Joyce k Afj
map-marker Santa Rosa, California

Hunter Douglas is no longer a good product. Beware.

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I have 50 windows in my house. Put HD on all. But the worst offenders are the motorized shades. My windows are tall and thin. The kitchen has13! Three failed 12/17. They wanted $230/ shade to repair. I tried and tried myself. Their instructions are badly written. A lesson in frustration. I had to call a repairman. Took weeks. Thought that was it, but no, more are failing. I am in tears at this point. If they all fail, and I see no reason why they won’t, I’ll be spending thousands of dollars more. I could rip them all out and go for another brand and NO MOTORIZATIONS, but that’s even more money and I need motorizations. Opening shades in the morning is hard enough as it is. I absolutely hate Hunter Douglas.
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Loss:
$12000
Pros:
  • Product looked good
  • Initial installation
  • Person i interacted with is great
Cons:
  • Constant malfunction
  • Paying for constant repair and bait and switch about guarantee
  • Company did not follow up on concern
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

1 comment
Guest

I am sorry to hear about your dilemma. Can you sue HD?

$12,000 is a lot of money. They seem to get away with *** us customers off by taking our hard earned money and then giving us a *** product with *** poor repair service. Very disrespectful. It's almost a crime really.

You should complain to BBB online.

Maybe they can help resolve your situation. Good luck!

Anonymous

$13,000 price tag, but major issues including 67% failure of Powerview motors in less than 2 years

I purchased custom blind called Luminette with Powerview motorization in October 2016 with the price of $13,000.

With this steep price tag and the perceived reputation of Hunter Douglas I expected to receive good product and quality service. Unfortunately, it has not been a case. I have had 3 major issues with the product in less than 2 years - one of the blind sets had to be replaced due to manufacturing error and 2 motors out of 3 have died (67% failure rate) this year. Since blinds cannot move without working motor (you cannot move blinds manually either), malfunctioning of motors leave the blinds stuck that affects not only convenience, but also quality of sleep and privacy. So, speedy repair of motor is essential for adequate service. Unfortunately, it took over 2 weeks to replace the first damaged motor despite multiple escalations.

Recently another motor in my bedroom has died. Because the blinds in my bedroom cannot be closed up, this issue is affecting my sleep and privacy. Given the collective problems I have had, I requested Hunter Douglas to review my case as I see they are quite troubling. The response came back 3 days later stating "Sometimes things happen", which indicates Hunter Douglas have no particular concern or comment to add about my experience with the product and does not view my experience as anything unusual.

I will not choose Hunter Douglas again and share my disappointing experience with anyone who is interested.

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Reason of review:
Bad quality
3 comments
Kenyatta Hwz

I have 18 of these blinds. And 13 motors have gone bad.

You are not alone. Hunter Douglas has terrific marketing but their motorized products are junk.

Guest

I have a similar situation with the battery powered blinds. Had to spend $100 on replacement batteries, and $400 on a tech to install and get blinds all working properly again.

Required mailing one in for a replacement part. And now just one year later tennant wtote to say that blind are not working properly. I'm afraid to call out the tech again. It's a license to be taken advantage of.

Thinking about trashing $7000 worth if blinds and putting in simple manual blinds.

What a disgusting hasske. Blinds are only 3 years old and lightly used

Guest

Purchased Hunter Douglas Powerrise a number of years ago. Programmed obsolescence and no help at all.

Battery operated and power strips no longer available. Told to just replace them. Let's see 18 windows that would need to be replaced so they match.

Never with them again!! Absolutely no customer service.

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Anonymous
map-marker New York, New York

Worst blinds and company service ever

I purchased 3 sets of blinds which cost me over $2,000. I had problems with raising and lowering them from the get-go.

It is just under one year since I bought them and the strings one of the blinds snapped. After the blinds were installed I had numerous conversations and emails with Hunter Douglas representatives with no result. I even sent a letter to the president of the company and all I got was a call from someone else in the company who told me there was nothing they could do, this is how the blinds are made. I now have to replace the blinds and hopefully can find a color to match the other blinds.

Frankly, I don’t expect the other blinds to last very long either. It is definitely an inferior product.

