Pole Design Recensioni 

Following on from previous complaints. I googled flexible curtain rail and pole design was near the top. On the website an image of a curved pole so assumed it was flexible. It did at the bottom of the description say that custom bending for bay windows would need to be done in factory but as only wanted a curve at one end assumed that would work. The rail when it arrived was completely rigid.
Tried a phone call, message to say not accepting calls and to email. Did get a response which basically said it was my fault and no chance of a refund.
Another lesson learnt check reviews before buying from unknown company.
Realised from the reviews I'd be on a hiding to nothing ing so a lesson learnt

Absolutely rubbish.
I agree with everything other 1 star reviewers have said.
We ordered two swish poles on 16th August to go in one room, and they turned out to be totally different colours.
I phoned them, and once Karen returned my call, she asked me to send photos.
She took the stance that this was a problem for the manufacturers to deal with, not her.
After 6 weeks of phone calls and waiting, she told me that the manufacturers had no other stock available, and agreed to refund the money.
Three weeks and several calls later, having been told that "accounts" took 2 weeks to process a refund, I got my money back.
Clearly a 1-person operation who, once she has your money, will fight tooth and nail to keep it.

Karen was very helpful on the phone. Great service.

I had high hopes from the enthusiastic website when I ordered a Silent Gliss pole from Pole Design. What was appealing was the fact that the item would, according to the company’s website, arrive with me after the 2-5 day lead time. The website assures customers that if the lead time is longer then customers will be notified by email. Sadly this is not the case and had I known about the experience I would then receive I would have used another company who I then found to be extremely helpful, professional, and more significantly, polite, based in the New Forest. I ordered a pole on 4/8, and then foolishly went away, assuming the pole would be with me upon my return on 18/8 ready for the arrival of my relative whose room needed the pole. Alas, it was nowhere to be seen. I contacted the company and Karen advised, replying on the Saturday, that it would be looked in to. I explained the reasons for this urgently on a personal level, but moreover had paid £8.95 for carriage within a designated timeframe. Monday came and having tried to make contact to a couple of different departments via their automated system (around 9.30, hopefully giving Karen time to ascertain the whereabouts of my pole), and prior to me going into a meeting, I spoke with another lady who was adamant I would have had absolutely no response from them on a Saturday (I did) and she would get in touch with me when she knew more. I had hoped for a bit more than this given the sizeable delay to my order, not to mention perhaps that old customer adage of “sorry about this”. I asked if it might be possible for her to telephone her supplier rather than wait for an email response and she snapped at Le “we do not give out phone numbers” - which was not what I was asking. It sounded as it I had been placed on loudspeaker elsewhere in the room so perhaps she just couldn’t hear me. In any case, this impolite, and incredible approach continued. I had already found another pleasant supplier who would cut the pole to size and send it overnight. When Karen called me - after me receiving an email advising that my order had been forgotten (!)- she categorically disagreed with my discovery and said “I think you will find you have not”. She then quoted the consumer rights act to me and told me the order was not able to be cancelled. This is untrue as the terms had already been broken and the order had not even been processed, aside from the distance selling regulations. I tried explaining the the urgency of the pole’s arrival (relative coming to stay to convalesce) yet she cut me off mid sentence, just like her colleague had done earlier that day. The service I received was astounding; I have never experienced a conversation like it. I asked that the pole be sent next day delivery but there was apparently no guarantee of that. Needless to say, the item arrived 2 days later, despite my requests of having tracking details this was not provided. From the Trustpilot reviews I am not alone in my experience. I would recommend you find an alternative company to supply poles. Never again.

The most valuable thing about purchasing a curtain pole from Pole Design has been my now unwavering determination to always read Trustpilot reviews of companies before buying things from them. So, I ordered a curtain pole in April, which it turned out was actually unavailable. The seller, Karen, only told me that it was unavailable after I'd sent three emails asking for an update in June - so had I not chased, I probably still wouldn't know that it was unavailable to this day.

