Thomas Sanderson

irwaite

We have just had a conservatory built and need some blinds. Not knowing what we need, price etc, we called in Thomas Sanderson for a "free quotation - with no obligation".

To cut a long story short, we were given the demonstation of the product, details of the fabrics on special offer and finally a price. However, the price was only available if we signed up there and then. The price we were quoted was £3,800, but if we signed up it was £2,300! I asked her if I slept on it and phoned her first thing in the morning, would the price still be available. Of course it wouldn't as the contract has to be signed while she was there or it wouldn't be legal (absolute cobblers!)

I'm sure I'm not alone when I want a "free quotation - with no obligation", I want to see a demonstartion of the product and get a price so I can compare with other products to assess "value for money". With this high pressure sales approach, this is impossible with TS.

The product appeared very good, but the sales approach totally alienated me (as I'm sure it would others), so if you really want to see TS products, get your other quotes first, then get TS in.

WelshWoofer

I bought TS blinds for my conservatory 3 years ago and had exactly the same experience. The product is good but very expensive - we paid 2500 quid for ours - nearly a quarter of the cost of the conservatory itself!
All I can tell you is that if you do decide to buy them the customer service is very good and the blinds do last the time they say they will. Howver, the sales force are pushy and do like to imply that this is a deal only for you and that you'd never get it again. This isn't true - my neighbour told them no then called them back a few days later and bought at the original 'bargain' price. They want your money at the end of the day!
R

jenza8

We had the same experience withThomas Sanderson. The sales lady told us repeated lies (we know because she then kept contradicting herself) and was quite crude in some of the things she said. The initial quote she gave us was £4977. Now bear in mind that our conservatory is basically a little lean-too style that is 2.3 x 2.9m with one of the sides being a wall. It is bricked up to each window ledge but the roof is 3 huge panels of glass. We were completely gobsmacked at the price but she said it was because we were wanting roof blinds too. Eventually she got it down to £3077 which would probably buy us a second same-size conservatory and demanded to know what decision we were going to make but wouldn't leave us alone to talk together. She kept going on about how we had to do justice to our beautiful home and really slagged off Hilary's blinds and B&Q saying that they dropped to bits and were useless! We felt it was all just a huge sales pitch without any regard for what we actually wanted - initially she brought out loads of patterned samples and I said I didn't want a pattern but she 'couldn't find anything else' after about an hour she miraculously found several samples that were exactly what I'd been asking for in the first place. We asked her to leave and called another blind company who visited yesterday. The experience couldn't have been more different. The man came and measured up, showed us samples, gave us a price and would not let us make a decision there and then - he said it was a lot of money and to talk about it. The price he gave was £1333. Guess who we'll be using for our conservatory blinds!

wobbley

It's a very common sales technique. When it's done to me I feel pressured and my natural instinct is to tell them to get lost. You dont have to give the salesman/woman a reason, just say that it's a "no"- even if it's the best deal in the world. Imagine going into Sainbury's and being told the loaf you want to buy is 50p but it will be 75p tomorrow and for evermore. I know these people work on commission and they have to make a living but I think sometimes they go a bit too far. I don'tr know how some of them sleep at night.
As for the ones that charge half the cost of the conservatory for the blinds - they should wear masks and stripey jumpers and carry their samples in sacks with "swag" written on it !

jenza8

wobbley wrote:

As for the ones that charge half the cost of the conservatory for the blinds - they should wear masks and stripey jumpers and carry their samples in sacks with "swag" written on it !

Our house is a newbuild and came with a very small conservatory that is open plan with the kitchen and dining room, I'm sure that our conservatory would have cost less than the price Thomas Sanderson initially quoted us for blinds!!

trisontana

Of course there are many more companies out there who will supply conservatory blinds without all that hassle. We went to a local firm who have their own shop in town. The guy came out , measured up and gave us a fixed price. There was none of this "I will phone my manager and get a reduction" or "If you don't sign now the price will go up" . We liked the price, signed on the dotted line, and a few week's later the same man came to fit them.

As for the cost, we had vertical blinds, plus a roller blind, for three sides of the conservatory measuring 4 metres by 6 metres, and roller blinds for the kitchen and bathroom . The total cost was £450. Of course it would have been more expensive to have roof blinds as well.

jenza8

Yes, I think that's our problem, the roof blinds are really banging the cost up!

irwaite

our quote of £2300 (or was it 3800??) was for a 3m x 3m conservatory without roof blinds.

jobbingmusician

I thought The Apprentice was interesting this week. 'Would you lie as part of your job?' 'Of COURSE I would'

Well, I bloody wouldn't! It does seem to be the norm nowadays though.......:(

booblover47

I was a bit puzzled by some of the posts. We had Sanderson blinds after having other companies such as Hilarys and Appeal in and were stunned initially by the price but then we did what other contributors on here didn't do, we looked at what we got for our money. In comparison to the other two companies the quality of the material and the blind metal bits were 100% better. The sample blinds we were shown looked superb and the idea of it fitting into the window pane was intrigueing.The designer had travelled 60 miles but was patient and helpful, effectively helping us redesign our conservatory to be an extra room not just a sunny hot shed ( yes like most people we used it as a dumping ground. We delayed by a week our decision and regreted it as the material we had chosen had been sold out. When they were fitted we knew instantly that it had been worth the extra money. All our friends make comments on how nice they look and we know we spent our money wisely. Maybe those that are criticising merely wanted a cheap blind rather than a really good quality product from a highly reputable company. To those people I say maybe you should really shop in B&Q rather than moaning about quality companies doing more than a supermarket sale

gardnt1

I coulnt agree more with above post.......we had Thomas Sanderson out in 1997, no pushy techniques as i remember but quote was high......we were sold on 18 months 0% so we went for it.......blinds are brilliant and look as good 10 years later.