Thomas Sanderson

Bright1

Dont go any where near them, i worked for them and left after two weeks
All they want you to do is lie to the customer and get as much money out of them as possible, I was one of 23 people on the training course, after three month all but two had left, I did report them to trading standards, they tell the sales reps to spend as much time in the customers house as possible a minimum of 3 hours, lie to them about end of line fabric, and when i was there free furniture, even though it bumped the price up between 5-8 percent, if you need any help with any court case please feel free to get in touch

jess1974

I'm shocked that this company is still in business....who on earth hasn't heard of the dodgy selling techniques used by TS, Zenith windows, Kirby vacuum cleaners etc etc.....You gotta ask yourself if the product is sooo good why do you need to be pressured into buying it x

swankypants69

I think the key way to handle things is to do your research

Get a cheaper company to price up the job

Then get TS to price up the job

See the products, and see if you want to pay the TS premium

Our sales visit had no hard sell, I set my stall out from the start, and bartered hard

Got pretty much the price I had aimed for from the start

Could I have got them cheaper elsewhere, yes

Would I have got the same quality, not from the cheaper products I have seen elsewhere

I agree that the whole starting price charade of £xxxxxxxxx then half that then half is annoying, but our salesman didn't make us go through all that rigmarole, because I told them we had read all about it before etc

We haven't had ours fitted yet, but I will update when fitted

Holly_Pops

I ordered a brochure at the ideal home show, just missed my first marketing call, I've now blocked the number and will look for a local firm,

beautifuljack

Hi, I signed up yesterday for conservatory blinds, the pleated ones, after a 3 hour visit from one of their designers. The cost is about £4000, and I signed up for a finance package. Silly me, I should have done my research first, cos now I think I have been overcharged. Does anyone know exactly what I have to do to cancel this? I have heard of a 14 day cooling off period (although I dont recall the designer mentioning it). Silly me again, I didnt negotiate with the designer, she just said that was the price, and I was finding it hard to get her out of my house tbh.

Do I need to write to Thomas Sanderson, or to Hitachi, the finance company or both? Or could I just email the designer? After reading the posts on here, I am feeling distrustful of them as a company.

Thanks for any advice

beautifuljack

Sorry forgot to say it was Thomas Sanderson I signed with.

Monty007

We have just had a shocking experience with Thomas Sanderson when inviting them in to quote to provide us with window shutters.
The salesman was in our home for 4 hours and the price he quoted started at over £7000 but after already having quotes from S-Craft and Appeal Shading at between £2500 - £3500 he was quick to start offering discounts. It was a complete joke and after 4 hours we were offered their top of the range solid wood shutter at £2497.00. We asked for a written quotation but were told this wasn't company policy.
After discussing the product, which we like very much, we decided to go ahead with the quotation and I call head office to proceed. I was pleasantly greeted and told the salesman would called to take our details and to progress the order. When he called I was told the price was for the vinyl shutters which we had already stated we didn't like. I asked him to honour the verbal quote he had given us the following week.
To cut along story short, the quote wasn't honour and I asked to speak to the regional Manager. This didn't help either, although he was quick to point out that all Thomas Sanderson salesman were suppose to leave written quotations with customers. Again, we were told the price quoted couldn't be honoured and I advised the Regional Manager I would be contacting Trading Standards and Which.
I would be interested to hear if anyone else has had this experience and how they complained and resolved it.

LoLo-a-GoGo

Ok, so having worked as a 'Sales Designer' for TS I can tell you how to get the best possible price for the products they sell.

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to the TS sales pitch so be careful - Firstly I will say that on the whole the products are fantastic and stand out head and shoulders above a lot of the suppliers out there but like has been said several times already in this thread they are way WAY over priced (And a lot of the products are not as exclusive as they claim and are widely available from other local suppliers who get their fabrics from Hunter Douglas, TS's parent company)
The sales pitch is drilled into the 'designers' from the outset as they want them to follow their process from start to finish (This is why the job suits mindless, stupid people with low morales and lack of brain cells to begin with).

To get the best price here's what you need to know - the First price the designer gives you will 99'% of the time include 'Free Furniture' which is actually adding a 5% premium to the cost of your order so get the 'designer' to remove any furniture and the associated cost first.
Now you have the true 'Full Price'. This is where the nasty calling to check stock levels and manager calls start, if yo have the time let them go through this and start discounting but be warned they will tell you anything they think you want or need to hear to close the deal on the day.

The 'Designer' can give as much as an additional 45% discount from the 'Full Price' quoted - scary!! After speaking to their manager they MAY be able to give another 5% discount but don't let them get this far, show them the door.
Now this is how you get the BEST price - the 'Designer' has 3 days to close the deal, after which the deal ownership gets passed over to an external company (Owned and run by the sales directors God Son of all people!!) and this company has the ability to give up to an additional 10% discount!!
So lets look at this with some figures shall we....lets assume the first price you are quoted is £5250 (£5000 for blinds plus the 5% charge for the 'free furniture') - remove the furniture and the price drops to £5000.....get the discount the 'designer' can offer you of 45% and the price has now dropped to £2750. Now after waiting over 3 days you get the 3rd additional discount of an extra 10% and now you have a price of £2250!! A Massive saving of £3000 (55%) from their Full Price - now that's a saving!!

Best of all, and here's the bit I love the most....the Direct line manager of the Designer you had sitting 3+Hrs in your living room gets charged a % of the extra 10% discount you just saved as a penalty so they get billed for the 'designer' not closing the deal and 'allowing' the sales directors God Son's company to close the deal and the designer gets nothing for all his or hers hard sell - so you now have a top draw product at a slightly more realistic price maybe, just maybe of enough customers follow this process TS will rethink their sales techniques and listen to and treat their front line 'designer' with just a little bit more respect - after all these are the guys and gals that do the actual hard work day in day our TOTALLY at their own expense!!

5holloway

so let me get this straight having read this thread...the people who are posting positively are supposedly employees and the people who are posting negatively are disgruntled ex-employees? Come on people, wise up - here's my true story:

They came, they quoted, I loved the product, the sales lady was lovely, I bought at a price I was happy with. I am now the proud owner of a full house of shutters which get complimented on by every person who comes round. Three further friends of mine have had them since.

If anyone would like proof of where I work or would like me to send them photos of my shutters, please let me know - there seems to be an awful lot of cynicism on here.

hollydays

5holloway wrote: »

so let me get this straight having read this thread...the people who are posting positively are supposedly employees and the people who are posting negatively are disgruntled ex-employees? Come on people, wise up - here's my true story:

They came, they quoted, I loved the product, the sales lady was lovely, I bought at a price I was happy with. I am now the proud owner of a full house of shutters which get complimented on by every person who comes round. Three further friends of mine have had them since.

If anyone would like proof of where I work or would like me to send them photos of my shutters, please let me know - there seems to be an awful lot of cynicism on here.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Blind................
" ambassadeur , your blinds are magnifique ! "
I want a copy of your passport and proof of where you work .