Kitchen offers without price indications - is this common?

50K sounds like a lot to me. Of course, it depends on the size, etc. But I do wonder whether the carpenter might end up being a bit more expensive with comparable equipment? What was frustrating for you? Also missing information about appliances?

So we found the carpenter to be more affordable because he delivered much better quality for slightly less money. You can’t list everything here, but for example, we have a kitchen island with a continuous stainless steel countertop and recessed sinks and gas stove with insulated rotary knobs mounted on the kitchen front. The transitions between countertop and sinks, etc. are seamless; of course, that wasn’t his personal work, but this high-quality 5mm stainless steel top cost about half as much from him compared to the kitchen studio. It goes on like this: the kitchen fronts are double lacquered, the edging strips are very high quality as are the fittings, etc. All drawers are very stable solid wood and he also implemented a few nice special solutions. That would have been unaffordable at the kitchen studio. Then, as already described above, the kitchen studio was very reserved with price transparency and releasing documents. The carpenter came to our home, advised us for several hours, gave an estimate for each detail about the price difference, what the advantages and disadvantages were, and what alternatives there were. We could select each appliance individually, etc. During a joint dinner at home, we finalized the plans ;-) Even with the appliances, I had the impression that the kitchen studios preferred certain brands, maybe because they get discounts when buying in bulk. The carpenter didn’t care; you really had the impression he was trying to implement the best possible solution for US (!!!). Of course, it always depends on the carpenter. But with the kitchen studios, I always had the impression, even though we compared several, that there were two hearts beating in one chest....

It just disrupts the flow of the text, it didn't read well.

But that's not my problem. I also read a lot of "not good" stuff.

if you can write in italics.

When you switch over here from other sites, or the small screen covers a lot, then you take the keyboard. If you don't like it, feel free to skip or ignore me. To criticize one style, or in this case mine, honestly belongs to cattiness for me. Do what you want with it... (hee-haw :p)

Without a child I would have simply left after a few hours and would not have spent 7 hours there.

Define the difference between "a few hours" and "7 hours" ;) No, seriously, whether child drop-off, wherever: 7 hours is already a LOT, with which one now explains explanations. As far as I'm concerned, you can stay there 12 hours, but using this child thing as an excuse, I find "not nice."

Smaland never wanted our child.

Maybe your child wanted Smaland? ;)

Define the difference between “a few hours” and “7 hours” ;) No, seriously, whether it’s dropping off the child, wherever: 7 hours is already a lot, which people now explain with some excuses. As far as I’m concerned, you can also stay there for 12 hours, but I find using the kid issue as an excuse “not nice”.

I don’t even know why you’re beating this example to death. The fact is, if you plan 3 hours for the kitchen and in the end the salesperson tells you... no, you don’t get anything now – you only get it in the contract and you only get the contract if you commit and sign now and here, then you tell them to go somewhere else. Sure, you can do that. But then the 3 hours are wasted. Adding in taking the kid away and doing it again, it’s already 8 hours. Then you do the whole thing again at the next furniture store. But it doesn’t matter whether it’s 3 hours or 8 hours of wasted time. With a proper offer and not just a number on a business card, this wouldn’t happen.

are you already further along with your planning?

When we bought a kitchen last year (at a furniture store whose Latin name means "gate" in German), we also got a more than 3-hour consultation without an appointment. We were able to negotiate the price down quite a bit, so we were "only" 800 euros over budget. But it included everything that was important to us. In the end, we bought directly there and received a 6-page printout from a dot matrix printer, where all electrical appliances were exactly named. However, there were no individual prices. The salesman told us that he was obliged to inform us in detail of all model names and types or to print them out. But I looked up the appliances online, and the prices are all in a good mid-range.

The irony of the matter: When I called there again a few weeks ago because our house still isn’t built yet, I was informed that the salesman has not been employed there since the beginning of this year ;) Maybe he was a bit too generous with the discounts.

I don’t even know what you’re riding on the example for now.

I’m not doing that at all. But you bring up the time factor. (And honestly, 7 hours … :eek:)
And I already wrote that if you possibly inquire or communicate in good time (with the kitchen planner), you could leave the place earlier. But apparently, as it reads here from some, most probably just sit at their desks, say nothing, ask nothing, and afterwards wonder if it always goes like this.
But I’ve already written that here too – that’s why I’m trading this discussion for a good book in the garden :)