# Forum Home Renovation Kitchens  Freedom Kitchens - anyone had one done by them?

## dezability

Hi guys 
I had a Freedom kitchens designer come over to my unit last night, and after 5 hours of designing and chatting, she offered us a very attractive price and package. 
In short, 2.7m X 2m kitchen complete with 8 cabinets (beautiful gloss covers), Solid Stone L shaped bench top, and also 1.2m X 600mm Solid Stone island bench with cabinet underneath, also a custom Pantry/Manchester cupboard 1.3m x 2.3m.....  includes fitting and labour for $10,191 
Originally it would have costed about $14k, but she offered us a 40% discount which they had on last week (but she offered it to us exclusively). 
I'm just wondering if this quote sounds good and is competitive to other custom kitchen design places. She has given us 24hours to decide because her area manager needs to know if we will accept the 40% off as she has already been so generous!  
I rang around and other kitchen designers can't come around until tomorrow afternoon and I'm afraid i'll miss out on such a good price (if so). 
What to do!!!!!!!!?!?!!

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## m6sports

Tell them you need to think about it 
dont let them push you into a sale  
If not tell them OK and you will give them a deposit in a couple of days  
i try not to deal with people that push sales  
as with the price i cant help you but some one here will  
Good luck

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## Gaza

10k does not sound to bad, but the rubbish about speical offer today only is common in the kitchen industry with these major show rooms. 
suggest check the price with Wholesale Kitchens - Kitchens they are owned by the same people that own fredom kitchens and are made in the same factory.

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## phillta

Say no. They will drop the price further. We saw them a couple of weeks ago and the design "would normally cost $14k but today only we'll do it for $8.5k". Then the boss comes over and says make it 8 flat. We walk away and they offer $6.5k without blinking the next day over the phone.  
We're not going with them as we didn't get a great vibe and their design had too many compromises to bring the price down (only one set of draws etc etc). Bear in mind you're paying for so much fat...a woman in the showroom who's there to point out that "those are the handle options, those are the finish options, oh no I can't tell you which finish is more expensive you'll need to talk to a designer", so adding no value whatsover. Then they have a call centre to ring you up to try to seal the deal. Then they do a 3D CAD design as standard which maybe you need but probably you don't as you've probably already used the free Ikea software to get a feel for it (and I'm not talking design here,...the design is done). So my point is even though it's very cheap they're still making a profit, so what corners are cut? And don't be fooled because no one has ever paid them $14k for that kitchen. The other thing is you're really railroaded into choosing things you don't want...don't like the Arctic White or whatever it is? Then the only other option is a really dull laminate (no doubt there are more if you press them, but they obviously have massive margins on that finish they're pushing). Don't like their handles? "Oh you should choose one of these, otherwise you'll need to look for another one, and you'll have to drill holes". Again, there's the margin. 
BUT, the kitchens looked pretty decent quality compared to others we looked at, and the prices are competitive. Plus someone I work with got a kitchen from them and loves it and the installer was great. But we just didn't trust them and could sniff issues in the future, and there were too many compromises on what we wanted.

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## phillta

By the way...a 40% discount on "$14K" is mid to high $8k, so you're paying $2k for labour should make sure you know exactly what you're getting for that.

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## melrich

Yes don't worry about the price as it will be available in a week or two believe me. 
So is it expensive at $8.5k? 
Not sure. We got 3 metre cabinet (10 softclose drawers), plus 2 metres of overheads plus 1100 x 2600 pantry plus a 2600x700 cabinet to house wall oven and micowave all built in plus a 2.6 metre cabinet with 5 small softclose drawers and 2 door cupboard and dishwasher space plus an island bench that is 2500 x900 with 6 soft close drawers and 3 cupboards. 
All this is covered by Ceasarstone and finished in 2pac. No handles. Our cost was $26,500 for that. It feels like we got about 3 times as much as you and with 2pac. 
My feel would be that you could probably do at least as well by going direct to a cabinet maker and probably you should do a bit better.

