R Bensons – My review
What can I say!! We had our kitchen replaced, at the request of our Housing Association in October 2024 – it is now February 2025 and the problems continue.
The Positives – before I go on, the positives must be acknowledged. On the whole the trades are probably the hardest working people I have ever come across! They are kind, helpful and considerate and they simply do not stop! The handyman put up our cooker hood and the gas fitter installed our new cooker, put in all the trays, took all the rubbish / packaging away and even set the time for us. The painter painted with the paint we had chosen ourselves. Marvellous people!! The kitchen is beautiful – many people have shared the same view, but the delight of it all has been marred by the Site Managers and their tendency to lie.
The Hassle – we were TOLD that we had to be at home for the duration of the refurb, for TEN working days between 8am and 5pm. This is not sustainable for people that work, taking up to TEN days annual leave for this work to be undertaken is a big expectation. Interestingly they chose NOT to arrive on the first Tuesday – having spent the Monday ripping the soul out of our home, Tuesday comes and we get a call to say there would be no trades today as it was ‘Asbestos Day’ – we did not have Asbestos, so it literally made no sense and we were not informed in advance. We could have gone back to work for the day !
During the work the contractor visits were relentless, transient people in and out of my home day in and day out became exhausting. Thankfully I have side access, but if I was a tenant with mobility issues this would have been a problem. At points they just came in, without asking, checking or even conversing with us at all. Our home was not our own.
The Rush – the poor trades! They are exhausted! The expectation for each trade to complete their work every single day regardless of how long it took is simply not sustainable. We had one here until 6.30 at night completing a huge job that should have taken two full days at least. The resulting finish was not up to spec and was rushed – which is human nature. It seems the crews are sub contracted out, lovely, lovely guys having to work so hard it was not even funny being literally worked into the ground was difficult to watch.
The painter was called back to re-paint the doors as he was so rushed to complete all the work in one day there were drips everywhere.
The Time - they cannot seem to understand basic time keeping skills. 8am start turned into 7.30 with the trades ‘telling’ me, it is an ‘unannounced appointment’ and walking through the door regardless. 5pm finish ended up with trades knocking the door at 6pm to finish something else.
The Damage – after the work as finished they have a ‘handyman’ come to ‘snag’ the job, tidy up and finish off. He left a pile of debris on top of the boiler, which if I had not spotted would have fallen off and injured the next boiler service operative. They filled my boiler programmer with dust and debris –as they did not cover it during the works. I put the heating on and it shorted – we were without heating for five days. When challenged they denied all knowledge, telling my husband it is a sealed unit. They were shown the unit – filled with dust and when shook it was like a maraca and still denied their part.
The painter was trying to deal with a stain on the ceiling, this meant they had to come back at a later date, but whilst he was dealing with said stain, he sprayed stain block all over the freshly painted walls, which resulted in blistering and had to be sanded down and painted again.
To this day my washing machine back fills into my utility room sink. Visit after visit was made and the site managers still fail to grasp the fact that it was not like this before, so whatever they have done has resulted in this happening. A resolution was offered to put in a Saniflo pump, which means the tiles need to come off, the worktop needs to come off and trunking fitted. We have also been advised that we will have to take over the maintenance and upkeep of said Saniflo as this is ‘a gift’ Er…… never mind actually fixing the issue that R Bensons have created, instead they propose sicking a plaster on it by ripping out my utility room to install a pump. Absolutely not!
Which brings me onto the water hammer that remains. TWICE R Bensons have maintained they have fixed this!! The last time the Site Manager lied to our faces and said it was sorted. It was worse than before! I then eventually found my washing up bowl and sponge had been used to drain the system and remained under the sink with the sponge bobbing around in it and full of sharp solder !!!! It still remains to be an issue FOUR months later, the kitchen sink will gush with water and then return to a very slow flow, the pipes can be heard knocking all over the house now, the washing machine clonks when it is filling. They do not seem to really concern themselves with any of this, so much so I have asked my landlord to instruct a new plumber as both my husband and I have lost complete faith in their work.
The Lies- We were told that the water hammer was fixed – what they had just done was turn down the pressure.
They installed kickboard with huge gaps underneath the cupboards – when challenged they said ‘this was the spec’ then we were offered brilliant white wider boards (which would not match the porcelain cupboards) We were told they were out of stock – they were not, they had not been ordered. In the end WE (the customer) had to offer a solution of ordering a floor to ceiling end panel that could be ripped down to fit.
They told us the boiler panel being filled with dust was NOT the result of their work.
They failed to order the utility room – our home was unusual as we were given permission to have both refurbished to match. They started installing the kitchen cupboards and ‘forgot to mention’ that the utility room cupboards was on a separate docket and had not been ordered. So installation took far longer than it should have done and had to be shoehorned into the work schedule, which meant more pressure for the trades.
They failed to install a soft close hinge on a corner cupboard – stating that these could only be ordered from the kitchen cupboard manufacturer and they were out of stock. They can be purchased from many local well known hardware stores / builders merchants.
It seems that the Site Manager liked to take any opportunity to make his Contracts Manager look silly, there reached a point where we were speaking to him directly, when conversations were had with the site manager, he denied having been told any information, insisted that the Contracts Manager was incorrect and had in fact lied to me and generally made his boss look like a fool.
In conclusion – the kitchen is wonderful. The trades, on the whole were excellent, they are just under so much pressure from what seems like a militant type style of a company who work them into the ground. The Site Managers (one in particular) is a compulsive liar and seems to think he can hoodwink customers. They will take absolutely no responsibility for any damage or issues caused by them. They come in, smash the house to pieces, then take the next day off and come back again expecting access at all times. If you happen not to be there then text messages get sent by the customer liaison officers, who are worse than useless and also choose to speak to customers like they are stupid. If you have any way of avoiding instructing this company then please do so.
