Hillarys Blinds review: Blinds

Following an unresponded to complaint with the CEO John Risman i am escalating here. We had our initial sales appointment on 22/9/23 and ordered our Illusion blinds the same day. A deposit of £1000 was provided at this time. The survey appointment with Mr Frankie Navarro occurred on 27/9/23 and our order was confirmed the same day. The blinds were then installed on 17/10/23 by Mr Navarro. During the installation it was identified that one of the blinds (lower stairs) was damaged. We did not sign for them and a replacement was ordered. Furthermore, Mr Navarro advised us that we would need to supply a ladder for him to be able to install the upper landing blind as he was unable to reach it. I would have thought that he would have brought the relevant tools with him to be able to install the product, especially considering he had surveyed the property and knew the location of the blinds, however as he did not, I had to drive several miles across town to borrow a ladder for him to install the blinds (and return this after).

We then identified a problem with being able to access the mechanism to open/close the blinds on the upper landing. Our previous blinds had a wand that was reachable from the stairs. We assumed that the new blinds would have this too as the salesman and fitter had seen the location of the previous blind and the mechanism required to open/close. When the new blinds were installed they simply have a pull cord which we are unable to reach. We contacted customer service to discuss this on 26/10/23 and were advised that this style of blind did not come with a wand. We asked if the open/close cords could be on the other side, and they advised that they could not. They advised us to email our concerns and we did this the same day. What is disappointing with this, is this was not mentioned in our initial consult, nor the survey consult where the fitter would have clearly been able to see that the open/close cord would not be accessible. I would assume there is a duty here to advise your customers of any limitations such as this to ensure that you are not selling a junk product.

The lower stairs blind (replacement) was then fitted 27/10/23 by Mr Navarro. We raised our concerns regarding the upper landing blind to Mr Navarro at this time and he cut the existing cord and tied an extra bit of cord onto the current mechanism to make it reachable. We advised that this was not an acceptable solution, it looked a mess and had now damaged the original blind. Mr Navarro advised that was all he could do and left.

On 31/10/23 in response to my email on 26/10/23, Mr Navarro was sent back to take the upper landing blind away. I note I again had to supply him with a ladder at my own time/expense. At this time, Mr Navarro told us that the blind would be returned within 2 weeks.

On 27/11/23 we contacted customer service to follow up on the blind as we had not had any update via phone/email and the 2 week timeframe had elapsed. We were advised that this was the first they had heard of this and that Mr Navarro had since left the company. They advised he was in possession of the blind and that nobody at the company had been able to get in touch with Mr Navarro. We informed them that we needed this blind desperately as we had family flying in for Christmas on 8/12/23 and were assured that we would have this sorted out by then. We then followed up on 5/12/23, 6/12/23 and 8/12/23 to ultimately be advised that they could not get the existing blind back and a new one would have to be made. We were provided an ETA of early January 2024. We followed up again 2/1/24 and were informed there was no date for our blind to be ready.

As you can see from the above, the customer service that we have received every step of the way has been sub optimal. We were provided effectively a junk product for the space required, we have had to follow up on every issue raised, despite being advised we would be called back and we have waited 4 months for a product that should have been installed simply. In one of our calls to your customer service department we advised we had had enough of the service and would prefer a full refund and for the product to be fully removed from my house. This was disregarded. Based purely upon the customer service received (as the blinds we have received we like), i would advise anyone to avoid your company. To say I am upset and disappointed is an understatement. In resolution of this complaint we would like the blind for our window to be expedited and to be compensated for the abysmal customer service and additional time and effort it has taken to follow up or grievances, ultimately resulting in this complaint