Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  01/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  March 4, 2022 - Quote ******** received for blinds to be installed in bay window, livingroom at **** * *** ***** **, Tucson, AZ *****.   Owner/operator of The Blind guys; ******* ******* arrived at my home to measure and document blinds to be ordered.  Three Hunter Douglas Duette LiteRise Duclite blinds for a total of $2066.38.  Expected arrival of 6 weeks, order placed and blinds paid for transaction dated 3/10/2022. April 20, 2022 blinds installed by The Blind Guys installer-David? April 23, 2022 called The Blind Guys main number ************, Spoke with Alba, expressed my anger at the gap in the blinds that my neighbors can see in my front window!  Unacceptable! April 26, 2022 contacted by service manager Pat, he requested photos of blinds installed, provided photos attached. April 27, 2022 removed blinds and returned them to The Blinds Guys shop located 4622 E Speedway, Tucson, AZ 85712.  Explained to owners ******* and ***** that these do not fit my window and I want a refund.  He argued and stated that these are custom blinds and I will not be getting all my money back.  I left the business with the blinds on their table and promptly filed a dispute with my bank. May 20, 2022 USAA bank denied my dispute due to my refusal to allow The Blind Guys to come back to my home to resolve the issue.  What I now realize is the fraudulent actions in taking my money for blinds that will NEVER fit my windows!  Due to the construction of my windows, no gap on the side so their blinds can not cover the entire glass, thus allowing me to see out and neighbors to see in at night. May 26, 2022 called the Customer Service number provided by ***** *******, 888.501.8364, spoke to *******, Hunter Douglas advises to interface with The Blind Guys about my refund. I have not heard a peep from anyone with The Blind Guys and not a dollar has been refunded.  Seems the 6 week delivery time gave them enough outside of the 3-day cancellation policy to keep my money, according to them!

  Business response

  02/03/2023

  ****, 

  We provided you with a complimentary in home consultation where you personally selected the products you wanted, the fabric, the opacity and the operating system.  We provided measurements, our guarantees and Hunter Douglas' guarantees.  We provided you with beautiful, custom Hunter Douglas, high quality products.  When you expressed that you were not happy with your products, we offered to fix them and order you all new products using our Right Choice Promise guarantee.  This IS NOT AND HAS NEVER been a program that expires after 3 days, nor did we ever indicate to you that you only had 3 days to respond.  Instead of allowing us to provide you with a solution, you took your shades down, came into my showroom, and threw them down on the table.  You demanded a refund and when I explained that these are custom products and we cannot refund but we can remake and repair anything you need us to free of charge, you were not interested in that solution.  There was nothing fraudulent about this process at all.  We tried offering you solutions immediately and you were never interested in a solution. I'm very sorry that you walked away from this transaction unhappy, but there is nothing more I can do if you will not speak with us and allow us the opportunity to fix what you did not like about your product.  