Useless blinds and useless company. I find Hunter Douglas which once had an excellent reputation, a company that now creates cheaply made products and has sub-par customer relations.

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Nadine W Laq

Save Your Money - Hunter Douglas does not stand behind their product

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Save Your Money - Hunter Douglas does not stand behind their product
Save Your Money - Hunter Douglas does not stand behind their product - Image 2

My advice, save the extra money and don't buy Hunter Douglas Blinds. How many of you plan to be in the same house in 5 years, ten years, etc from now? The warranty does not transfer.

I purchased a home 10 years ago and the previous owners had purchased Hunter Douglas blinds. At the time of sale, we had spoke to a Hunter Douglas rep that said that Hunter Douglas stood behind their products and the warranty was a lifetime warranty. There was no mention of it applying only to the original owner or any other terms that would impact the warranty.

The blinds are literally peeling apart (see pictures) and just recently the string broke so they no longer work.

I went to a Lowes in Calgary, AB to replace the blinds and the sales person said too that Hunter Douglas stood by their product, and before I purchased another set of blinds, I should call them. She tracked down a number for me and so I called.

I sent pictures of the disintegrating blinds (see pictures), spoke to a rep - they called me back today, two and a half weeks later, they will not replace the blinds, but they offered to repair the broken cord. What sense does that make? Sure, let's repair the cord on a blind that is literally peeling itself apart. This was an insult!

The rep admitted that it has happened in the past that new home owners have had their blinds replaced or repaired, but I guess just not for me!!!

From a product perspective, I would be embarrassed to sell these blinds.

I will be buying new blinds, but they won't be Hunter Douglas - why bother spending the extra money - as you can see from the pictures, they don't last anyway!!!

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Cons:
  • Quality of product
  • Warranty
  • Time of response
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: Stand behind your product and replace the damaged blinds.

AFT
map-marker Poway, California

Poor response and resolution

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Hunter Douglas - Poor response and resolution
I purchase a set of blinds for a sliding door. They did not perform well and I called the dealer several times. Eventually calling a alternative dealer doe to lack of response. Second dealer referred me to HD for customer warranty issue. Their action was to engage original seller. The answer I eventually got was that because I had periods of amcouple of weeks between uses that the performance was inferior and the blinds did not fold properly when raised. What is intersting is that I have others in the unit and they do not demonstrate this tendancy. This has gone on for several months. The last concersation with dealer was 1 to 2 months ago. I hav ordered a replacement product and will not purchase from HD again. I spent over 10k on their products but their dealers are horrible and they do not take action.
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Loss:
$1000
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: Full refund

Sally F Suh
map-marker Buffalo, New York

Gear driven disaster

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The slats keep breaking. Even with gentle opening and closing. Screws just come through the slats and break apart. Only one year old, but it has been happening over and over since 1month old, on different rooms.
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Reason of review:
Bad quality
Anonymous
map-marker Detroit, Michigan

Cheap cord-lock mechanism binds

New Honeycomb blinds that do not release all the way to the window sill. The dealer came out and added substantial weights to the bottom rail to achieve this - now the blind goes all the way down but is enormously heavy to raise. This puts extra stress on the brass gromets and strings and will cause unnecessary wear and earlier failure. I have ordered a restringing kit so I can troubleshoot the problem myself. Either the dealer is not motivated to fix the 'binding' of the mechanism or he knows there is nothing he can do. The people at Hunter Douglas while first saying 'yeah there is something wrong' now they say "the fabric is stiff. The weights help to stretch it out. Then you can remove the weights." Huh? Hucksterism or stupidity I'm not sure which.
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1 comment
Guest

I am never ever going to order a Hunter Douglas product again! I agree with the cheap products they use. I have had so many breakdowns with the metal chain.

Edwinna Nng

Will NEVER buy from this company ever.

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First mistake is going to Ethan Allan to replace a Silhouette Shade which was suppose to be exactly like the one it was replacing. This was customize not a standard size.

The sales women measured it it came in with approximately 1/2 inch shorter it did not touch the sill. Since there was a ripe in it they replaced it. Now knowing this shade was short and she did agree. The rep from Hunter Douglas said that is how it is suppose to be a customized shade even if it was 2 10th of an inch it should have been longer.