Karen offered me a replacement pole for £85 more and tried to bill me for it, which I declined as I couldn't afford it. I then started to see just how forcibly she would hold onto my money, with absolutely NO acknowledgement of my requests for refunds throughout the whole process. She offered me a pole within my price range (which was actually cheaper than what I had already paid her for the one which was unavailable), which I agreed to, provided it could be delivered by the Friday of the following week. She said of course it can, no problem. I asked for a refund of the price difference - absolute radio silence.

By the time Friday came, you've guessed it - NO POLE! :D I then asked her for a full refund, not just a partial one - absolute radio silence. Miraculously, the pole turned up the following week, because Karen would clearly rather trepan herself in the head than give you your money back. To this day, she owes me the price difference and I'm guessing I'll have to write it off as a sacrifice at this rate - but am writing on here instead, so that you folks don't have to do the same.

On the plus side, the pole she did send is lovely; very happy with that. And I'm sure that Karen is a nice woman who has friends and family and such. But regardless of whether she has nice poles, she should not be running a business and doesn't deserve your money. My advice: take it elsewhere. Plenty of other companies will appreciate your custom a damn sight more and won't behave as though they're actually entitled to it. If I could, I'd leave a 1 star review for Karen's customer service and a 5 star review for the pole - but leaving a Trustpilot review of 1 star for Pole Design isn't just a preference, it's a public service.

Also, if you're struggling to get your money back from her: raise a chargeback request with your bank. If Karen's managed to get to the bottom of this review, she'll probably say that I need to go and lie down, like she says to other customers who tell their similar stories on here. You can't run a business lying down, Karen. There's a reason that we're all complaining: if something stinks, 10,000 flies can't all be wrong for congregating around it. Go and do something else you enjoy instead and leave running a business to those who actually give a damn about their customers.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! Absolutely nothing but problems. Awful communication. They charged £9.95 for delivery quoting 3-5 working days, only for me to have to start chasing up delivery two weeks later, to be told the item wasn't even in stock! I said I wanted at least my £9.95 back, to be told no, we don't guarantee delivery. If you want it, you'll "have to wait". After yet another week and STILL no delivery, I chased again, and again, to then be told that it still wasn't in stock and would be another week. At this point I asked for the order to be cancelled and a full refund given. After yet ANOTHER week, I have still got no refund and have just received an email to say my order has been dispatched!!!!! (In the meantime I ordered a pole elsewhere and received it within 2 days, so don't need or want this one any more).
Absolutely awful experience and would never use this company again. At this point, I am still waiting for my money back. An absolute disgrace.

Karen sounds absolutely lovely at first, but boy! if you dare to ask why you can't get through on the phone she will give you an earful and threaten to hang up after she has rung you back. They operate on the principle of getting you to leave a message so they can phone you back later. After a few technical queries which were not answered satisfactorily I began to get the impression this was a one woman band operating from a cupboard under the stairs. The first rail I ordered was fairly straight forward. It was delivered OK. There was no advice forthcoming so I had to fugure it all out for myself. She has clearly never installed a rail in her life. My second rail was far more complex, no room for error with curves and return curves inside a bay window, wall mounted.
I gradually came to the conclusions outlined above. I decided it would be safer to quit while I was ahead.
I went somewhere else online where good advice was forthcoming and their price was £100 cheaper. When the rail arrived it was millimetre perfect. Draw your own conclusions.

Very poor response to an issue I had this month. Avoid!

Had a number of quotes in person and given I was happy to install myself settled on Pole Design for x2 bay window SilentGliss corded systems. Best competitive price around with shipping at good rates. Karen was prompt at communication and understood my concern around the measurements and making sure accurate. Supplied pictures and measurements and had a number of draft drawings, always willing to work with me and not pushy for sale compared to some other companies I was getting quotes off. Once ordered delivery side was prompt and well packaged in foam and wood support frame (now have a little bit of kindling too, bonus!). Would use again and have already recommended!

