Budget Blinds??

[riverdees05]

We are buying a condo and looking at Budget Blinds, has anyone used them and what do you think about them?

 

[WinniWoman]

We are buying a condo and looking at Budget Blinds, has anyone used them and what do you think about them?

We used Blinds.com for skylight shades. Excellent service.

 

[wilma]

We used budget blinds for some solar shades and were happy with the service and the shades. I understand they are franchised and individually owned so i suppose they could differ regionally. The owner came out and did the measurements and discussed several options. The whole process took about 2 weeks.

 

[clifffaith]

As someone who has sold draperies and blinds for the last 27 years, and who started with a Window Works franchise, you want to work with someone local to you. They don't necessarily need a storefront (we haven't had one since 1994), but the more local they are to you the easier it is to schedule a consultation appointment and then the installation. Depending on the product small dealers should be able to get your window coverings installed in 2-6 weeks. I'd avoid the big department stores whose timeline runs closer to two months even for the simplest of windows (I did a stint with Macy's for five months in 1996). I wouldn't suggest ordering anything online that you have to measure and install yourself. And online shopping removes all Hunter Douglas products from your choices because HD stopped allowing their products to be sold on the internet some years ago. And if you aren't reviewing what HD has to offer, then you're not seeing all your options.

 

[riverdees05]

Are the Hunter Douglas products really good quality window covering?

 

[DeniseM]

Are the Hunter Douglas products really good quality window covering?

It's one of the top brands - if not the top.

 

[PigsDad]

It's one of the top brands - if not the top.

If we're talking price, I agree.

We have had both HD and Graber blinds, and have found the Graber blinds to be of better quality. After about 3 years most of our HD blinds started having issues with their lift mechanisms, where we have never had issues with any of our Graber blinds (same style). After dealing with multiple repairs to our 8-year-old HD blinds, we are in the process of replacing them all (and you can bet it won't be HD again!). Maybe we just got a bad lot, but I have not been impressed at all.

HD does indeed have the largest and newest style selection, but do yourself a favor and shop around. You can save a bundle and possibly get higher quality vs. paying for the HD name. JMO.

Kurt

 

[clifffaith]

If we are selling vertical blinds, we sell Graber. Honeycomb shades (Duettes) and sheer shadings (Sihlouettes), we like Hunter Douglas. Wood blinds either is fine. As an installer my husband finds that the Graber brand shades (Crystalpleat) always need several minutes of adjustments out of the box and prefers I don't sell them; I don't like them because we have huge windows in our area and the Graber products have size limitations -- but I have them if someone asks.

We don't sell things that are problematic and cause us to have to make service calls. We have never had more than a random broken cord/problem mechanism with Hunter Douglas -- never multiple windows that were failing in the same house as poster above mentioned. Remember when Levolors (meaning miniblinds) were all the rage? We stopped selling Levolor brand because if they managed to get the properly manufactured product to us (doubtful) the blinds then had operational problems.

 

[WinniWoman]

As someone who has sold draperies and blinds for the last 27 years, and who started with a Window Works franchise, you want to work with someone local to you. They don't necessarily need a storefront (we haven't had one since 1994), but the more local they are to you the easier it is to schedule a consultation appointment and then the installation. Depending on the product small dealers should be able to get your window coverings installed in 2-6 weeks. I'd avoid the big department stores whose timeline runs closer to two months even for the simplest of windows (I did a stint with Macy's for five months in 1996). I wouldn't suggest ordering anything online that you have to measure and install yourself. And online shopping removes all Hunter Douglas products from your choices because HD stopped allowing their products to be sold on the internet some years ago. And if you aren't reviewing what HD has to offer, then you're not seeing all your options.

Blinds.com had local installers. No issues with scheduling and we live in a rural area.

 

[cgeidl]

Steve's Blinds on line

We measured ourselves, not difficult and ordered on line. Three years ago. They are double pleated and we had one draw string break. Not easy to replace. We sent an Email to Steve's and they were warranted for five years and they sent us a new one free. They were about 20% of what the builder of our new home was charging. Very cheap in cost and brand name not given but the installer said he could tell. We are happy with them.