Eddie Z’s Blinds & Drapery

I thought that the reviews were probably from people who were not educated on high end window treatments or blinds, had some insecurities with the staff about cost etc. Well this is not the case. It’s just bad customer service, compounded with an unappreciative sales team. I purchased $ 7200 worth of window treatments 11÷23÷15. It is now 12÷26÷15 and the only updates I have received are from my calling and asking on status updates. George is a great guy until you place your order, then he is too busy chasing more commission in his Mercedes to keep you updated. I’m furious. The reviews are accurate, this place blows. If I spend $ 7200 anywhere I expect a least a minimal degree of customer service. Avoid George, avoid Eddie Z all together.
1÷13÷2016: After an additional 4 weeks and a few more phone calls I MADE, I found out my order was lost in shipping. I was told as a consolation they would install ¹⁄₃ of the order they did have. I attempted to call back and speak to Craig the regional manager about the issues I had. I will be honest after spending $ 7200 I thought they could do better. His assistant called me back and was confused as to why I wanted to speak to him since I was given an install date of 1÷16÷16. It was impossible for Eddie Z’s to understand why I was upset. No one contacted me and an estimated delivery of 3 – 4 weeks turned into what is now 9 weeks late. Please do yourself a favor and never shop at this store. They have zero respect for customers, and they do not care if paper drapes line your house. The original sale is all that matters. Please trust my judgement when I say you will regret ANY purchase from Eddie Z’s.

Horrible experience! After the whole process of calling in, scheduling, measuring, etc, the blinds came in and they missed 3 windows in my house!!! And, I have to pay $ 1,000 extra for those 3 blinds because somehow they forgot to write it down on the order form. I not only have to pay extra, but also have to wait one more month for those 3 blinds to come in. Will never recommend this store to anyone.

I am still in the middle of an extremely awful experience with Eddie Z.‘s and its employee, David Infante. Delay after delay and problem after problem with no adequate resolution. The company seems more interested in being defensive, than actually solving issues. I am not at all surprised by the other negative Unilocal reviews. I would stay away from Eddie Z’s, and unless my experience drastically changes soon, I will never use this company again.

This is an awful experience that I gonna tell. The first sad thing is I have to start with one star in order to post this comment.
I ordered three shades of basic fabric from their downtown store, 818 W. North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60 642 (312) 951‑0400. During the installation, we found there was a pretty obvious seam in the middle of all three shades. Then we called their customer service during the installation process. Both customer service and installation persons promised us that they would bring back replacement for all three shades. However, after couple days, we called back to reach our original sales person in store. He said he can only replace these shades with a more expensive ones, and we have to pay the difference, because our windows are too tall (10 ft). And there will be no refund for any case from this company in the past. This is their POLICY !!!
Seriously ?! This is you fault because you didn’t tell their customer that there would be a OBVIOUS seam in the middle of all shades before customer placed the order. If customers have been well notified properly, they probably would have already chosen another supplier. So this is absolutely hidden fees or trick they used there. Trap you in and you have to stick with it ! This is their POLICY !!!
What’s the worst part? Not just of their dishonesty/​overlook, there is no follow-​up email/​call from this store after I called them. And he promised me that someone, either him or his manager will call me back. OK, I got it. This is their POLICY !!!
Last but not least, they don’t allow negative comment posted on their Facebook pages. Why? This is their POLICY !!!
So customers, GO CAUTIOUS with this store !!!

Only place open on a Sunday so we went there. Walked in and had to wait because the two employees were busy. Another couple walked in after us and they got helped before us. I’m looking at you TRENT. We were first. But not surprised the gay guy helps the gay couple first. Understaffed. Slim selection

This place was pretty convenient so I decided to stop by and give them a chance. Sure I read some bad reviews, but they’re still in business so they can’t be all bad right?
My lucky day! They had exactly what I wanted to match some other blinds already in my place, and they were on sale. Perfect!
Unfortunately they sold me a product they didn’t actually have and – after many months of trying – could not deliver. The first order… and the second one. included the wrong valances and malfunctioning parts. After months (August to March) of ordering replacement parts, then replacement blinds, then more replacement parts, and numerous attempts to order valances that matched the ones they sold me, they gave me the option of a full refund or a partial refund and the blinds.
I opted for the partial refund (and partial disappointment) over the hassle of uninstalling and returning everything. Refund took about 6 weeks to process after numerous followup calls. Between August and September I visited the store around 20 times and called and emailed countless times.
Some of the sales people were nice and tried to be helpful, so I regret this review a little. No idea when I’ll buy blinds again, but there’s no chance I’d go here.

