My Disaster Experience with Becker: A Cautionary Tale

We stumbled upon Becker while searching for a kitchen, and since we're not exactly experienced in this area, we had to order from them. Let me tell you, this was a wild ride.

Our order number was KAT070.

We placed our order on January 9th, and designer O. arrived at our place to work on the project according to our specifications – a kitchen cabinet that reaches the ceiling, one countertop at 65 cm, non-standard-sized shelves, and so on. This wasn't our first kitchen on order, but it was our first one in Russia. We'd previously ordered a custom kitchen for our property abroad, and they nailed it, taking all our size-related requests into account and delivering an excellent kitchen at a relatively affordable price.

On January 16th, we headed to their office on the metro line 'Avtozavodskaya' in the Omega-2 building, to find the correct entrance, floor, and room number. It was a fun adventure, especially on a rainy day, since O., who'd agreed to meet with us, didn't provide any directions. This already spoke volumes about the quality of service they offer to potential customers.

And then, after navigating through their office like a treasure hunt, the real fun began.

Omar deleted our project, and we had to start from scratch. Luckily, I'd brought my laptop with the project already done, and all they needed to do was take my laptop and transfer the measurements to their own system. But even with a task as simple as that, 'the best minds and genius designers' couldn't manage to get it right.

We received our project at the end of the day, but with a major issue – the cabinet height was 10 cm lower than we'd requested, and one countertop was 1664 mm instead of the 1800 mm we'd specified (I'm still wondering how they plan to fit several built-in appliances into that countertop).

As an engineer, I understood that their project was based on incorrect assumptions, but O. and another designer (I forgot her name, but it's not important) swore that a control measurement specialist, D., would come and take accurate measurements, ask us about all the tiny details regarding outlets, fetch the kitchen's articles, and so on.

I'm still trying to process the experience we had with this company. It all started on January 20th, when our designer, D., was supposed to come and take measurements. But he didn't show up, and we ended up losing the whole day. We rescheduled for January 24th, and I had to take another day off work. But, to our surprise, he finally showed up without any documents, just like a random person off the street. He took some measurements in just a few minutes (DxHxW), which, to be honest, I could have done myself with a ruler. He packed up and left, telling us that our designer, O., would handle all the necessary measurements. He also said that the production process wouldn't start until our tech guy sent over the final project. That made sense, I guess. But what didn't make sense was that he would send over all the completed documents on WhatsApp a few days later, telling us not to worry.

xa0

Five days went by with complete silence from the company. We decided to cancel the contract. When I called their office on Avtозаводская street, they told us it was no problem at all – we had 30 days from the initial contract signing to back out. I asked about the manager's schedule, since we needed to schedule a pickup, and the person on the phone told me that the customer service manager wasn't working on Wednesdays or weekends. The next available days were Monday and Tuesday, so we scheduled a pickup for Tuesday.

xa0

Fast forward to February 4th, 2025. We showed up at their office, knowing the way this time. We were told to go to the 3rd floor, but then we were directed to go up to the 4th floor instead. That's when things started to get weird...

xa0

It turned out that our kitchen had already been sent to production that same day, with a wonky design that didn't match our actual measurements. We were already over 80% of the way to paying off the kitchen, with a price tag of 191,000 rubles. We wanted to cancel, but it was too late. The discussion that ensued was intense, to say the least.

I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. The manager, D.B., told us we had the right to back out, but if we did, it would be under article 32 of the consumer protection law, and we'd have to cover the costs they'd already incurred on the kitchen project. Let me remind you, this was a project where the dimensions weren't even accurate, and we hadn't even finalized our agreement. That's when things started to get really heated. It turned out we needed to send a called-for letter, which the manager hadn't mentioned over the phone, and now it seemed like we couldn't even get a refund without incurring costs. Apparently, we'd have to cover around 35% of the contract sum.

I was also informed that D. only works from Tuesday to Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and she had no idea who had told us otherwise.

xa0

After a while, we decided to compromise and revise our project. They'd fix their mistakes, and we'd finally get our furniture.

We spent the entire evening on the phone with D.B., and it seemed like there were some positive developments. We were close to agreeing on the height of the lower cabinets, which we'd initially agreed on at an unconventional height of 920mm. We'd also agreed on a 30mm countertop, as everyone in our family is quite tall. However, it turned out that neither D.B. nor the technician had any record of these dimensions, which were supposed to be the correct ones, as per the plans made by O.

They told us they couldn't help us, that it was our fault for installing the 'splashback' (a tile on the wall) without their approval. That was the final straw in an already overflowing cup...

xa0

As I'm writing this review, which is more like a cry for help, I realized I could rely on article 469 of the Civil Code, which states that 'The seller must deliver the goods corresponding to the contract conditions. If the goods (in this case, the furniture) do not match the agreed-upon dimensions, this is a breach of obligations.'

xa0

So, what do we have in the end? O's passing the buck to D., D. to O., and O. to the technician. And D.B. took the cake by blaming us, the customers, for everything. It seems their 'team of professionals' has once again demonstrated their expertise and competence in providing services and treating customers.

In all my years of dealing with clients, I've never seen such a rude, dismissive, and hypocritical attitude towards a customer. Never, ever do business with them.

xa0

Circus, that's what it is.

xa0

Despite everything, I'm still open to a constructive conversation and willing to part ways amicably. I'm expecting a response from Becker, and my order number is included below, so it should be easy for you to look up my details.