I wish I had consulted Trustpilot before buying from Pole Design as the products on her site are not exclusive, so can be bought somewhere else, and the warnings in these reviews reflect my own experience.

It's not a company, it's just Karen and she is where the problems start and stop (you get a flavour of this in her response to one reviewer, telling her she "needs to lie down”). This is what happened in my case:

- I was referred to Karen by the pole manufacturers as a supplier of their product. She responded very promptly indeed, sending a quote through by email (later on, this speed of response turned into pushiness, but we’ll get to that).
- The quote was more expensive than the price showing on her website. I pointed this out to Karen, who reduced it without explanation to the amount it should have been (in retrospect, the first warning bell).
- Once the poles had been delivered it became clear they were not suitable and I spoke to Karen about alternatives. Again, she was very efficient in quoting for other options, but these were more expensive. I emailed to explain it was beyond my budget and Karen replied saying she'd discounted that price and, without confirmation from me as to whether the reduced price was now affordable, would arrange collection the following day as part of an exchange.
- Once it became clear to Karen that a refund was unavoidable she told me I would have to pay £55.38 to return the poles - a punitive charge that bore no relation to the actual cost of returning items. I had no choice but to pay it.
- The couriers were given the wrong postcode for collection so a day spent waiting for them to arrive was wasted.
- Once collected, the refund was to have taken 14 days to reach my account. 19 days later it still hadn’t arrived. I emailed Karen to ask where it was and it was only this that prompted her to issue the refund, telling me it would take a further 5 working days to come - a total of 27 days since the items were collected. I have no doubt Karen’s modus operandi is not to action any refunds until they are overdue and being chased. Apart from demonstrating sharp practice, this raises questions about her own cashflow management and the stability of her business.

The people who really need to be reading these reviews are the manufacturers who supply their products to Pole Design as Karen is their retail face and currently does a great disservice to their brands.

This company is absolutely terrible. I placed an order online for two curtain pole brackets costing over £50 plus £9.95 postage. I needed to return them as they didn’t match the pole I already had. I requested return instructions as stated on the website. The email I received stated that I was going to be charged £15 for returning the item which they eventually explained as a restocking fee?! This “restocking” fee wasn’t mentioned in the returns information on the website but then Karen sent a screenshot of returns information which stated that some items will be subject to a restocking fee, it’s a totally false screen shot. I’m still in discussions with them regarding my return. They are unprofessional and aggressive in their responses. Steer well clear.

AVOID if you don’t want to be robbed!!

My husband and I placed the order made to measure, but there was a problem with the payment and it got rejected on the webside. We decided not to bother and we placed the order somwhere else. Soon after we got a confirmation of order from pole design!! We messeged them straight away to cancel and get the refund and here the problem started. They charged us £25 handling fee and said that cancellation was their goodwill gesture as made to measure items cannot be cancelled. This goodwill gesture costs £25. Absolutely disgusting! I will add that the order was placed on Sunday evening and this is when we contacted the company, so there is no way they started doing something about our order.
There are many companies who treat better their customers and don’t charge £25 for cancellation and their mistake really!

Such a long wait for items and no response to update requests unless it's a sales request. I was getting instant responses up to the point of purchase and now have had 1 email explaining the delay and nothing since.

Still advertise 3-5 days on the item on site. 3 weeks later still waiting and no signs of it showing up.

Avoid if you want something in a reasonable time!

AVOID this company!

I thought I had ordered a bendable curtain track from this company (costing almost £200) as the website states that this particular track (Silent Gliss 3000) can be bent and the illustration alongside the online order form I used clearly shows a bent track.

It turns out that only the company can bend it for you and you can’t bend it yourself.

When I called to discuss this and how I could resolve the problem of having ordered a track that wasn’t what I wanted I encountered a very aggressive lady called Karen who refused to accept that it was conceivable that I could have made this honest mistake. I asked her why there would be an illustration of a bent track on the order form for a straight track, that can’t be bent by the customer. She lost her temper, told me I was ‘wrong’ and hung up on me!

