Material Concepts

It’s tough to know where to start with the litany of errors and awful service we received from Material Concepts. They made the curtains for our whole house and upholstered a number of items (all at HUGE expense) and did a mediocre (at best) and awful (more broadly) job on everything:

- Mis-measured everything so we ordered (and paid for) way more fabric than needed. All of this excess fabric was kept by them, and only after I asked multiple times were limited small off cuts returned. There are fabrics where nothing was returned despite the order being well in excess of what was needed, and remnants returned where fabric has clearly been cut and used for other purposes before returning the scraps to me (eg a square velvet blind where sizeable widths remained from the measurements and only small triangles of fabric were returned)
- Upholstery was so badly done the patterns are very visibly uneven and the finishing on the zips/seams is poor and bunches. I pointed out the seriously poor quality and all the areas the fabric was ‘squiff’ and they took it back and returned it over a month later and the fabric had not been moved or repositioned at all (only one seam had been re-made)
- They made so many mistakes with the curtains: curtains arrived in the wrong colour, in the wrong length (full instead of half length), the wrong width (about 2.5m wide not 1.8m wide), with the wrong heading (double not triple pinch pleat), the ‘right’ length but too short so were floating above the ground… honestly the list goes on and on
- Instead of the bronze finials we paid for for the ends of the curtain poles in numerous places they used 2 pence pieces glued together and coloured in with marker. They did not tell me this had been done and they then fell off and they came to install what they were supposed to and what I had paid for only weeks later
- They cut down curtain poles and then taped in the finals with electrical tape instead of a proper screw fitting so they started all falling out after a couple of weeks
- They made a blind in the wrong style twice before delivering what had been asked for literally 7 months later
- Blinds were made too short, taken back to remake and delivered too short, again

To get a version of what we initially ordered took over 7 months, and we made numerous allowances on the dubious workmanship, service and quality on the expectation we would receive a refund for the poor experience we had had. A refund had been discussed both with Material Concepts and the interior designer as a way of making good for the poor the work and to avoid, for example, thier additional costs for taking back, buying new fabric and re-upholstering a huge corner sofa. After discussing this they have reneged and are now saying they will offer no refund after we have ‘accepted’ this poor work on the agreement that a refund would be part of the deal to make good.

Avoid this company at all costs.

Staff Professional, fitters very accommodating and work was of high quality. Quality of material used beat high street leading brands.

Would just like to say many thanks for the made to measure curtains and professional fitting service!

I would not recommend this shop. I received very poor service, and ended up being charged £90 for cushion fillers I could not take delivery of as they did not fit the cushions I had ordered.