Pinders School Wear

[katekate 15]

I have been to Pinders in Crystal Peaks today to try and get some school uniform but have been told again that the things i wanted have sold out.  This is the third time I have been during the school holidays and they haven't had the stock in that I wanted.  On all occasions I have had to que for well over an hour.  My child is due in school tomorrow and doesn't have the uniform to go in.  The Crystal Peaks market was chaos today with the que for this stall going right to the entrance and blocking access to many other stalls and the stallholders were complaining about this.  If these are the suppliers of school uniform to the majority of schools in Sheffield then I think the should be looking at moving to larger premises which are more accessible for customers.  I did manage to get a pair of school trousers but after trying them on when getting home they did not fit.  There are no facilities for trying uniform on and the staff just hold up the clothing to your child and say 'this looks about right'.  It seems they are operating a 'one size fits all' type a business but this is not good when children come in all different shapes and sizes.  Has anyone else had any problems?  I have telephoned the school and informed them that i have been unable to purchase the uniform and their reply was that my child will have to borrow some spare uniform from school.  I told them that my child won't be wearing clothing that has been worn by many other students and that if the supplier cannot provider enough uniform then it is not my problem. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by katekate
Spelling error

[Waj 0]

Try ASDA. I got all my childs stuff from there. Even the blazer which admittedly didnt have a school badge on it but that was easy to remedy as I got a friend to take it off the old blazer and sew it onto the new one. Pinders lost my money some years ago mainly for the reasons you outlined in your post.

Good luck 🙂

[Centrepin 0]

Pinders are grossly overpriced for market quality clothing.

 

It's a shame that they are the only supplier in the area that does logos. If they didn't have the monopoly they would be more attentive. 

 

I went with my 4 grandkids in the holidays and was appalled at the prices and generally low quality. The staff attitude also leaves a lot to be desired. It's a take it or leave it when they hold up an item. I don't like the fact that nothing is priced and you get no receipt when parting with cash.

 

I took the grandkids, into Asda, then Sainsbury's and bought everything we needed at better prices, better quality, better service, the chances to try things on or possibly return.  Unfortunately you're stuck with having to have a logo on the blazers and a school tie or they could go to hell.

 

Why do we put up with this, uniform is not law. It's not as strict in the Army as at my Grandkids school. Who the hell makes these ridiculous decisions on how we dress our children/grandchildren. Maybe if the teachers had to dress smartly and wear ties and blazers these policies would go straight out of the window.

 

Rant over, I didn't like standing in Crystal peaks either.

[mike84 13]

5 hours ago, katekate said:

I have been to Pinders in Crystal Peaks today to try and get some school uniform but have been told again that the things i wanted have sold out.  This is the third time I have been during the school holidays and they haven't had the stock in that I wanted.  On all occasions I have had to que for well over an hour.  My child is due in school tomorrow and doesn't have the uniform to go in.  The Crystal Peaks market was chaos today with the que for this stall going right to the entrance and blocking access to many other stalls and the stallholders were complaining about this.  If these are the suppliers of school uniform to the majority of schools in Sheffield then I think the should be looking at moving to larger premises which are more accessible for customers.  I did manage to get a pair of school trousers but after trying them on when getting home they did not fit.  There are no facilities for trying uniform on and the staff just hold up the clothing to your child and say 'this looks about right'.  It seems they are operating a 'one size fits all' type a business but this is not good when children come in all different shapes and sizes.  Has anyone else had any problems?  I have telephoned the school and informed them that i have been unable to purchase the uniform and their reply was that my child will have to borrow some spare uniform from school.  I told them that my child won't be wearing clothing that has been worn by many other students and that if the supplier cannot provider enough uniform then it is not my problem. 

Pinders aren't generally the only supplier for schools.  They are a company which has agreements with schools to use their logos (this is the case for the school my children attend). 

 

You can generally order direct from the school.  You could have also ordered from pinders online and had the items delivered or visited their factory / shop on Mansfield Road to try on and order items at any point over the last 6/7 weeks.

 

It's a bit of a stretch to blame a shop for being out of stock of an item that you could have ordered to guarantee you had them.

[katekate 15]

I really don't like the attitude of the staff there.  I do appreciate why schools have uniform but it's very strict at some schools and although they want all the students looking smart its not like it will stop a child from learning if they wear the wrong type of shoes.

 

I appreciate that but I have visited the peaks stall on three occasions to be told the uniforms are selling out as soon as they arrive.  Were also visited the Mansfield Rd store and they said it's just peaks that stock our uniform.  I could have ordered online but the sizes never seem to be right so I prefer to go and look myself.  I don't feel I was putting all the blame on the them it just seems the service they provide is a bit of a shambles at peaks.  The customer service is not good, the wait to be served was well over an hour, there are no facilities to try uniforms on and you can't even look at the items properly as they just bring them out to you.  They are obviously onto a good thing but looking at the demand for the uniforms they probably need to think of a better way of doing things.  

[mike84 13]

20 minutes ago, katekate said:

I appreciate that but I have visited the peaks stall on three occasions to be told the uniforms are selling out as soon as they arrive.  Were also visited the Mansfield Rd store and they said it's just peaks that stock our uniform.  I could have ordered online but the sizes never seem to be right so I prefer to go and look myself.  I don't feel I was putting all the blame on the them it just seems the service they provide is a bit of a shambles at peaks.  The customer service is not good, the wait to be served was well over an hour, there are no facilities to try uniforms on and you can't even look at the items properly as they just bring them out to you.  They are obviously onto a good thing but looking at the demand for the uniforms they probably need to think of a better way of doing things.  

You needed to get your kids to try on any of the required items at Mansfield Road then order them online or at the shop.  All the sizes are the same, all pinders do is put the school logos on items they buy in.

Unfortunately  there's always a daft wait at Peaks so trying on at the factory and ordering is always the best way.

 

 

[sheffandy 24]

Must admit I felt the same about Pinders.

My eldest starts at Forge Valley this week, and Pinders did a sale evening of stock at the school.

We arrived only an hour after the start time and a lot of the stock had gone, which says to me they didn't bring very much. The stock answer was, "Feel free to pop over to the shop", Er, no. I hate Crystal Peaks, its a good drive from our end of town, and from the service we got at the school it didn't fill me with confidence to waste fuel 'popping' over there.

They also did 'hold up garment to child, yeah that looks ok' style of sizing.

Hopefully they'll get dropped by our school to someone who can actually supply properly.