Hillarys Blinds Rubbish Customer Service

oscarparker

I have to say how disgustingly bad the customer service is at Hillarys blinds.

We ordered our conservatory blinds in April. They forgot the first fit date. Came a month later to install.

They installed half of my blinds (as they hadn't ordered the correct parts for the remaining blinds) and installed faulty motorised roof blinds. I later found out they were aware of the issue prior to selling them - but they still continue to take orders!!!

The fit quality was poor. Wonky blinds and chipped metal work. Scratched walls and unevenly spaced apart. The fitter left a complete mess.

We are still waiting for the rest of the blinds to be fitted and their suggestion with regards to the FAULTY roof blinds is to wait until next summer when it is hot again - the heat causes the fault apparently!

I have been pushed from pillar to post, with area managers ignoring my complaint and seemingly Hillarys are uninterested and unwilling to rectify the issues!!

My advice....go to Thomas Sanderson - they are worth every penny over the cost that hillarys will quote!

Hillarys are only interested in getting your money. The 25 year guarantee is worthless considering no one wants to help or put their mistakes right!

winty57

I have worked for Hillarys for over 2 years as an advisor/fitter.
I would have to say that many comments posted here are true.
The fault is the business model that Hillarys operate with.
All advisors (the salesman/fitter who comes to your home) are self employed. They earn nothing unless a sale is made.
No expenses, no mileage allowance, no anything.
The products that we sell are generally as good as any other blind companies on a like for like (price) basis.
While Hillarys provide good initial training to new advisors too much emphasis is placed on sales strategy rather than fitting competence, and their current focus is on selling at a higher price.
In order for an advisor to make a decent living (and most do not) the blinds have to be sold at what most customers perceive to be a high price, or a good discount can be given but then the business is a fast production line whereby good service and quality are secondary to volume.
Advisors want to give customers good products and good service but they are trapped in a model that makes this difficult to achieve.
The market dictates keen pricing and in order to achieve this Hillarys look for the cheapest way to manufacture blinds. (This was not the case when Tony Hillary first set up the business).
Consequently quality control is not what it should be and there is a relatively high failure rate .
This is when 'customer services' can become involved and their objective is to keep costs down while keeping the customer happy (not easy).
Hillarys product and customer service would improve massively if they abolished the self employed status of advisors and employed them properly. This will never happen as the self employed model was adopted as a cost saving strategy along with the closing down of Hillarys high street shops.
The tip I would give prospective customers is to get to know your advisor and contact them in preference to the companies HQ if there are problems.
Most of us want happy customers.

Hillarys_Hater

I would never entertain this shower of clowns ever again.

Had someone come out early October to measure two wooden venetians £448 total, paid 50% deposit.

Was given delivery date of 19th November then two days before that message was left by customer service to say delivery now 9th December earliest. When I called back to ask why, was told "quality control issues" so they had no wood. I asked to cancel order, was put on hold for 20 minutes and then CS came back on to say they had miraculously found some wood and it now "would be assigned to my order", the blinds would be made up and delivered to fitter by 28th November, no blinds by today so called to ask what was happening.

Upshot is, no wood, not in production, don't know when they will be made/delivered, so I cancelled order. was told 15 working days to refund. Amazing since you can refund through POS almost immediately these days.

Also, I bought from Hillarys based on reviews on Feefo website, I now learn that the company reviews on Feefo are only those which the companies give Feefo details of so do not think for a moment that Feefo reviews are legit, I asked Hillarys to forward my details to Feefo so I could leave review, surprise they refused!!

Not so on Trustpilot tho' poor reviews on there that you can put on without Hillarys "permission".

Lies, deceit, unprofessional, would not recommend to anyone.

Yogibear

I wish I had seen this before I ordered blinds from these incompetent clowns,we ordered perfect fit blinds,perfect fit my @ss we paid half deposit guy came two weeks later to measure I offered my step high windows he declined,anyway came back following week to "fit them" he had a cold coughing and spluttering I asked him if he had a hankie no sneezed everywhere fitted blinds paid him and he was off as quick as sh*t off a shovel we opened window and blind fell off,we inspected rest of blinds and they were horrendous none fitted half an inch round top of window,cowboys?!!could not make this up,rang hillarys another clown came out said clips to long,first guy returnd with a hacksaw and starts to cut bits off blinds I said don`t do that on our bed he then refitted them,I said what a mess you have to re-measure them he said nothing but started retching and coughing his guts up(diversionary tactics) I presume spoke a lot of sh*te ignoring me said can I use your toilet when he didn't return we went to see where he was he had ran out the door,rang Hillarys got nowhere,emailing then I got a call asking if I wanted a discount on other blinds,I said when is this guy coming back to re-fit them,second guy came said he would order new clips,he disappeared for two weeks we rang hillarys they said he would call me he said do you want another order,I blew my top he said oh I forgot about you he came back last week to refit blinds he left a mess I said what are you doing these blinds dont fit,he pretended to get a phone call went outside to take it and disappeared,so it goes on I have emailed every person I can find with a hillarys email address phoning is no use as they blame each other,now awaiting another guy to inspect the blinds honestly what a joke of a company,and yes they fell off window too they catch the glass when opened he made a complete mess of the whole place:mad: and still it goes on 6 weeks and counting

