THORNES poor value for money

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bbadger07

House Bee
Joined
Aug 31, 2010
Messages
174
Reaction score
0
Location
Barnoldswick, lancashire
Hive Type
Commercial
Number of Hives
3 colonies
i ordered a few items from thornes and paid over the top prices and they even charged me vat on my courier. After getting some of my order wrong and finally gettin some solution after being kept rudely putting on hold they wanted me to post the item back for replacement. Very poor i will never use thornes again. just wandering what views our forum members have on them and their service and prices.
 
I'm waiting to cash in on all the equipment that the newbies have bought this year; when they discover that bees sting and the neighbours complain!
There should be an awful lot going on e**** in the next year or two!
Then there are all their swarms to collect - bring it on!
 
thornes are a double edge sword most people find that they are good to middling for many items.

the history is that in the 1980's thornes went around buying up all the competition to get rid of them and to buy there pattents to ,

the couple who now own and run thornes are now going towards there retirement and there kids dont want anything to do with the family business

when you go to a shop most are under stocked because they have been completly caught out with the increase in beekeeping ,but that excuse was started four years ago and they should be ontop of it by now surely!!!

personal i get they feeling they are just running the company down to crash it or to sell it off at a reduced rate to someone else. most of the pattents are now finished so there is no real money any more


personaly i buy wax from kbs, not the cheapest but i like the quality

frames come from maisemore but i buy them when in france not gloucester as i get a better rate in europe than in the uk.

most other item comes from a polish or german supply , again mainly we have a long weekend in europe and come back, with a car full of junk as the wife likes to call it

there are so many firms that are willing to deal with me in all parts of the world, a small incompetent firm at winsor just passes me by,

even if i lived next door i would not use them as they are so exspensive and i find there quality very lacking.

ask around the forum there are many fantastic wood hive makers here that do so wonderfull quality stuff for a very reasonable amount of money, and i am sure many people have better places to buy stuf from
 

personal i get they feeling they are just running the company down to crash it or to sell it off at a reduced rate to someone else. most of the pattents are now finished so there is no real money any more


And they are doing this by putting up new buildings on a huge new site,brand new automated machinery...and expanding the buisness even bigger.
 

personal i get they feeling they are just running the company down to crash it or to sell it off at a reduced rate to someone else. most of the pattents are now finished so there is no real money any more


And they are doing this by putting up new buildings on a huge new site,brand new automated machinery...and expanding the buisness even bigger.

bee-smillie

Nobody is saying all your kit has to come from one supplier.
By the way, lovely lady in that shop in winsor - v. experienced beek loads of good advice. A real buzz about the place! Pity it is so far!
 
Well I've always found them to be OK.

If they make a mistake they sort it out.
 
I'm amazed at the amount of sniping that goes on at Thornes, yet people still use them. Personally I've always found them very helpful, prices not too far out of sight for most stuff, and easily the most comprehensive selection of kit. Not perfect but then who is.
 
Their business has grown massively in the past few years (4 x turnover in 3 years iirc) which for a manufacturing company that has had a steady turnover and single or low double digit growth for a number of years can be very difficult to manage and finance.

We have trouble keeping up with demand at our association shop despite ordering many weeks ahead from a number of suppliers. and that is catering for a hundred or so beeks where we approximately know their requirements not the unknown requirements of many thousands.

Thornes do make mistakes, and their packaging despite using all the required materials is still severely lacking in the application of those materials. But, when there is a problem then they fix it, sometimes not always the first time but they do eventually get it right.

Compared to one other supplier, who I and a number of others found out last year plainly doesn't give a stuff about the quality of their goods and who treats customers as something picked up on the sole of their shoes, then I'd go back to Thornes again and again.
 
Nobody is saying all your kit has to come from one supplier.

Who said it did then.
 
I can't be bothered with scrummaging at the Thornes sales, (I've done enough of that on the rugby pitch) or the way that they intentionally create that situation when there is no need for it (IMO).


i'd far rather go to Maisemores, the blokes in the shop are tip top, and have been very good about their courier damaging the packaging of the order that was delivered today
 
Short time ago I went in the Wragby shop for some frames. They only had one pack on the shelf and I asked if they had any more.. Woman went into the workshop came back with a big bundle of bits and made another bundle up for me.

In a lot of shops today you would probably get gazed at as if you were from another planet and a grunted answer of "no" because they cant be bothered to get their arse in gear....and then they can finish doing the text message they were half way thro when you so rudely interupted them.

Quite an impressive workshop and quite a few people in the office taking orders..
 
when they discover that bees sting and the neighbours complain!

My neighbours know better than to complain....

They never got anywhere before.....
 
My neighbours complain all the time - that I haven't got enough bees...their daughter wants some on her farm in the Spring!!
 
My neighbours complain all the time - that I haven't got enough bees...their daughter wants some on her farm in the Spring!!

I've always liked your neighbours, ship'em up here for a bit would you :)
 
I buy the budget hives from Thornes as I havent found a better deal anywhere. I dont need fantastic quality and they are good enough. However, I've started making my own plywood hives because of the long lead time (8 weeks). Cant go to the sales, but will enter the scrum at Stoneleigh!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top