CLOSETS BY DESIGN

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A designer, Lori Schott, came by to discuss the design and for some reason she had a hard time grasping what exactly I needed. I told her I needed both a place to hang a drying rack as well as a hanging rod to hang my husband's shirts after I ironed them. She couldn't come up with a design that enabled me to have both even though I had ample space. After several reiterations, we came up with a plan. I told her I was 99% sure I was going to go through with it but that I needed to talk it over with my husband first. She tried several tactics to get me to commit immediately including even saying why don't I leave her a check or my credit card number to "hold" my spot and get back to her a little later. I told her point blank that I was not comfortable with that at all. The installation was scheduled 5 weeks later on a day that I knew I had off. The installer came in, installed most of it, but couldn't finish up the work because the ironing board hadn't arrived. My kids were sick that day so were home with me. I didnt inspect the work thoroughly because of the kids, but once I got them to nap, I took a close look at the closet and was horrified. The work was slipshod at best. The drawers were not flush. The baseboards were not flush. Several of the shelving pieces were crooked and had banged up edges from where I think the installer had tried to force a fit. The counter top was too high and cut off 1/3rd of my outlet cover. Finally, the design itself was not exactly what I had in mind. The shelves were longer than I had been led to believe they would be and the drying rack solution Lori, the designer, proposed was absurd. I tried calling the designer, who never called me back. I ended up having several conversations with the receptionist, Alisa, who did her best to help me. But I could tell she was exasperated because she kept saying, I'm just the receptionist. I had to do my best to describe to her what exactly was wrong with the design and installation over the phone. Ultimately, I asked her for her email to show her some pictures. The installer came back, corrected most of the problems, but it still doesn't look professional. He had to fill in a number of the holes from pieces cut too short with caulking. It doesn't look professional at all. I can live with it, but it puts a bad taste in my mouth that I spent 2k on something that my husband could have essentially put together with some items from home depot or lowes for much cheaper. I felt like the designer, who I attempted to contact by phone and email, should have come to inspect the job. I really feel the main problem stemmed with poor measuring of the space. The ironing board cabinet is way too close to the shelving, so that i have to lower the ironing board closet to take things off the shelf. The original counter top height was way too high, and she knew the outlet was there. But the little coward, Lori, never replied to emails or phone. I would never recommend closets by design to anyone.

The experience was great. Joan, the designer, put together an efficient and cost effective layout design and didn't try to oversell items to us. The installer was on time, professional and did a great job. They cleaned to entire structure after finishing installation. They filled in gaps with scribe for our crocked walls. It looks beautiful and is just what we needed.

