When you’ve spent hundreds of pounds on new furniture, it’s understandable to want to keep the installation cost down.
A customer who had purchased an £820 wardrobe was referred to Home Flatpack by her retailer. We quoted £182 for professional installation, including assembly in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and our workmanship guarantee.
The customer declined because she had found somebody who could attend that afternoon for approximately £90.
Unfortunately, that saving didn’t last.
“Don’t touch it for a few hours”
Before leaving, the 'installer' told the customer not to use the doors or drawers because the glue needed time to dry.
The wardrobe had actually been assembled without its backboards. These had reportedly been mistaken for packaging, broken up and discarded.
Backboards aren’t decorative extras. They help keep a wardrobe square, stable and structurally supported. The wrong screws had also been used in several places, and the completed wardrobe was visibly leaning.
The installer took payment and left. When problems became apparent, the customer was unable to contact him.
From installation to rescue job
Around a month later, the customer contacted Home Flatpack again—this time asking us to repair the wardrobe.
We began with a WhatsApp video call to assess the damage and identify the missing components. We then worked with the retailer to arrange replacement parts.
Once these arrived, a two-person Home Flatpack team attended to dismantle and rebuild the wardrobe correctly.
Further damaged components were discovered during dismantling, requiring another parts order and an additional visit.
By the time the wardrobe had been put right, the customer had spent more than twice our original £182 quotation.
There had also been weeks of inconvenience: trying to contact the original installer, arranging replacement parts, waiting for deliveries and living with an unstable wardrobe.
What are you paying for?
The lesson isn’t that customers should always choose the most expensive quotation. Price matters—but it shouldn’t be the only comparison.
Professional furniture installation includes:
- Following the manufacturer’s instructions
- Using the correct fixings in the correct places
- Understanding which components provide structural support
- Checking that the finished item is stable and correctly aligned
- Providing accountability if something goes wrong
Furniture can arrive damaged, parts can be missing and even experienced installers can make mistakes. The important difference is what happens next.
Why Home Flatpack doesn’t compete to be the cheapest
Home Flatpack exists to remove uncertainty from the installation process.
Our bookings have a defined scope of work, installation evidence is recorded, customers receive a completed-work walkthrough and installer performance is monitored.
Most importantly, there is a company standing behind the booking—not simply the telephone number of the person who completed it.
If you’ve invested £820 in a wardrobe, the installation is the final stage of protecting that purchase. A cheaper quotation can sometimes provide excellent value—but when comparing prices, it is worth asking:
“What am I actually getting for that price?”
A wardrobe is only as good as the way it is installed.
For customer anonymity, the images used in this case study have been AI-generated to illustrate the circumstances described.
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