European Closets

Debroa is extremely creative and truly knows her products and styles. She came up with ideas that I could only imagine, and they final results are way beyond my expectations. Planning to have her work more miracles in the near future.

European Closets was one of four firms bidding on the deal. Their designer, Craig Fournier, was very responsive and knowledgeable. He spend about two hours at my home, and in his show room discussed and finalized his offer. The price was the most competitive, and he answered and complied with all my requests. The installation was done according to schedule, and they followed up in a timely manner to install some missing fixtures and adjust some shelves. The firm clearly works towards full satisfaction of the customer, and they are the most competitive in terms of cost. I will use them again for any closet, office, and internal design work.

I begin by acknowledging that we were not easy costumers and that our situation may be unique. I have no complaints regarding the initial scheduling of the consultation. They promptly sent a designer to meet with me upon our first contact. During that visit, she dismissed our stated desire for a reach in closet in a particular spot in our basement and insisted that we neded something else. I was meek and went along, at least partially because my attention was more focused upon my two year old and partially because I thought she probably knew better. After later consultation with my husband (who was away on military duty), I contacted her again and visited the showroom to redesign the closet to meet our initial request. She was not happy and made it increasingly difficult. Somehow, the estimate for a smaller job was more expensive, at first by $3,000 dollars, but later only by $50 dollars. Again, I was with my toddler, who was pleasant and well behaved for the first hour. By the time, she tells me the price, he is hysterical. She also tells me that her son has cancer and they need to raise money for his treatment. I agree and she tells me she'll come by later in the week to measure the space. By our third meeting, she increased the price by $250. She pretends to measure and tells me that the space is uneven. She is not even measuring with a laser, digital measure, but with an old, twisted measuring tape. She tells me it doesn't matter, because someone else will come with special instruments to take the actual measures before they order and cut the pieces. I receive no copy of the contract at this point, which (by the way) says it is not valid/ effective until signed off by a company representative. On Friday, I receive a call from the professional measuring guy to come to the house. He leaves me a voicemail that he will come on Tuesday. That same Friday, my husband returns home to find his 15 year car has died and he needs a new car and the new fence we had to install to keep our son from climbing out cost us twice what originally calculated. My son-who can now spend time in the yard because of our lovely fence- gets stung by a swarm of mosquitoes and gets a massive infection so we spend the weekend at the hospital. Our insurance will only cover half of the bill. Now thousands of dollars on the red, my husband calls up the representative to please ask her to return our deposit. Since no one from Eurodesign had signed off on the contract and since no official, expert measures had been taken, we expected they would be more understanding. Instead, the representative was threatening and rude and called my husband a liar. She also told him they had already cut some pieces and showed him some papers he couldn't understand. If anything she had said before was true, that was a lie and a fradulent misrepresentation, because she had told me the cutting takes place after the expert measures. Afraid that we would be stuck having to pay the full bill at a time we cannot afford it, my husband agreed to pay a $500 fine (even though the contract says the fine is only to be paid if cancellation occurs after it has been signed by the company representative). We receive a copy of the contract stating that it is void. In the section stating that it is not effective until signed by representive, there is no signature. In the meantime, we are having to ask our relatives for help by borrowing their cars so my husband can get back to work and we can cover my son's medical bills. They promised to send us a check reimbursing the rest of our money. I hope it comes soon. For now, our closet project is on hold. If we ever decide to pursue it again, it certainly won't be with this company. UPDATE: The company did not mail us the check on the Tuesday they promised, but instead called us that Saturday one hour before closing to ask us to pick it up before closing. My husband did and again the employee harassed my husband about our decision. Since then I have received more than five calls from them asking us why we have not deposited the check and when we will do so. This was baffling to us, because we did and our bank account so reflects. I don't know what to think or say about this company anymore and, frankly, I am tired of even thinking about them.

created giant wall for my shoes

They are wonderful. We've used them for years and we recommend them to anybody. They're honest. Their prices are good and they do a very good job.

I visited EDC's showroom in Rockville and explained what I was looking for. The staff quickly grasped what was needed and immediately produced a rough sketch. After selecting wood and finish, EDC was able to estimate the price which, while a little higher than I had anticipated, was reasonable. Given the high quality of the work that I saw in the showroom and the professionalism of the staff, I decided to have EDC do the work. A few days later EDC sent their representative to make sure that the measurements were correct and that the cabinet would be exactly what we were looking for. He made several valuable suggestions and we reached agreement on all the details. Installation was scheduled for April 30. Two installers/assemblers arrived at the scheduled time and did a great job putting together the pre-built pieces and installing the huge cabinet. The cabinet looks great!!!! We were very impressed with every aspect of our dealing with European Design Center and recommend them highly.

I could not have asked for anything better. Was most pleased with the company from start to finish.

Bruce came out, measured all of the closets, then showed us a computer design of his proposal, (all based on preexisting patterns that they already have). These drawings were ours to keep. He then told us the estimate in price. We made some changes. When the company came out, two men spent the better part of three hours installing the closets. My wife was unhappy about certain details. After understanding what my wife was unhappy about, Bruce sent the men out again to change the details to my wife's satisfaction, for a nominal charge related to additional materials (compared to the price of the overall work).

