Contacted company, based on a referral, in early April. Set a time for owner, Frank Carter, to come to our office to measure window for set of custom, white wood, blinds. Mr. Carter was pleasant and even mentioned, several times, that he was also a Baptist Pastor right down the road from us. Based on all this, we gladly paid 100% upfront (yes, our first mistake). Check was given and written on 4-27-12 for product. We were told the blinds would take 2-3 weeks to be shipped in and then installed.
After waiting 4 weeks, with no call from Frank or his company, we called the number listed on his business card. We got a "Hello" (not someone answering the phone stating who their company was but simply, hello) from someone who identified herself as Frank's wife. We, very nicely, stated who we were and that we had not heard from anyone regarding our order. Her reply was simply "Huh, doesn't ring a bell." We then were told that because her husband handles everything, he would have to call us back. We waited for another week. No calls back to us.
At about the 5 week mark, while doing the books, we noticed that the check we wrote Mr. Carter, was cashed just a couple days after we gave it to him. This prompted us to start calling with demands to either refund our money or give us a concrete date of when the blinds would be installed. We mentioned several times that their company had cashed our check but we have no product to show for the expense plus we were not getting any calls back from Frank.
The very last week of June (2 months after handing Frank the check), we received a voice mail message from Mr. Carter stating that he was sorry, but he had "forgotten" about us and had not ordered the blinds (so, he was floating our money by using it for his personal expenses and not our product that we paid for?). He made mention something about having a medical situation come up but nothing in detail. Knowing that things do happen and not wanting to be completely unreasonable, we were OK with his final statement of "I will be in your office on 7-5-12, to install the blinds.
We waited until the close of business on 7-5-12. No call from Frank or his wife. We called at 5:30pm and got his wife on the phone. We explained that Frank was supposed to show up to install our new blinds that day. She replied with "Well, I don't know how that could happen as they JUST showed up via UPS." We replied with "I am sorry, but that is not our problem. Why could you not have at least called us? We scheduled our day with our clients around you popping in here to do the work..." There was no reply to that. We again demanded either a refund or to have the blinds installed ASAP. We then were told Frank would be out first thing the next day to complete job.
Mr. Carter did show up the next day. Not first thing, but he did show up. He installed blinds then he left. No apology, no nothing.
After looking at the blinds, we noticed something. They were the completely wrong blinds! We called and stated this. Frank's wife simply stated "Well, what do you want me to do about it!?" We stated for her or Frank to come back, pick the blinds up and write us a check for full refund. We paid for a product that was incorrect and no longer wish to do business with them or their company.
Mr. Carter's wife said "Fine." (please note that the conversation with this woman was very lengthy with her treating us like WE did something wrong and that WE were the problem and that our expectations were completely unreasonable..)
That was over a week ago.
No calls. No letters or emails from them. No nothing.
We took the blinds down and now are out $.$ plus many hours of time dealing with something one would think would not be this complicated.
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