Hillarys Blinds Rubbish Customer Service

A question about : Hillarys Blinds Rubbish Customer Service

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

...and relax!

Best answers:

• They were fine for us. Turned up on time, fitted blinds and replaced a widget free of charge 18 months later
  (no connection etc)
• i used them and they were great. No problems and 18 months later I am still very happy with the result.
• BBC Watchdog have just run a story on them
  Copy this into Google and you will see what they are really like..
  "Hillarys - do they measure up?"
  They are a franchaise who run 50% sales which "strangley" seem to run all year long... hmmm Anyone know the definitaion of the word "discount" Lol
• Well this company is the pits.! i called asked for a price for shutters and roller blind, two guys came tgthr to measure 1 window and tried to charge 620 for one set of shutters. i chose a blackout simple cream roller blind instead, paid 95.00 deposit then heard nothing for a month i contacted hillarys who said they said it needed measured again as the person they sent was a specialist... a specialist i ask myself , who cant measure a simple plain recatangle window for a roller bliind.. soo i ask myself if his measurements are not correct and trusted then how do i know the deposit of 95.00 i paid was correct .! another two weeks later another guy came and measured the same window complaining this wasnt his job he wouldnt be getting the ciomission the 1st guys would .!
  he reminded me of this 6 times in total, the 1st guys measurements were wrong, naturally.. but guess what so was the cost ...infact the 2nd guy advises they dont even have a pricing structure for the blind to be Ј190.00 in total most i should have paid would be Ј148 basically id been had... but nothing he could do as their all self employed and for the 7th time he wasnt getting the commission. 2 weeks later again he returns with the blind broken and dirty and couldnt fit it.. he left it behind on the floor and left and said hed be back the next day... i refused him entry due to the principal of it all
  I am minus Ј95 deposit and have a broken blind on the babys room floor who is due soon may i add and have nothing up at the window.. hillarys are ignoring me, refusing to reply to mail and the guy who conned me in the 1st place refuses to take my calls.. Are Hillarys in the habit of conning pregnant women all the time maybe ill speak to watchdog and see.. but guys they are cowboys try a local firm with a more personal servie as this set up is an absolute joke, i wouldnt have paid Ј20.00 for this roller blind was utter cheap tat you can buy better in b&q for a fraction of the cost and a better service, so all in all 3 men to measure and fit a simple roller blind that they still have not done between them, i feel a joke coming on...
• We had an absolute nightmare with Hillarys around 5 years ago.
  We had just moved into our house and booked one of their fitters to come out and measure up for blinds. Out he came, measured up, gave us a quote and left with Ј150 deposit.
  That was the last we saw of him !
  His number was unavailable etc, contacted Hillarys to be told that he was nothing to do with them !! I pointed out that he was booked through their company, the measurements were on a Hillays form and the deposit reciept was on Hillarys headed paper.
  Nope still nothing to do with them
  This went on for weeks, and was only resolved when I sent them a letter stating that if I did not recieve a refund within 7 days I would proceed with legal action. I would NEVER use them again and would certainly not reccomend them.
  After all that we had a local guy come in, and had all all the windows fitted with blinds in a week for a fraction of the cost we had been quoted from Hillarys.
• We haven't had huge problems like the other posters but their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.
  We ordered some blinds in November on the proviso they were to be fitted before Xmas, as the weeks went by we finally hold of the rep to find he was too busy and had no intention of coming before Xmas, OH had some harsh words with him and we did get the blinds fitted in time,(shouldn't have to chase them up though)!
  Recently one of the little chain clips on the bottom of a blind has broken, I know it's only a small thing but it looks tacky and as there is a year guarantee I would like a replacement, if they just popped it in the post I'd be happy but the rep is rude and abrupt and won't phone us back and the company won't answer emails either!
  I want some more blinds but they've missed out as I don't trust their aftercare if anything more serious went wrong
• I had a wonderful gentleman measure and fit blinds, 3 Venetian and 1 roller in brighton. He was from briars or was mr briars. He is/ was a very good agent for hillarys. I recommended them to a friend in hove, they unfortunately got a different agent and they were rubbish, so disappointing. I moved house to Kent and ordered a small roller for the bathroom and the agent mr may didn't feel it worth his while, crass, rude, phoned but didn't turn up on the date agreed and wife also snotty with me, boyfriend had taken day off work and they didn't let the phone ring long enough, he was upstairs so they lied and said we weren't in. Phoned hillarys, complained, new agent Next time I placed an order and he was brilliant. Put a blind Bathroom up ourselves! New agent mr fiest fitted blinds at my workplace apparently in Hastings. I kept his name he fitted my kitchen roller and he returned to fit my spare room roman blind. The agents are a bit luck of the drawer really but once you get a good one, remember them ask for them and hillarys will accommodate you. Mr may obviously thought I had not spent enough mOney! I have now used hillarys successfully three times, hundreds spent sorry my little blind request wasn't good enough for you!
• I've used Hillarys online service which I think is called web blinds and thought the service was OK. My most recent purchase though was for some roller blinds for my kitchen and some blackout blinds for my son's bedroom - got them from CharlesAstor .com
  Would recommend the latter as prices and service were good.
• Amy, you are not allowed to post here on behalf of a company unless you have permission from MSE, which it appears you do not have.
• We ordered a set of blinds from a reputable, nationwide company with years of experience...Hillarys Blinds. BIG MISTAKE! The product was not bespoke and was ill fitting. Fast forward several months, the issue remains outstanding because this company refuses to respond to any problems, concerns or anything that doesn’t involve money.