The answer was that is a how they come well if that was the case I should have been warned with the first one since it had *** in it. I would not have spent over $1,300 dollars. The regional manager’s bottom line was what is is what it is. BUT she credited me a little over $200.00.

I was interested in buying shades for my French door and 6 windows. My mistake was to start off with Ethan Allen. Beware what you buy and where you buy it.

Looking at this shade and seeing daylight under the bottom is driving me crazy so I will replace it. Costly lesson.

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Loss:
$1000
Cons:
  • Quality of product
Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised
Brett W Teu

Would not buy again

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Seven months after spending thousands of dollars having motorized shades installed, they started having problems. One shade started to appear crooked and would go up,and down at a different speed than the rest. I placed a call for service and was appalled to see the repairman wedge a piece of wadded up paper into the mechanism and deem it fixed!! P.S. it is NOT fixed. It is still slightly crooked and moves at a different speed. At this point I should be getting a new shade installed at no cost. I also had *** appear in a different shade. The shade was replaced but I was told it was not a problem with the rolling mechanism but a fabric defect. I’m not convinced. Bottom line. This is not a good product for the price and the “repairs” are a joke.
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Cons:
  • Not worth price
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

1 comment
Guest

find a dealer that knows how to repair, educate yourself before you just order a blind from any dealer, lots of good ones that can do repairs on their own at little to no cost, ask next time. Everything can break.

Resolved
Jen C Zfh

Resolved: Poor Customer Service/Poor Longevity

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Updated by user Jun 09, 2018

New blind was made to correct the color of the head piece.

Updated by user Jun 09, 2018

After I wrote this review I took 2 steps in an effort to solve my issues with Hunter-Douglas: 1 - At the urging of this site I contacted Hunter-Douglas and alerted them to the review I wrote. This FINALLY allowed me to reach a higher level customer service...

Original review May 10, 2018
Although Hunter Douglas has some very nice designs, I am now very disappointed with the customer service and longevity of the blinds. I purchased 3 different styles of blinds in 2008 for 2 rooms. In total, the cost was $6200 for 8 windows. I had no trouble in the workings of the blinds or the quality until 2017, when one of the Duette Duolite blinds started ripping along the fold lines of the sheer portion of the fabric. This particular style has a sheer fabric on the top, and a semi-opaque fabric on the bottom. It still opens top down, bottom up, but there will always be a fabric on the covering, just one sheer, the other solid. I treated each of the blinds the same way, so I can't say the ripping was due to some type of mistreatment in use or cleaning, it just began to tear. I ordered a new one, exact same order, exact same size, but through a different designer I had met since ordering them in 2008, and saved myself money. When the blind arrived I found out that Hunter Douglas had started making them differently:
1 - they changed the pull from an off-white string to a long "wand" made of plastic, that is much more visually intrusive than the string had been, partly because it is colored to coordinate with the solid portion of the blind.
2 - On the first set of blinds they matched the sheer, or top portion of the blind with the headrail; on the new replacement blind, instead of matching the sheer fabric for the head rail as they did on the first set of blinds, they matched the bottom fabric color.
This blind sits next to 2 others that were identical, but with these changes this blind will look quite different. The most objectionable part is the head rail; all of my window casings are off-white, the sheer portion of the blind is off-white, but now this head rail will be taupe, along with the "wand."
I called customer service, as did the designer who ordered this for me. There was not anything they offered to do, nothing, nada. Now, $6200 might not sound like a lot to many people, but I had not intended to replace these in my retirement years, on a fixed income. I realize that production processes change, and styles change. I worked in an industry that dealt with customer withdrawal when we needed to change style selection, but we were making jeans, not expensive home items. And, Hunter Douglas didn't change the style name, or make any reference to changes in the construction methods or appearance. In fact, if you go onto their website you will not even find a picture of these showing the blind clearly. Had I not seen a sample when I originally purchased I would never have known they made it. This style was perfect for this set of 3 windows; my house is 125 years old, and the upper portion of the window is quite ornate. I wanted to see it inside the room, hence the sheer fabric.
What do I expect of them? I think they should replace the headrail on this blind for me. I am not going to go silently about this, and plan to alert users: don't expect to have help from Hunter Douglas.
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Loss:
$544
Pros:
  • Originally liked the style selections
Cons:
  • Not enough product description for purchase
  • Not enough fabric or color choice
  • Changes to product without alerting consumer
Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised

Preferred solution: I would like Hunter Douglas to change the headrail to off-white to match the sheer fabric.

