So far we have examined the pros and cons of using the specialist company rather than a carpenter when buying bespoke fitted furniture and established that their are potential benefits in: a design service, product quality, a showroom in which to see finished product and benchmark  the putative installion and a full 10 year, insurance backed guarantee to offset the extra expenditure of using the professionals.

Now lets look at how you might gain from the experience of others: If you do use a carpenter, be sure to ask to talk to some of his old customers and, if possible, see some of his work. Not only does this compensate for the lack of a showroom but the opportunity to share somebody else’s experience could give you the confidence you need and help avoid a costly mistake.

Any well established cabinet making company will be able to furnish you with the details of past customers in your area but you may find this a tiresome and embarrassing experience, asking complete strangers to let you into their home to look at their fitted bedoom furniture. Many people find looking through letters of recommendation or ‘testimonials’ a much more user friendly excercise.

A proper fitted furniture specialist with a showroom you can visit and an adminastrative infrastructure should keep a library of letters of commendation that you can browse through. If they have not received any such letters, be very suspicious.

Ideally, you should be presented with a book or folder containing a substantial number of testimonials dated over a long period of time, perhaps several years. Do be cautious; look for different types of paper, handwriting and styles. Pick one at random and ask to see the drawings that relate to this client. Surely, nobody would create false letters of satisfaction? Would they??

Also, bear in mind that these commendations have been audited. Any company that has been in business over a period of years will have received letters of complaint – surprisingly, these will not be included in the folder!

Look out for phrases like ‘We were annoyed when we discovered that he wrong doors had been delivered but were very impressed that you sorted the problem out so promptly and with the minimum of fuss’. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes and a good supplier will earn more Brownie points for sorting out the inevitable problems efficiently than they might from getting right first time.

Do not settle for the film or theatre promoter’s trick of just quoting short phrases like ‘We are very impressed by the quality’, when the full phrase might have been ‘We are very impressed by the quality it’s just a pity that the after sales service was so appalling’. Insist on seeing the full text.