  Calling customer services is a waste of time. Their staff are rude and unhelpful. Writing is pointless because they don’t respond to letters. E-mails do prompt random incoherent responses that overlook the problem and focus on payment demands (and threats of legal action).
  Apparently, they don't make mistakes...ever! Oh, and customers can't speak or write to anyone senior because they’re too busy!
  This company is nothing short of dreadful. If only we’d seen the Watchdog programme before placing the order and departing with our hefty deposit Regrets, we have one, an everlasting one...STEER WELL CLEAR!!!!!
• We bought some conservatory blinds one year ago and have been highly satisfied. The fitting was excellent and they look really nice.
  This year bought two roller blinds, one was slightly not hanging properly, phoned customer services, they sent the fitter round a few days later and was told if it still didn't hang properly in a few days he would send it back and replace it. Fortunately after a few days the blind straightened out. Was impressed with the efficient customer service i received. Highly recommended service.
• Hillary's Blind have started spamming me by email. I wrote and asked them to stop, and to tell me where they got my address from, but no reply. Judging from the comments on this thread I needn't expect action any time soon!
• I still receive spam from Hillary's. They must be the most expensive blind company going.
  We had a quote from them for vertical blinds for about Ј640!
  The next quote was for about Ј400-odd from Millenium Blinds,
  The 3rd quote was from Willow Blinds, here in Caerphilly and was Ј165!! Their service was excellent and so were their products.
  I could not believe the variation in prices. Just proves the axim always get at least 3 quotes.
• I'm receiving spam email from Hillary's Blinds too.
  Their marketing team obviously feel that it's OK to ignore UK legislation so I posted a message on their Twitter feed. Received reply saying "Please email nigel.morgan@hillarys.co.uk with the emails you've received and we'll look into this for you."
  I've sent Nigel Morgan two emails in the last couple of weeks asking where my email address was obtained and why the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 are being ignored by Hillary's Blinds. So far, no reply.
• There are too many companies like Hilary's around, they are morally wrong in the way they go about their business and should be tighter legislated.
  I had a quote recently for Shutters from a Hilary's rep I believe wouldn't know where to start. I didn't progress as they were very expensive, i was then phoned 1 month later by another Hilary's employee to be told there was a sale on and they could give me a better price. I asked for a quote on the phone but no a specialist consultant had a call in. I insisted that he knew one end of a shutter from the other and that he had been with the company a long while.
  He arrived last night with the opening gambit of 'so it's verticals is it'. I asked if he could sell shutters and he said no, i felt pity for him. He explained that Hilary's employ a company called RSVP to chase up old quotes and like most similar they are paid on appointments - they had passed non of my notes on.
  I called customer services today to complain about the waste of time, the 1st lady i spoke too didn't really seem that bothered but put me through to the quote team to see what they can do. Eventually in recognition of the inconvenience caused they offered me a price 20% higher!
  I'm sure there are good reps out there but the company business model doe snot encourage it.
• They are a disgrace!
  We had a chap come to us to give us a quote on 23rd February!! We decided to go with it and paid Ј570 there and then as a deposit.
  2 weeks later another chap came round and did all the measuring for our shutters and told us they would be ordered and fitted on 29th May (yesterday!)
  My wife called him on 28th and left a message confirming the fitting would be going ahead as planned on the following day, and that as part of the agreement we signed with them that I would remove existing blinds, make good the frames and remove the window alarms so he could fit the blinds. He never returned her call.
  On Tuesday evening, I got home from work, removed all existing blinds, filled the frames, painted them and a local company unscrewed the window alarms, with an appointment booked in to come back and re-fit them today!
  At 11am yesterday (29th May, fitting day!) my wife called the fitter to enquire where he was and again he never answered so she left a message. He then text her back about 30 minutes later telling her he was not coming as the shutters hadn't arrived in the UK yet, and that someone from head office should have called us to let us know!
  My wife called head office and they now can't book us in until the end of next week!
  So I now have windows on a main road with no blinds (and I can't put them back up as I had to unscrew them from the frame, Polyfilla the holes and paint them!) and no window alarms. My household insurance is now invalid as I have have the alarms removed. The alarms which were due to be re-fitted today, but will have to wait until next week now!
  On top of that, my wife is a self-employed childminder and she cancelled her work yesterday as it wouldn't have been safe to have the kids there when the workman was in the room, so we are also Ј80 out-of-pocket for a day of lost work. She will also have to take another day off when they eventually do fit the shutters next week!
  And we still can't get a straight answer out of them about why we were not told there was a delay before now to prevent me doing all the above work!
  I would avoid Hillary's Blinds at all costs!
• Ah I see my ex employers are still up to their old tricks
• We had no problem with the salesman nor the time for delivery. It was the fitter. It took him just mins to fit them and he asked me what I thought. Yep, they were all wonky. He then spent another hour trying to straighten them. I was blamed because our house wasn't straight! He finally got them straight and he went away. Two hours later, the dropped and went wonky yet again. We managed to get him back that day and he was rude, but managed to straighten them. Three weeks later, the whole thing fell down! CRASH! We got him back again and he did it right this time. We have since bought two new roller blinds but from another company.