About half a year ago I first contacted Excel Shades about a repair needed to my adjustable shutters and a bedroom window blind. After repeated calls I finally heard back from the company and booked an appointment. Excel Shades explained that it would cost $90.00 for the service call. I arranged my day to meet the repair man in the morning but he was over an hour late and I got a call asking if it would be OK if he came two hours later. I informed Gabriel (owner) that this would not work and I didn't hear anything back from me despite several attempts (e-mails and phone calls) to re-book an appointment. Finally, in August, I got through with the company's receptionist who booked a late afternoon for the repair man to come to my house. Turns out the "repair man" is actually Gabriel's son who arrived with no tools and no desire to repair my shutters. He did, however, take the blind away for repair (supposedly covered under Hunter Douglas warranty) and a month went by with no call back from Excel. After calling Hunter Douglas Canada they apologized for the terrible communication and service of Excel and reported that the blind had been repaired. Following more calls to attempt to re-book an installation appointment, we finally got a return visit from Gabriel's son (Michael) who apologized for the tardy service and promised to do our repairs to the shutters and blind for free - this sounded reasonable to me. Oh yes - the shutters... On his first and second visit to my house, Michael said he didn't have the right parts to repair the shutters. On the third visit (last week - the second week of November) he actually DID repair the shutters then demanded my wife pay him $150.00 for his expenses. When I tried calling the company and explained the half year of terrible communication and service, and having been promised a repair cost of $90.00, then a waived cost, I was told that Gabriel had corrected his son and that he needed to be compensated for his time and mileage. Gabriel apparently also told Lisa (his receptionist) that we were already getting a break as the cost of the repair visits (two thirds of which were pointless) should come to well over $200.00. The ONLY glimmer of hope with this company are the two receptionists who repeatedly apologized for the shoddy organization, planning and communication of their repair crew (ie. Michael). I would NEVER do business with Excel Shades again and my advice would be to stay FAR away from this company. What a joke!!
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