Yowsa! It's hard to believe a company would limit sales like this at all, but especially in this economy. I wonder whether there isn't a major loophole somewhere in this policy that will somehow allow internet sales, such as for someone with a brick and mortar storefront design store.

I believe this policy was already in existence for the sale of their Silhouettes.

My understanding from other reading I've done on the matter is that "No", design stores will not be able to sell through the internet. This is how I learned of their new policy - from a design store website saying they could not sell them anymore over the internet after the cut-off date.

The H-D CEO acknowledges in the article that they anticipate sales initially dropping off due to this, but feels that keeping the brand "exclusive" will eventually increase sales, surpassing their current sales mark.

I think they are making a huge mistake. Just like I am not going to drive 600 miles round trip to buy an exclusive item at IKEA, I don't think H-D window treatments are all that different that customers won't find a more friendly alternative. (Some IKEA items are not available to be shipped and must be picked up at the store. No thanks. I'll just go to Lowes or shop from an online retailer and get something just as good at a similar price.)

While this new arrangement will help design stores, since a certain percentage of buyers will be driven to their store thus increasing their sales, overall Hunter-Douglas will lose out, I think.

I think part of the equation may be H-D's guarantee policy. They stand behind their products in a Nordstrom-like way. Bricks and mortar dealers can just visit the client's house and make warranty adjustments on product they've sold. My guess is that H-D does not get charged back for this kind of tweaking.

I don't know how they deal with warranties on net sales, but I can imagine it is more complicated/costly. Perhaps they feel they can cut expenses by avoiding certain warranty issues that may be more prevalent with product ordered through the net.

"I don't know how they deal with warranties on net sales, but I can imagine it is more complicated/costly."

Probably.

I don't know if Levolar has anything you'd be interested in, Dilly, but their customer service and quality is excellent.

When we ordered ours from an internet dealer, and then DH made a mess out of them (don't ask), they fixed them, free of charge, and even paid for the shipping.

Thanks for the Levolar recommendation but I've already gone with Bali. Although I love my Hunter-Douglas Silhouettes in my LR/DR doing 13 more windows in Silhouettes was too $$$$.

Hmmm, so I was at Home Depot yesterday and had a chat with the clerk. (They no longer carry Hunter-Douglas anymore.) The clerk told me that Hunter-Douglas was going to sell exclusivly directly through reps with "in home sales". This sounds like a step backwards. I did not verify this tidbit of info by calling Hunter-Douglas yet but I intend to. The clerk also told me that Hunter-Douglas in coming out with an economy line of their Sillouettes to be sold through retail outlets but will not have the Hunter-Douglas name attached to them in any way. I think she told me the brand will be called *All Blinds* or something similar.

Hope this helps anyone who is planning on a Hunter-Douglas purchase.

Hunter-Douglas in coming out with an economy line of their Sillouettes to be sold through retail outlets but will not have the Hunter-Douglas name attached to them in any way.

They have had that economy line for several years - the Shangri-la line of horizontal shades.

I live in Western Canada. 4 years ago I bought 2'' wooden blinds for all the very large windows in my condo...somewhere in the neighborhood of $5000.00. One of the reasons I spent so much money was the lifetime guarantee. Thought it would be good for resale down the line.

I bought from a local dealer. After a few months I had a couple of minor cord issues. I called the dealer and told her the problem. She said that warranty issues were handled by H-D and the blind would have to be sent back to them in the US. As a courtesy she sent someone out to fix the cord issue, but implied she would not do it again.

I was quite shocked. Had I known this I would not have spent that kind of money. Can't even imagine how I would box up a large blind, let alone what the shipping cost would be. So far I've had no problems.

I purchased Bali honey comb cordless shades and can tell you from personal experience that their warrantee is excellent. They were not cheap. but when one malfunctioned, I called and they just sent another blind. The blind was 96" wide.

I'm a huge fan of Hunter Douglas products, but I guess I'll be switching to Bali.

I'm trying to get my Hunter Douglas faux wood blind order in before they make the change. I can't tell from the monitor which white color they offer is just a pure white. Has anyone ordered these and figured out a true white color from HD?

Thanks.

De