They always make a few mistakes! (MFI Bedroom Furniture)

Member Name: tybalt

Product:	MFI Bedroom Furniture
Date:	30/10/01 (2003 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheapish

Disadvantages: There's always one mistake!

Have you ever had the feeling of complete despair after having spent over 10hours building furniture only to find that you haven't been given either the right parts for something or that something hasn't been drilled etc.

That?s what has just happened to me. About a month ago now I went down to MFI Homeworks in Lisburn and purchased some furniture (OK a whole rooms worth of furniture) and decided rather than to waste money on getting them to build it for me, I would do it. At the moment I wish I hadn't.

Well last Sunday was delivery day and no sooner had they delivered the packages, than me and my dad were in middle of trying to put them up. We got the first set of drawers up no bother and also the corner unit. I was beginning to think that we were missing something because the instruction manuals keep on referring to the Bedroom Installation Guide, that we now know the delivery people forgot to give us. This meant we had instructions on how to put the worktops on (thankfully it was just a case of a few screws).

We struggled on, and using the instruction manuals alone (which were pretty good for a change) managed to get all the units up, apart from the corner wardrobe. We had a strong feeling they had given us the wrong 'fillet' (it basically joins the two double robes to make them look good in a corner. The wardrobe itself was about a foot shorter than the fillet. This was extremely annoying.

So the next morning my father and I decided to take a trip down to Lisburn and to find out what had went wrong. The sales-person was very helpful and of course he blamed it on the delivery staff. He also gave us the idea that the 'fillet' might need to be cut down to size (we had thought of trying that, but there was no reference to it in the manual so we didn't). He said we may as well try cutting it down because he had also ordered one that should have been the right size, but that wasn't going to arrive
until another 12 days time.

Well we got home, and decided we would finish the remaining units (my computer desk, the most important part of the room). The desk went up without a hitch, I have to give them credit here, because the instructions were pretty clear except that we put some if the screws in on the wrong side of the back-board. This was mainly just caused by us miss-understanding the instructions, but they could also have been a little bit clearer as there is now a whole in the back of the desk.

That then only left the wardrobe as the only thing to be finished. So of course we tried cutting the fillet to see if we could get it to fit. We cut it to the right length and started to look for some instructions on how to attach it to both of the wardrobes, and in keeping with MFI's recent form of instructions, there were none. I can only hope that there are some in the Bedroom Installation Guide. We went searching through the leftover bits and pieces we had and found a few brackets we thought might work. Thankfully they did; somehow.

Well the room's now finished and so far nothing has fallen apart so our craftsmanship must not have been all that bad. Now I shall do a little summary of my feelings on MFI, after all that's what I should be doing in my opinion.

Value For Money:
Usually for a full room of furniture they aren't too bad, I can't remember the total rice exactly but it was somewhere in the region of £500-£600, which isn't bad when I also got a full suite of bedroom furniture for free, including; wardrobe, bedside cabinet, drawers and a desk. This would probably have cost £300 on its own. Overall I would say it was a pretty good price for the things that we got.

Ease of Use/Installation:
On the whole it wasn't the hardest thing I?ve ever had to build, and even though we only had about half of the instructions that we should have got, it could have been even easier. If you do
n't like trying to build these sorts of things you could get them to do it for you, but this just adds to the price, but I can't comment on their workmanship.

Looks:
It all depends on what suite of furniture you choose, and how much time you spend planning it all out as to where each piece will go. The one I choose though looked well and I always like blue, and now I?ve got a completely blue room so I can't really complain all that much about. While looking around the store, most of the different types of rooms look good and it really just depends on personal preference.

Support:
The after-sales support was on the whole impressive, I might have needed to go into the shop to explain to the sales-person what the problem was, but there was no trouble getting a replacement. I don't think I would have been able though to have explain the problem over the phone.

Overall:
If you are considering doing up a room, then I would say why not go down and have a look around the shop. I'm sure there is one not too far from where you live. If you take with you a sort of map of the room with the dimensions included then the sales-staff with be able to help you in putting together a picture of what you could fit in the room. I think if in the future I was redoing a room, then I would go and have a look at what they have, and at least get a quote of what they would cost.

I know I have mainly pointed out bad points to the MFI Homeworks experience, but that is just the way I'm feeling at the present time, in a few days if things go well, then I might be feeling differently and will update this opinion accordingly.

*Update*
After sawing the fillet, it all fits in great a part from that we took wrong dimensions and had to sacrifice one of the three drawer chests. Finally I'm pleased with the room, after a couple of days HARD WORK I am finally able to relax in front of my PC on dooyoo.

David r>