Shade, Inc.

Wow. I have never been turned down to get a quote before. That is pretty silly. I called them to ask if I can get a quote and Erik asked me to email him some photos of our window. He called me back promptly and after being so snooty and snobby on the phone he told me that if I was just calling people to get the best quote then I better take my business elsewhere because they are not the company for that. All I can say is — you need to work on your phone etiquette and the way you deal with customers.

I love Shade! I only wish I had more windows for them to work with!
Erik has a brilliant design sense and was super helpful and knowledgeable with his recommendations for my master bedroom. My roman shades look incredible — I just love them!

I really loved Shade Inc. They were friendly and very professional, someone came to my home to help me select the best type of shades and fabric, and the installation was fantastic. It’s a little pricey but worth it because they know there stuff and your shades will look fantastic! The turnaround was about 4 weeks, which I think is to be expected. Another reviewer talked about not getting status updates, but really I’m not sure why that would be helpful unless your order was delayed. I had a great experience with them. As soon as they had my shades, they sent someone out to put them up and they have been looking great ever since.
If you have money to spend and want high quality, go there. You won’t be disappointed.

If you have no budget and lots of time, Shade, Inc. are the people to see. They will go over your budget and waste your time. Call them see how long it takes to get a return phone call.

I have worked with Erik from Shade, Inc for years and he’s fantastic. He not only knows the business very well, but absolutely stands behind all of his products. He has gone out of his way on several occasions to make sure we have been happy, satisfied customers. The time he has taken with us to pick out the right fabric and shades for our entire home is above and beyond. He is an absolute professional and cares a lot about his clients and their satisfaction. We will always look to Erik and his team for our shade needs and look forward to referring him more business in the future.

My experience with Shade, Inc was extremely disappointing and unsatisfying.
After reading their reviews on Unilocal,I decided to visit their showroom. I was impressed by the simplicity/​minimalistic feel of thir showroom. I decided to give them a try. Before we placed the order for our roller shades, their service was still good. They informed us the estimated time for our shades to be ready for delivery/​installation is 3 weeks. After we placed our order and the down payment, their service went minimalistic like their showroom.
1) For 3 weeks, I did not receive any updates, not a word on the progress/​status of our order. I had to request for the status.
2) Erik, our designer had no clue what the status was on our order. It wasn’t until my request for the status, he called their manufacturer for the status of our order.
3) Then I was informed that our order was delayed for 3 more weeks due to the material we ordered was back-​order. I asked Erik if he knew about the back-​order before we placed our order. He said he didn’t know about it. I was surprised that he did not check to ensure the material we ordered was in stock. If he did and informed us about it, we would have considered ordering a different material so we can have our shades installed within our planned time frame. If I did not call to request for the status, he would not have checked and be informed the material was back-​order. This is not professional nor the kind of quality service I anticipated.
4) After our shades were ready to be delivered/​installed, I emailed Erike our HOA’s requirements for the window covering contractor to complete prior to the delivery and the installation. The response time was slow and it was incomplete the first couple of times.
5) We decided to motorize our shades, but do not trust Shade, Inc any more therefore we hired another vendor to do the job. Erik at Shade, Inc made it extremely difficult for us to look at our shades stored in their warehouse. The shades we paid half of the total balance of about $ 4300. My other vendor needed to look at these shades in order to tell us whether he can motorize them or not. At first Erik told me to send him over, he’ll show him the shades. When the other vendor showed up, they refused to open the box and show him the shades unless we pay the remaining balance in full. Why didn’t he inform me that before I sent the other vendor over? I don’t know. We just wanted to see the size of the tubes that were used for our shades. At this point, I just want to pay, pick up our shades, share my negative experience with Shade, Inc. on Unilocal,and don’t ever have to deal with them again.
6) So after we made the payment, Erik emailed me a form to sign to authorize the release to the other vendor for pick-​up. I was out-​of-​town without access to a fax machine/​printer/​scanner. I emailed him back an electronic signature. At first he said it’s a blank form I sent, then I pointed out my e-​signature to him I attached in the email sent from me to him. Shouldn’t that be enough to authorize the release? He demanded a hand-​written signature. When I worked with Studio Becker, they made it extremely easy for me. I was out of town and they allowed all works to be done with my e-​signatures/​e-​authorizations. That’s professional and quality customer service. Shade, Inc.‘s customer service is poor and made everything more difficult for us. I started to feel that he did it intentionally.
7) Finally, the other vendor picked up our shades and examined them. He informed us that he is able to motorize our shades as long as he upgrades the tubes. He said that the tubes Shade, Inc. used are metal tubes, low quality. WOW! When I interviewed the other vendors for motorizing shades, I found out that we paid over $ 1000 more for our roller shades via Shade, Inc than the other 3 top window covering companies would have charged us. We do not mind paying a little more for quality products and quality service, but paying $ 1000 more for the low-​end products and the poor customer service? We definitely got ripped off by Shade, Inc. Now I know why they made it extremely difficult for us to look at the shade before we pay off the remaining balance. They were probably afraid that we might not pay the remaining balance after finding out the low-​end materials they used to manufacture our shades.
My experience with Shade, Inc. is extremely disappointing, frustrating, and unsatisfying. I would never want anyone to have to experience the frustration and the disappointment I experienced with them.
OMG!!! My nightmare with Shade, Inc is not over. I just found out that the width of our 2 window shade pieces made/​measured by Shade, Inc. are too wide. Fortunately my current shade vendor will adjust them for us free of charge. Terrible!

Being a new homeowner, the process of furnishing can seem daunting, but Chris at Shade made the process of finding the right window coverings easy. He is the consummate professional and everything looks awesome. Thanks Shade!

Shade, Inc. rocks! Chris did a great job helping us find the perfect shades (which included freeing me of some of my misconceptions) and getting the price right. The installation was flawless and amazingly fast. Couldn’t be happier. Getting everything done required a little bit of phone tag, but no real big deal (these folks deserve to be busy). We’re very pleased with the whole process.

I use the services at Shade whenever I need a PERFECT result. I’ve worked with Erik Swensen for years. He has wonderful taste, is great with my clients and he’ll execute even the most problematic creative idea. Erik, Linda and Chris are all wonderful to work with and there is nothing they can’t tackle. If you need fabulous window treatments that work just right and look just beautiful you can’t find a better resource than Shade.

I rolled by the Roman Shade Company and discovered the people I loved working with (Linda, Erik and Chris) had left to start their own company, Shade.
Their permanent space is still being constructed but I visited their temporary show room. They showed me mock ups of their new space and it looks fantastic.
Linda was able to help me pick out gorgeous, classic, chic roman shades for my new place. She definitely has good taste, reigning me in from picking the «hottest» looking thing to something that I want to live with for years to come. Thanks Linda!