Somfy UK Reviews 93

As one of the UKs largest manufacturer of roller garage doors, we use a vast array of Somfy products. They are market leaders for a reason, their quality and service is simply unbeatable, no other control supplier comes close. On the very odd occasion we need tech support, they are on hand to help and purchasing is made simple, thanks to their intuitive online shop. Simply the best !

Following my previous review I was contacted by a Somfy representative who talked me through setting up on line, he was very patient with me as I’m not very technical! I would not have been able to do it without the help as the instructions were very confusing

From placing our order, to the good arriving we were kept informed at every point. Very helpful staff , I would recomend to anybody.

As a trade customer, we purchase Somfy items for our roller doors, these items are then used by our end user. For both Roller Door UK & our customers, we have never had any issues with the item, delivery or technical help.

I initially reviewed Somfy and their automated blind motors after my fitter recommended and installed them. We had no problems really apart from initial hiccups in getting things to work with the remote control and talk to Alexa - but since then all has worked perfectly, even after power disconnections.

My main gripe was the impractical and stupid (there is no other word) design of the connector linking the charger to the battery unit. Somfy have now advised me of a design change, and have sent me something which works perfectly. There is a short captive lead which stays attached to the battery unit - and this has a magnetic connector on the open end. The charger now has a 'wand' with a magnetic connection which then easily attaches to the captive lead, meaning that the quarterly/half-yearly task of recharging the batteries is now so much simpler, especially if your blinds are quite high up.

Apparently these new leads are not available to the general public - no idea why! You need to contact your installer/fitter who can order them: part 9028560 Magnetic Cable 85cm (the 'wand') and part
9028562 Magnetic Adaptor (the short captive 'pigtail'). They haven't released prices, but your fitter presumably can quote you a price. You can either specify these when ordering new blinds or, as indicated, contact your fitter for retrofitting. So they now appear to have redeemed themselves! Thanks, Somfy

Appalling battery life less than 2 weeks!), appalling mechanisms, and not fit for purpose

Spent 3 hours trying to program two motorized blinds, following the instructions to the letter, eventually thought I'd cracked it but in the morning neither blind would operate with the remote.
Attempted to re-program them but the same problem... Utter garbage, what a waste of money, they are fairly useless without the remote control - no manual override.

Impossible to work. Idiotic product. Wish we'd never bought it

The actual products look good quality but the set up is mind boggling, set a new Samsung TV, sound bar and Sky in about 5 minutes, set Alexa remote lamps in the same, 2 hours later with a Tahoma switch linked to Alexa all i have to show is a messed up remote, nothing is intuative about any of the products, apps and instructions from this company are hopeless, your better off looking at Youtube but its still very difficult, will avoid like the plague in future,

The charging ports on the blinds are utter crap. No indication which way the leads go (I had to put a felt tip marker on the charger) and even when you get it the right way round, it is all so easy to bend the pins and then the blind is useless. Worse than the crappiest Chinese crap you could imagine. Avoid at all costs. (i have other electric blinds with proper round pins that work every time) I do not know how Somfy have the cheek to stay in the market.

June 19th, 2024
An update on this. At the end of May, I was contacted by the Customer Services Manager Somfy UK to be informed that they had now developed a solution to their (badly designed) power plugs issue noted above. They now have a power cable, like the existing one, which is plugged into your battery and stays in there permanently. The second image is a flexible ‘wand’ that plugs into your existing charger. You hold the wand up to the end coming from the battery and this clicks together magnetically and charges the motor battery. I now have these fitted and they do work. So long as you don’t bend the motor battery connector the one and only time you have to fit them, this effectively addresses the design flaw. (the new leads still don’t mark which round the fitting to the motor goes though so be careful)

They sent me out sufficient of these for my set of blinds and they arrived as promised within a few days. Full transparency: I was supplied with these as a “gesture of good will”, no doubt in response to my feedback above. Somfy told me that:

The new magnetic option is usually only supplied to an assembler of blinds not directly to the consumer and would be a chargeable add-on It can also be retrofitted but customers would need to contact the supplier of their blinds to purchase these directly. It is apparently an option for people when purchasing made to measure blinds.

If you are going to buy Somfy blinds of this type, I would absolutely insist on getting the new cables to charge them. If you retailer doesn’t know about them, go elsewhere. If you already have blinds, it will be up to your best judgement how you acquire them. (I don’t know the pricing or how responsive Somfy will be to further requests).

