Thomas Sanderson

Photomic

Since 28th of April we have received a phone call from 08005610056 (Thomas Sanderson) appr. 8-10 times per day. For example so far today on 29th of April, 2:54 pm, 1:53 pm, 11:54am, 10.53am. Previous phone calls 27th of April 4:48pm, 25th of April l4:39pm, 23rd of April 2:28pm.

We have never bought anythim from this company. And never will. I have already complained to TPS.

I got this advice from another forum and might use it as they will probably call again:

"Just had a call from a girl who promised she could get all my debts cancelled. I asked her to describe her underwear, slowly and in great detail."

2408

I work for one of Sanderson's main national competitors, and am well aware of their approach, in that I have been told of it by clients seeking another quote. Whereas I can't speak for all other designers who work for this company, I certainly take a different approach.
I really can't be bothered with a hard sell approach; it alienates so many people. Instead I take a genuine interest in the client's needs, and work with them in an advisory capacity, explaining the best options for their specific needs - even if it's not what they originally were looking for - in order to give the best solution from our range of products.
I work on the principle that the price is the price, rather than a nonsense price to start with, although I am given some leeway, and there are occasional promotions.
I put myself in the position of the client, under the basis of 'if I hadn't objected to the price, they would have charged me far more than the going rate.'
The caveat is that a very cheap price from a small company may end in tears, as they may not have the experience or resources of a larger established company with dedicated installers and technicians.
I work ethically and with a clear conscience and regard clients as potential friends who will hopefully recommend me and the company, rather than my having to cross the road to avoid clients after they've placed an order.
And guess what - it works for me!

Liz13

rh1 wrote: »

Stay clear. All I did was ask for a brochure and was then hounded with sales follow ups. I eventually lost my cool and spoke to a manager.

Problem resolved !

Same experience here, today. I was surprised by a call from Thomas Sanderson blinds today; I’d requested a brochure online, and must have forgotten to give my ‘secondary’ phone number because I certainly was not expecting a phone call to follow-up a brochure request. The girl was remarkably pushy, even when I politely told her “I’m not in a position to make any purchase commitments at the moment” she came back with “I think you were looking for blinds or shutters for some windows” so I repeated myself, and before I could say that I’d be in contact if & when I wanted to, she hung up! That sort of behaviour is exactly what I do not want from a company that I choose to employ, so that girl has now lost TS my business.

Dr_Toxic

Just been quoted over £1700 by TS for shutters for a single window (which is less than 2 square metres!!). They were willing to reduce this (but the price was still more than £1500) if I agreed to finance (which I didn't want or need) and only if I signed up there and then - of course there is a price increase in 2 days time...... The salesman conceded that he may be able to do a 'special' price after I had showed him the door (and tried to come back in the house), but I had lost interest by then. I'm sure that TS shutters are good quality (as I was told continuously for about 45 minutes), but I've found a small local company that does a similar product for £250-300 per square metre and without the hard sell, ridiculously over-inflated prices or BS.

Qujaho

I sent for a TS brochure about 12 months ago, had the ubiquitous phone call in which I explained I was renovating my house and wouldnt be looking for about 12 months.

They followed me up roughly once every 3 months, until 12 months later I finally moved back in, I explained we are in but broke the renovation cast approx 70% over the original quote. ( I was expecting it, its a very old house so nailed the builder to the floor)

The designer / sales guy came out, we in total want all the house windows to be fitted with blinds, but at this moment in time we are just looking for the combined lounge, kitchen a total of 5 windows, but the current offer is "3 for 2" so went for the hallway as well.

The guy was prompt, I explained to him, that we are broke and mortgaged up to the hilt and not quite ready for blinds but needed a quote for budgeting reasons. We got the full spiel and decided if we were going to go for them to go for upvc (zero maintenance my windows are the same for the exact same reason) the wood felt better but it needs looking after, its wood!!!

The usual astronomical price came down to about 4k, we didn't haggle because we where not in a position to buy but i suspect you could get it down lower than that.

The finance offer looks attractive, they base it on 5 years interest only, you repay the capital at your leisure.

