with Smallbone again on a new kitchen. We designed the kitchen at the height of the UK lockdown with ease thanks to Jai and Smallbone's great technology and design team. We are now very excited for installation to happen later this year.

We would thoroughly recommend Smallbone, they make the whole experience from initial design through to final hand painting easy and enjoyable and the quality of the final product is outstanding.

Smallbone Kitchens standout out the world over. The quality of craft, attention to detail
and beauty is evident on every exposed face and interior corner. Equally important, their team creates and designs with a personalized touch that please both the hostess and master chef using it and the designer working with them! A modern classic. - Studio C New York

I recently built my dream home. Its a contemporary home with warmth....It was very important for me to pick a kitchen that was right for the open concept plan since it would be seen from everywhere. Not only is my smallbone kitchen timeless, but it looks like pieces of furniture. The attention to details is what I love most about it, that extra piece of molding which covers the seams, the leather straps on the trays, I could go on and on. The instillation was fantastic, any problems I had were addressed without hesitation. I have nothing negative to say, Im as happy with the kitchen today as I was on the day it was installed. Lois

Purchasing a kitchen can be a stressful experience. Especially when the financial outlay is not insignificant.
However, Smallbone have gone no small way into making the whole process a delight. From the warm welcome the moment I entered the showroom, to Vince, the expert designer who walked me through every step of my dream kitchen to the installation team who were both charming and efficient in equal measure, I have been delighted with the whole experience. I felt the whole team wanted the best for me and were in my side.
Classy company, five star product, thrilled client.
Kay B

I am a returning customer to Smallbone.
My first experience was great and the wow factor was definitely delivered. This time round I feel it’s got even better. The head designer Jai has understood exactly what we wanted to create and helped enhance it even more. But what made me return is the after service from Smallbone I feel they care and help you with all aspects from the beginning until completion.

We had bought a Smallbone Kitchen and spent around £125,000. We chose Smallbone over other companies because of their assurance on guarantee. When we went back to them to get small repair work done they chose to hide behind their parent company's bankruptcy. We believe that so long as the Smallbone brand is alive they owe it to existing customers to honor the obligation which they took. Else the Smallbone brand should be suitably changed otherwise it is deceptive. They are using the brand to get new business and new clients will be oblivious of the faults on guarantee. I am seriously considering organising consumer representation to protect our consumer rights or atleast force the company to stop using the old Smallbone's brand.

Extremely disappointing experience working with the “new” Smallbone (our initial contract was pre-administration with the “old” Smallbone). There seems to have a marked reduction in product quality and a disregard for design, feels like a very strong focus on simply maximising profit at the expense of the customer. On quality, was shocked when heard from several employees (including the CEO) that they no longer trusted their product enough to offer a warranty on exports, discontinuing the previous 25 year warranty they had previously contracted. Was actually told by a manager that they expected installation issues which was why they didn’t want the cost of a warranty. On design, they offered fixtures that weren’t matching (brushed nickel with chrome), no advice on colours (“choose whatever you want”), and couldn’t advise on in-cabinet lighting. Perspective buyers should beware that for us, despite having an “all in” kitchen with the previous company, we were later asked to pay for lots of “extras” that needed to be added, including hinges! All in all, really awful experience and we decided to forego our (sizeable) deposit and work with someone else as felt could not trust them – shame because really loved working with previous Smallbone. New private equity quest for “profit above customer” means should avoid!

Avoid
Bought A very expensive kitchen with all appliances spent in excess of £100,000. Small bone was fantastic and any issues they put right however they have now been taken over by new company SMWF. They are appalling. We had some work that needed to be done by small bone because it was very little we decided to wait until we encountered other issues. When we informed our contact they said the new company will not honour the guarantee The rude chap paul.maskell was rally bad no respect for their customers. Shame because the cost of resolving this issue would have been no more than a couple of hundred pounds They have now lost customers that I recommended and I would avoid using them as they will treat you the same. They only had the audacity to ring and ask for our recommendation. You buy a Smallbone for their 25yr warranty.

Smallbone did not complete the kitchen they were contracted to build. They provided incorrect materials and the outdoor kitchen was built with indoor materials so it all rotted and had to be replaced. The indoor kitchen had to be completed by another contractor because Smallbone refused to complete it, though they had taken payment to complete it.

I would never ever recommend using Smallbone to anyone - the whole experience was stressful and ended up costing many tens of thousands more than it should have.

The worst customer experience you can imagine. Promised kitchen would take 5 weeks to install, but 5 months later still not complete. Build quality is poor. Promise endlessly to get things fixed but never do, just one excuse after another - and you have to chase to find out. Inexplicably went to deliver our fridge to the wrong address, took it back to the warehouse, and then sold it to someone else and made us wait 6 weeks for a new one. Don't answer the phone, don't reply to mails. No escalation policy on complaints, and no compensation either. Senior management not involved. After they got my bank details, they took £5k from my account without permission. Later found they had overcharged me and wouldn't refund the money for 3 months. Rue the day we ever got involved with them - once you have prepaid they drop you. More cowboy builder than premium kitchen manufacturer.

I ordered dressing room with Small Bone, even though they were highly overpriced, double the price than other providers with equal quality. I was assured that company is very professional and will deliver on time. Delivery was 1 month delayed and is still not installed. And all they say is sorry. At the same time they're chaising 100% pre-payment, and I'm not sure they will deliver. Customer experience is terrible, it's not value for money. I can't recommend to anyone to work with Small Bone, there're other providers on the market. Please don't be mislead by nice sales people and designers, that part is good, but unfortunately they just don't deliver after and nice people you see only before you pay money, after that nightmare begins...

Terrible company. Designer was completely impractical,the finishes were so bad the snagging had to be done five times and they made such a tight fit for the vent it has broken down three times!