Closets by Design - Pittsburgh — Local services in Washington

Dear Mr. Donina:

I wanted to share my experience with Closets By Design with you. In early winter, I began getting estimates to do some remodeling and organizing in my garage. I started with getting the garage painted, some electrical work completed, and a new stone floor. I needed to have cabinets installed to get things off the floor and more accessible to me as I am getting older.

When I called and scheduled an appointment with Closets By Design, I met Janice Crookshank, a sales representative. I was overly impressed with how she just listened to what I wanted and needed. During the 2 hours we spent together, I never felt rushed. Her ideas and suggestions were great, and she appreciated what I wanted and needed. She did extensive measuring and Jan came back several times to talk, bring sample colors that I thought I might like, and to do a little remeasuring as I changed my mind! She even had 4 of my color samples made with trim colors so I could make a better coordination decision. Jan was a great ‘go-between’ in working with me and the company on pricing, colors, and styles. Although I worked with 3 different companies and sales representatives getting quotes and design ideas, Jan was the reason I signed with Closets By Design. I knew I would never be happier working with anyone except Jan.

And then I met Michael, the person who was going to install my closets. What a delight! His professionalism, work ethic, ideas, and personality were remarkable. He smiled from the time I greeted him in the morning until he cleaned up and left for the day. Not only did he endure my puppy wanting to help him complete the work, but on day 2 he brought a tennis ball to play with her, and on day 3 he had dog treats with him! He did so many extra things to add to the finishing touches that I don’t want to mention in case it would get him in trouble!

Needless to say, my project was a success! I was so happy I called Jan to come and look at it. She was thrilled to have a chance to see the ‘finished’ project and came right over. I am not sure who was happier with the outcome her or I! Jan and Michael are certainly ‘keepers’!

I think these two people are a direct reflection on you and your company. Both Jan and Michael made comments at different times about how positive it is to work for you and how happy they are with their job because of the employee/administrator relationship. I think it doesn’t matter how good a product is, if you don’t have good sales representatives, experienced installers, and a business owner who values their employees and customers, a business will not thrive.

Thank you for making this experience so positive for me. I would trust Closets By Design to do work for me any...

We got our master closet done and I would give that experience 5 stars. It came out beautiful and finished in one day. We loved the closet so much that we decided to get our two pantries done in the kitchen. The designer came, same one we used for the closet, and took measurements. We discussed exactly what we wanted and if it would be achievable. The designer guaranteed that it was possible.

One the day of install after all of the materials were brought in it was found the design was off by 3 inches and would need to be re-cut and another install date was set for 3 days later. We were frustrated but understood mistakes can happen. The second time the installer came and completed the project, it looked horrible. They did not look like custom built ins, sat back too far, and we lost space from what we previously had.

This was not the installers fault but the designer had provided measurements that were completely off from what we agreed upon. We immediately called the owner and he agreed that this was not quality work and would need to be re-done (again). My husband had to make multiple calls to the owner and associates to finally get someone to our home and re-assess needs later that week. After an email chain back and forth new blueprints were drawn up and an install date was set for two weeks later. We were left with no access to our pantries during that time and all of our items were overflowing in our dining room.

No discounts were offered due to their designers error or for our inconvenience of having three install dates to fix these problems. In total we have paid close to $10,000 for the work on our closet and pantries and expected a better process. It was frustrating to say the least especially accommodating the install dates while both working full-time and having small children to contend with and no access to our pantries.

Again, closet install experience was vastly different and awesome. I will say that installer, Jimmy, did a great job and came into our home with kindness and got the job done with the blueprints he received each time. We worked closely with Mike who made sure the final blueprint was approved and came to make sure we were satisfied. So I do appreciate that.

We wanted to get an additional pantry door ordered from them but unsure of giving additional business now. Please see before/after photos of the pantries that...

This company has a decent quality product however they are extremely unorganized and unprofessional. They had to come to our house on 3 different occasions spread out over 6 weeks to complete a job that was supposed to be done in 1 day. They showed up twice without the proper materials, had flaws in the plans laid out by the initial designer who came out, and finally after coming out for their 3rd time, it was finished. Throughout this time, we were left with clothes spread out in multiple rooms throughout our house for 6 weeks since we had an incomplete closet.

Dealing with management has been a nightmare. They have fought us on discounts for the mistakes and inconvenience each time they had to reschedule and come back, and are still charging us for things that we did not actually receive. It is also ironic that their fine print says they will charge you fee of 20% more if you have to postpone or reschdule the job however we had to fight them tooth and nail for less than a 5% discount each time that they couldn't finish the job and had to reschedule a time to come back. I wish that I would have never reached out to them and did the work myself.

There were 2 reasons that I wanted a company to do this for me as opposed to doing this myself:

1. I wanted their design expertise so that we could maximize usable space but unfortunately their expertise did not amount to much - I hoped that being in this business, they would have more suggestions on how to utilize our space the best way possible, but they basically just mimicked what we had already and just got us a nicer closet compared to wire shelving that we had before.
2. I liked the idea of being done in 1 day and knew if I did this project myself, that it would probably take me a couple weeks of work in the evenings as and that I would be left with clothes everywhere throughout my house for these couple weeks until the project was done - but in the end I actually ended up with clothes all over my house for 6 weeks!

Please be cautious and not too quick to jump to say yes since they offer 40% off and another 15% off if you commit the day of the consultation. I had not read many negative reviews on this company and I'm sure that not everyone has this experience with them but I can say that from this experience, I will NEVER do business with this company again...