The part codes are
9028560 – Magnetic Cable 85cm (wand)
9028562 – Magnetic Adaptor (pigtail)

So it seems that Somfy have addressed the feedback here on the design flaws in the motor battery connection. One can hope that this signals some recognition that their customer service to date has been less than satisfactory.

I purchased blinds from Hillarys which included a control system by Somfy which I was asured was the gold standard for such equipment.
After a year the control box indicated that it was disconnected from the WiFi network.
Despite many attempts following telephone guidance from Somfy Support, reconnection could not be achieved and Somfy's agent advised the only remaining solution was to buy another control box.
Prior to purchasing the Somfy blind I installed a DIY blind with another control system. This DIY system is still working properly and was about a third of the price of the Somfy system.
I would advise against buying Somfy, it's price may be gold standard but its technical reliability is less than one star. A product not fit for purpose .
I wish I had read trust pilot's reviews before buying Somfy products.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

We bought a 3m wide roller garage door provided by this bunch of Charlatan's last April.

18 months later it’s corroding badly and the surface finish is peeling off exposing powdery oxidised alloy.
Contacted them by email and they asked for photos, which I’ve supplied. Since then nothing!

Phoned the UK number and you get through to what I suspect is Eastern Europe.
They gave me the number of the nearest UK dealer to me which is Newcastle.

I’m in Aberdeen and my local suppling dealer has ceased trading it seems.
Newcastle dealer told me politely where to go.
So we now have a corroding worthless garage door and a useless 5 year warranty.
Getting legal advice on Monday.

My advice is to do your research and pay a little more for the established companies locally with good feedback.

Customer service is awful on hold for 23 minutes to be told that as i am an installer I have to ring another number. So I rang the other number to be welcomed by a voice mail saying that the offices are closed until the 11th October ( I was standing in the customers house trying to sort out 2 x motors that would not work) I then phoned the original number that I rang in the first place ( on hold for another 17 minutes this time) and told them the situation that I was in and all they could say was unfortunately we can’t help you and you would have to wait 2 days to speak to someone. Terrible service.

Got Somfy Tahoma and Connectivity kit in order to operate my Venetian and Roller Blind remotely earlier this month. Seemed to work OK till I downloaded an update to their app upon which I get a message saying hub is not connected and remote operation does not function. Somfy customer support is only offered via a telephone number which for 24 minutes tells you ‘you’re next in the queue and about to be connected’. I’ve closed my Somfy account and written off Tahoma to experience.

Alarm system doesn't work.

Intellitags never detect movement and are a headache to set up. Range of the system is very poor, we are in a standard 3 bed semi and most lose connection on a daily basis.

Don't bother with it as it's a big waste of time and money.

Rubbish. Constantly charging the motors, run out charge and now the blinds have ripped bye to being manually rolled up.

I purchased 4 Somfy rechargeable electric blinds 2 years ago. One has now broken and I cannot get Somfy customer support to reply to my emails although the blinds are still under guarantee. Be warned!

And now, over a year later I get a reply from Somfy to my review - maybe this will give you all an idea of the very poor service they provide

TREAD WITH CAUTION
Negative stars , unfortunately they do not give you that option for this review
Shy away from Somfy motors ! Especially Sonesse 40 , they have loads of technical issues WITHOUT any technical support in place and you are forced to deal with their registered suppliers who do not believe in after sales service in London .
We are currently seeking legal representation for an incident where ; during mid operation the voile motor lost its limit , snapped the bracket , released the security panel , ripped the blind and fell off leaving me with an injured toe and punctured footwear !
Could you imagine if it were my 5 yr old operating this blind !!!!!
7no out of 14no blinds have gone down in the last 14 months from the time of installation and 4 no out of those were during installation !!! Is that Normal .
We have spent a small fortune on electricians , fitters etc outside the package .
Somfy has limited warranty on their motors as compared to Silent Gliss and Lutron !
So what might seem a cheaper option will cost you a lot more in the future …,

Fantastic Service! Great service from beginning to end. The team is really informed and goes the extra mile at every stage. Before I bought my tahoma switch I called for some information, they answered all of them and even provided some additional helpful information. After I received the product they even helped me set it up according to my preferences. Truly great service!

I have had 5 blinds for a few years now.They have never all worked at the same time and I have spent a fortune on lithium batteries.
If anybody wants 5 battery wands and motors do let me know