Great Company, Excellent Customer Service, Superb Product, Fantastic Experience.
My wife & I just purchased our first home & one of my biggest hesitations was the lack of storage (mid-unit townhouse). I shopped around stores for closet solutions, but most of what I found seemed "cheap."
We also had Lindsey as our designer. We decided to do a total of 7 spaces (Master walk-in, Master reach-in, 2 spare room closets, reach in pantry, storage closet, & a coat closet). Our original spaces had one wired rack in each location, except for the pantry, which had 5 wire racks. Lindsey measured everything & then proposed coming back so she didn't have to take up too much time showing us designs.
When Lindsey came back, her designs were fantastic. She really listened to what my wife & I needed for space & for things we were not sure about, she designed what she thought might be the best options for us. We made some minor adjustments in the design & decided to continue with Closet America.
WHY WE DECIDED TO PROCEED:
First, my entire career has been based in the customer relations industry & I think Closet America is one of the few companies left that makes every customer interaction count. They do a phenomenal job listening to you, calling ahead to make sure things are good to go, & following up through the process to make sure you are satisfied. This is not an in-your-face type or a make you feel uncomfortable type with the sales pitch type company. If you don't want the product, there is no obligation to continue (although see my final point of this review).
Secondly, Lindsey's vision of our space could not have been better. We have had the closets installed now for about 6 weeks & it has changed the way we optimize the space in our home. We have about 65-75% more space than we did, just by the design alone. The product is of the best quality I've seen!
COST: YES IT IS EXPENSIVE. BUT THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR HAVING SOMETHING THAT IS "CHEAP" VS. HAVING SOMETHING THAT IS AFFORDABLE.
For us, we knew that the cost was going to be higher than other solutions, but Closet America gives you 72 hours to cancel, & I spent the entire time researching to make sure I didn't get the bad end of a deal. This is what I found:
- The price is much higher than pre-fabricated solutions in the hardwood stores, but Closet America has completely different customized designs.
- You don't have to worry about cutting things down to size & screwing up the dimensions
- A lot of solutions use cheap rods, pins, & shelving that will not have the product last as long. Cheap meaning the quality, which in turn makes it less expensive.
- If you have to replace the solution more than once over the lifetime, you are paying more in the long run.
- I also priced out the solution with a design & order yourself online store & the pricing was only about 10% less than Closet America (But then you have to install yourself).
For me, some of the biggest cost-related factors that Closet America brought to the table were: Free Installation, Double-lifetime warranty (transferable to next owner), Discounts on the materials when we ordered that month (Based on radio ads, you can almost always expect to see at least 10%-15% when you order that month), & my ability to change the product design to bring down the price (for example, we went from a dark wood color to white for all of the closets, & it brought the price down significantly).
INSTALL:
We had two installers from Closet America come to get our job done. They did a great job walking through the home & asking me to re-position anything that might be in their way. They were there for about 8 hours (which is what they told me up front), but they removed the existing shelving & filled all of the holes prior to installing the new product. One really neat thing about this product is they install it to the wall as well as having a leveling system on the floor that allows you to re-level should there be any shifting. Before leaving, they demoed the product with us to make sure we knew how everything worked & were happy with the product/made sure we were happy with how they left the house (it looked cleaner than when they got there haha)
Lastly, my advice to anyone thinking about having any work done in your home is please take the time to think & talk about it with those that it affects PRIOR to calling anyone. I firmly believe that you should know up front what your budget is & what the maximum you are willing to spend PRIOR to having contractors do estimates. My wife & I have seen times when a contractor may offer you an additional discount or have a promotion if you commit when they are in the home & if you know that the quality of the product, the customer service, & cost is all what you are expecting going in, it makes the process a whole lot easier for you. & if they are way of your budget, be up front about it.
We will absolutely be using Closet America for other solutions in the future! read more