I purchased a fabric roller blind with a fabric cassette valance. Delivery was quick. Got blind home and hired handyperson to install. Blind was fine but there were no instructions for valance. Instructions were for the blind and for white metal brackets. Called store to see if there were clips or instructions for the valance. Salesperson said "No, it just clips on in the space in the bracket". Handyman tried for another hour. Couldn't figure it out. I tried myself the next day. Was not successful. Called again and salesperson tried to walk me through it. Didn't work. Tried again the next day and called again and salesperson suggested I come to the store to see how it installs. During this time I went to their website to see if there were instructions. There were instructions for every kind of valance except the fabric cassette. Went to the store and they showed me how to do it. Ends up they sent me the wrong brackets and there were 6 pages of Instructions. They gave me the new brackets and said "you're good to go". No I wasn't. After paying a handyman two hours worth of labour and spending a great deal of time trying to figure this out myself I wanted them to send an installer at their expense to install this properly. The best they would do is give me a $20 refund. Their mistake...multiplied by each time I called. Asked them if they open the boxes when the order comes to the store to ensure that's what the customer had ordered. They said they get a 100 orders a day and couldn't do that. They were apologetic and said I could bring the valance back and get a refund. A third trip to the store was just not in the cards for me. Refused to give me the full refund of $49 over the phone nor would they consider sending their installer to make it right. So I took my $20 and as they said "You now have the right brackets and instructions and you're good to go". There are now holes in my walls from the first installation and the walls are scratched trying to install the valance. Not once in my 3 phone calls to the store did they ask what my brackets looked like. The brackets I had were the right ones if there's just a blind but not if there's a valance. There was no way for me to know that. The founder of this company, David J. Shiller states: "This business was built on integrity and offering personal service. We want to fulfill our customer's needs by doing everything we can to guarantee that they have a pleasurable experience shopping in our stores.......". I'm sure that in 90% of cases, the order is correct and everything goes fine. I am disappointed with the remedy provided by Blinds to Go and do not think that they went far enough to ensure that the customer's needs were fulfilled. It was not a pleasurable experience for this shopper.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $300.00
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Open the box and check your order with the salesperson before you leave the store.