At my wits end - Hillarys Blinds! What now?

Mechelle1

I am now beside myself in what I should do.

Basically to give you the run down, I had Thomas Sanderson quote last July to instal wooden shutters - yes they were very expensive but they also brought the cheap version from Hillarys to make a comparison to their most expensive. This outlined exactly what I didn't want.

Then in August I invited Hillarys to quote but told the salesman before he started his pitch that I was not interested in bottom of the range nor the central tilt bar. We agreed on the range, wood, colour and hidden tilt bar and that the shutters would fold in line with my style of windows and the price was 1/3 of TS. But my husband wanted a 3rd price so we didn't sign.

Hillary then rang me on a weekly basis to see if we had the 3rd quotation yet and starting offering price reductions. In September I finally agreed a price and gave a 20% deposit over the phone to get the ball rolling. Surveyor came in to measure up properly and we asked to change the colour - that's all.

Anyway, on the day of fitting (9th Dec) husband was home and they fitted the exact shutters we DID NOT want. :eek: "Most affordable" (cheapest nasty white shutters with the central tilt bar and smaller louvers) They do not fit the window properly, they fall closed when you want them open and open when you want them closed. They also dont follow the style of the window and look absolutely ridiculous from the outside.

Fitter was embarassed he didn't take the balance due and advised us to complain.

So this is what we did....

09/12/09 - Fitter advised the wrong shuttes installed - balance due not paid
11/12/08 - emailed Hillarys requesting area manager visit to discuss correct installation or removal of inferior shutters and return of deposit - no reply
13/12/08 - telephone Hillarys operator very dismissive but assured someone would call
05/01/09 - Hillarys demand balance to be paid
06/01/09 - emailed contact on letter with details of complaint and attached copy of email dated 11/12/08 requested area manager get in touch.
07/01/09 - received read receipt from contact but no acknowledgement of complaint.
23/01/09 - emailed contact on letter again with copy of emails dated 11/12/08 and 06/01/09.
23/01/09 - received read receipt 3 minutes after sending but still no acknowledgement of complaint.
24/01/09 - Hillarys send Final Demand before court action letter - sent by same contact I have been emailing!
25/01/09 - emailed contact on letter, also searched Hillarys website and sent all emails to the address for enquires, shutters team and the person they claim is the area manager on their site asking for someone with seniority to contact me to resolve professionally..
26/01/09 - received read receipts from contact, enquiries and the area manager but still no acknowledgement of complaint from them.

How do I resolve this if they dont reply?

chipmunk

You have you not attempted to contact them by phone since 13th December, why, when they they are clearly ignoring your e-mails?

Get straight on the phone to them and insist you speak to a manager to try and sort the situation out. By all means following this up with an e-mail confirming your telephone call. Just continuously e-mailing without speaking to them directly is just prolonging the situation.

Why did you husband allow the wrong shutters to be fitted in the first place

Mechelle1

chipmunk wrote: »

Just continuously e-mailing without speaking to them directly is just prolonging the situation.

Why did you husband allow the wrong shutters to be fitted in the first place

Typically when I have tried calling they dont answer and when they do, the same lady answers and will not pass me through to anyone all I can do is leave details. The list would be endless in this post if I logged every attempt of calling. Oh and for the records apparently "...managers dont take calls, they will call you back..."

Also, my husband left the fitter to it as he was working in another room.

Anyway, they have just this instance called to confirm receipt of complaint and will get original salesman to come and have a look before any managers get involved!

We will see....

chipmunk

Good luck and hope you get it sorted

magicsnooker

I Used To Be A Supervisor In Dunelm Doing Custom Made Blinds And Several Customers Came To Us Because Of The Service And Inflated Prices They Charge. Go To The Citizens Advice Bureau And They Will Give You Template Letters To Write. At The End Of The Day You Have Been Charged For A Service And Item That You Do Not Want And That Is Unacceptable....good Luck!!!!!!!!

peediedj

dont hilarys own web blinds also? wouldnt ever touch them again if i was payed to!

tmaxheadroom

Did Hillarys give you a written quote? if so then it should say the type of shutters you should have.
If it says on your quote that you should have type A shutters and they have fitted type B instead, then they don't have a leg to stand on with regards the court action.
In fact you need to send them recorded letter explaining that if they do not complete your job with the correct type of shutters etc within a reasonable amount of time, you will get another company to come and remove the shutters fitted by hillarys and fit the ones you want.
The cost of removing the shutters and your deposit paid to hillarys will be recovered by you taking them to court.

If in doubt just telephone consumer direct and they will help you and tell you exactly how to go about this.
Hope it helps.

pepperwhitemini

I used Hillary's a few years ago and would never use them again. Their guys all seem to be self-employed. Everything was hunky dory when the blinds were being ordered. Then when they had to be fitted the bloke seemed to be in a bit of a rush. I discovered after chatting with him that he was keen to get the job done in superquick time because there was an England match on that afternoon. Ordinarily I wouldn't have minded if he had done a good job. However, two of the blinds didn't work properly, and he bent two of the slats on the third (this one was metallic). On top of that none of the blinds fitted properly. I told him I couldn't pay for them until the corrections had been made and he accused me of being overly fussy and decided to leave (remember the England game!). I had his mobile number still so I contacted him after he had left and asked if he was going to come back and fit them properly and sort out the slats. He swore at me and told me to contact head office which I did.

To cut a long story short I tried the normal channels (calling them directly to explain what had happened) and the call centre staff were pretty indifferent. I decided to short cut the process and ended up getting the directors details from Companies House and writing a letter to the home address of one of them.

Within a day of this happening they couldn't do enough for me - I got a call from another fitter who was actually a very nice bloke. He worked in an adjacent area some 20 miles away. He said that he had been told to do whatever needed doing to ensure my satisfaction. He came round at my convenience, inspected the work of the previous 'fitter' and agreed it was a botch. he then sorted the problems out, and apologised for the company.

Afterwards I was asked by the company how much I would like to pay - I had already paid a deposit of £100 for a £450 order. I said I would let them keep the deposit but would not pay any more. They accepted this. In hindsight maybe I should've asked for a refund too.

It's time to sort out blinds again now and I have decided to go with a local company.

Mechelle - if you need any further help please pm me.

Mechelle1

Thank you for your comments.

Was it the emails I sent to everyman and his dog on Sunday or was it this posting that has moved things along PDQ?

Just under one hour from starting this thread I had a call from the head office regarding my complaint and he was very apologetic as he could see I had been trying to get a resolution since 9th December 08.

Anyway I've now had 4 different people call me since Monday afternoon including the original saleman, who said this morning that he stopped by yesterday afternoon whilst I was out and he could see that the shutters were the WRONG configuration, colour, style etc and would be calling head office to get this sorted immediately.

No sooner had that happened I had a different fitter call me to see if I could be home this afternoon, today... (well yes I said because as it happens I am now about to give birth any day).

He has been in, measured up, shook his head at the current fittings and couldn't be more apologetic that it wasn't him who did them in the first place....

So - all measured up for replacement shutters or should I say, correct shutters re-ordered, and now just need to wait 8-12 weeks!!!

I wonder how much they are planning to charge me now.....:rolleyes:

Mutton_Geoff

On principle, I'd never buy anything from a company that advertises extensively in the Sunday supplements. Those ads are extremely expensive and guess who ends up footing that bill?

GirlyGirl_2

I had a problem with them, they refused to honor the guarantee.
I would go to court, explain what happened to the judge, there is no way anybody would leave without payment as the fitter did if there hadn't been a problem.