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Hillarys Blinds

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Hillarys Blinds Reviews

3.2

49% would recommend to a friend

(222 total reviews)

Andy Thomas

68% approve of CEO

53% positive business outlook

Hillarys Blinds has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 222 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Hillarys Blinds employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

222 reviews
1.0
23 Jan 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are very few positives about this job. You occasionally earn some money - often you are earning less than an 'employee' would earn on minimum wage.

Cons

£2000 for the ability to sell H Blinds as an agent for H Blinds (includes 3 weeks of training and some tools to start you off) £50 a year deducted for clothing from a company that you'd never buy clothes from Have to purchase a separate tablet to be able to receive appointments and take orders (cost up to £400 along with a mobile data SIM contract £20 per month) and use your own mobile phone 17.5% Commission on total order less VAT - so actually works out at 15% (i.e. £15 commission per £100 total cost to customer). This is not enough to allow a realistic hourly wage when average cost of blind is £120 (at least two visits to customers property - initial sale and then fitting - so double petrol costs and time) Because you are 'Self-Employed' in their eyes you are subject to: No holiday pay No sick pay No pension You use your own vehicle - which will be the main outlay of your costs, second only to your time. Treated like an employee (even though Self Employed) - expected to attend meetings, losing out on appointments under own costs. In reality you are treated more like you are on a ZERO hours contract and you have to pay for this pleasure. Incurring yourself further costs due to H's mistakes!!!!!!!! You are required to fix blinds that malfunction or have manufacturing defects within 2 weeks for free!!!!! Imagine selling a blind for £130 - you get £19.50 commission. You have already visited the customer twice (one sales - one fit appointment). You have already incurred costs (your time + your vehicle costs) twice. You discover on fitting that the blind is faulty due to a manufacturing error (this happens a lot). You are then required to return to the house and refit another blind that has been re-manufactured, for free!!! YES FOR FREE!!!! It's quite unbelievable and probably the biggest reason you should not work for this company. However, if you make a mistake it's all very different. You get fined £20 per mistake you make (measuring etc) increased to £40 if you make more than 1 in 100 per quarter - can be very costly and worrying and completely unfair compared to the policy on manufacturing errors (see above). Constantly called and hassled about mistakes, availability, targets, meetings by manager. Work load can vary massively depending on the amount of Advisors in an area - new Advisors recruited to lower 'lead to diary' (amount of time customer phones for appointment to the time they are seen by an advisor) then leads drop and there is not enough work for everyone. Constantly analysed and 'ranked' by Sales performance even though some leads are of such low quality you would have to be big J selling the Bible to make a sale. The more customers you see the more 'hassle' you will get - includes revisiting customers to replace or fix a fault, customers phoning to change blind details, changing appointments, phoning to see what time you will arrive, phoning to ask you to fix a blind etc etc. Facing customers with unrealistic expectations (having been sold the dream by Hs head office sales and marketing). Constantly explaining that 'only some blinds are UPTO 50% off - not everything' as you have been told by lieing sales reps on outbound call teams trying to make sales appointments based on meeting unrealistic targets at Head Office. No apparent bonus system in place (apart from getting customers to post positive Facebook comments) so no other way to earn extra remuneration for outstanding performance. Blinds are very overpriced and often hard time to justify cost as Webblinds is a H company that sells same blinds online for about 75% less - but you need to sell them at ridiculous prices to earn even a reasonable amount of commission. I highly recommend you pursue a different avenue for employment. The main focus of this company is 'PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT' for a small group of private investors and share holders - they do not share any concern or help remunerate 'employees'. You will live on the edge of the breadline if you do this job and be subject to a lot of hassle that you probably don't need. If you ever go to H head office in Notts - look inside the skips in their car park, this will give you some idea about the amount of waste this company produces (on a daily basis). Most is just landfill - I have huge doubts this company has any care for the environment or for recycling. In fact - I feel this company really cares about nothing other than it's own vast PROFITS. They certainly will have no cares for you. You're just a number (a six digit one).

1.0
15 Sept 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You can make money but only if you work like a dog and can put up with being treated like dirt.

Cons

To become a sales advisor with Hillarys you have to pay them £2500 to start and then fund yourself on a three week training course. For this outlay, Hillarys guarantee you absolutely nothing. They don't guarantee you will make a living, they don't guarantee they will give you enough leads, they don't guarantee anything. It is sink or swim. If you sink, they don't care, they've already got your money and they'll just move onto the next mug. If you persevere, they'll just treat you like dirt. Make a mistake and you'll have £40 deducted from your commission. Make 10 mistakes and they'll take £400. It might not even be your mistake but they'll still blame you. They won't even tell you they've taken the money or why. Why would they? You're just an advisor. You'll be expected to fix all their mistakes though at your own expense. No-one cares if it's their fault. You'll have to go to at least one meeting a month, at your own expense of course, and listen to the 'experts' from head office. Please, please, ignore all the five star reviews for this company. This is not just a terrible job. It is a money making scheme for Hillarys.

1.0
6 Oct 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Really there are very few. You will get paid every week if you've sold.

Cons

I was selling shutters and blinds. I'm sure everyone who's prepared to pay will pass the interview. They want your money. Most colleagues are over 50 everyone takes a chance and pays £2400 to join hoping for an easier life. It is not. My conversion rate and appointment effect was fairly high with long hours but I was subsidising my wage to live. Eventually just like everyone else on my initial training course, I left. I never met anyone earning a lot of money. They cut the rate of commission by 20% for new consultants only but don't tell you that. I drove between 2 and 4 hours a day, in all weathers. Some days over 12 hours long, I often worked 60 hours a week without two consecutive days off. So increased chance of accident. You have to work one day at the weekend and two evenings. You have lots of bags of very heavy samples they will not all fit in a BMW 5 series Estate boot. So some on the back seat. You have to carry them up streets and stairs of blocks of flats sometimes at night sometimes in very deprived areas. You are self employed so you have to pay for your own car and associated costs, running up the mileage. I've already renewed the tyres. Zero promotions. No pension, no expenses, pay for your own fuel, pay for hotels on constant training courses, pay for your own tablet and phone, pay for your own uniforms, pay for two phone contracts, ones for the tablet. No holiday pay, no workers rights. They make switch your location on the tablet so they can track you. Very hard sell, enormous amount of competition. We were always the most expensive usually from the same factory in China. Hillarys have often trained and supplied the competition. If your still thinking of this after reading the above, make sure you ask your interviewer for telephone numbers of two existing consultants in your area on the same comission rate that you will be on, you won't get them. Commission rates are fixed. They train new people all the time and then readvertise the position when they leave and so on. I'm embarrassed that I fell for it. You are just a self employed comission only sales person. No work life balance.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 222 Reviews

Glassdoor has 266 Hillarys Blinds reviews submitted anonymously by Hillarys Blinds employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Hillarys Blinds is right for you.