While I have never written a negative review of any business, and I'm particularly reluctant to berate and harshly criticize a local retail operation, I feel compelled to alert others to the thoughtless, irresponsible business practices of Apelian.
I had contracted Apelian to clean certain area rugs/carpets and emphasized that removing the dining room carpet would require 3 to 4 men. I offered to cover the additional cost since 2 men would not be able to lift the very heavy 10-foot marble top of our dining room table. Disregarding my insistence, Apelian sent only 2 men to replace the rug which required lifting the marble dining table top. Needless to say, the beautiful marble table top -- given to my husband and me by my parents as a wedding and house gift -- fell and broke. I immediately called Apelian, described what had occurred, offered photos to show the table broken in half, and asked that they either arrange to find a new marble table top -- although I feared that this Rose Italian Marble, bull-nosed solid 10-foot piece would be difficult to find. Not one response, not even a polite phone call in response to my great distress, came even after 3 more phone calls. Only once was I told by someone on the Apelian staff how sorry he was, that he would contact the claims department regarding their insurance as well as the attorney to covertable replacement or replacement cost, and then he would get back to me.
Even after I personally stopped by the store multiple times and asked to speak with the owner or his son, with copies of invoices and estimates of cost to replace the marble in hand that had beenb provided by the interior designer who helped us find the original, not one follow-up phone call NOT ONE PHONE CALL IN RESPONSE, NOT EVEN AN APOLOGY ARRIVED, AND EQUALLY AS OFFENSIVE, I WAS IGNORED BY THE OWNER WHO DISAPPEARED WHEN I ATTEMPTED TO SPEAK WITH HIM.
Because I am the executive director of an integrative cancer treatment center, my hours are very limited, but I continued to pursue whenever an opportunity to drive to the store was available. My final encounter was shocking! In very insulting, rude tones I was dismissed with a comment to the effect, "This issue is two years old now," particularly shocking since I had made many, many attempts in the preceding time, hoping for some responsible, thoughtful response to the damage they had caused.
By the way, I will also contact Angie's List since I have a membership and trust their recommendations, but Apelian deserves the word, reprehensible and merits no place on their list!
Sadly, Apelian did do a good cleaning job, but I would caution anyone with any valuable piece in your home against allowing Apelian to clean any carpets and definitely not if it's necessary to move any furniture or furnishings if neceassary to remove a carpet or rug for cleaning. I'm confident that there are other good carpet and rug cleaning services in Evanston that have responsible business practices and are respectful towards their customers.
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