This review is about a month overdue but we were really happy with the service that we got from Eddie Z’s getting new blinds throughout the house and drapery panels in our living room. I can’t remember the guy’s name who came to our initially for the design consultation, but he was so nice and very helpful without ever being pushing or making us feel like we were being up sold.
Scheduling the installation was easy and everything was ready for install about 2 weeks ahead of schedule, which we were really happy about. The installer (whose name I also can’t remember) was really nice, fast, and efficient and cleaned up after himself.
Honestly, we didn’t do much in terms of shopping around but I thought the price we paid was really reasonable, especially for the convenience of being able to do drapery panels and blinds together. The only comparison we had was from Ethan Allen, which was twice as much and did not include any blinds.
We’d definitely use Eddie Z’s again.

What a terrible experience. My first mistake was walking in to the store. They do not work well at all with walk ins. So word of advice, it will be a huge battle shopping for drapes here if you don’t already know exactly what you want ahead of time. Maybe send your interior designer instead.
I don’t know much about window treatments so I thought I could walk in and get guided through their process, services and products. Things like timing, cost, measurement and product selection. So the very first thing I said was, could you tell me more about your products and services and help me buy new curtains. Instead I was talked down to for not knowing this stuff already, not knowing the fabric I wanted (I mean I literally just walked in to the store and you expect me to have a fabric picked out already?), and I had to ask all the questions to figure out their process in the most painstaking way possible.
I asked if they could explain to me their fabrics and a design consultant huffed at me and said «Well we have thousands and I can’t help you until you pick one» and then flopped a book of swatches in front of me. I asked «Could you show me a modern gray?» and she acted like I didn’t deserve to even be in their store. I eventually found one myself by flipping through a book. They did not help me very much at all. They didn’t ask me things like, what color are your walls, what does your window look out onto, is it a floor to ceiling window, what room will this be in, etc. Basically the «design consultant» didn’t try to help me choose what would look good in context or provide her own recommendation. She also never introduced her name or ask for my own name or contact information. (Isn’t that the absolute very basics of customer sales?)
Talking to one of their design consultants felt like a humiliating and degrading conversation and I definitely would not want to work with Eddie Z’s. If they’re going to sell me $ 4,000+ curtains then I think you could treat me with a little more guidance and friendliness. You shouldn’t make it so difficult and complicated to shop at your store. Is that too much to expect these days? If you had simply been nicer and said things like, «This is a really nice fabric that will look great in your home» or «The brand that you picked is fantastic and known for quality» then I would have been exponentially more likely to work with you.
I do hope this review causes other shoppers to avoid Eddie Z’s until they retrain their sales staff to be helpful when selling $ 4,000+ curtains.

If I had read the reviews I never would have used Eddie Z. Although I must agree their phone sales staff leave a lot to be desired. They either hate the phone or dislike people.
The salesman came on time. Took needed time with me to decide on white shutters
Measurement person came on time
Installer came on time, very efficient. Shutters look fantastic.
On the corner near the bottom of one shutter is a small dent. Instead of replacement and installer returning, I offered to accept a fifty dollar refund. To their stupidity they are ordering a replacement and sending the installer again which will cost more then the fifty dollar rebate.
If they do not return, you will see another review.

I didn’t have any of the issues that other reviewers experienced. I was able to price out, order and install three window coverings in less than an hour total. Salespeople were helpful and courteous. Perhaps it helped to know what I wanted going into the process, but the whole process was painless and I’d recommend it to a friend.

Really unhelpful customer service. When I called about a repair I was told to «look up a place in the yellow pages.» Mind you, my blinds were originally purchased from Eddie Z’s — they have permanently lost my business.