I genuinely can’t remember an occasion in my life when I’ve been dealt with in such a rude and aggressive way after buying something from a company.

This company needs to go through their website in detail and update it to remove any ambiguity to avoid customers like me wasting hundreds of pounds buying the wrong product by mistake.

Unfortunately, based on Karen’s aggressive and dismissive attitude today I don’t think that there will be any appetite on this company’s behalf to improve customer service so I’d advise people to AVOID this company.

Hi Karen,

Just wanted to say a big thank you and show you the curtains. I had them put up yesterday and couldn’t be happier with the end result so big thanks for taking care of all the details, they fit perfectly thanks to your attention to detail. 60mm space between the hooks was spot on for the wave to fit in the shallow 70mm window recess depth we had. The quality of the fabric is excellent and the ideal match for our decor. Thanks for your fast and clear communication throughout all my many questions as ordering this with no clue about curtains it was very reassuring knowing I was in the hands of a total pro!

Cheers Alex

AVOID!!!
Have just had such a terrible experience with this company.

Before placing my order, Karen is sweet as apple pie, accommodating and seems very helpful and thorough.
However, once the order is placed and paid for, prepare for zero customer service and delayed response to emails and calls. I had to chase for several days before finding out when our rails would arrive.
And once they did arrive we had terrible problems with running the tracks and opening the curtains. Highly embarrassing as we had work clients staying with us that weekend and their curtains would not open or close without 3 people manually pulling them. Not what you would expect from a top brand like Silent Gliss.

Upon calling and emailing, the response was that they needed "cording at both ends". One sentence, nothing else. I didn't even know what that meant and so upon asking I was told it would cost a further £150 on top of the already £480 tracks!
To give you some background we supplied EVERYTHING we needed in advance, we could not have been more thorough. I sent diagrams with photos and full measurements with descriptions of our order as they're hanging just underneath some very old and listed coving which we had to protect.
Karen was unbelievably rude to me and basically refused to help at all.

I then spoke to a rep at Silent Gliss who was incredibly helpful and managed to fix the problem for me. Simple spraying with silicone. Apparently something they always advise but Karen didn't even think to suggest it. Instead she wanted to charge a further £150 unnecessarily, obviously to make more money out us.

She then refused to cancel my 2nd order which was paid for at 3pm and apparently by 8:45am the following morning was already in full production and too late to cancel (!!) Considering her delay in getting back to me I find this very hard to believe!!
Another £600 spent with a company I wish I had never come into contact with in the first place.
I usually deal with John Lewis but because of lockdown that wasn't possible in May.

She is now also refusing to refund me for some gliders and brackets that we no longer need (which is not in line with her Terms & Conditions, therefore illegal). Apparently the admin charges for her are greater and she will therefore NOT refund me for a product I do not need.

I am 40 weeks pregnant now and each email or phone call with this woman makes my blood boil. It's just not worth it.

Avoid avoid avoid. Go to a trusted company or use a supplier that Silent Gliss recommend. She wasn't even on their recommended list when I called them.

Absolutely fantastic service ordered one day delivered the next
Good product at a good price
Thank You

Criss-crossed the country in a search for poles and 155mm extension brackets to get across modern double wall radiators. (all I could find were much shorter and v flimsy). Lucky to come across Pole Design who offered the 155m brackets. They promised a few days delivery on nine brackets and in our difficult times when deliveries are taking more than a month they came from Scotland in one day ! Only one word for the quality and strength of the chrome brackets - SUPERB ! Many thanks Pole Design.

The initial Gliss pole order was very competitively priced and arrived on time. However, due to my error, I ordered the ceiling fix brackets instead on the wall ones. I asked if I could swap the brackets (and pay all courier costs) but was told that I would have to buy the new brackets instead - 35% more expensive than other companies. I though this disappointing and purchased the brackets from a competitor. Without this, I would have given 5 stars.

Ordered a curtain pole that came quickly and priced very competitively. Queries with product dealt with in a timely manner. Wouldn't hesitate to use again - thank you!