Botched kitchen renovation project left woman '£9,000 out of pocket'

Karen McGregor, of Methil Road, paid £6,700 to Greenock company Optis Interiors for a new kitchen and white goods last October and agreed with owner Scott Sutherland that another £3,800 would be paid upon completion of the project.

He pledged to start work on the project in late November but a month later, following a series of delays and incomplete work, Karen was left with half a kitchen - forcing her to fork out more money to get it completed by another company.

Karen, 46, spoke out after reading about another couple, Michelle and Fraser Blair, who found themselves almost £10,000 down in a dispute with the same firm.

She added: "This was to be my dream kitchen and we paid a lot of money to have it fitted to a high standard, in Scott's words, in between seven and 10 days.

"What happened could not have been further from the truth."

After the cancellation of a visit to her house to plan the project on November 18, Karen was advised that the job would start a week later.

But she'd already arranged for all of her white goods to be uplifted on three days beforehand to make room for the new ones which she had already paid Optis for.

While two of their team arrived on November 25 to rip out the kitchen no one showed up the next day.

Karen then got a message to say that she would have 'another point of contact' and that the team would return to her house again on November 30.

She says a catalogue of errors followed, including the ceiling being the wrong size, kitchen units not arriving, a wrong-sized window being fitted and leaks.

Karen says she was told on December 5 by Mr Sutherland that the kitchen would be finished within a week and £250 would be taken off the price for the inconvenience caused, but on December 10 she received a message asking her for more money.

She said: "Scott asked me for £3,000 as he had a cashflow problem.

"My kitchen was supposed to be finished at this point but all I had was half a kitchen and no white goods.

"I felt let down and angry."

Karen sent a message to Optis saying that if her white goods and flooring did not arrive before Christmas, she would order the items from the supplier herself and then deduct them from her bill.

She paid £1,089 for white goods and discovered there was still a balance of £580 to pay and additional costs included rubbish uplift and flooring.

On December 21, she discovered that the cupboards that had been put in were not level - and that was the final straw.

She added: "I said to Scott that I wanted my money back and wanted nothing else to do with the company.

"I had to get other workmen in to give us a functioning kitchen before Christmas."

Karen then noticed that the business page for Optis on Facebook had disappeared and contacted Trading Standards.

Karen added: "The stress has been awful.

"The run-up to Christmas was horrific."

The Telegraph put Karen's points to Mr Sutherland and invited him to respond.

He said Optis only ever received the initial payment of £6,700 from Karen and had to subcontract an alternative fitter to do the work due to lockdown.

Mr Sutherland claims the delays were a result of mistakes made in a kitchen sizing not carried out by his company.

He added: "While we are in lockdown we are not able to continue with any work.

"This has been a nightmare for myself and for many other companies.

"I had been off sick during this job which did not help matters.

"Once we can get back out working I will be able to resolve any issues.

"I’ve only ever taken payment of £6,700.

"It cost me way over that to get the kitchen to the stage it was at just before Christmas due to the mistakes that had been made between the customer and the supplier."