ᐅ Cost increase surcharge for the kitchen after contract signing
Created on: 13 Oct 2021 07:47
E
exto1791
Hello everyone,
Yesterday we received the final offer for our kitchen, and we noticed the following clause in the offer:
"The offer is valid until 28.02.2022. If the kitchen is accepted after 01.03.2022, we unfortunately have to charge a price increase surcharge of 4.5%."
I don’t quite understand this. If I place the order for the kitchen now, I am committing to the price in the offer, so I shouldn’t have to accept any surcharge. We are planning to move in around April/May, so it’s quite possible the kitchen won’t be accepted before 01.03.2022.
The dealer’s response was that the kitchen should be taken into stock by February next year, meaning the kitchen would need to be measured early enough once the plasterer has finished. Then it might still be possible to avoid the surcharge.
We are really very, very happy with our kitchen builder, but I honestly think this is unacceptable. What experiences have you had with this? Is this actually common?
Yesterday we received the final offer for our kitchen, and we noticed the following clause in the offer:
"The offer is valid until 28.02.2022. If the kitchen is accepted after 01.03.2022, we unfortunately have to charge a price increase surcharge of 4.5%."
I don’t quite understand this. If I place the order for the kitchen now, I am committing to the price in the offer, so I shouldn’t have to accept any surcharge. We are planning to move in around April/May, so it’s quite possible the kitchen won’t be accepted before 01.03.2022.
The dealer’s response was that the kitchen should be taken into stock by February next year, meaning the kitchen would need to be measured early enough once the plasterer has finished. Then it might still be possible to avoid the surcharge.
We are really very, very happy with our kitchen builder, but I honestly think this is unacceptable. What experiences have you had with this? Is this actually common?
I would take a relaxed approach in your situation. Talk to your kitchen fitter, explain that you want the clause removed (perhaps you could offer to pay the full amount upfront instead of just the deposit?), or alternatively buy elsewhere.
If, as you say, you haven’t negotiated yet, I think it’s entirely realistic to have the additional charge removed. Otherwise, you can keep it but negotiate the price down by 4.5%.
Regardless of the construction boom, kitchen fitters won’t cancel an order over 600–900 euros (?) when so much planning time has already been invested.
If, as you say, you haven’t negotiated yet, I think it’s entirely realistic to have the additional charge removed. Otherwise, you can keep it but negotiate the price down by 4.5%.
Regardless of the construction boom, kitchen fitters won’t cancel an order over 600–900 euros (?) when so much planning time has already been invested.
Myrna_Loy schrieb:
So you’ve already used how many hours of service free of charge? Without the dealer having any guarantee that you will actually buy from them?Come on... If a reputable kitchen studio can’t manage that, then they shouldn’t sell me a kitchen either...
I understand that you can’t expect this from a large furniture store, okay... But there are plenty of studios that do offer this service.
I really wonder sometimes what all these people in the kitchen studio are being paid for? If you have three on-site visits and have the offer revised five to six times (with some changes taking only about 15 minutes), that seems perfectly reasonable to me.
Yaso2.0 schrieb:
Well, with a hundred changes, that must have been a lot of time invested by the kitchen supplier, but not additionally paid for.
There is no lead time specified in our contract. However, the kitchen will definitely only be ordered after the measurement has been taken. As I said, I received 7 quotes, so that means 7 changes. The "100 times" comment was meant sarcastically 😀
The bold move isn’t the 4.5% itself, but rather the timing of when it is revealed. It’s not disclosed with the initial offer (where, in my opinion, it should be included), but only when the contract documents are provided.
If he had communicated the fixed price period and the additional charge under each offer from the start, it would have been transparent and quite fair (since the 4.5% effectively acts as an upper cap).
Revealing it so close to the final contract signing is cheeky and, to be honest, a bit foolish, as it could cause some to back out. Maybe he’s hoping most people will just overlook it? If that’s the case, I would find that really bold.
@Nemesis I think your suggestion is good. Simply tell him openly and honestly that you don’t agree with this and ask if something can be done about it, since you had been convinced by him so far but now feel quite discouraged.
But don’t leave him hanging either. For example, negotiate to extend the timeframe by a month or something similar.
If he had communicated the fixed price period and the additional charge under each offer from the start, it would have been transparent and quite fair (since the 4.5% effectively acts as an upper cap).
Revealing it so close to the final contract signing is cheeky and, to be honest, a bit foolish, as it could cause some to back out. Maybe he’s hoping most people will just overlook it? If that’s the case, I would find that really bold.
@Nemesis I think your suggestion is good. Simply tell him openly and honestly that you don’t agree with this and ask if something can be done about it, since you had been convinced by him so far but now feel quite discouraged.
But don’t leave him hanging either. For example, negotiate to extend the timeframe by a month or something similar.
Tolentino schrieb:
What’s really bold isn’t the 4.5%, but the timing of when it’s revealed. And it’s not disclosed with the offer (where in my opinion it belongs) but only with the documents for contract award.
If he had communicated the fixed-price validity period and the time frame under each offer from the start, it would have been transparent and even very fair (since the 4.5% actually represents a cap upwards).
Revealing it so close to final commissioning is cheeky and honestly a bit foolish, as it could cause some people to back out. Maybe he’s hoping most will just overlook it? I’d actually find that quite brazen.
@Nemesis I like your tip. Just tell him openly and honestly that you disagree with it, and ask if something can be done about it, because you were actually convinced by him so far but now feel quite let down.
But don’t leave him hanging either. For example, negotiate for an extra month or something like that. I would slightly disagree here, because the 4.5% does not necessarily mean an upper limit. If the manufacturer raises prices again tomorrow because the 4.5% isn’t enough for them, they might add more. This is absolutely common these days. In the past, general price adjustments happened at least once or twice a year.
I don’t want to sound negative, but recent months have proven this. At peak times, several manufacturers (outside the kitchen sector) have doubled prices with two double-digit increases and have announced further price adjustments at the same time! So you see—everything is possible!
In your specific case, regardless of when the 4.5% was announced, it should be possible to complete the measurement before the cut-off date and avoid the remaining headaches.