Personally I wouldn’t, as the thread title says “…Web Designers…”
Wheres the design work when you use off the shelf templates?
I think there is more work involved using a template rather than from scratch.
- image usage rights
- whomever made the template is not going to code exactly like you do. It takes time to analyze what they are doing.
These two things will add more work to your project.
Customisation would be a huge one, most people who use off the shelf templates tend to tweak it to meet their websites needs. You rarely see well established websites just attach a template to a CMS and leave it as that with only the content changing. Most templates are nothing more than a starting point. 
Exactly why I refer to my job as web ‘development’, it covers more options.
Anyone in professional website design would never use a template… truth be told most templates are outdated styles and would never fit the clients brand.
If companies wanted templates they could just go out and buy themselves. Imagine what would happen to your client base if a client found a bunch of sites that looked exactly like theirs… you would be out of a job.
Proper design involves substantial market research and analysis in order to design custom features and sales processes… this can never be accomplished properly through templates.
Great, I’ll take you off my list of competitors then since you wouldn’t never take on a client who said ‘I’ve picked this template, can you turn it into a website please’.
I would.
If you’re assuming that using a template means fooling the client into thinking that you created the design when you didn’t, well, what kind of idiot (unethical) would do that.
Yes I was referring to design companies using templates… this is not designing, it’s installing a logo and content into a template . Why would anyone hire a design company if they only provided templates with little added design features? I don’t see a company getting any results from such an approach.
You could argue that any deisgn company that doesn’t include a range of templates for low budget jobs is missing out on a route to market. If they don’t want those kind of clients though then fair enough.
Yes. I feel that web designers should also be catering for low end budget as there are market for these newly hosting sites as they might not want to spend too much. So with ready made templates, it will be feasible for them to choose.
Do legitimate web designers use off the shelf templates?
First up, if you’re asking this then you’re not a real web-designer but then you may be outside the field so it’s a legitimate question.
Will the template be modified? If not, then no.
Will the look and feel be modified? If not then no.
Will the photos or graphics be changed? If not then no.
Will the template be modified so nothing looks the same, the graphics have changed, new logos, new photos, new layouts, different positions? If so, the yes.
I’m learning Magento at the moment. I’ve looked at how magento sites are structured and at the available features. I’ve then designed my clients website so it uses that structure and those features. I’ve then taken one of the supplied templates and am building the site up from there, adding my graphics, changing the layout and positioning and tweaking fonts. Technically, I’ve used a template but I’m still a legitimate web designer.
It’s a broad question that that can be answered by how much work is going in to changing it.