When I ordered my blinds, I was told they would be coming from Ca. However,
during a call to customer service, I was told that they had been made in Houston. Since I live in Houston, I said that I could have saved the $70
shipping charge by picking them up myself. The rep said perhaps she could get half the shipping charge refunded.
I called back a couple weeks later to see if any action had been taken on the refund. I was told that there was no way the blinds were made in Houston
and the shipping charge would not be adjusted. In my mind, there was almost no way the blinds were made and shipped from Ca. The tracking info I got online did not indicate any shipment from Ca. and only showed activity from Houston. The time from
order to delivery was way to short to
have been made and shipped to me from Ca. The explanations given me during my second call did not make sense. Other than that, I am pleased with the product.
Response from Blindster
I'm sorry you didn't believe our explanation. All of our vertical blinds and some of our horizontal blinds are made in California. To try to reduce shipping damage the California factory decided to stop using ground delivery service for blinds that are shipped to points east of Houston, Texas. The company instead loads them onto a truck that then takes them directly (also saving a lot of time because the truck drives straight through to Houston) to the FedEx terminal in Houston.
The confusion is caused because the FedEx package is scanned and labeled at the California factory. However, no tracking information is available in the FedEx tracking system until after the package is received at the Houston terminal. So, it looks like the package was shipped but is not moving when you look at the tracking information.
The $70 shipping charge that we charge our customers for oversize freight does not begin to cover the additional cost involved with shipping products that are wider the 94 inches. We absorb all the additional freight cost incurred.
I apologize for the confusion.