DRAPERY TRADING CO

This woman was hired to hem chintz curtains for my kitchen and laundry room, linen drapes for my living room and dining room as well as sheers for those rooms, and to make curtains for my bedroom. When she came to the house, I had them pinned to the length I wanted them to be, and she measured them again for herself and did some more pinning. I gave her some spools of grosgrain ribbon to sew on the chintz curtains for decoration, showing her where I wanted that placed. She took the curtains, the ribbon, and said she'd phone me when they were done. Several weeks went by, during which she attempted to get my daughter involved by phoning her, as well as trying to talk me into hiring a decorator she recommended. I suspect that she knew she was out of her depth and wanted backup, or possibly someone to share the blame if this didn't work out well. More time went by. At one point she phoned to ask if she could come by the next day to measure the bedroom windows again. I agreed, but she did not show up, and later said that she didn't realize we had an appointment. Some time after that she sent out a man to hang two shades I had arranged for to go up in my bedroom windows. That went fine. He brought with him the sheers and the chintz curtains in a bag. I had to wait until I could get a handyman here to hang them for me and, when he did so, we discovered that she had cut the ones for the kitchen several inches too short - about 5 inches! They are completely ruined, of course, and will have to be replaced. The ones for the laundry room are approximately the proper length, but all 3 pairs are very uneven along the bottom, with a 1/2 inch difference in length where the panels come together. In places the hemmed area stuck out along the sides.There are 2 spaces at the top in which the rod can go through. I had wanted to use the topmost ones, but she sewed those closed. The ribbon was so poorly sewn on that it was coming loose when I got it, and the thread was bunched up in many places on the back. The sheers were also cut about 2 inches too short and were quite uneven at the bottom. She had not returned the linen drapes. I phoned her, asking that she come look at them. First she saw the sheers and refused to admit that there was anything wrong with them. She said they would look fine once the linen drapes were up. Then I took her into the kitchen. She gasped, then once again denied any wrongdoing. She tried every excuse she could think of, trying to put the blame on anyone or anything other than herself. She stood right there looking at this mess and refused to admit she was in the wrong. She wanted me to let her take them back to her shop, saying she'd try to fix them! I told her I wanted her to return the money I had paid her for this job so far, $174, plus the cost of replacing the curtains she had destroyed. She wouldn't discuss that for a time, then finally she said she might return half of it. It was clear that I wasn't going to get anywhere with her, so I ended it there. A couple of weeks later my daughter went to the shop to get the drapes which had not been returned and which, thankfully, she had not even touched. I never heard anything about the bedroom curtains she was to make. After waiting a month and receiving no check, I wrote to her. I told her I expected a check for $200, a return of the money I had paid her and to cover the cost of replacing the ruined curtains, and I gave her a deadline of two weeks. That deadline has come and gone. It is clear that she has no intention of doing the right thing. I think the public should be warned against doing business with her.