Gran heartbroken after £15k kitchen dream turns to nightmare as firm goes bust
A widow is heartbroken after her £15,000 dream kitchen turned into a nightmare when the company went bust.
Caroline McVicar, from Hamilton in Scotland, couldn't stop crying when she found out she had lost all her savings to DM Design in Cumbernauld. The 72-year-old now has an empty kitchen after moving back to Scotland from Spain, where she lived with her husband who then passed away.
The gran-of-five forked out the huge sum less than two weeks before the company - which had previously been fined for "blighting" the public with thousands of unwanted marketing calls - ceased trading with the loss of more than 30 jobs. Caroline is one of around 30 customers currently known to be affected.
"They were supposed to fit the kitchen on Monday and no one turned up. I tried phoning them and nobody answered," she said. "All the different numbers I had just rang out. I tried to phone one of the workers and left a message. Eventually they phoned to tell me they had gone into liquidation. I paid £15,000. It's all the money I've got. I've been left high and dry."
DM design showroom at Cumbernauld (Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record)The liquidators told the Daily Record that the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis were the main reasons for the company's downfall. FRP Advisory, a specialist business advisory firm, was appointed as Joint Provisional Liquidators on March 8. They said DM Design Bedrooms Limited was a "leading provider of fitted kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms" and had built a "strong reputation throughout Scotland" for providing "high quality designs, fitted out to an excellent standard".
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The company has seen a "significant downturn in sales" recently due to less consumer spending and higher operational costs. The business has now stopped trading, and all 31 employees have lost their jobs. Caroline paid the company £3,000 on February 6, then another £12,000 on February 12 for her kitchen and flooring.
She said: "I've not heard anything else from them. The worker I spoke to just said I was to get onto the bank immediately. I put in a claim with the bank but I won't know until next Monday if I have a chance at getting my money back. The kitchen I'd bought was absolutely beautiful."
"I bought the house in December and just have a shell of a kitchen as they'd taken all the white goods out. All I've got is shelves and a second hand fridge without the freezer. They told us to order a washing machine which arrived last week. These are the only items in my kitchen at the moment."
A handwritten notice on the door of the showroom (Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record)"I moved to Spain 25 years ago with my husband but he died 20 years ago. I left Spain last June to come back here to live. Until December I was sleeping on my family's couches before I got the house. This was supposed to be me getting things back together."
In 2013, the company had to pay a fine of £90,000 after almost 2,000 complaints were made to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and the Telephone Preference Service. The company did not check whether people had said they did not want marketing calls. This was the first fine of its kind in the UK. The ICO said that there were also complaints about other companies and there would be more fines.
Only a few of the complaints received by the company were dealt with. At that time, Donald Macleod, who started the company and is managing director said the problem was because of bad software, which has now been removed.
He said: "Ultimately the buck stops with me, so I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by this issue. We have learned a hard lesson." Speaking about the closure of the business, Michelle Elliot, Partner at FRP, said: "DM Design Bedrooms Limited has completed over 10,000 projects since it opened nearly 40 years ago and had a strong reputation and brand across Scotland.
"Unfortunately, revenue was significantly lower than forecast and ultimately was insufficient to meet ongoing operational costs. Despite the best efforts of the directors in exploring alternatives in recent weeks, the cash position deteriorated significantly placing unsustainable pressure on the business.
"We will now focus on marketing the assets for sale and on providing every possible support to the staff for claims to the Redundancy Payments Office and accessing support agencies." Jamie Hepburn, SNP MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, said: "The news that DM Design has gone into administration is disappointing for our community and will of course be very unsettling for those who work there and their families.
"I will be seeking discussions with stakeholders to understand the extent of this decision and consulting with the Scottish Government and PACE to understand what support is available for staff. Anyone from the Cumbernauld and Kilsyth area who has been impacted by this decision is welcome to get in touch with me and I will do everything I can to assist in any way possible."
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