We had an awesome experience with Eddie Z’s blinds. We were actually looking for another blinds place and got lost. Then we saw Eddie Z’s and said why not. We walked in and started looking around. Keep in mind that we looked like two poor college kids with our puffy jackets and worn out jeans. The sales rep, Cindy, was very professional and courteous. She explained to us the pros and cons of the different styles and tried to get a sense of our condo to help us pick the right style and color. She didn’t rush us or push us to buy. We ended up picking the honey comb shades with top down/​bottom up and continuous loop cord. When we couldn’t figure out a color, she let us borrow the swatches for a few days to compare. She also broke down the price for us including how much extra we are paying for the top/​bottom and continuous loop cord. We didn’t expect to make a purchase the same day but we were so impressed by her service that we knew this was the place.
Once we finalized the color, we set up appointment for measurement. Then we waited about 10 days for the shades to come in. The installation rep was very nice and easy going. Installation took about 20 mins or so. The only reason this was not a 5 stars review was because he got the measurements a little off so he wasn’t able to attach two of the cords to the frame. It’s not a huge deal since we don’t mind having the cords dangle freely.
While I think we might have gotten blinds installed for cheaper by going to Home Depot, I am really glad we went with Eddie Z for the excellent, worry free service. They also offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee with 21 days, if we didn’t like the color or something was wrong with the measurement.
A few tips for people shopping for blinds:
— the color swatches are small so envision what the color will be like for the ENTIRE window. Hot pink may be cute on the swatch but probably not when it’s the entire window.
— pricing can be different based on the size of the honeycomb so ask the sales rep for other options if the color/​style you picked is more expensive than you want to spend

After Unilocal, I got a call back right away from the regional manager, he said it was a «miscommunication». I also faxed in the guarentee and got a call the same day from the store.
I think what they do is charge one price and guide you toward a cheaper product.
I only suggest you know exactly what you want and read the contract before you pay for anything.
We met Craig, the manager, at the store. He was very nice and said yes, we could get what had been put in 7 years ago with the room darkening foil inside, the only problem was the color difference. The strings hanging down was the installer’s fault. It will now be 4 – 6 weeks for installation.

Only got to the estimate stage. Wanted a bay window curtain rod ONLY (they only do rod AND curtain estimates.) Was pricier than I wanted, so end of story. Came on time, professional, non-​pushy. Confirmed appt. Okay.

I’ve had a bit of a mixed experience w/​these guys. Called up to schedule an appointment and the lady on the phone was nice enough, got an appointment within a few days. Salesperson showed up and wasn’t a whole lot of help in picking things out. As a single guy who just wants something done easily, he wasn’t much help. I asked what he would recommend for my room and he recommended that I pick whatever I like. OK. Not too helpful. The pricing I got wasn’t broken down by line items, just a lump cost per blind. Seemed a little shady to price things this way as I have no idea what is really «included for free» vs an upgrade charge. They had a buy 2 blinds get 1 free thing going on and the price was inline with others.
I was told about 6 weeks for the blinds to be made and delivered. I received a few calls from them throughout the process notifying me of the status, which was nice rather than just not hearing anything for a month and a half. I got a message to schedule an install date and was able to get one within a few days.
The installer wasn’t very friendly and really only spoke some eastern European language to his assistant and never said anything to me. I pointed out that one of the blinds was crooked by about ¾″ and I wanted it straightened. It was clear he was just trying to get out the door quickly and he wouldn’t fix it. He left the old screws and brackets just laying on my floor which seemed sloppy. I also noticed I received routed blinds instead of the routeless that I ordered. Time to call customer service.
I explained that I received the incorrect blinds, she acknowledged that I should have received routeless and blamed the manufacturer… which is Eddie Z’s. Fair enough, they were made incorrectly, it happens. I also told her that the installer refused to fix my crooked blinds and requested that someone come out the next day to fix them. She was able to schedule this. The installer showed up and immediately saw the issue and fixed it. He had mentioned that he often has to fix installs that other people do and asked who my original installer was. The guy was top notch, really friendly and wasn’t just hurrying to get the job done. He also fixed a couple other issues from the original installer.
Overall, a so-​so experience. The problems were solved, but they use sub-​contractors to do the installs. They are not actual Eddie Z’s employees so they really have no reason to want to do a job properly. The customer service people were great, but they are a blinds company that sent me the wrong blinds and installed said wrong blinds incorrectly. Their only job is to send me blinds and install blinds and they messed up both of those tasks, but they were able to correct them. I don’t regret my experience, but they haven’t won a customer for life with this experience.

Really, Now, These People are so stupid when it comes to measuring, cleaning up after themselves. It was expensive, Rude and its amazing that that old lady manages to stay in business. Oh, and did I mention that they didn’t finish the Installation completely. Not worth the time.

