On 7/23/15 my Hunter Douglas top down bottom up silhouette window shade suddenly broke while raising the shade. The cord that controls the shade movement slipped out of the securing socket where the cord ends and is knotted. I was unable to slip it back in myself and realized I would need professional help. I called Hunter Douglas and was advised I could mail it to them for repair (under warranty) but didn't want to be without the shade for weeks. Going through the phone book there were several stores within my driving distance that did repairs on these shades. I decided to call Blinds Etc. in Palm Desert for a quote. Kathy, the owner, after my explanation of the problem, advised me if I brought the shade down that morning she could have her staff more than likely repair it by the end of the day and the cost would be $50.00 for that service. I immediately put the blind in my car and drove the 45 minutes to her store. I was surprised upon arrival the store was so small as her ads claim she sells almost everything window and carpet related. There were no samples of anything in the store and apparently she sells out of manufacturers sample books which were scattered around the store. Her closed off office area was larger than the customer section of the store. There was no one else in the store (customers or employees) and I gave the blind to Kathy and she said she would call me later in the day.
I drove home and later in the day Kathy called to advise me that her repair crew could not repair the blind as "it was too complicated to repair". My option, she said was "to pick it up and take it somewhere else or she could mail it to Hunter Douglas on my behalf for them to repair it and that HD was very quick with their repair turnaround time. Since the day was over and the store was miles away I authorized Kathy to send the blind out for repair.
On August 3rd after receiving no updates from the store I phoned for a status update. Kathy made it very clear by the tone of her voice that she was irritated I was calling so soon (12 days later) but she would check her computer and get back to me. She slammed the phone down. At the end of the next day I received a call from an assistant to Kathy that advised me the shade was repaired and being processed for shipment back to the store and they would receive the shade the following week. She also said the cost would only be the original $50.00. I questioned the $50 charge as I was told that amount was to cover the in store repair, not sending the blind (still under warranty) to the manufacturer repair facility which I could have done myself. The woman explained I would have to pay them the $50 to receive the blind back. I then waited another ten days and without hearing anything I phoned again. Although I called during business hours the phone was picked up at Kathy's house by her husband who knew nothing and would relay to her that I called. The following day while at the gym without my cell phone I came home to find two phone calls from Kathy that I missed within one hour with the messages both stating she's trying to reach me and to call her back (again with a extremely irritated tone of voice). When she answered my call I explained I was at the gym and that was the reason I couldn't answer my phone. Kathy replied sarcastically: "That's nice". She then told me my blind had arrived, I could come and pick it up, however she wanted me to bring her the $50.00 in CASH only since she had to pay the freight to ship the blind out for me (?). I was speechless. I hung up the phone and called my neighbor to ask her to come with me to the store as a witness as I was not going to be pressured to paying cash and was extremely disturbed by the relentless condescending treatment by Kathy throughout this experience. I arrived at the store and fortunately I was smart enough to have brought my friend and Kathy accepted my credit card and I left with my blind. I decided to not argue with her about the $50.00 fee and was just glad for this ordeal with her to be over. Upon my arrival home and re installing the blind I realized that when I brought the blind to Kathy I left the small cord tensioner plastic bracket on the blind and needed it for the blind to operate. I had to unfortunately call her back. Again although it was business hours the phone was picked up in her house by her other family members. The relative took a message. It took two days to get a return phone call. Kathy's assistant called me and said they had extra brackets in the store and I could drive down to the store to pick one up (45 minutes drive each way), however they could not mail it to me (at a cost of .45 postage). I decided to phone Hunter Douglas and they mailed one off to me for free. End of story. read more
