Budget Blinds Serving Carlsbad

Review: Product not delivered and installed as scheduled. On the original installation date several weeks ago, the installer reported to me that the product had been damaged and would have to be reordered. He said someone would call in about two weeks to reschedule. After two weeks, I began calling to check on the status of my order and left several detailed messages with the business' answering service, but received no call back. I called roughly once a week. After several weeks, I finally got a call back and scheduled the installation. I was informed about an hour and a half before the (second) scheduled installation that the company did not have my order and could not complete the installation as scheduled. I paid for the order in full on the day the original order was placed and am wondering if my product was ever ordered or if this is a case of fraud.

Business

Response:

Hi [redacted]! Below is my answer to the complaint filed by Mrs. [redacted] placed her order on July 13th. She ordered (3) faux wood blinds and (1) vertical blind. At that time we quoted 2-3 weeks for installation as everything we do is custom made and it takes that long to come in. Her product arrived and was installed on July 29th, 2 weeks and 2 days from the time she placed her order. At the time, her (3) faux woods went up perfectly but we had an issue with her vertical blind. Her blind was 101" and in transit, the headrail was dented in a couple of places. The box looked normal (meaning anything that big that ships, always has some kind of shipping "damage" but nothing that looked worrisome) and so we did not discover the damage until the box was opened at the install. My installer told her we would order the product and call her in 2-3 weeks as soon as it got in. On my installation paperwork, it states on there that the customer is out of town for 1 month. The product came in, I left her a message stating I knew she was out of town and to call me when she was ready. I got a phone call after hours on Friday, September 11th (we close at 4pm, see message below) that stated she wanted her install the following Wednesday orThursday. I called her the next business morning (Monday) when I opened and I scheduled her for Thursday, September 17th, per her request. She was angry on the phone stating that she had been calling and nobody called her back. I let her know that I did get her message, but it was after hours on Friday, we are closed on the weekend and I called her right away. She was upset because she stated she had been waiting for a long time. I did tell her I left a message weeks ago, and we were waiting for her to get back from vacation (I think she forgot it was on her paperwork) and then she stated she was never on vacation??? Now comes the tricky part. On the original installation paperwork it stated that the headrail was damaged. When I placed the reorder, I placed it for the headrail only. "Typically" when something like this happens, the manufacturer always just sends an entire new blind. That said, when my installer came back from that original day with the damager product her threw the entire box away (headrail and slats). Just a little background; a vertical blind consists of a headrail (top part) and vanes (the slats that hang down and go back and forth). So when my installer was at his job prior to [redacted]'s, he opened the box to get it ready and discovered that inside the box was the headrail only, no slats. He called the office right away, explained what happened and my heart sank in my stomach as I already had an upset customer and now I have to call her and tell her we are missing half of her product. This is totally our fault and a MAJOR error on the part of my installer, but he is a great guy and a great worker and he simply made a very bad mistake. I called [redacted] immediately and left her a voicemail and she called back while I was getting a delivery and left a message (see below). I called her back right away and explained what was going on and she started SCREAMING at me, stating she doesn't care what happened that we better get to her house and do the install now and hung up on me. I waited approximately 10 min for her to calm down and I called her back. I let her know that we could come there and install the headrail only, but that there are no slats. She began screaming and cussing this time and accused us of fraud. Again, I told her that we could come there, she could see that we ordered a new headrail but that a mistake of throwing the vanes away was made. She cussed me out, said she wants her product now and hung up on me for the second time. At this point, I waited another 10-15 min to call her back. I did so and at that time I told her I can reorder the vanes or I can immediately refund her the price of the headrail. She was overboard angry, she said she didn't care what customer I had to take from but that I better be at her house in the next hour. I explained that we do not manufacture window coverings and there is no other customer I could take product from. What she ordered was in her particular color at her custom size, she again hung up on me. After that, she must have filed the complaint with you, but she also called our Corporate Office and filed a complaint with them. I got a call from our Corporate Office (Heidi Fleshman, she is cc'd on the below exchanges) that stated she was screaming at her, she demanded that they make her product immediately and send someone to her house. Heidi also tried explaining to [redacted] that regardless if they are the Corporate Office, we do not manufacture window coverings (we are a wholesaler) and apologized that she would not be able to send someone to her. She freaked out on Heidi and then Heidi called me. At that point, we felt best to just refund [redacted] her money for the vertical blind and then I sent her an email (start at the bottom) the exact day the install was to take place. The product that [redacted] ordered were white faux wood (fake wood blinds) in which case ANYTHING can go on the slider and would work. Since the last email that I sent to her on September 18th, I have not heard back. We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction and tried everything we could to fix this error. I feel terrible that this happened but it didn't matter what I said or what I did, at this point in her anger, nothing was going to be sufficient. We service hundreds of customers a month and it's unfortunate that this has occurred and I'm hoping that this isn't going to affect our good rating as it was an honest mistake.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.1. I indicated to the installer that I could arrange for someone else to provide access to the house while I was out of town (on business, not vacation), but asked that they contact me by email as well as by telephone when the replacement blinds were in because my phone coverage would be spotty while I was away.2. The business uses an answering service, even during regular business hours. When I got back to town, I made multiple calls to the business (via this answering service), during business hours. Apparently these messages were not delivered, but I don't know what else I could have done. I called the number listed on the paperwork. The answering service assured me that the messages would be delivered and that someone would call me back in a timely fashion.3. When the second attempt at installation was finally scheduled, I learned (at the last minute) that the business had not checked the merchandise before setting up the appointment with me and that in fact they did not have the product and would not be able to install it that day as scheduled. As this was the second day I had taken off work for this installation, already many weeks later than promised, I was at first stunned and then angry at this news. However, I did not scream, nor did I use foul language as this is obviously counterproductive when trying to resolve a problem. I told the representative that another delay of several weeks was not acceptable to me, and I asked her to try to fill the order another way - either by diverting the same product (or reasonable facsimile) from another customer, or by contacting partner offices to look for the same product or a reasonable facsimile in the correct size. The representative was unwilling to do this and told me the only solution was another several-week wait. Since she was unwilling to help me, I called the corporate office to see if someone there could contact the other offices to look for the same product or reasonable facsimile in the appropriate size so that my installation could be completed. The corporate office representative explained that although she could open an investigation into my complaint, there was nothing else they could do because the business was a franchise and the franchisees are responsible for making it right with the customer. 4. When it became clear that the business was unwilling to help me, I asked for a refund for all of the blinds, both vertical (never delivered) and horizontal (already installed). I requested this because during the many-weeks delay between the first and second scheduled installations I had searched a number of companies' inventories and was unable to locate a business that carried the same product. Understandably, I wanted all of the blinds to match since they are all in the same room. The business agreed to refund the cost of the vertical blinds, which were never delivered, but would not refund the cost of the horizontal blinds unless I returned them. I said I would return them after I had new blinds installed by another company, but needed the refund before I could purchase the replacement blinds. I also offered an alternative solution: I would return their blinds if they would return my original blinds (which were taken down by their installer), as I did not want to leave my windows uncovered for security/privacy reasons. The business was unwilling to either return my original blinds or to refund the cost of the horizontal blinds in advance. In other words, they apparently expected me to 1) trust them to refund my money after I returned their blinds and 2) go without window coverings for some period of time. Since they had already broken trust with me twice, I did not trust them to make good on the refund once their product was returned to them. Nor do I want to leave my windows uncovered. I therefore consider my complaint unresolved.

Regards,