I took the example of the repayment of capital and interest over 24 months and it worked out about 19% apr or 9% flat rate not exactly cheap but not extortionate either but very dangerous if you go the interest only option for the full 5 years you would pay 45% of the total borrowed in interest plus the original capital ie 4k borrowed 9.5k repaid.

For me the slightly unethical thing is the interest only option, I have worked with finance and the pitfalls were not explained clearly enough.

Again not extortionate but Caveat Emptor (buyer beware), I digress.

The designer was professional polite and he pushed hard enough for the sale without annoying me. I didnt buy because at the moment we are broke.

I have worked in sales Selling cars, its not the salespersons' job to get you a good deal that's your job. The sales persons job is to get the sale. Good sales people don't lie or cheat, they don't need to. They listen and tailor a solution.

This particular designer has agreed to ring me in 3 months time.

I cant comment on the quality of the blinds because I didn't buy any and have nothing to compare them to.

I have read this thread from start to finish, mainly because I googled TS reviews looking for opinions and reviews.

No I dont work for TS I have tried to give my experience with them so far, and it has been largely positive, but yet to buy if or when I do I will update this post.

Ferferksake

Beware if you ask for a brochure, they're like a dog with a bone.

I recently went to an exhibition and went on the TS stand to look at the types of blinds and maybe pick up a brochure. The second my foot was on the floor I was confronted by a young lady with a clipboard who blocked my path. She asked if she could help me so I told her I was thinking of conservatory blinds and wanted to see what they had. She offered to make an appointment for their "designer" to come and quote, but I told her that I really didn't need that and (as she clearly wasn't going to move out of my way and let me "free range" on their stand) asked if she had a brochure I could take? "We don't have any brochures here" she told me, but she would arrange for one to be sent to my home address, so duly my details were noted on the clipboard.

The following day I had 3 missed calls from a "private number" on my mobile until eventually they got through in the afternoon. It was a guy from TS who wanted to make an appointment for their "designer" to come out. I told him no, I only wanted a brochure. He then told me that I needed to act quickly as they had a 3 for 2 offer and 30% off, plus divide by the number of legs and add on the number of the next passing bus (ok - I made the last bit up) and wouldn't it be a shame if I missed out. I explained that I was away from my home for a few days and would not be making any decisions or even appointments until I had looked at the brochure. He apologised and said that he would get a brochure sent and call me the following week.

Fair play to him, the brochure arrived shortly after I was home, (addressed to Mr & Mrs "Smith") but it still really didn't explain about the fixtures/fitting which for me was a deal maker or breaker. True to his word he phoned me at 9am on the Monday, again with the sole purpose of making an appointment with their "designer". I explained that I wanted to know about the fittings and I said that there was no pricelist, but any question I raised with him was answered with "the designer will be able to go through that with you". Eventually I relented and agreed to the visit. I then found his questions to be quite intrusive; "Do you own your property?" - "Yes"; "So the appointment will be for you, Mrs Smith and.... Mr Smith is it?" - "No, there is no Mr Smith"; "Ok so it's Miss Smith and Mr....?" - "It's Ms Smith actually"; "Oh I see, so are you alone? Does anybody else live with you?". I was tempted to say "Yes, I live here with the other 14 concubines" but bit my tongue and confirmed that my partner lives with me. I asked him why that was any of their business and he said that naturally my partner would be interested and involved in the decision making process so the "designer" would like to know who they were meeting with. I told him that my partner was unlikely to be interested or involved but gave his name anyway. This is clearly just about having the decision makers there so that the deal can be closed on the night. He told me that I would receive a call a couple of days before the visit to confirm the "designer's" name.

