California Closets , Woodmere Ohio 44122, Petty insulting behavior, wildly overpriced particleboard products. Woodmere OH

This is just appalling… If you’re looking for an abridged review, let me be direct and to the point. I’ve done business with this company twice, and I will never do business with them again. If you want the details keep reading. Sometime around 2009 I got an advertisement from California closets showing these beautiful custom closets and thought that my master bedroom could use an upgrade. I called them and initially was not very impressed. People you deal with our fairly crass and appear to be lowbrow, but that doesn’t matter if the quality of work and materials is superior. Let’s be honest; I’ve no intentions of having an ongoing relationship with the secretary, so even if they’re a little rude I still wanted to see what they had to say/offer.

When the woman showed up, she was very polite and professional and came armed with countless booklets of designs that they allegedly have done in the past. I have no way of confirming whether or not they actually did this work or if the main company (they are a franchise) simply provides mockups that they can use for sales purposes. A great deal of time was spent talking about how wonderful the company was and how they do all these exquisite things for people etc. Not to be impolite, I sat and listened to stories about other people’s closets. When we eventually got to my closet, she took some measurements and gave me a ballpark figure for what it would cost to have my closet done. I can’t say that I was shocked, they are a franchise, there’s always a catch, I just hadn’t figured it out yet. Here’s the catch… The products are junk. They are exactly the same thing as the particleboard/pegboard pieces parts that you can buy at Home Depot or any other big box retailer. They quadruple the price and package it all together like they’re doing something special. Reality is, Home Depot can sell you exactly the same thing you just have to install it.

Even if I had known this at the time I still would not have done it on my own, I’m not that handy and would prefer the professionals handle this sort of thing. She concluded our meeting by explaining that I would be responsible for removing everything out of the closet (clothing is obvious) like any of the old racks or clothing rods etc. this was quickly becoming a pain for me because I have better things to do with my time and demolition work which is why I was hiring a professional. Still, based on what I had been shown I thought it would be worth giving them a chance. The actual figure was quite a bit higher than I expected and they had done some renderings which would show me the before and after of my exact closet. In order for me to see these renderings, they wanted something like $2500??? I asked why I can’t have the drawings of my closet so I could consider what I want or if I want to move forward and she very directly told me that people will get them to do a rendering and then go to Home Depot or Lowes and simply build the closet themselves cutting them out altogether. I actually understand that, people are devious in that way and the company should be compensated for their time. I paid the amount she asked for, agreed to the closet, and had the work done. It was nice, much nicer than it was before but it was cheap. As stated above the use particleboard pieces parts and the type of thing you’d expect to find in an early 90s McMansion. This is not the high-quality, beautiful custom closets that they show you in the brochures. I don’t care if this company actually did produce those closets is certainly not what I got.

Like I said above, for the money, it was overpriced but better than I had and I thought it was pretty functional. When I sold the house, I believe it was a selling point, no it wasn’t a custom-made hardwood closet however it was a nice walk in closet that at my price point was reasonable.

I’ll speed this up… I hired them to do a small project at my new house, and it came out all right. Think she particleboard, wildly overpriced, but this time I knew what I was getting. I was careful only to request essential items that I knew I would use, so I was not paying any more than I needed to. It came out to be $2000 or $3000, and again it is better than what I had. The reason for this review, and the reason I started it off with “this is just appalling” is because of a recent set of circumstances that make me despise dealing with local companies specifically people like this. My mother passed away in March 2018, and as the successor trustee, it was my responsibility to renovate her home and listed so that the beneficiaries of the trust would receive the highest possible inheritance. This home was built in the 60s all of the closets are known as a reach in the closet that have sliding doors. By today’s standards they are woefully deficient for most people’s wardrobes, and understandably it is the number one complaint we get from people who are viewing the house with the realtors.

I called my buddies at California Closets; I had come up with a great idea, I have them come out and do a rendering of what the closet could look like and state in the listing that the seller (me) is going to include a new closet with the purchase of the home. The buyer would even be able to pick out their layout and design all of my expense. I called California closets and told him about the situation. Initially, the woman I spoke to was very sympathetic which I was pleased with and said that they normally don’t provide renderings because people just take the drawings and do the work themselves. I told her that I was not asking for a handout, that I would sign a contract to actually complete the project once the new buyer chose the layout etc. She said she would run it up the flagpole with the owners Juan and Stephanie (I believe that their names). It’s also noteworthy to remind the owners I told her that I have purchased two closets from them in the past and that I am one of their customers. They would be helping me out and they’ll get another project out of it (maybe more if the new owners wanted more closets done). She said she would talk to them and get back to me.

I got a follow-up phone call and was disgusted when she said that they wanted to charge me $95 an hour, an estimated three hours to do one small closet, and most egregious… The money I spent would just be lost. It would not be applied to the ultimate purchase of the closet. This is simply a slap in the face; I’m not looking for a handout or even someone that they don’t know. I have done business with them twice in the past into different homes and called them for my third project. This is how Podunk local bumpkin do business. They’re so cheap and petty in my opinion that they can’t see past their nose and own greed to realize that they just pissed off an existing customer who will never do business with them again. You can find at least 10 other companies offering identical services probably for far less money. I have run my business for 21 years and would never under any circumstance insult a client like that, especially not a grieving one who came to me for help. Bottom line, they were in the position to help and do another project but chose, in my opinion, to be a bunch of greedy idiots over $300. I didn’t write this review to discourage people from doing business with them; I wrote it because it’s 100% true. This is my experience with California closets in Woodmere Ohio. Other locations may be different because they have different franchisees.