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## dezability

Thanks everyone, great advice. 
I went around today and got some quotes and had a builder in, and it seems the general opinion is that 8.5k-10.5k is waaaaay too much for my kitchen (it's only 2 X 2.7 afterall) 
One guy over the phone said at a guess he can do it all for 5.5k and another one drew me up the whole layout in-store and still came through 2-3k less than the original 10.5k quote. 
I had a builder come in and he rekons I should just IKEA it. He offered to buy it all with me and he can fit and install it, so they brings me some comfort! he's quoting it up now along with knocking a wall down so it might come in cheap. 
I've learnt so much in 1 day and am so glad I didn't push the button on the first quote!!! Thanks ppl!

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## m6sports

i quote people on work every day and all my Quotes are valid for 3 months 
i sometimes even tell people to go home and think about it 
when i feel they arnt sure  
most of those people come back there are some that dont 
but they are most likley the ones that just want the cheapest Quote  
Never get pushed into a sale as if they can do it for that price today they can do it tomorrow

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## Doc0055

(I had a builder come in and he rekons I should just IKEA it. He offered to buy it all with me and he can fit and install it, so they brings me some comfort! he's quoting it up now along with knocking a wall down so it might come in cheap.) 
Would you go to a cabinetmaker to do extentions to your house, No, didnt think so. Then why would a builder be able to put in a kitchen into your house cheaper than a cabinetmaker.

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## jago

> (I had a builder come in and he rekons I should just IKEA it. He offered to buy it all with me and he can fit and install it, so they brings me some comfort! he's quoting it up now along with knocking a wall down so it might come in cheap.) 
> Would you go to a cabinetmaker to do extentions to your house, No, didnt think so. Then why would a builder be able to put in a kitchen into your house cheaper than a cabinetmaker.

  Because his fat comes in the wall price and the cheap kitchen from a builder is a cheap kitchen, I wouldnt expect quality from Ikea. Dont forget  Ikea has none standard sizes so nothing outside Ikea fits.

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## Terrian

> Would you go to a cabinetmaker to do extentions to your house, No, didnt think so. Then why would a builder be able to put in a kitchen into your house cheaper than a cabinetmaker.

  maybe the likes of Ikea can do the kitchen cheaper than a cabinet maker because they makes 100s of thousands of the damn things every year, getting the materials a whole lot cheaper than the average cabinet maker, and any builder / chippy worth his salt can put in a pre-fab kitchen. 
How many cabinet makers do you know that make 100s of thousands kitchens ?   
p.s the 100s of thousands figure is a figure I pulled out of thin air, but keep in mind the likes of Ikea are world wide.

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## ScroozAdmin

> maybe the likes of Ikea can do the kitchen cheaper than a cabinet maker because they makes 100s of thousands of the damn things every year, getting the materials a whole lot cheaper than the average cabinet maker, and any builder / chippy worth his salt can put in a pre-fab kitchen. 
> How many cabinet makers do you know that make 100s of thousands kitchens ?   
> p.s the 100s of thousands figure is a figure I pulled out of thin air, but keep in mind the likes of Ikea are world wide.

  probably about right, there's a particular bookcase they make which sells a million or 2 per year or a similar crazy figure. I've always found the kitchen quality excellent and have no idea why people get so hung up on custom made cabinets unless your going real top end. Some of the expensive custom work I've seen has been a bit poor tbh and you can get just as good if not a better finish a lot cheaper off the shelf, you just need to get a bit creative with panels and units to get the fit you want.  
I'm just finishing this one off, comes in at around $5,500 including appliances and tiles, most expensive bit was the tops which were $1,000 custom.

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## Terrian

> probably about right, there's a particular bookcase they make which sells a million or 2 per year or a similar crazy figure. I've always found the kitchen quality excellent and have no idea why people get so hung up on custom made cabinets unless your going real top end. Some of the expensive custom work I've seen has been a bit poor tbh and you can get just as good if not a better finish a lot cheaper off the shelf, you just need to get a bit creative with panels and units to get the fit you want.

  Custom comes into its own when your kitchen / whatever is not setup to take the 'standard' base units no matter how creative you get  :Smilie: 
Our laundry I shortened by 90mm to make use of standard sized overhead cupboards.   

> I'm just finishing this one off, comes in at around $5,500 including appliances and tiles, most expensive bit was the tops which were $1,000 custom.

