Good selection of flooring in the showroom. The installation was quick and it looks great!

There is a series of negative reviews below which really surprise me. I've only had great experiences with this business. I think I know what the problem is which I will state later in this review. ABSOLUTELY BEST PRICES They absolutely have the best prices in northern New Jersey. How do I know? Well, it's sort of my job to know. I've literally gone to every single flooring/tiling store and Speedwell has beaten them all, sometimes by a very significant margin. If you don't believe me, call any store and get a quote on a piece of flooring. A lot of them will say they don't quote over the phone. (That's double-speak for we want you to come down and then hopefully, when you hear the price, you'll be too lazy to go back to the cheaper place and you'll just order then and there. What's crazy is that this actually works. Ask car dealers.) Think about this observation I made about them. Their normal prices are better than the sale prices of other places. It makes my job easier since I don't have to always comparison shop because I know I'm going to get the best price. I still do time to time to make sure but it's always cheaper. WHAT MIGHT BE WRONG I think the reason for the negative reviews is that this business does a lot of business with commercial buyers who buy in bulk. (Thus, the cheap prices.) They don't do as much business with residential customers so they don't have their own in-house installation crew. They sub-contract the work and that is the problem. They try to find good people but quality control is pretty tough when you are subcontracting the work out. This is probably the reason why there are so many complaints about the workmanship. Speedwell isn't overseeing the work so they can't control the results. Speedwell probably just offers installation as more of a "favor" to residential customers. (I'm not sure of this but I'm just speculating.) If I were them, I would just sell floor products rather than include installation. It's the better business model. But, what do I know, right? SELECTION AND TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE The ladies in the store are absolutely the nicest people you'll meet. They let me take their only sample piece over the weekend so I could bring them to job sites. My designer could now see if the sample piece's color truly matches the room's surrounding fixtures. That's really great customer service. Their store has a real wide range of products to choose from and the ladies' technical knowledge is solid. What's more important is taste and they've made some great suggestions in the past. BUY THE MATERIALS HERE. FIND YOUR OWN CONTRACTOR TO INSTALL. This is how you save a few hundred/thousand bucks. The contractor is not going to go looking for the best price like you will. But, they do get a slightly discounted contractor's price sometimes so when you go shopping around, just say that you're a designer and you want the contractor's price. Not so hard, is it? I'm a property manager so I have previously used contractors lined up to install the product. I suggest you guys to look for contractors that will just do the install. To find good contractors, ask to take a look at work projects that they have done a year or two ago. (Newly installed product will almost always look good; the bad quality reveals itself over time. Look really close and be anal.) If you still want to use Speedwell's subcontractors, ask them to only suggest contractors that they absolutely know to be awesome. I'm sure they will tell you the truth. They really are nice people. read more

I was looking to buy honeycomb insulated shades for my new home's windows and I remembered borrowing a sample book from Speedwell Design a few years ago when I specified HunterDouglas shades for one of my clients. So I made an appointment with Kathy Nigro and she ended up showing me all the different options and pricing, from the way the shades open ("Ultraglide" / "Literise" / motorized) to the different thicknesses of the honeycomb shades, to the different fabrics, colors, patterns and opacities. I gave her a window schedule with measurements so that she could give me a quote. The quote came back at what I expected (HunterDouglas shades are not cheap) and it included some discounts. Kathy let me know that if I waited a few weeks, an additional discount from the manufacturer was going to go into effect, so I waited. During this time, I brought my wife in and Kathy gave the whole presentation over again for her. My wife made the final color selections and we were good to go pending the discount. When the time came, the discount was related to the "Literise" system and it saved me a decent amount of money. I gave the go ahead and a measurement day was scheduled. The guy who came was on time and was very respectful and friendly. It took about 3 weeks for the shades to be fabricated. When they were ready the same guy came to install them and again he was professional and courteous. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and I would recommend Speedwell Design if you are interested in HunterDouglas shades. read more

The tradesmen that Speedwell Design sent out to install 1,000 sq ft of wood and tile flooring at my place were meticulous craftsmen. The tile guy set and leveled and re-set the tiles until we were all satisfied. The wood guys worked like crazy animals to get the job done in a day, but still took the time to make the edges and corners tight, and to cut the T moldings at doors exactly to the existing trim. I love the result. I don't need quarter-round to hide anything, the job is that neat! The front office, well, let's just say that they're communication challenged. I sourced everything from the one place in the hope that everyone on the job would know the deal. Nope, poor Bruno the tile guy arrived with no information about the height of the wood floor so he could set things up properly. Nope, Anderson the wood expert wasn't given requests that I made well in advance like covering the floor. And somehow a piece of trim wasn't ordered, wasn't delivered, whatever so the job will remain unfinished an extra week. I heard a couple excuses about "well we just got a new phone system" that didn't do much for me. I paid $3.50 per square foot for wood floor installation. The 3 guys got it all done in 6 hours including cleanup, so the overall rate worked out to about $226 per hour *per man*. That seemed a little high to me, especially bcos I could only imagine how much of that stayed at the store. read more

Poor response to a basis inquiry, " do you repair blinds?" Would not be interested in doing any type of business with such s firm.

