My free standing Ikea wardrobes were showing some wear after 9 years so was thinking to have some fitted wardrobes made. An email quote from a local carpenter with good reviews was £2800, so I wanted to see how the big companies compare. Saw a couple of discussions online (hadn't come across the MSE one then) which seem to suggest people have had slightly better experience from Sharps than Hammonds, so booked an appointment first with Sharps.
I was expecting to be wowed by some 3D visualization from the "design consultant/salesman" which is supposed to tempt the customer to place an order straight away, as I read this is how these companies operate. A man in his 60s or 70s turned up (who obviously found it hard to adjust to 21st century tech, as he grumbled about how unreliable these things were when I mentioned something re their website.) He proceeded to measure and started to draw the room with a pencil on grid paper. Asked me what I do for a living (trying to gauge what sort of ridiculous quote he could get away with no doubt). He wasn't really interested in helping me realise what I wanted, and didn't really listen. For most of the questions I had re the style I would like, I got, "no you can't do that", "no we don't do that any more", "no that would be more expensive". When I asked what the join of the wardrobe frame at the wall where there are some boxed pipes would look like, he started to draw the plan of the room on paper (what's the point? I know what my room looks like; there are two wardrobes and a bed. I am no artist but am more than capable of drawing a few rectangulars myself).
I asked him for a price list of all the internal fittings and was ignored. (By the way, the drawers are just two standard sizes and cannot be made to measure, so might as well get Pax from Ikea) Instead he started to write down that with 50% discount and further 20% web discount and a £500 discount on fittings, the wardrobe price would be £3500 (just for a 2.4m wide wardrobe) Throughout he was behaving as if it were going to be a firm order and started writing everything down on an order form. I told him I wouldn't order right there and then as I have to get other quotes from other companies. He asked me which companies, and said that Hammonds would come out cheaper but they didn't offer 12 year guarantee, so in the end it would cost me twice as much, and mumbled that "if you were rich then you could do that sort of thing, etc, etc." He then said if I didn't order straight away the price he just gave me would not apply as I would not get any of the discounts and also the installation date could not be guaranteed. (meaning if I came back and ordered from them any other day, I would need to pay through the nose and with no promise that they would install on the dates that suit me? so why would I bother?) As I did not seem to want to jump at these fabulous discounts he then offered to reduce the price further to £3000 if I ordered right away. When I repeated that I need to compare with other quotes, he obviously got so offended by the fact that I did not want to hand over £3000 to a complete stranger after 20 mins during which he had done nothing to impress me as a customer that he left in a hurry.
I must say I found this "consultation" thoroughly unhelpful. He was abrupt and rude throughout and this is probably the worst sales pitch I have ever come across. This has completely put me off buying from Sharps, even if they really do produce good products (most people say their quality no good anyway). I don't like hard sell and bullying tactics and I don't believe in these crazy fictitious discounts that they just make up. If you can still make a profit after 70% discount then your prices were overblown to start with. Why not offer a decent price to begin with so that people would be more interested? The fact is nobody would buy their very ordinary goods if they didn't create the illusion of a high-end, high quality, expensive product being heavily discounted. Plus the so called £500 discount on fittings is just laughable. The wardrobe he proposed for me had only 3 clothes rails in it as fittings. He could have said it's a 90% discount off the wardrobe or £1000 off fittings and it would have made no difference to the quote since it was all plucking figures out of the air. There are no doubt satisfied customers out there but I think I'd rather not take a chance as this first contact has done nothing to give me the confidence to buy from them.
There are many horror stories particularly of Hammonds on Moneysavingexpert