Village Blinds. In over a year of dealing with them (yes, a year, for four blinds) my opinion of…read morethem has gone from 'hmm, not that impressive' to 'truly awful'.
I notice that my order form refers to 'my blind(s) being custom made to my specifications' but that's strange, because I don't remember placing an order which went 'I'd like four blinds please, three of them should be the wrong size when they arrive. The decorative pelmets should fall off them within days, and if you could arrange for the one in our toddler daughter's room to fall off in the middle of the night and terrify her, that would be an added bonus. When we report the faults in the blinds, we would like to be told that we can fix the problem ourselves with blu-tack. When we don't accept this, we would like to be ignored. Repeatedly. When you can ignore us no more, we would like to waste two afternoons sitting in the house waiting for your representative to call. When we refuse to pay, we would like you to eventually provide us with the blinds that we ordered in the first place. Then we would like to think that the nightmare customer experience is over, only for the blinds to break after about eight months. At that stage, you could take away our blind to be fixed, keep it for two months, and charge us for the repair, even though the blind is supposed to come with a guarantee. When we get the blind back, we will fit it (ourselves, as you refuse to have anything to do with it) only to discover that it is an inch shorter than when you took it for repair, and that the slats are now out of line so that the blind no longer closes without gaps in it. Then you can ignore us again, and this time ignore us totally, as we don't owe you any money'. I really don't remember placing an order like that, I thought I had just ordered some blinds. Maybe I was wrong.
If this sounds like the type of order that you like to place, then I would highly recommend Village Blinds, as you are sure to be satisfied. If, like me, you would prefer to order some blinds, have them fit your window and work properly, and then get on with your life, I would suggest that there might be alternative suppliers who would come closer to providing the service that you require.
UPDATE 16/4/2010 Village Blinds have now contacted me with a view to putting right the problems I have had. If they can satisfactorily resolve the problem, I will re-consider my rating. And the one positive note I should point out is that the owner is very pleasant and polite.
