Smith+Noble Online Store

Against my better judgment I placed an order with Smith+Noble for solar roller shades.  The shades -- which were made in and shipped from China -- arrived 1/4 inch too narrow, which meant they wouldn't fit securely in their mounting brackets and literally fell out of the window.

So I called customer service for a replacement.  Instead of responding, "We're very sorry. We'll send you a correctly sized shade right away."  The representative confirmed my window measurements (which were correct) and then said,  "The factory has a 1/8" tolerance for errors.  I'll have to call the factory representative about your situation and get back to you sometime next week." 

I explained two things to the customer service representative: 1) 1/4 inch = 2/8 of an inch and was therefore outside their margin for error; and 2) their factory's margin for error is irrelevant, the shades were supposed to fit the window measurements I provided and didn't.  Not suprisingly, the "customer service" rep didn't care; he just repeated "we'll call you back next week."

What a remarkably cavalier attitude for a service business to have in this or any other economy. To date, Smith+Noble has not corrected their error.

Smith&Noble provides little or no support for their products. Other manufacturers of window treatments have provided me with replacement parts at little or no cost, even if the blinds were purchased by the previous homeowner. Smith&Noble told me to go to a hardware store! Ironically, it was the clerk at the store who told me to contact the manufacturer.

Additionally, their clerks did not seem to understand my request. They simply repeated that my blinds were no longer under warranty, even after I offered to purchase the brackets. I waited interminably to speak to a supervisor, then just gave up. It isn't worth any more of my time, when I can drive to Bed,Bath and Beyond and just buy another brand of blinds, complete with brackets!

I'm disappointed when a company does not stand behind it's products, and Smith&Noble does not. Frankly, their prices are not competitive enough to make up for this lack of product support. I'll be shopping elsewhere.

My purchase from Smith and Noble turned into the most horrendous online shopping experience of my life. The fabric panels I purchased were impossible to install. The customer service rep told me this was a "known problem" (gee, if they knew about it why did they sell me the product), and they would send me some new hardware to fix it. Six weeks later they admitted there was no fix. The product had been taken out of production and I was offered a store credit to use when the product was re-engineered and available again at some unknown future date. After quite a discussion they agreed to refund our purchase price. Then they said they would not refund the shipping and we had to jump through more hoops before finally getting a full refund. In addition to the product problems, the service left much to be desired - poor communication between factory and customer service, rude people (I suppose I would be too if I had to deal with problems like this all day), unreasonable service timetables, you name it. I have done extensive online shopping for years and have never had an experience like this.