Beware - Do not hire Meridian Curtains! Overcharging and terrible customer service!I hired Meridian, which was appointed by the developer as my condo’s official curtain contractor, to install indoor block-out roller blinds and outdoor balcony blinds for my unit, and had a very bad experience.Overcharging on Materials:Desmond from Meridian gave me a quotation. He kept saying it was a “good price” and “very good price”. He also said that as Meridian was the developer’s official contractor, only it could offer the “best price”. In addition, Desmond said that the developer appointed Meridian to be the official contractor due to its integrity and good service provided by the company. Based on this, I hired Meridian. But this proved to be a mistake.I transacted in good faith and paid the deposit and balance payment promptly. However, I was shocked when I later found out that Meridian overcharged me. Desmond charged $6.00 psf for the indoor block-out roller blinds and $10.00 psf for the outdoor balcony blinds, which became $6.42 psf and $10.70 psf after adding GST.In contrast, I discovered that other large and reputable curtain companies charged far less for similar quality products. For example, The Curtain Expert charges $5.00 psf for indoor block-out roller blinds and $10.00 psf for outdoor balcony blinds, with the GST amount already built in.This means Meridian overcharged by 28.4% ($6.42 vs $5.00) for the indoor block-out roller blinds and 7.0% ($10.70 vs $10.00) for the outdoor balcony blinds!Desmond refused to provide a refund of the overcharged amount.
Terrible Customer Service:I asked Desmond for the cost breakdown between the indoor blinds and the outdoor blinds. He told me that the cost of the indoor blinds was $500 and the cost of the outdoor blinds was $800 (before GST). Based on the info he provided, the implied area for the indoor blinds was 83.33 sf ($500/$6 psf), and the implied area for the outdoor blinds was 80.00 sf ($800/$10 psf).I was wondering why the area of the indoor blinds was larger than the outdoor blinds, as the outdoor blinds looked larger. As such, I went to measure the indoor blinds, and found that the area was significantly less than 83.33 sf. It seemed that I had been overcharged on the area of the indoor blinds.I sent my measurements to Desmond and asked him to send a worker to verify the measurements. He immediately became hostile. He demanded that as a condition of verifying the measurement, I had to agree that if the reverse was the case – that if there was any undercharging – I had to pay him the difference.What kind of customer service is this? I made a reasonable request for the verification of the measurement, yet Desmond became hostile and imposed an absurd condition. Since when does the customer pay extra if the business undercharges? I have never heard of such a thing before.Desmond then suddenly said that cost of the indoor blinds was $432, instead of $500. Based on this new number, I calculated that the area was correct.It was Desmond’s own error of providing the wrong figure that led to the impression that I was overcharged by area. Yet he became hostile and demanded an absurd condition just to do a simple verification of the measurement.Absolutely terrible customer service!
Please do not make the same mistake I did. Source for quotations from other curtain companies.
