That's yours truly.The other day, I realized the cord on one of our blinds is not working. Meaning, I can turn the blinds one way, but, not the other. Mr. B looked at it and decided it had something to do with the cord mechanism and didn't really want to mess with it.
I called Budget Blinds, which is where we purchased the blinds from (also the blinds/shutters in our townhouse, so, they've received a goodly amount of business from us over the years).
Our blinds are under a limited lifetime warranty (as long as we and the blinds are in the house; the warranty is void if we sell the house/move the blinds to another house). I looked at the warranty and it appeared this sort of thing was covered.
Well, when I talked to the office manager, she informed me that it is covered, but, I'd be charged a $65 service fee. Say what? How do you figure the repair is covered but we have to pay someone to come out and do it? Not to mention, the original blind (installed) wasn't much over $65.
So, I pushed back on her and she said she'd only charge me $49. I was thinking, "This isn't a negotiation, I don't want to pay anything!" What I told her was I thought it was ridiculous that we had a blind that was under warranty but that we had to pay for someone to come fix it. I told her that there were always Budget Blind trucks in our neighborhood (new development); it wouldn't be a huge deal for one of them to stop over and check it out. I mean, I am pretty sure we're talking a five minute job here.
Well, she wouldn't back down so I told her "Forget it!" and hung up.
But, I got to thinking about it; it just ain't right!
This morning I logged on to Budget Blinds Internet site and found a complaint form. I filled it out; pretty much bomb blasting the whole inane thing. I also told them that we'd had our freezer serviced this week (under warranty); THEY didn't charge us for the guy to come out to the house; so, what good is their warranty, anyway?
I went on to say if this didn't get resolved to my satisfaction, I'd make sure I never bought another blind from them AND would get the word out to others that they do a "bait and switch" with the warranty.
That, apparently, got their attention. Maybe an hour after I sent the form off, I got a phone call from the manager of the store I'd used (not the same person I'd talked to on the phone yesterday, I might add).
He went on and on and on and on about how they would provide "free" service calls for one year, but, after that, they had to stop because, with a lifetime warranty, they'd go out of business. Well, maybe you should have thought about THAT before you used the word "lifetime", buddy!
Anyway, the bottom line is, he agreed to send someone out at no charge. But not after I had to listen to his stories of woe (he should be thankful he has so much business, so, why is he bitching about making service calls that can't really cost as much as he was saying they do?) and that the person that had sold us the blinds in the first place obviously did not fully disclose what the warranty meant. Well, he didn't, but, that is sort of beside the point since the warranty itself doesn't say anything about being charged after one year if something goes wrong.
Oh well.
Squeak, squeak, grease, grease!
Mrs. B
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