I Hate Looking Like an Idiot

So here I am, innocently enjoying my Saturday afternoon, when the phone rings.  It’s a client.  I very rarely take client calls on weekends (business boundaries and all that), but I just had that feeling I should answer.  Which I did.

Said client is having her Hunter Douglas woven wood shade installed in her master bathroom, above her giant corner bathtub. 

Backstory:  When we were planning this window treatment, she very reasonably pointed out to me that she’d like the top-down-botton-up control on the right-hand side, because otherwise she’d be climbing in the tub everyday to raise and lower the shade.  To which I very reasonably answered that it’s Hunter Douglas, and that should be no problem.  Turns out, that was a problem, and for whatever reason, on THIS PARTICULAR TYPE OF SHADE, the lift mechanism must be on the right, and the top-down-bottom-up on the left.  Well that sounded ridiculous to me (and I couldn’t believe that this had never come up in the 10-ish years I’ve been using this product), but my rep confirmed directly with Hunter Douglas that this was the case.  I passed the news on to my client, we agreed that this shade really was the perfect look for the room, and she went ahead with it anyway.

Now the installer is there, and I’m assuming that she must have innocently reported to him how we would have liked to have the mechanisms switched, but we were told that was not an option.  I love this installer.  He installs Hunter all day, every day, and knows pretty much everything there is to know.  He tells her that she could absolutely have had them switched.  Say what?

Now here she is, calling me, and I don’t blame her in the slightest.  I tell her I’ll call her right back, and in turn call MY rep… … … who has left early for the day, and I can’t reach her on her cell phone.  Isn’t this fun?

Now I get to call my client back and tell her that I don’t know WHAT to tell her.  Should she send back the shade and hope the installer is correct, even though she now has no covering on her master bathroom window?  Should she go ahead and have it installed, knowing there’s a chance she could have had it switched?  Hell if I know.  I ask to talk to the installer, but he’s on the phone.  Omg.

Fortunately, she is a wonderful human being not prone to getting her panties in a twist about every little thing.  So we chat about other things while we wait for the installer to finish his call.  (Who the heck is he talking to anyway??)  Several minutes later, he hangs up the phone and she passes me over to him. 

“Kristy,” he says in his very thick accent, “we will take the shade back and have it switched.”

“But Hunter says we can’t do that,” I tell him.

“Yes, but now they say you can.”

Are you freakin’ kidding me????  I should write them a letter.  It would go something like this:

Dear Hunter Douglas,

I HATE LOOKING LIKE AN IDIOT.  You are a high-end window covering manufacturer, and I expect my clients to be accomodated in reasonable requests when it is reasonably possible.  BEFORE I LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT.  Isn’t that reasonable?  I think so too.  If you wish me to continue using your product on the vast majority of my projects, let’s avoid making me look like an idiot, shall we?  Thank you.

Evidently, I shall pass all future requests through my installer.

*stomps off in a huff*