I received the call to confirm the "designer's" name at which point the caller confirmed "...so she'll be there on Monday 7 to 7.30pm and she'll be there for sixty to ninety minutes". I did a double check "What? Sixty to ninety minutes! Why?" I was told that she would need to do all the measurements, show me the products and work the price out. I told her that I knew the style I liked and the fabric I liked, all I was interested in was finding out about the fixtures/fitting, if I wasn't happy with that I didn't even want a quote from them and certainly didn't want to listen to the full sales speil. As far as I was concerned the appointment could be as short as 5 minutes if I didn't like the fixing arrangement, but I was prepared to guarantee the "designer" 15 minutes as a minimum. The caller told me that they are told by the managers that an appointment MUST last at least 60 minutes. I told her to cancel the appointment. She told me about the 3 for 2 offer etc etc and how it'd be such a shame for me to miss out, but I insisted she cancel the appointment. I run my own business, work 6 days a week, so I'm not prepared to have an entire evening hijacked by a sales rep (Oops, sorry, "designer")

From start to finish my experience with TS has been an unpleasant one. All of their staff have been polite, I cannot fault that, but I have felt hounded and pressurised since the second I set foot on their stand. As I explained to their last caller, this has felt more like attending a time-share presentation. As a result of their sales tactics I will NOT be buying from TS. I really don't care if their products are the all-singing, all-dancing dog's doodahs, I would sooner give my money to a local company (more of it if necessary, price isn't the issue!) who make dealing with them a pleasant experience.

stropatony

Regarding quality of product. Wait till things start to go wrong. TS customer service is rubbish.

Paid £10k for motorised and non-motorised blinds for conservatory. At the outset I agree material and fixings look great, however in the 30 months since we have had the blinds fitted, one of them has stopped working 3 times. The first time TS were obliged to fix it. The second time, which was a year ago, TS argued that we would have to pay a qualified fitter £60 to come and 'take a look'.

However they did inform me that under the terms of the agreement, the fitter would only 'take a look' for free for only the first 12 months after fitting.

As I said the same blind has now stopped for the 3rd time and I have been reliably informed by TS that it will cost me £60+ for the fitter to come and fix 'again' the same blind, even though the blinds are under warranty for 5 years.

Also 2 other blinds are starting to snag up, which means I cannot open 3 of the 9 roof blinds I have in my conservatory.

Please note it is not the £60+ that I have a problem with, it is the principle.

Based on currrent experiences I am now looking at paying TS an annual maintenace fee just for there fitter to 'take a look' at the problems every year

exemploy

Recently ex TS rep...erm designer !!

Will be revealing all soon - need to find out what I can legally write first !!

Products are as described though....unique, sensational and reliable [text deleted by MSE Forum Team]

Telling the truth isn't slander of course providing I can back it up - so I'm going to cover my !!! first then tell the lot.....
Be assured THEY'LL SEE THIS....so watch closely what happens when I let rip.

Calamitycla1973

Hi to anyone considering using Thomas Sanderson,

We had shutters fitted 16 months ago at the cost of £7,000 (not a typing error yes £7,000) and to cut a long story short they fell off a runner and damaged the pelmet (a screw which hadn't been screwed down properly tore through the face of it) however when my husband rang to get someone to fix them they wanted to charge us a £70 call out fee because we had them fitted over a year ago....lots of emails exchanged as well and very unhelpful on their part basically they will call us and 'talk' us through how to put them back on which is quite honestly not good enough, imagine if I were elderly or disabled lifting heavy shutters back onto a runner and quite frankly after spending £7,000 I would have actually expected someone to come and sort it out for free even after 2 years let alone 16 months.


Anyway I have fixed them myself because I feel that I really don't want them anywhere near my home and I shall never ever use them again....stick to a small independent company that will care.

Bright1

Calamitycla1973 wrote: »

Hi to anyone considering using Thomas Sanderson,

We had shutters fitted 16 months ago at the cost of £7,000 (not a typing error yes £7,000) and to cut a long story short they fell off a runner and damaged the pelmet (a screw which hadn't been screwed down properly tore through the face of it) however when my husband rang to get someone to fix them they wanted to charge us a £70 call out fee because we had them fitted over a year ago....lots of emails exchanged as well and very unhelpful on their part basically they will call us and 'talk' us through how to put them back on which is quite honestly not good enough, imagine if I were elderly or disabled lifting heavy shutters back onto a runner and quite frankly after spending £7,000 I would have actually expected someone to come and sort it out for free even after 2 years let alone 16 months.


Anyway I have fixed them myself because I feel that I really don't want them anywhere near my home and I shall never ever use them again....stick to a small independent company that will care.

Hi Was you offered furniture with your order, and did you beleive it to be free of charge?