  Customer response

  02/13/2023

  I'd like to confirm some information and clarify many inaccurate details provided my Mr. *******.  Correct, measurements of my living room bay window and discussion of materials occurred with Mr. ******* in my home. Order took six weeks to arrive, and one week to install. 
  However, Mr. *******'s statement that I threw the blinds while returning is ABSOLUTELY FALSE! I removed the blinds from my windows, secured large blind with packing twine and placed the two small blinds in a bag.  Why would he attempt to accuse me of throwing them on the table?  Customer blaming suits this business owner and his aggressive bullying displayed when disagreed with.  I am aware of one potential customer that felt his estimate was too high and he became verbally combative when they decided to hire another company.  Does he possess video/audio proof?  I assure you my behavior was not the issue while returning these blinds. 
  Facts:
  Mr. ******* measured the windows.
  Mr. ******* ordered the blinds.
  Mr. *******'s employee installed the blinds, why wasn't the fit questioned?
  I admit, this is the first time I have ever ordered custom blinds, I expressed my desire to insulate the front window from the rising sun each day.  I was relying upon Mr. *******s expertise to provide custom blinds that fit. Otherwise, I would have gone a much less expensive route such as Blinds.com, Lowes, Home Depot or even Target.
  For the record my neighbor happened to be at my home while blinds were being installed.  The next day she came over and explained how she noticed the gaps on each side of my new blinds and described how hers do not have these gaps.  The next two days I made note of the ability to view traffic during the day and that my front room is visible to the public at night.  
  At what point does Mr. *******'s professional experience kick in and it becomes apparent to him to that these blinds do not fit?  I provided pictures to the Blind Guys service manager, his comment: "There will always be gaps." (Which I still have his text!)  Does that justify my ability to see out when the blinds are fully deployed?  Specifically, the full shade is fully extended, not light filter.   What about my living room being viewable from the sidewalk at night?  Am I expected to pay $2066.38 for ill-fitting blinds which would require modifications to my windows to fit these custom blinds?  My bet is Mr. *******'s front room is not exposed to the public view and window treatments provide wonderful privacy!   The blinds he sold me do not perform up to any reasonable expectation.  Should I lower my standards to his abilities to provide proper fitting window blinds? 
  Fraud situation occurred when I demanded to cancel the order, which I was told by Mr. ******* that the 3-day cancellation had expired in March, 3 days after order was input.  Yet, according to the AZ Attorney General's website, it actually was not expired till 3 days after the product is installed.  Very interesting that Mr. ******* was unavailable until the April 27th and his staff could not resolve this issue and he never returned my calls.  The Blind Guys staff did not provide any dates or policies that would expire while they stalled for his absence.   The offer to reorder blinds is insufficient, this product has a header which the shade hangs inset to the window, the window glass does not have any trim to the inset, thus the shade needs to FULLY cover the glass.  A professional would understand this situation, too bad I didn't find one with this transaction. thus, a FULL REFUND is necessary. 
  Hunter Douglas bowed out of this dispute because the product is not the problem.  The blinds are of quality materials. Hunter Douglas realizes it's up to the salesperson to understand the proper product fit.  Remeasuring and reordering these blinds will never cover the bay window completely, is this also fraud or lack of professional expertise?  
  At this point Mr. ******* can salvage his business reputation by providing FULL refund immediately without further personal attacks and customer blaming.   
  I believe I have provided enough facts to this situation warranting a ruling of "FULL REFUND" in this dispute.  If you require further information, please let me know. 
  Thank you for your time.

  Business response

  02/14/2023

  Ms. *****, 

  When doing inside mount blinds there is no possible way to not have at least a 1/4” gap in between headrail and fabric as that is how they are manufactured by Hunter Douglas so they can traverse in the windows properly.  What you are asking for and stating is not even conceivable. In order for a fabric to move up and down and not rub on the window sill, there has to be room between the headrail and the fabric.  

  Upon hearing that you were unhappy with your product, we called you immediately to schedule an appointment to evaluate the gaps and assess if they were in fact industry standard, or if there was a mismeasurement on our part to correct.  You never gave us that opportunity.  You refused an appointment and removed your product.  Therefore, we do not know if we could have made improvements to your product or not.  If the gaps were too large due to a mismeasurement on our part, we would have reordered the product at no additional cost to you and expedited it so that you would not have had to wait more than 2 weeks for the corrected version to arrive.  This is our standard protocol in this situation.  We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction and ALWAYS attempt to improve the situation when it is at all possible.  We have programs set in place for this very reason where we will come to your home up to 30 days later and allow you to select all brand new products to swap out at no additional cost to you (called our Right Choice Program), but of course, you refused to allow us to fix the situation.  

  We do not practice high pressure sales because we do not need to.  Our customers come to us, we do not cold call or generate our own appointments, so in no way shape or form would we ever interrogate or badger a customer for their business. 

  You ordered custom products and now do not want to pay or allow us to fix your problem when we have incurred all of the costs of your order so therefore there is no full refund.  The best we could do in this scenario is to have you pay the costs that we incurred to make your product for you (as we cannot reuse them anywhere else.  They were made custom for your home) and refund you the remaining costs. 

  I am very sorry that you are so unhappy with this situation.  We are a local, small business that pays attention to our customers and tend to their needs throughout the life of their products purchased from us.  It was always our intention to improve your situation, but you never gave us the opportunity.  

  
  

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