My Shades

What a rare treat to find a business that knows its stuff, takes pride in its work and follows through on its promises. I had some blinds that needed to be repaired, otherwise I would have had to replace all the blinds in my kitchen. Laura was able to assess the situation based on photos I sent her. In person, Jay confirmed the repair was possible and my blinds were as good as new in a couple of weeks. Stellar service that has made me a loyal customer.

I purchased blackout blinds from MyShades for a condo bedroom in November 2023. We have a responsible tenant in the condo. I provided a clear picture of the window and correct measurements. I trusted that based on the picture of the window and measurements provided to them they would select the appropriate blinds. In July 2024, the entire blinds came crashing down onto the floor (picture attached).

I called the company and spoke to Laura who was initially pleasant and said they would try to send someone in to look at it but they were busy but could maybe squeeze us in the following week. I also spoke to Jay who was also pleasant and said it was likely the tenant who pulled too hard on the blinds.

We had a very experienced building contractor come in for a separate job and the tenant took the opportunity to ask him about the blinds. He is an neutral party with no reason to give a biased opinion. His opinion was that the blinds were not correctly installed, meaning that for the weight of the blinds, a separate frame should've been installed. For example, the blinds were installed directly into the drywall on one side with only 3 screws and there should've been additional screws placed in the corners.

I phoned Laura to give an update with this new information and as soon as I said the phrase '...the blinds were not correctly installed...', she immediately lashed out at me with a raised voice, using phrases like '...been in the business for 40 years..' and that she wasn't going to let someone ruin their reputation or something like that. I was really taken aback because my intent was not to blame but to point out what we were told and then to work together to find a solution. It was really a disrespectful, inappropriate, and unprofessional response to my phone call.

The tenant also called about a week later to give her firsthand account of the situation with the blinds but was not able to have a proper conversation as Laura yelled at her using the phrases '...been in the business 40 years...' and made accusations and false assumptions towards the tenant. Laura refused to listen to anything she tried to say and the tenant was really shaken by the way she was treated.

After these encounters I wrote an e-mail to Jay and said I would only be communicating with him moving forward. Jay is calmer and easier to talk to, but he still continued to insist that the blinds were correctly installed and the tenant must've pulled too hard. I questioned the choice of blinds that they installed, which based on their 40 years of experience, I would've thought they'd recommend a blind with the lever on the left hand side, considering the picture I showed them of the window clearly showed a wall on the right hand side of the window.

In the meantime, we did have the building contractor reinstall the shades properly for us. As you can imagine, it's not pleasant to try to sleep without any blinds.

They did eventually come in to take a look themselves and continued insinuating that the tenant didn't know how to use blinds properly and that was why the blinds came crashing down.

I thought about whether or not to write this review and decided to because it's not okay to try to bully or intimidate clients who try to speak up or question things. And it's okay for a business to admit if there was an oversight or mistake on their part, just be willing to work with the client in a respectful way. Everything I have written here, I have communicated directly with the business.

I do see that the business has many 5 star Google reviews so I'm sure writing this would not hurt the business. I did receive an e-mail from the business soon after the blinds were initially installed, asking for a positive review, which I didn't do at the time, and now I'm glad I didn't.

REVIEW: MyShades, Doncaster Drive Thornhill Ontario

After much deliberation, weve decided to post our experience with MyShades, authorized Hunter Douglas dealer in Thornhill.
My husband and I planned a major refresh of our home of forty years. This was to include professional cleaning of existing window shades as well as replacement of existing fabric draperies in all bedrooms and living room/dining room. We did our research, found an authorized Hunter Douglas dealer and renewed our commitment to shop local. The repair and cleaning of one shade panel, and cleaning of an additional pair, was to be a test run with our chosen vendor/provider.

Laura, the owner/operator of MyShades, assured that the simple repair required could be easily done, and that all three shades would be handled as an individual order, discrete from other customers. Laura, the owner operator, was aggressive in pushing back against our expressed wish to re-install the shades ourselves upon completion of work. Likewise when we discussed next steps in our refresh project, she continued to negate our capacity to remove and re-install our blinds, despite being told that we had done this successfully on other occasions. We do it without damage, never a complaint. We firmly declined her recommendation and left our shades for the requested repair and cleaning.

The work was completed promptly and we returned to MyShades to collect our shades; again, we were urged to let them re-install. Again we firmly declined.

A day later, we unpacked our freshly cleaned and repaired shades and were stunned to discover that the header on each of the three shades was scribed in black marker with our surname. Further, one panel had a small dab of black marker on the fabric just below the header.

We phoned the operator promptly. Jay advised that we always mark them that way and went on to inform me that weve done it that way for almost forty years. You wont see it. I countered that marking a clients goods in any way was unsatisfactory and unprofessional. Take a picture was his patronizing response.

We then contacted a major authorized Hunter Douglas cleaning source, recommended by Hunter Douglas and another authorized vendor, who confirmed that shades are NEVER marked prior to cleaning.

Were dumbfounded.

Forty years of home ownership and maintenance and weve never had a trade/service/vendor mark our goods for their own convenience. You wont see it is a rationale for we couldnt be bothered. Avoid this business. There are plenty of authorized dealers in the vicinity who wont bully and patronize you.

Upon moving into our "new" home, I faced a dilemma with window coverings - two patio doors in two rooms within close proximity to each other. The previous owner had purchased a relatively new Hunter Douglas Luminette Blind for the kitchen patio doors. My challenge was to find the exact same Hunter Douglas Luminette Blind for my Family Room patio doors at the best possible price (installed).
Contacting pretty much every drapery company in the GTA for a quote became discouraging and exhausting, as I realized very quickly this was an expensive product. To my delight, "My Shades" in Thornhill ON, provided me with the same product, same colour at the best price. Ali was pleasant and professional to deal with. She came to my residence, measured the Patio Door opening and matched the colour. The result? A gorgeous Hunter Douglas Luminette Blind, exactly as I envisioned, installed in about an hour within two weeks after placing the order. No mess, no complaints. I'm loving my new Hunter Douglas Luminette Blind thanks to "My Shades."