I have copied an email that I have sent to the CEO as I am fed up of dealing with the incompetent staff at the Altrincham branch. If you are thinking of getting made to measure curtains or blinds..... DONT! Dear Mr Wilkinson, I am emailing you regarding an ongoing issue I am having with the Altincham branch of Dunelm. I am very disappointed that I have had to take such measures, however as I have not been able to reach a resolution using your company complaints procedure I have decided to contact you is the best way to proceed. Attached below is my initial email of complaint sent on Friday 9th November 2018: To whom it may concern, I am sending this complaint because I am dissatisfied with the service I have been provided by the 'made to measure service' at the Altrincham store. I initially visited Dunelm in Altrincham on 25th September 2018 with a view to purchasing made to measure curtains blinds for the whole of my house. I was quite clear from the intial consultation that we would require measuring, fitting and all curtain poles and tracks for blinds. I requested my samples, and an appointment was made for the windows to be measured on Thursday 4th October. Unfortunately, when the 'expert' came to take the measurements, he missed out 2 windows. So on Friday 5th October when I went to place my order with my selected fabrics, I was unable to do so as not all the measurements were available. Furthermore, the 2 staff members I encountered on the 'made to measure' desk were both quite vocal in telling me 'they did not know what they were doing' regarding the inputting of the measurements. Needless to say, this did not fill me with confidence, and I opted to return to the store on Monday 8th October when they assured me a more senior member of staff would be able to place my order. On Monday 8th October I returned to the store to place my order. All was going well until when running through the order, it transpired that the fitting of the curtains and blinds, and also the curtain poles had not been added to my order. This was only highlighted when I, as the customer, asked that we go through the order to check that everything required was there. By this point I was becoming increasingly frustrated, however because I had spent over a week dealing with your company I decided to persevere. I was informed it would be 4 weeks for the curtains and blinds to be made. I paid a deposit of £768, half the cost of the curtains and blinds with an additional £330 outstanding for the curtain poles. On Monday 5th November, with 4 weeks having passed I decided to go into the store to check the status of my order having heard nothing. I was advised that the curtains and blinds had arrived, however they were awaiting delivery of the curtain poles. I was assured these usually arrive the same week, and that somebody would chase the delivery the next day (Tuesday 6th November) and contact me to update me. I enquired about fitting and was informed there was a slot available for fitting on Friday 9th November afternoon, or if not early next week. As we have now been without curtains/blinds for over a month I informed the staff member I would like this slot, and I would arrange to take holiday from work. I also asked that should there be any reason why they couldn't be fitted on Friday 9th November someone contact me so as not to waste a day of my annual leave. Again, no contact was made by the store. On Wednesday 7th November, i returned to the store and spoke to another staff member who informed me nobody had been able to make contact with the warehouse that distributes the curtain poles, but that somebody would contact me on Thursday 8th November to confirm whether they had arrived and whether fitting would go ahead on Friday. I waited until 5pm yesterday, and still I had heard nothing. Not wanting to make my 3rd visit of the week to the store, I made contact by telephone. After being kept on hold for 15 minutes I was eventually informed that the curtain poles have been sent to the wrong store, and the next time a fitter could accommodate me would be Monday 19th November. Frankly this is not good enough. Not only have I now wasted a days annual leave for a fitting that didn't take place, I have a prolonged wait to have the curtains and blinds fitted due to an error that isn't my fault. I appreciate that mistakes are made, however the whole experience has been plagued by the inability of staff supposedly specialising in 'made to measure' being unable to communicate effectively. I have been significantly inconvenienced and I feel I have had to manage the whole process myself. As a paying customer I feel this is unacceptable. I await your response with details of how I will be compensated. Yours sincerely, Rebecca Morton Having submitted my complaint on 9/11/2018 I received an automated email informing this would be responded to within 72 hours. By Wednesday 14th November 2018, having had no response I contacted your customer service team via twitter, where I was informed my complaint would be highlighted to the appropriate team. Later that day I received an email informing me that the complaint had been passed to the Altrincham store to look into 'straight away' and that somebody would contact me within 48 hours. Imagine my surprise, when on Friday 15th November I received email and text notification of my fitting being rescheduled AGAIN to Wednesday 28th November. Having not had any contact from the store to inform me of this, I contacted the store to clarify, and was informed by the made to measure 'Team Leader' that the curtain poles that had originally been delivered to the wrong store had now been lost completely, hence a further delay on the fitting. Once again, it was only due to me pursuing this that I was informed. The 'Team Leader' assured me that once the curtains, blinds & poles had been delivered and fitted she would discuss a gesture of goodwill to compensate for the inconvenience experienced so far. On Monday 26th November, having heard nothing I decided to visit the store to clarify when we would need to pay the remaining balance. It was fortunate that I made this trip, as I was told by a staff member that the final balance was due on that day. Yet again, no communication from the store regarding this. Worryingly, when I asked to speak to the store manager about my dissatisfaction about the service I have experienced, she refused to come and speak to me. Also worryingly, and also rather disappointingly, I was informed by an employee that the missing curtain poles and not actually ever been ordered; meaning that I had been lied to. On Wednesday 28th November, excited at the prospect of coming home to newly fitted curtains and blinds, I received a phone call from my partner explaining to me there was a problem with the fitting. Unfortunately, despite the 'expert' measurer clearly stating on the order form that tracks would be required to fit the curtains for our bay windows, your made to measure 'Team Leader' had advised us to purchase poles. We are now nearly 2 months down the line from placing the order, and we still remain without curtains in our living room and bedroom, the most utilised rooms in our house. Not to mention, we have now used 3 days of our annual leave to accommodate a fitting which should have only taken a couple of hours. Following the incident on 28th November, I was promised faithfully by the store manager that she would personally see to it that the correct tracks were ordered and the remainder of our fitting would be made a priority. Nearly a week has passed and I have yet to hear from her, instead I have had to continually chase to be updated on the status of the order. We have now been given an appointment for the remaining curtains to be fitted on Thursday 13th December, however that is dependent on the awaited tracks being dispatched- I won't hold my breath. I only hope that this won't be another day of our precious annual leave wasted. We chose Dunelm to purchase our curtains and blinds from because we have been loyal customers for a number of years, unfortunately we will not be returning and neither would I recommend anyone to purchase from you. I have taken the liberty of attaching the Dunelm 'vision & strategy' from the company website. I would like to ask you whether you feel the experience I have described above fulfils this? OUR VISION IS TO BE THE LEADING MULTICHANNEL SPECIALIST. FAMOUS FOR style, value, quality AND ease of shopping. OUR PURPOSE IS TO HELP EVERYONE CREATE A HOME THEY LOVE. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Rebecca Morton