I had been looking at blackout blind options for more than six months and was mostly decided on the Total Blackout XL for many months before placing the order. The reason it took me so long is I was concerned to confirm they would work with the setup of my window and I was terrified of getting the measurements wrong. I'm not an expert measurer by any stretch of the imagination but I'm pretty careful/OCD. I measured and re-measured on many occasions and with three different measuring devices (2 tape measures and I also specially bought a laser measuring device) and was concerned that I was getting slightly different measurements depending on which device and exactly where on the window I measured. I phoned the company twice before placing the order online to clarify and discuss my concerns. I was told that there was several millimetres flexibility across the width measurement (it was many months ago but I'm fairly sure it was 4mm flexibility I was told). I understood flexibility across the width to mean that the measurements of the width had several millimetres flexibility so the exact width wasn't that important provided it was close enough (within the advised variance). My understanding was not corrected (presumably because the people I discussed it with on the phone didn't understand that my interpretation of the word flexibility was not what I understood. I therefore went ahead and ordered the blinds at a width that was midway between the biggest width I'd measured and the smallest, which left me comfortably within the "flexibility". When it came to fitting the blinds, it was a very tight fit and required some pretty tough shoving to get the blind cassette into the window recess. And once it was in situ and we tried operating the blind it didn't work properly - about half way down the blind would gape out of the channels in a couple of places, hence obviously letting light in. Additionally, the blinds let some light in at the top corners through the cassette, which as far as I can tell is unrelated to the fact that the blind is a millimetre or so too big. We very quickly established that I had ordered the blind slightly too big. I explained that I had ordered the blinds based on the info I was provided on the phone on flexibility across the width. It was then explained over email that flexibility across the width in fact meant variance based on the walls of the recess not being completely square. I was essentially told I was an idiot for thinking that I could order a blind bigger than the recess and it would work. I explained that as a person who has never seen the blinds in person and didn't have a detailed understanding of how they work it was not obvious that my understanding would not work (for example perhaps there is some material with some give in it that could be compressed slightly if the space was a bit smaller and would expand to fill a larger space). I recounted the conversation about the flexibility across the width to several people with better DIY knowledge than me before placing the order and no-one commented on it sounding unlikely/impossible. The company does not record phone calls and so couldn't listen back to the conversation but I was assured that all the staff were very well trained. Yet a different member of staff responded to one of my emails while the one I had been conversing with was on holiday and this member of staff gave me incorrect information over email that the original person then corrected on her return from annual leave, suggesting to me they aren't all so well trained after all. I explained that I felt they should take responsibility for having given me misleading information over the phone and replace the blinds with no additional charge to me. I was repeatedly asked to remeasure and check lots of things, spent disappointing additional time measuring and emailing. They would forget what I'd said before, ask me to re-send correspondence, re-explain points. All in all wasted so many hours of my time and said they would not replace the blind free of charge because I'd ordered it too big - which pretty much became obvious from the get go. Why put me through all that wasted effort just to say that?! And it misses the point of how I came to order the blind too big (i.e the information they gave me on the phone). I don't believe the blinds would completely black out light as they claim even if it had fitted like a glove because of the gaps in the cassette itself. On principle I wouldn't pay another penny to a company that had wasted so much of my time even if I did believe in the product. Installing the blind involved cutting out sections of the skirting on either side of the recess. And on my particular window, the sides of the blind block the window so it only opens a couple of inches. All a complete car crash - I would strong advise avoiding this company.