I recently hired California closets to design and install a complete walk-in closet in my master bedroom. The completed project was excellent however I felt that I may have overpaid based on some advice from well-meaning friends. There are several other projects in my home that I wanted to have done that require cabinets so I thought I would get competitors pricing before I just rehired California closets. On the back of the gold clipper I saw a full-page ad for closets by design. The woman I spoke to was not particularly professional however I assumed she was just an answering service. The woman told me that a lady by the name of Diane would be out the next day to give me an estimate. I gave her a rough idea of the project and agreed to meet her the following day. I was a few minutes late and Diane was very gracious, not showing the slightest bit of agitation that I was running behind. In my experience salespeople can be very touchy about having to wait for prospects. I showed her the work that I had recently done and explain to her that her estimate would be one of several projects that I needed to have completed. Diane measured and ask questions about my personal preferences and began to come up with the design. Up to this point the experience was exactly like the previous company... Then she hands me an estimate for almost $2000 for three cabinets? the entire walk-in closet was just about that amount using identical material.... I asked her how this was possible and was given a bunch of ridiculous explanations about the quality of material, beveled edges, crown molding, etc. the reality is, all these companies are simply using a particle board laminate in a modular system. You could buy the same thing at Home Depot and install it yourself if you really wanted to. I politely told her that I thought the price was very high and if I were to do anything that would have to be a significant explanation for the cost that she quoted me. She became clearly annoyed and continued to badger me with questions about how I make my decisions and complaining that her time is valuable so she doesn't want to have to do this again.... It was ridiculous. I finally told her "look, please don't tell me that your time is valuable... This is what you do for a living, you sell cabinets. If I'm keeping you from something you'd rather be doing than leave." She looked horrified but understood that I was starting to become agitated and it might be wise to wrap it up. This is where things got ugly.... I told her that one of my priorities was the garage and that spending $2000 on a couple of cabinets was a waste of money to me. I told her that it wasn't the dollar amount it was what I was getting in return that I objected to. She told me that their garage cabinets were less expensive and asked if she could quote me because she was already here. I thought that was a good idea and we walked into the garage. My exact words to her were: "please lay out this space as if you have no particular budget to work around, design it as if price is not an object. We will work down from there." She looks at me and says "oh no... Based on your reaction to those cabinets inside I'm not going to spend a lot of time with something I know you won't do." I was completely insulted, not only does this woman act as if she's doing me a favor by being there she actually refuses to give me the estimate that I'm asking for. Salespeople who prequalify clients drive me crazy, it's lazy, insulting, and hurts the company. I've been in professional sales my entire life and it put my foot in my mouth more than once by drawing an assumption about a prospect. This woman wasn't even observant, she's implying that I wouldn't spend a few thousand dollars on cabinets when she standing next to $160,000 car? Remember, this review is anonymous, I don't say that to impress anyone, it was simply obnoxious on her part. Notwithstanding that, she was totally out of line with her behavior and I threw her out of my house. The final thing she heard me say was: "that was very insulting, get your things and get out of here." She called me a jerk or rude and left. A word of advice, go to Home Depot and see if you can design and install cabinets yourself. If the project is too much call California closets I had an excellent experience and they have been in business for 30 years with this franchise. I'll be calling them to finish the rest of these projects around the house.

Their salesperson, Suzanne, was very pleasant and attentive. Unfortunately, the operational folks who planned, scheduled and performed the work were not as good. To their credit they made good on all their mistakes, oversights and other issues. It's just that the job dragged on for months and near the end I had to initiate most of the communication. It has been 10 months since the job was completed and now that time has passed, I think that a rating of "Fair" is just that, fair to Closets By Design as a business. I hope they learn and get better operationally as a business and I wish them the best.

Met Closets by Design at the home show in February. Setup an appointment to have a sales person come out. On the day they were supposed to come out, they didn't show. I called the sales rep and she apologized but she was told I called and cancelled (which I didn't). At first I was irritated but then she said she would get ready and come right over. She apologized profusely once she arrived and really did whatever she could to accommodate me so I felt pretty good about her effort. She was very knowledgable and gave me some great tips without trying to sell me useless things. Signed a contract after some negotiating (one of the reasons a gave a B grade). I am a "give me your best number guy" and like most sales folks we had to do the old heres a large price and then "let me call the owner, here?s a special price for today thingy". So after that was done got an install date about 3 weeks out. Originally wanted to schedule me like 5 weeks out and I pushed for a sooner install date. When the installer arrived, he was very professional and did a great job installing the units. He was very good at cleaning up and there was a mix up with some of the moldings we needed but he made sure to not collect the remaining payment till it was done. The office called and said there was a mistake and they needed to order the base molding we wanted. I called twice to get status of the molding, once I was told I would get a call back and I didn't. And the second time they said it was already in (but didn't call me to schedule) and they scheduled me then for 2 weeks out. Overall, good quality product. The salesperson was very knowledgeable and offered many decorating tips and didn't try to upsell me with stuff I didn't need. Communication from the office on install, backorder materials and status needs to improve a little. Would definitely recommend them but you may need to stay on top of the office folks.