The designer showed up after rescheduling his appointment. See, he lives in Lombard and coming out to my home at 6:00 was such a hassle. Boo hoo, you are in SALES. I should have canceled, but I was desperate for new blinds. The man proceeded to talk so fast that I thought he was trying out for that FedEx commercial. He clearly did not want to be there. Then he ran the numbers and gave us an obscene quote, even considering the «buy one get one» promotion. We didn’t know any better so I ordered the blinds, and the man literally ran out of my house to get home. The installer showed up a few weeks later and seemed to struggle with my cordless blinds. He also made reference to pubic hair which was a bit bizarre. I went to Home Depot weeks later and realized they carried better quality at a much more competitve price. Never again will I use Eddie Zs.

Terrible is the only word i can use to describe them. The installer has been out three times, and still has not completed the job. The fist time he came out the brackets were not included with the shades. Almost three weeks later, he came to install them again but some of the shades were not cut right. He said it would be a few days for them to re-​cut the missing shades and for him to come back and install them. I called two days later after not hearing anything for them to tell me it would be another two weeks for the shades to come in.
This is a place of business and the shades were extremely expensive. There is no excuse for these kinds of mistakes. Not only that, but one of the shades that were installed has been installed backwards and i can’t even roll it up.
I also paid extra for black out shades because this is a photography studio and we can’t have extra light leaking in. Well needless to say there are tons of light leaks.
Please learn from my mistakes and avoid doing business with Eddie Z’s at all cost! It’s just not worth the aggravation.

ZERO STARS
Everything Bryan H. says comes as no surprise. Avoid them!
First of all, the «consultant» who came out was incredibly negative, rude, and not very knowledgeable but thought she was. She barely brought any samples, telling us, «Well I didn’t know what you wanted!» What? I told the appointment setter.
She had tried to change her appointment with us on the day of and we accommodated. We’re in a condo and she complained about our stairs upon entering. Really sets the mood to drop FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS – what the quote turned out to be – doesn’t it?
She was such a charmer, making fun of the blinds we had. (We’re in a newer condo, with very nice «extras» and there is nothing wrong with what we have. Proof: We hated Eddie Z’s so much we decided to KEEP what we have and save our money.)
I really wanted to just boot her out one minute into it. Oh how I wish I had!
We told her we were interested in the blinds our neighbor has, also installed by Eddie Z’s. She went on and on about how those blinds were all wrong for those windows and it can’t be done and no one from Eddie Z’s would have done that. I said yes, they did, my neighbors even recommended them because of it. She then said the name of the person who would be the only one dumb enough to do it, and that she’s no longer with the company.
Things are going so well. I now have an awful opinion of this company, and can’t wait for this snippy and worthless consultation to end.
We then asked about another kind of blind. She told us she had no samples like that, drive to the North Ave. store to see them that day or the next. Or, look on the Web site. Uh-​huh … a .5″ thumbnail. Helpful. Or, drop everything and drive 30 min. Isn’t that what the consult is for?
She left with a scowl on her face. I don’t know what we did to make her short visit so miserable. I think she was embarrassed to be so out of breath from the stairs and it all went downhill from there.
She left telling us that if we didn’t hear from her, call for the quote. WHO does that? Well, she emailed. No follow-​up call, just a very terse email, with typos, and an outrageous almost $ 4k to cover 2 large windows with mediocre blinds. Mediocre in the pictures/“level”, but who knows since we never saw a sample of WHAT WE ASKED FOR when we made the appt.
Complete bs.
President can contact me if s/​he likes. I am not changing this review. ³⁄₃ terrible reviews here. Change your staff, and greatly improve your services. Don’t try and salvage negative word-​of-​mouth advertising after the fact.

After seeing their commercials for years… «Nobody does it better, Nobody!» When it was time for custom window treatments in a hurry, I gave them a call.
I was moving into my new place in just a few days, floor to ceiling windows in bedroom and living room, would be needing privacy, thought, this just might work out… it did not.
I called and booked an appointment with a «specialist»… The woman on the phone told me they had many items that would be available «next day»… Yey… I was not able to look at these selections.
LONG story short, she took down the wrong address, long story short, he ended up on the other side of the universe, was late, making me late, long story short, I asked to see samples of almost all «wood» selections when I placed the appointment… «I do not bring out the wood samples, unless specially requested» … but I did request them specially…
«He will call me tomorrow, and bring by the wood samples, styles, etc., He called 1.5 weeks later… I was moved in, blinds up on windows…
UPDATE!!! THREE STARS: The President of the company read my ONE STAR review and called me to discuss. I haven’t had the chance to talk to him yet, because I have been so busy. I think it’s good that He wants to find out in more detail why I was so unhappy with their service and try to make changes for future clients. That is why I changed my star rating, because they care. In my book that is important.