Complaint Review: Old Del Rio Corporation - Victorville California

This person is not telling the truth here!  I am the person who went out to this home.  After several hours of trying to fit something into their budget, the client told me they could not afford the price.   Since she is a quilter, I asked her if she knew where she could get fabric and mentioned that we could fabricate and install draperies at a lesser cost if she purchased her fabric there.  She already knew where to get the fabric so she said she would look.  I explained that, of course, we could not be responsible for fabric not purchased from us but we could make beautiful draperies from her own fabric.  I told her to make sure and get extra yardage and make sure it was drapery quality fabric.

When she got her fabric, she called me out to pick it up.  She asked my opinion of it and I told her it was beautiful.  I asked her specifically if the person she had bought it from told her it would make up well as draperies.  She assured me that they had said it would make "beautiful draperies".  She then contracted with me to make and install draperies from her own fabric. 

After a week and a half, I called her to let her know her draperies were ready.  We scheduled a convenient day and time for both of us.  I never asked whether her husband was going to be home or not.  That is just not something that is relevant to us.  We install with one or more of the spouses' being home all the time.

Our installer went out on the appointed day and time and hung her draperies on her own rods.  He has been installing draperies for us for 15 years and does professional work.  We have thousands of very happy clients!  He is not very large (5'9" or 5'10" and about 200 pounds) and he wasn't angry when he was there.  He tried his best to get the fabric to hang well and then called me.  I told him I would go out there to see what I could do.  He then asked the client for the final payment because we had fulfilled our contract - we had made and installed their draperies.  We always collect our money when the job is complete.  He did not make rude or racial comments.  He did say something about her fabric looking kind of jungly because it had palm fronds on it.  I can't imagine how anyone could think that was a racial or rude remark.  He didn't say he didn't like it or anything like that.

I went out the next day and tied up the panels to help them pleat.  This is customary in our industry and our installer had not done it because the fabric was not folding well.  I told her that we should leave it tied up for about a week to make sure the pleats would form and I left.  I felt that it would work because when I worked with the fabric it would pleat with my hands. 

After a week, I came back again and released the ties.  The fabric would not stay pleated.  It flares at the bottom and does not hand well.  I worked on it for about another hour and a half but just couldn't make it stay.  I then told her that I would come back and try to iron the pleats in which I did a day or so later.  When the pleats would not stay, I told the client that I would talk with the owner of the store to see if he had any other ideas.  Although I have over 19 years of experience, I could not think of another thing to try.  I did mention that maybe we could take the draperies to a dry cleaner and have the pleats steamed in.

I spoke with the owner of our store the next day.  He had no other ideas.  He asked me to make an appointment where we both could go out to the home.  When I called to make this appointment, the client informed me that she had two other drapery companies (one workroom and one installer) out to look at the draperies.  One of them (the workroom) tried to tell her that the draperies were not made well.  That was a complete lie.  I would put our workmanship up against anyone in the country.  That same lady told her that a 'pleat stabilizer' would take care of the problem and that they also were not installed properly.  The other company (the installer) told her that they were installed properly but that she should take them to a dry cleaners as I had suggested.

I told her that the pleat stabilizer system is only used for draperies that are stationary and/or decorative on the sides of windows but that I would order it and try it anyway.  After we received the stabilizer, I called to make another appointment with my boss and I.  We made a 6:00 p.m. appointment so that her husband could be there as well.

We had to wait for her husband for a little while but went in as soon as he arrived home.  I made introductions and then started to install the pleat stabilizer.  As precicted, no matter how hard I tried, it would not work.  As I was working on the draperies, my boss was reiterating that the draperies were made and installed properly but that, as told from the very start, we cannot be held responsible for someone else's fabric.  At this point, the husband became very angry and kicked us out of his house.  The last thing he said to us was "get out and take that fat b____ with you"!  I have never been so humiliated in my life.  I went above and beyond for these people and I did not deserve that treatment!

After that, the husband filed a complaint against our company with the Better Business Bureau.  His complaint was dropped once I explained exactly what happened and that we had fulfilled out contract completely.  He then filed a California License Board complaint against our conractor's license.  Again, once they got the true story, that complaint was dropped as well.  Now he has taken to filing complaints like this one.  We will continue to rebut them because we did everything in our power to help these people and they still blame us.

I feel bad for these people but they are placing blame on the wrong company.  We did what we contracted to do.  We even went far beyond that and did our best to make it better for them!  They need to contact the company that sold them the fabric (which we told them several times as well).  It seems like they are looking for something for nothing.  It is not our fault or our responsibility.  We will continue to fight this because we are not in the wrong and we are not going to compensate them for their own fabric!