This is the second negative review of this company and we wished we had read gemma m.'s review of the company. We had them come in to place four roller Hunter Douglas shades in our house. They did not let us know how they would install it and they came in and installed the curtains but cut the floor molding and installed the into the metal fascia of the windows without consulting us first. We purchased Hunter Douglas power roller shades. Furthermore, only 3 out of the four roller shades were installed. During the installation of the fourth curtain, the installer found out it was too big, and yet still jammed it into the wall resulting in damage. There's still no fourth roller shade. All four of the curtains were mismeasured and they measured from high ceiling to high ceiling, therefore the only option they had was to cut the molding. One hole is ripped out from my bedroom wall. All three floor moldings have been cut and they didn't even repair the damage. What is even more interesting about the situation is that we had Barry Kolsky the owner himself come and visit the apartment and said that everything was fine and that they did everything right and he would just repair the living room wall. Did he even see the hole in the wall in my bedroom? Nevertheless, things got a little heated and he acted very unprofessionally and its been a month and theres no fourth curtain and there are still a hole in my bedroom wall and three moldings that have been cut without any repair. To make matters even worse, one side of the curtain is so close to the wall that it catches it at times in all rooms especially when I have air conditioning and I have to play with the remote multiple times to get them down. We had an independent Hunter Douglas master installer appraise the damage and assess the installation and he had said that everything was mismeasured and that they did not measure from floor molding to floor molding and should have considered installing it into the concrete since the curtains are so heavy. So far, we have done multiple calls, faxed them a letter but no response. Unprofessionalism and lack of response, defective and damaging installation, and failure to provide appropriate customer service is what this company is about. read more

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Customer service was the worst never got called back can't understand person on the other end of the phone Good indicator to me I've taken my business to a more competent Local company I suggest you do the same read more

I purchased many many window treatments from the store for my large home in short Hills. everything was measured and fit perfectly Ashley on the sales team is excellent and Vic the service guy is superb three years later I had a problem with a Hunter Douglas product and they're fixing it totally with no expense to me. I recommended them before to other people but I'd like this recommendation and show of support for this excellent business to be public. I give them six stars read more

I do not reccomend going here and suggest finding another Hunter Douglas authorized dealer. Purchased hd wood blinds a year ago. The blind needs repaie. Speedwell will send the blinds back for repair but will not pick them up. I am now working with another hd dealer who said they would pick them up for me but since I didn't buy from them, i would be reaponsible to pay for the repair. Asked speedwell to please take them down for me because I am 5 mos pregnant with a toddler and my husband is always working but they refuse to come get them and say they would "get in trouble". Problem is, Only they can send them back and have them fixed for me since I purchased from them. Other hunter douglas dealers even offer to put up temp shades...i am wishing I went somewhere else to buy them. Considering paying another hd dealer to have them fixed. read more

I manage an apartment community that was under construction. We built it in 2 phases in he last 2 years. Speedwell Designs did our flooring and did the carpeting (with an intricate pattern that required a lot of attention to detail) and tile work around the office. My dealings with Barry (the owner) and his team have been nothing short of phenomenal and I can say that, in my opinion, they are easily the best contractor we have in terms of accessibility, professionalism and quality of work. To put it into perspective, I was also impacted on-site by drywallers, electricians, plumbers, punch out crews, painters, A/V contractors, laborers, landscapers, and a few others. Again, Speedwell Design has been nothing short of stellar. I have been in this business for a long time and recently completed my 4th construction project in four years and Speedwell is in the top tier of reliability and results done right the first time. So if you need work done for your home or a bigger job like a 406-unit luxury apartment community, please do not hesitate to use Speedwell Design. read more

i have had many windows installed in my home that are hunter douglas and also had carpet installed. I found the people to be very helpful and informative. The carpets they suggested work great in the rooms. Overall i was very happy. read more

They installed Luminette blinds from Hunter Douglas at my house and they did a fantastic job!!!