The Reflective Designer at Stow

It started out smooth. I explained to Elaine that I have a child with autism, and that I would need to schedule our meeting while he was at school on a Monday or a Friday, as those are the days I work from home. Elaine said that was no problem. The first meeting was fine. I selected the treatments I wanted and Elaine took measurements. I gave her half of the total as a down payment, and reminded her of my scheduling issues. She said it would be no problem (again). When it was time to install, she informed me that her installer was only available on Tuesdays, while I am at work, or Saturdays, when my son is at home. She offered evenings, but because my son is home in the evening, that is not an option for me either. She seemed surprised that I didn't want to leave a key for some installer to come and let himself into my house while I was at work and provided me with no other options for scheduling the installation. After much back and forth, I asked for a refund of my down payment so that I could find another company to work with. She refused, and finally came up with one (1!) possibility that fit my schedule. It was a person she had never worked with before, which was a little concerning to me. She also wanted me to pay the balance in full BEFORE he completed the work. I have worked with many contractors and service agencies in the past, and it is SOP to withhold final payment until the work is completed. She insisted that her policy was that of "other home furnishing stores" and that that was why she needed payment up front. My problem is that she is not upfront about her bizarre installation schedule, said my schedule would be fine when it clearly wasn't, accepted partial payment upfront with the understanding that balance would be paid upon completion of work then changed her "policy" (one that is not on any paperwork I received and which is in direct contradiction to her accepting partial payment down) Her attitude throughout the process was unprofessional and bordered on suggesting that she was somehow doing me a favor by finding someone to install the treatments I ordered from her and was paying for. If I wanted to do the legwork of finding someone to install blinds and pay them for it, etc. I would have taken measurements myself and gone to Lowe's or some other window treatment store. In hiring her, I believed I was paying for a service as well as a product, that being the service of her screening installers and working out a schedule to get the work done as well as showing me pretty options and measuring my windows. If I am paying twice as much as I would at the store, I expect the service I receive to match. To date, the treatments have still not been installed and my down payment has not been refunded. I would not recommend this person for anything you aren't willing to do yourself, because you might end up doing just that.