Disappointed with my balsam hill

[LeapinLizards]

I wanted a really good fake tree & opted for balsam hill. They look so amazing on their site & had excellent reviews. But I've just put it up & feel so disappointed - it looks NOTHING like the one on their website. It looks sparse rather than full - it looks like a cheap fake tree, really.
Others who have a balsam hill, did you need to spend a long time separating out all the branches & twigs? Is it that I've not done that correctly? Or were my expectations just way too high?

It's that massive gap in the middle which looks insurmountable to me.

Bluntness, that looks great! Mine is a loooong way from that

Was that photo taken after a fair amount of Christmas cheer was imbibed, Bluntness?!

It’s possible, I’m not sure why it’s so bad,

I don’t think thr massive gap is in surmountable I think it’s the way rh branches have all been positioned from bottom up...

I'd be pissed if I'd spent £££ on a tree that I then had to spend ages "fluffing".

What does it even mean,fluffing??

Send it back op it shouldn't look like that

I rang BH to ask about stockists. Seems to me that it was essential to see these trees and compare. A lot of £££ as you say.
Anyhow I was told that there was no stockist in England, they are based in Ireland I think, and therefore not possible to see for myself. I was pretty surprised I must say. They told me that for £29 they would send me a bit of sample branch of each type...to be refunded only if I made an order.
I don’t think so.....[hmn]

My one seems to have come from Warrington, Star. I also decided against paying £30 for a sample box - total waste of money. I do now wish I had actually seen the tree I was buying but it has such good reviews that I thought it was a safe buy.

I don't blame you for being a bit with that offering OP!

Hope you can floof it out plenty, who needs the fuss of rejecting, sending back and buying another new tree. Ugh!

I think you haven’t “fluffed” the branches at the back OP. Mine came in 3 pieces and I took about 20 minutes to fluff each piece starting from the back of each branch. You need to pull it upwards and outwards.

Here is a small section of ours, fully decorated though. I love our BH tree!

www.balsamhill.com/shaping-your-artificial-christmas-tree-instructions

Does this video help?

10k that video is a great help - thank you. I haven't been fluffing correctly, it seems. I spent more time on it last night & it looked better but still nothing like their pic. Like insomni says, i dont want the hassle of returning it & finding another but i still felt really disappointed in it. Even had a dream about it - i had to put massive rollers in my hair to get the tree to mimic the volume!! Im going to try again, using that video as guidance.

I think it looks most realistic as it is. Not 'correctly' fluffed. Every real tree we have had has been that sparse or more. The super fluffed versions look more fake and too effect to me. Real trees just don't look like that. If you want to be even more realistic vacuum up some pine needles from a friend with a real tree's lounge a sprinkle liberally round your's.

Perfect not effect. Autocorrect fail.

how much? Mine cost £6.99 from Woolies 20 years ago. My approach is to fill it with tinsel and kiddies decs and blind my guests. These posh ones do look good, but soooo much dosh.

I’m glad you posted this. I was so close to buying one, but now I’ve seen that picture I’m not going to bother. I bought a prelit one from Asda 3 years ago & it’s much fuller, with minimal fluffing.

It might also look better against a solid background, so a wall or when the curtains are shut - the light shining through from the window doesn't help. We had a very nice tree that did require a lot of fluffing, and also had that annoying gap in the middle where the sections of the "trunk" connect, and it was in a bay window - it always looked fuller when it was night time and the curtains were shut.

Oh dear OP...that looks nothing like the website, I wouldn't be happy either!

Not the best picture as I'm still in the middle to putting it up, but this is my Balsam Hill that I bought last year. Cant remember which one it was, but it wasnt anywhere near the most expensive.

They do take a fair bit of fluffing but I'm impressed at how robust mine is and how it just feels a lot better quality than my last tree (£20 lidl!)

I had a BH tree last year, it was our Christmas present from my parents. I spent hours separating the branches. Really, about 3 hours. Wore the lovely gloves and everything. I think the first year takes the longest. It looked beautiful by the end, but honestly, I was really questioning why I had chosen a £370 odd tree whilst I was doing it. It will look better the more time you spend on it. I love ours. It is a Vermont White Spruce, nearly 7 foot.

Well you have just saved me a fortune. Was going to order one as the catalog looks so good but I don't want to spend that much and then have to spend hours fluffing. Surely the point of spending that much is not haveing to fluff???!!!

Betsy You won't have to separate the branches as much after the first year. They are packed so tight that it does need a lot of time in the first year. But there was no way I was ever getting it back into the box, so I just used the lovely bags to store it in. It won't be as time intensive this year, I know. I am delighted with mine, honestly.

welltidy, 3 hours?!! That's insane. Perhaps I need to take a half-day off work to dedicate myself to this task.