Diane provided excellent design services. She is very creative, cost and design conscious. She made many very helpful suggestions to improve the efficiency and overall design of the project. Installers were excellent, efficient, courteous, and prompt. Follow up was timely and all changes to the original design were accommodated with little cost. Finished product has improved our storage efficiency and convenience, as well as the value of the house.

No one showed up at the scheduled time of my appointment. After waiting a half hour, I called the company. The lady who answered the phone first hung up on me, accidentally I think. When I called back, she said she would call the designer to find out where she was and would call me back. She called back, said there was a mix-up, offered no apology, but said the designer could come to my house in about an hour. That didn't work with my schedule. She said that the designer's supervisor would call me, but he never did. I would not do business with this company. If they are so unreliable initially, there is no way I would trust them to actually do the work.

It went very well. It was a bedroom when they started, and the next thing I knew, it was a walk-in-closet. It only took them about six hours to finish. They came in, measured, built a model, and came back a few days later and did it.

The estimator said the company had changed owners since the last time I bought from them. After the work was done I was disappointed that the depth of the shelves were only 22" as opposed to the 25" I had installed three years ago. This means that I have to fold knit shirts in thirds instead of in half to fit them on the shelves because they are not deep enough. The wait of a month for installation was a little too long, and the work was not complete until a week later because they had run out of hanger rods. I called them three times to get the hanger rod.

I'm really happy with my new closets. It wasn't cheap updating the closets from a single rod to double hung rods but for me it was worth it. There was no delay in setting up an appointment with the home designer and the time from the home visit to install worked out with my schedule of improvements. I really appreciated a handful of enhancements suggested from the office after the plans were reviewed. The enhancements included a white board and additional hooks that barely made a difference in the quoted price. The installers were timely and did a nice job of cutting and removing existing molding in order to install the systems. They were quick and efficient. I'm very happy with the final results.

The cabinets themselves are fine but the installation was very poor. I went with them because I had used them a couple of years ago. The ownership has changed and the quality has changed. One young man was sent out to do this job. The cabinets slope a little bit. because he didn't have a second worker. He didn't even have a hammer and asked me if I had 2x2's. He also didn't have a stud finder which I had to go borrow. That was very professional.

Designer visited promptly and was helpful in assessing alternatives. Placed order on April 3. Installation was schedule for June 6, as we were told installers were all busy with new home construction until then. When I called to confirm installation appointment I was assured that the installer could complete the work in one day. Installer arrived with less than half the pieces to assemble the unit. Came back the next day with a few more pieces. We were told the Formica counter top had not yet arrived from the manufacturer in Canada. Installer came back in late June to complete the job. The Formica counter top was cut too small and did not fit the desk. Other pieces to complete the job including keyboard, backing, shelving were still missing. We were told the properly sized Formica top will be delivered in mid July. One piece of overhead cabinets were also installed backwards so that unfinished side is exposed rather than facing the ceiling.

The job was poorly designed then mis-measured. The installers arrived on site with pieces and parts that didn't fit. They had to remeasure and modify some pieces. We had to get the designer back to explain the installation to the installers. There was a portion of the design we had to modify to make it practical. The install was to take about 2 hours. They arrived on Wednesday at 2:30 and were here until after 7. The job still wasn't done. They had to go back to the shop and recut some of the shelves and said they would be back the next day. They didn't show up or call. Then they said they had problems with the saw at the shop. They said the blade had to be sharpened and then there were other problems-needed parts to repair. They came back on Monday to finish the job. The installers were polite and tried to make things work which they eventually did. The sales rep was also professional, but lacked experience. Several pieces-chipped/splintered which needed touch-up.

Took a long time for company to come out and fix the problem. Company had to cancel/postpone at least 2-3 different scheduled visits, because he could not find carpenter to come out and do the work. Apprently, new owner recently bought this franchise. We had originally purchased the closets and had them installed by previous owner. When someone finally came out, very nice, clean, respectful. No cost for this extra work.