Wadez85

I don't have any experience doing business with them but for a UK company they behave like a cheap foreign business. I was getting numerous spam phone calls on my mobile phone a good 6+ so the next time it happened I answered and they just hung up. After a little searching i found out it was a number associated with Hillarys blinds, i've never done business with them or given them my details. What UK company other than stupid PPI Claims harrass you to do business with them, I mean a blind company really? That alone puts them on the boycott list for me.

Yogibear

update,another guy came wally criticised the other two guys he re-measured them didnt come back for 5 weeks he was as incompetent as the previous two what a mess blinds dont fit at all a gap round the edge of the "perfect fit" I could put a pen in,I took photo and sent it to the Accounts manager,cutting to the chase promised a refund for the last 8 weeks,so I sent a really sarcastic letter to them praising their work ethics blah blah blah:Dtoday the refund is in my Bank:T if you want to keep your sanity

do not go near them with the proverbial ? they are hopeless they do no give a sh*t

Soleil_lune

smileypigface wrote: »

Had chap from Hillary's Blinds round on 7 Dec - went firm on order on 9 Dec - for 5 x venetion blinds to be fitted before Christmas.

Phoned me on fitting day (22nd Dec) to say blinds not delivered to him that morning he would have to phone the factory to see what's going on. But he didn't expect he would get them before Christmas now and also the factory has Christmas shutdown.

Fair enough I suppose.

Heard no more from him - telephoned him twice in New Year - both times to be told he didn't know the status of my order and would have to phone the factory - neither time did he bother to get back to me.

E-mailed Hillarys to say I think it's unacceptable that he hasn't initiated any contact with me and I've been left to chase him. Said I have lost confidence in this person and would like to deal with another local representative - and if they weren't able to confirm a fitting date for the blinds then I think it is reasonable to return my deposit.

Got an e-mail response to say blinds will definitely be delivered to representative today and he will be in touch to arrange fitting once the delivery has arrived.

1730 tonight - still not heard anything - phoned their customer services - managed to have the whole conversation without so much as an apology being offered. Said I can swap to another representative in my area but the blinds would have to be returned to Hillarys so they can send them out to the new person (?) so there would be a further 2 week delay while this happens. They then phoned the representative who told them he could fit them tomorrow morning at 11.30. The customer services lady did point out that their representatives work until 2100 so he might have still been going to ring me this evening - call me old fashioned but I do not choose to make myself available for this type of call during my 'family time' in the evenings.

So, rather than cut off my nose to spite my face I now have this person coming round tomorrow morning to fit my blinds! Which now I am dreading.

I am so cross that I had to chase this up, repeatedly, and there has been no word of an apology :mad:

...and relax!

Hardly surprising. All overpriced IMO. I would never use them.

Bell_Bar

I ordered wooden shutters in February 2014. We were given an installation date of May. I waited in and no one turned up to fit the shutters. I phoned Hilary's and they said the fitter wouldn't be turning up and they could give me no indication whatsoever about when a fitter would come. They said they would email me and they haven't. They said they would phone me back and they didn't. I contacted customer services yesterday and the phone call I was promised from the fitter hasn't happened. Nearly five weeks after the installation date and four months after they have taken my 50% deposit still no idea when the shutters are being installed. Be warned!

broomhillrules

I have an advisor coming round this morning, so thank you everyone for the posts I am now well informed as to how to deal with them.

SevenOfNine

Let your bank do the chasing http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback

I just LOVE the chargeback/section 75 facility. Lloyds and Barclaycard are brilliant at it. Both reimburse me then do the chasing to get it back for themselves. Haven't failed me on at least 3 occasions, chargeback twice and section 75 once.

There are LOADS of places (shops and on-line) selling the products you want, why settle for p! ss poor products/services........go somewhere else.