My experience with Shade, Inc was extremely disappointing and unsatisfying.
After reading their reviews on Yelp, I decided to visit their showroom. I was impressed by the simplicity/minimalistic feel of thir showroom. I decided to give them a try. Before we placed the order for our roller shades, their service was still good. They informed us the estimated time for our shades to be ready for delivery/installation is 3 weeks. After we placed our order and the down payment, their service went minimalistic like their showroom.
1) For 3 weeks, I did not receive any updates, not a word on the progress/status of our order. I had to request for the status.
2) Erik, our designer had no clue what the status was on our order. It wasn't until my request for the status, he called their manufacturer for the status of our order.
3) Then I was informed that our order was delayed for 3 more weeks due to the material we ordered was back-order. I asked Erik if he knew about the back-order before we placed our order. He said he didn't know about it. I was surprised that he did not check to ensure the material we ordered was in stock. If he did and informed us about it, we would have considered ordering a different material so we can have our shades installed within our planned time frame. If I did not call to request for the status, he would not have checked and be informed the material was back-order. This is not professional nor the kind of quality service I anticipated.
4) After our shades were ready to be delivered/installed, I emailed Erike our HOA's requirements for the window covering contractor to complete prior to the delivery and the installation. The response time was slow and it was incomplete the first couple of times.
5) We decided to motorize our shades, but do not trust Shade, Inc any more therefore we hired another vendor to do the job. Erik at Shade, Inc made it extremely difficult for us to look at our shades stored in their warehouse. The shades we paid half of the total balance of about $4300. My other vendor needed to look at these shades in order to tell us whether he can motorize them or not. At first Erik told me to send him over, he'll show him the shades. When the other vendor showed up, they refused to open the box and show him the shades unless we pay the remaining balance in full. Why didn't he inform me that before I sent the other vendor over? I don't know. We just wanted to see the size of the tubes that were used for our shades. At this point, I just want to pay, pick up our shades, share my negative experience with Shade, Inc. on Yelp, and don't ever have to deal with them again.
6) So after we made the payment, Erik emailed me a form to sign to authorize the release to the other vendor for pick-up. I was out-of-town without access to a fax machine/printer/scanner. I emailed him back an electronic signature. At first he said it's a blank form I sent, then I pointed out my e-signature to him I attached in the email sent from me to him. Shouldn't that be enough to authorize the release? He demanded a hand-written signature. When I worked with Studio Becker, they made it extremely easy for me. I was out of town and they allowed all works to be done with my e-signatures/e-authorizations. That's professional and quality customer service. Shade, Inc.'s customer service is poor and made everything more difficult for us. I started to feel that he did it intentionally.
7) Finally, the other vendor picked up our shades and examined them. He informed us that he is able to motorize our shades as long as he upgrades the tubes. He said that the tubes Shade, Inc. used are metal tubes, low quality. WOW! When I interviewed the other vendors for motorizing shades, I found out that we paid over $1000 more for our roller shades via Shade, Inc than the other 3 top window covering companies would have charged us. We do not mind paying a little more for quality products and quality service, but paying $1000 more for the low-end products and the poor customer service? We definitely got ripped off by Shade, Inc.. Now I know why they made it extremely difficult for us to look at the shade before we pay off the remaining balance. They were probably afraid that we might not pay the remaining balance after finding out the low-end materials they used to manufacture our shades.
My experience with Shade, Inc. is extremely disappointing, frustrating, and unsatisfying. I would never want anyone to have to experience the frustration and the disappointment I experienced with them.
OMG!!! My nightmare with Shade, Inc is not over. I just found out that the width of our 2 window shade pieces made/measured by Shade, Inc. are too wide. Fortunately my current shade vendor will adjust them for us free of charge. Terrible! read more