I called for appointment and Bruce came out to measure. My wife and I went to ED office in Rockville picked out color and styles. ED installed everything in 2 days. Bruce is a great guy he even came by to see how everything went after the install. The guys who install everything were really clean and took care not to damage anything in the house. They did a great job custom fitting the cabnets into my closets. Overall good company to do business with. They even installed 2 weeks earlier than the original date.

This was one of the worst customer experiences ever. My husband and I went to the Mill End Shops in July 2010 to look at fabrics and get advice on shades for our whole house. One of the customer representatives, "saleswoman1", came to our house the next week and sat with us for two hours going through fabrics and different options for the windows. She was attentive and helpful, but the price was very high, and I opted to only get a few shades. I also sensed that something was not right when I asked for a detailed invoice and breakdown of pricing, and all I got was a scribbled sheet of paper with one total price. Every time I asked for detailed pricing, the numbers changed. One of the most disturbing changes was the installation price, which saleswoman1 quoted at $25 per window at first, but then became a flat fee of $1,500 when I sat down to sign the contract. She said that the $25 per window was just for roller shades, not all the shades. I opted to install the shades myself after saleswoman1 said that it was extremely easy and the store would send someone out to the house to advise me when they delivered the shades. I decided to give saleswoman1 the benefit of the doubt and hoped that the the lack of detailed invoicing and consistent pricing was just due to an old-fashioned work style. As soon as I handed over my credit card and paid the third deposit, the helpful service disappeared. Saleswoman1 did not call to schedule anyone to take measurements for our windows, and I had to call after a week to ask when someone would come take measurements. Then saleswoman1 said that the fabric was on back order and wouldn't be delivered for several weeks. She never called to give me updates, and I had to call the store every other week to inquire whether the fabric had arrived. Finally, in early September, the fabric arrived at the factory. Then the workers were too busy or too sick to make the shades, and they weren't ready until the last week in September. The shades were dropped off at our house with no installation instructions and incomplete hardware. The person dropping off the shades did not give any advice on the installation. The shades were basically fabric stapled to boards with multiple staples showing clearly on the top. The three balloon shades had the cardboard showing at the top because the fabric was only stapled half-way over the board. The two roman shades were also too short for the windows and hung an inch above the sills. The pull cord on one of the roman shades was too close to the wall and kept the roman shade from folding correctly as it pulled up. Saleswoman1 never called to see how we liked the shades or to help with the installation. When I called multiple times to ask about installation instructions, saleswoman1 was not in the store, but the other saleswomen who answered the phone told me that there were no written instructions since the installers knew how to do their job. These other saleswomen never offered to take messages for saleswoman1 to call me back. When I pressed them to take messages, they acted like it was a big inconvenience, and I doubt that they ever relayed the messages since saleswoman1 never called me back. I always had to call back a few days later to get in touch with her. When I finally contacted saleswoman1, she said that I could bring the shades to the store, and she could show me how to install them. I asked her why there were no screws, and she said she could bring some old screws from her house. My husband and I drove out to the store the next Saturday where she proceeded to tell us how simple it was to install the shades, in fact, so obvious to the point of no instructions being necessary. When I asked for the screws, she said she didn't have any, but then she brought out a glass jar full of screws, buttons, and nails from the back of the store, sorted through them, and handed over some old screws that had been used in their displays. She also said that we could drop off the valances at the store, and the factory could paste some fabric over the boards and staples in a few days. Now it is the beginning of October, and I still have no shades installed. I feel foolish for spending so much money and expecting a premium product and good customer service. I received a basic product and unhelpful service. My instincts told me from the beginning not to get these shades, but I foolishly hoped that paying a higher price would mean receiving a better product. Not true - I'm only happy I did not opt to get all the windows done. I will never buy from Mill End Shops again, and I will warn every friend and neighbor against using their services as well.

I honestly cannot say enough about what a positive experience it's been dealing with this company. Pascal and Craig have been with them for longer than I've used them, and their installers have been very consistent as well. There is not one aspect in my dealings with them that hasn’t gone smoothly. They are always extremely professional and pleasant, returning phone calls promptly, arriving for appointments on time, scheduling is extremely reasonable, craftsmanship is excellent, they clean-up thoroughly after themselves, they return promptly to correct any problems. I will ALWAYS return to them for the services they provide.

The experience with them was terrible. the timing was off. The curtains didn't fit the windows. With the purple and blue drapes they used white thread, so we had to send them back and when they came back they were torn. I had to have them take them back again and again it was very frustrating. I would never hire them again.

They did high quality work. On time. Good about making final adjustments.

Not well. The salesperson only brought a few fabric books to show us (another company brought in over 30 heavy books - yes, we should have gone with the other company). They said it would take 6-8 weeks to make the curtains, and it was 9. When the installer finally arrived, he said it would take 2-4 hours to install. It was 6 hours. The blinds were all the wrong sizes and had to be taken back. One set of curtains was the wrong color. And the installer could not reinstall the original blinds in the skylight in the bedroom after he realized the new blinds were not the correct size (thus, a blinding hole was left in that bedroom). When we called to complain, the company apologized but did not do a good job of keeping us updated on the arrival of the correct curtains and blinds. When they called to say the curtains and blinds were ready to be installed, no one could confirm if the correct rod was on the truck (thus saving time for everyone). The final bill was also incorrect.

THEY WERE THE BEST BID. THEY WORKED HARD AND WERE VERY RESPECTFUL OF OUR HOME. THEY GOT THE JOB DONE IN A TIMELY MANNER.