Anonymous
map-marker San Jose, California

String and More String

These top down bottom up shades have been a pain from the start. I sent one back to be repaired because it was very difficult to raise the blind. It was so hard I thought the string word break. They returned the blind and said nothing was wrong with it. Okay I struggled with it simply do to the fact I paid way to much for them. Finally the string broke. Found videos produced by Hunter Douglas which were quite helpful but no where did any of them say how many pieces of string to cut for a top down bottom up shade. After spending a number of hours just trying to the the shade apart I thought victory was mine, wrong. You need to cut four identical lengths not two as the videos show. Wonder why this simple fact is not stated in the video
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1 comment
Guest

Why don't you just throw those stupid blinds in the garbage! I hate Hunter Douglas blinds.

Nothing but a rip off! The roll up and roll down chains are so cheaply built and the little plastic connectors on the chains constantly break off.

So difficult to find on a white carpet. I will never recommend this product!

Sally F Suh
map-marker Orlando, Florida

Very cheaply made blinds

The new shutters were installed one year ago. Several slats have broken. The newly replaced slats have broken. The defect seems to be very cheap material that breaks and allows the screws to crack through the slats. They are the gear driven mechanical plantation shutters, with out the bars. They are constantly uneven, but the cheaply made materials is the biggest concern.
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Reason of review:
Bad quality
leanne r Jkn

This review is from a real person who provided valid contact information and hasn't been caught misusing, spamming or abusing our website. Check our FAQ

Verified Reviewer

Poor installation and measurment expericnce

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Hunter Douglas - Poor installation and measurment expericnce

Roller shade in bedroom not measured correctly consequently new blind had to be remade. I called customer service to check on the new blinds on 4/28/18.

Customer service reported that the blinds had arrived to the installer on 4/3/18. Customer service said that I would receive a call from the installer on 4/28/18. Finally got the call three days later. Arranged an appointment on 5/01/18 at 8 am.

I had to arrange to take off work. They finally arrived at 9:30 citing that traffic had been too heavy to be on time. I called my boss to arrange more time off. He was upset and told me not to bother to come in.

I lost a whole day of pay.

The blind was installed incorrectly again leaving large holes in my dry wall. I am very disappointed by this experience and will never buy Hunter Douglas again.

Leanne Rice, St Paul MN

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Loss:
$165
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Price reduction

Nate L Ktr

This review is from a real person who provided valid contact information and hasn't been caught misusing, spamming or abusing our website. Check our FAQ

Verified Reviewer

Be very careful

Be very careful when you order anything from Hunter Douglas. As it is true that Hunter Douglas makes the best window coverings in the business, it is also true that their warranty is not what is says. The Warranty says " If you're not Thoroughly Satisfied simply contact Hunter Douglas at this number ". Please be aware, Hunter Douglas does not give returns only exchanges and there is a price. I ordered the silhouettes ( The one with the two different mechanisms, one for the front and one for the blackout ) for my rood and although they do look great they have two problems. 1st, The material is very thin and can be bent very easily. 2nd, The continuous cords are a bad idea, at least for me because you have to be extremely careful about how you use these. If you must have these I firmly suggest you get the ones with the remotes.
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Reason of review:
Warranty issue
1 comment
Guest

lifetime warranty, pick a better dealer.

Mortimer P
map-marker Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania

I think I threw away $12k

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We bought the Hunter Douglas shades that can both be lifted up and dropped down. For almost a year and a half they worked well though we didn’t use them more than once a day on some. Others maybe once a month. Then one fell down. Lost it’s mooring. One we used once a week. Naturally the installers said we owed $135 for them to come out. Now three others can’t be made completely horizontal. One of these won’t go all the way down by over a foot. Now another stopped letting us lift it up at all. So we are frustrated. Waiting for the installers call us back. Bunch of cheap junk.
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