  Looks pretty good.
$5,500 is about what it has cost to do the make over of our laundry  :Smilie:

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## frozensage

> I'm just finishing this one off, comes in at around $5,500 including appliances and tiles, most expensive bit was the tops which were $1,000 custom.

  $5,500 is dirt cheap! I'm doing my kitchen now, I can post some photos next week once the floorboards are put in. Got 13 cabinets including a pantry, 2 wall cabinet and 3 drawers which make up the island (1500 x 900). 40mm cs all the way around and waterfall on the island. 2 pac white gloss finish on all the doors. It costed me $9950 minus the waterfall which were $1500(excl gst) extra. Installation/labour will be $3000 - $3500 for cabinets, plumbing, electrician and stone. All new appliances costing about $3k. Kitchen supplied by Zesta. Still need quotes for splashback, bulkhead and tiles.

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## Doc0055

Scruffydoo, 
so after appliances and the tops what did the cabinets cost.

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## ScroozAdmin

> Scruffydoo, 
> so after appliances and the tops what did the cabinets cost.

  it was around $3300, corner units all have carousels and all doors and drawers are soft close so pretty good deal really, Ikea do flatpack very well.

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## blackdragon

> Hi guys 
> I had a Freedom kitchens designer come over to my unit last night, and after 5 hours of designing and chatting, she offered us a very attractive price and package. 
> In short, 2.7m X 2m kitchen complete with 8 cabinets (beautiful gloss covers), Solid Stone L shaped bench top, and also 1.2m X 600mm Solid Stone island bench with cabinet underneath, also a custom Pantry/Manchester cupboard 1.3m x 2.3m.....  includes fitting and labour for $10,191 
> Originally it would have costed about $14k, but she offered us a 40% discount which they had on last week (but she offered it to us exclusively). 
> I'm just wondering if this quote sounds good and is competitive to other custom kitchen design places. She has given us 24hours to decide because her area manager needs to know if we will accept the 40% off as she has already been so generous!  
> I rang around and other kitchen designers can't come around until tomorrow afternoon and I'm afraid i'll miss out on such a good price (if so). 
> What to do!!!!!!!!?!?!!

  G'day everyone! 
My first post here  :Smilie:   
I've been reading a few threads and now I think maybe I'm paying too much for my Kitchen... but I already signed the contract... so can't get out of it without the so called "reasonble expenses" paid... 
I went with Freedom Kitchens, who came in and did a design and quote. I'm getting 10 cabinets in total. All wall cabinets 900mm high except for 1 which is above a servery window which is 1000mmmx720mm. There's also an 800mm drawer set and a Microwave alcove with a drawer under it. One corner cabinet which is 450mm will get a 1/2 corner carousel. I'm getting the Alaskan Gloss finish for cabinet doors and panels. Then benchtop is Diamondgloss laminate. I was quoted $12,227 + an estimate $2800-$3000 for labour.  
Freedom is also offering Interest Free finannce, which means I can have my Kitchen now rather than having to save up at least a year or 2 for it. 
So anyway, I went to Kitchen Connections to get a 2nd quote (I know... kinda pointless after I already signed with Freedom  :Blush7: .... anyway they are quoting me 15k-17k (ball park) and no finanace for the same kitchen.... so maybe I didn't do so bad after all  :Sneaktongue:  
P.S. Sorry, hope my first post wasn't too much of a wall  :Sneaktongue:

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## montiee

I feel sorry for anyone that is paying upwards of 12k for the entire job. Getting ripped off well and proper.

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## montiee

> they had on last week (but she offered it to us exclusively). 
> I'm just wondering if this quote sounds good and is competitive to other custom kitchen design places. She has given us 24hours to decide because her area manager needs to know if we will accept the 40% off as she has already been so generous!  
> I rang around and other kitchen designers can't come around until tomorrow afternoon and I'm afraid i'll miss out on such a good price (if so). 
> What to do!!!!!!!!?!?!!

  You have just been hit with the oldest sales tactic in the book. If the deal is truly that amazing you would take her up on her offer even a week later. What you are being subjected to is the high pressure sale forcing you to make a quick uninformed decision. Even if it legitimately the bst deal you can find I'd walk away until I could confirm it. Always something dodgy when these tactics are employed. 
Note I realise it's long past now but just offering general advice for future readers.

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