We were very excited to have Closets by Design install our new walk-in closet but, unfortunately, that excitement quickly faded once we were presented with the finished product. First and foremost, it is clear that their prices are overly inflated at the outset so their promises of "40% off" and other negotiated discounts are highly deceptive. They use this tactic to make it sound like you're getting a great deal but trust that you still end up drastically over-paying for the product you get. It is no exaggeration that the finished product looks like it came out of the box from IKEA. Even with the "discounted" rate, it is almost comical how much we overpaid.
There is almost zero customization to their designs. Despite upgrading to "premium" materials, it all looks very basic and is almost fully put together with particle board. Even beyond that, there were visible chips all around the edges of the closet walls and surfacing, which they refused to fix even though this was a direct result of sloppy wood cuts. They apparently don't have the ability to cut anything other than a 90 degree angle so if the walls aren't a perfect 90 degrees, there will be large gaps between the closet and the walls that they are unable (or unwilling) to do anything about. This also includes any baseboards, as they are unable to cut anything flush to a baseboard so there are large visible gaps between the closet walls and the baseboards. This makes the installation look entirely amateurish and borderline unfinished.
In terms of the designs, beware that the drawn out grid they mock up during the design consultation does not give an accurate representation of what the closet system will look like (apparently they are implementing a 3-D digital design system that would solve this but it hasn't rolled out yet). The height of our closet system was not shown to scale on their drawn design grid so it ended up being much shorter in person than we were expecting and had discussed. I can't emphasize enough how much it looks like two IKEA cabinets up against the walls, especially with the incorrect height, instead of the seamless custom closet system we were promised and paid for.
We of course spent much time on the phone with them trying to get them to fix the many issues but ultimately, neither the design team nor the installation team was willing to take any responsibility. We spoke with two managers who refused to do anything for us and told us that since we signed the contract, they are not legally obligated to help rectify any of these issues. Without any hint of empathy or customer service, they characterized it as "our mistake." Infuriatingly, they did offer to redesign and reinstall the whole closet at our own 100% out-of-pocket expense - sadly we had to turn down this "generous" offer.
When we spoke to the installation team directly, we finally did get some installers back out to try and take a look at some of the issues above. However, they came with almost zero tools and told us in so many words that there is nothing they can do so we are still stuck with everything as it was originally installed (it seems like they knew that would be the answer before they even set foot inside). They did help us to install the handles we bought separately but they broke off several screw heads within the drawers and left without even mentioning it. Those handles will now inevitably come loose and the screw holes are stripped, none of which we discovered until after they left.
It is clear that all their marketing and costs are solely to get you to sign on the dotted line so they can turn a ridiculous profit on a shoddy job with laughably cheap materials. Do yourself a favor and choose any of their competitors for your closet installation needs - don't make the same mistake we did! read more