AIBU to be pissed off this company wasted my time

[ThankYouVeryMuch]

I went in Sharps bedrooms showroom to ask for a rough price of a small wardrobe in my spare room, they told me they couldn’t possibly even give me a rough price they had to come out and measure up etc.

So I waited in for their “surveyor” to come, he spent an hour (!!!) doing drawings and telling me he’s got samples of the doors and handles in his car, when he’d eventually finished his drawings he explained I was lucky because I booked the appointment during the half price sale and he had a voucher for an extra £150 off and then he showed me the price, £3,000 for a 4 door cupboard, as soon as I said how much! He was out the door like a shot. He never even bothered showing me the samples or explaining how the price broke down or anything!

I mean I’m sure it’s a nice wardrobe but I know they sell the same doors in Magnet Trade for £400 and I’m sure fitting doesn’t come to £2,600, it’d be a one day job tops!

Also, do they really think I believe anyone would be paying their full price of £6,150 for a tiny cupboard? I’m just sitting here fuming that I spent my 1 day off sitting inside when I could’ve been out in the sun.

I went in Sharps bedrooms showroom to ask for a rough price of a small wardrobe in my spare room, they told me they couldn’t possibly even give me a rough price they had to come out and measure up etc.

Usually that's the point I'd lose interest ...

Surely when they said they had to come out and measure you knew it would be expensive?

Get out in the sun now and forget about it.

this is why I don't use these big nationals for anything. Much better to get a good local joiner to do this for you

Sharps are famed for being obscenely expensive, and consequently forever having 'sales' and 'offers'.

Having a 'surveyor', drawings, their endless samples is part and parcel of the deal.

So unfortunately I think YABU.

As an FYI, Sliderobes will give you a rough price in the showroom but if you know the Sharps price, it's around the same.

I'm not familiar with Sharps, but if it's a ready-made furniture company, see D: below.

If they're a custom place, then there's several reasons they might do this.

A: They're not fully competent.

B: They've had too many people get rough quotes and then balk when the final estimate comes in.

C: They don't trust customers to do their own measurements (because honestly some can't).

D: It's meant to get you invested; it's a sales technique. They get you to agree to come out, that's one step of investment for you. They have the guy enter your house, that's another. He spends a full hour there, and you get even more invested in this, and it starts to feel like the process is underway. Once that happens, you are much, much more likely to buy, either because you feel like it's already started, or because you feel indebted to buy after all the time he put in.

It's probably a combination of B, C, and D.

All that being said, YANBU. Some place that does this for a living should already know the rough cost of this wood vs. that, the range for handles, and should be able to come in, do a quick measure, and then get you an estimate in about five minutes based on various kinds of materials. And if they don't do custom, and you buy a wardrobe that doesn't fit because you didn't measure right, well, that's a you problem, not a them problem.

Oh is that where you get the doors from?

I had the same experience as you. (Four Grand for a wardrobe!?!)

At the moment I plan to figure out what I can build myself but was a bit stumped by the doors. Thanks OP!

Oh, and probably every home is "lucky" enough to occur in the middle of a "sale." It makes obscenely high prices seem less obscene if it's half off an even more obscene price!

I obviously knew it would be more than buying a freestanding wardrobe but I didn’t think it would be anywhere near £3,000! My entire kitchen only cost £4,000

30+ years ago, my then, DP and I asked Sharps to come and measure up for one wardrobe in our bedroom. We got the same sales spiel about "sign up now for a discount". Not only that, but the guy had the temerity to have a go at us for leaving the TV, in the sitting room, on standby while he was there (this was in the early days of turning TVs off with a remote, but the little red standby light still showed - it was a very new thing then).

I can't believe we, foolishly, fell for it - and allowed ourselves to be told off for turning our TV off when he arrived!

I agree with you, and PPs, find a good local joiner/builder who will buy and fit some good cupboards for you at a reasonable price!

Oh, and probably every home is "lucky" enough to occur in the middle of a "sale."

with the pantomime of having to "call the boss" to get the OK ?

They will be another high streetstore going out of business soon I expect

We had the exact same, with the added guilt trip from the salesman about not being able to feed his young baby if we didn’t make a purchase. I showed his drawings to a joiner friend and it was about a fifth of the price

@PlateOfBiscuits you’re welcome, I got my kitchen from magnet trade and they did the whole coming out to measure up thing but they were actually cheaper than I thought, and he was only here for 10 minutes and then sent me the drawings and price by email, then I just got a fitter to come in and fit it all, it only took 2 days.

£4k???? for a cupboard? will they also fill it with designer clothes for that much? YANBU, not surprised they don't mention costs at the shop, who in their right mind would want to go forwards with that?

Reminds me of when we foolishly allowed Dolphin bathrooms to come and quote. Tiny bathroom, original price would have been £19,500 but we were apparently very lucky and after saying no about six times it went down to about £7k. Unsurprisingly we still said no.

This was 16 years ago... Bathroom just about fits a bath, sink and toilet in!

We got quoted £5400 for quite a lot of cupboards and loved the Sharps man's drawings but not for that price. Having said that, a local joiner came in and quoted us £4600 so maybe the Sharps man wasn't trying to scam us too much! We ended up going to Ikea in the end and designing the room ourselves.

Op get your kitchen fitters to do it.
I did!