ᐅ Kitchen quotes without price details – is this common?

Hello everyone,

Until now, I’ve mostly followed the topics here quietly, but I thought I might ask for your experiences this time 🙂

We are building with Schwörerhaus, and our current task is to plan our kitchen so that we also get the layout for the utility connections. We thought we’d get three quotes, compare them, and then decide. But it’s not as easy as we thought.

So far, we have visited two kitchen showrooms. Both told us they only plan and sell the kitchen with the appliances included, and during the consultation, we could only specify which functions are important to us for the appliances.

After all the planning, we got to see a finished rendering on-site and were given a price. However, we were not allowed to take any pictures or printed plans of the final kitchen. Also, no exact model numbers or similar details about the appliances were provided. We were told the brand, but a supplier usually offers more than one appliance of a brand.

This all seems quite unprofessional to me. The advisors’ argument was each time that they put in the effort, and then I might take the plan and get it done somewhere else. In the end, I determined the layout, number of cabinets, etc., myself at both places—and naturally chose the same for each to compare.

But without the details, I can hardly compare. In the end, I don’t really know which appliances are included. If company 1 says it costs 25,000 EUR and company 2 says 15,000 EUR, I have no way of understanding what causes the difference. Both kitchens are roughly identical in layout and the number of cabinets, so it must be the appliances? It would be nice to have that listed so I could maybe choose cheaper appliances in one kitchen or more expensive ones in the other if something is “missing” or however.

What are your experiences here? Does anyone perhaps know a good kitchen studio in Berlin/Brandenburg where you can get everything listed clearly?

I’m a bit unsure right now... I wouldn’t want to pay such an amount “just like that” without knowing exactly what I am paying for in the end.

Thanks in advance for your insights.

Best regards,
ElaVogel

Yes, that seems quite normal. However, there are also design studios or carpenters who handle it differently. Honestly, I would prefer to pay a fee for the planning rather than dealing with this hassle of not providing anything 🙄

ElaVogel schrieb:

...

Welcome to the forum. 🙂

Is it absolutely necessary to go to a kitchen showroom? We have actually avoided kitchen showrooms because of this kind of business practice.

I don’t understand the kitchen installers’ argument. Am I being unreasonable if I believe that creating a first rough plan showing where each cabinet with its depth will be placed shouldn’t cause too much trouble? Or am I actually underestimating the amount of work involved?

So, my kitchen planner (a small kitchen studio in the neighboring town) discussed everything with us and provided images of the renderings after each appointment. The installation plan, of course, only comes after signing the contract, but basically, you could reconstruct it from memory at any time, more or less the same way.

Regarding the price, our kitchen builder asked about our budget and clearly stated that he would consider it as a target and stay just below it. Throughout the process, he regularly updated us on the current cost of the kitchen. I consider planning without a budget to be unprofessional, and offers without prices are the same. I would look for a different kitchen builder and specify your conditions right when scheduling the appointment. Otherwise, it's a waste of effort.

We knew exactly what we wanted and specified the desired appliances ourselves. For the refrigerator, we sought advice and were each recommended a different model by two kitchen studios. We then asked both studios for quotes based on the same appliances. One studio provided a detailed breakdown by item, while the other only gave a total price. When we requested a detailed quote from the second studio, they hesitated at first but eventually provided it. In the end, we chose that studio because we preferred their cabinet fronts, and their selected manufacturer was more flexible with cabinet solutions than the other’s. The total price was roughly the same in the end.

Both studios sent us the latest planning status by email, including images.

We visited local smaller studios, not large furniture stores.

I also find it strange and unprofessional not to mention prices and appliance types. Buying a standard oven is a different price than a combination unit with microwave and steam oven function, and even a standard oven with or without pyrolysis makes a difference.

You wouldn’t just walk into a car dealership and blindly buy whatever they configure for your desired price! I would keep looking and ask how they handle this before scheduling an appointment.

We visited two kitchen showrooms and received layouts and drawings from both.
One quote did not specify the exact models of the electrical appliances and did not provide this information even upon request.

In the other showroom, all appliances were clearly listed, and I was able to change them freely.