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Ordered 4 venetian blinds from blinds2go. Got the first one out to put up over the weekend just gone, air bubbles and scratches on finish of headrail. Anyway, minor in the grand scheme of things and I'm sure blinds2go will recognise and put right, so I continued with installation.
Drilled into lintel ok (success!) fixed supplied brackets using fixings supplied. Following the instructions, I put the headrail of the blind onto the brackets, however the last bit of the instructions 'swing the swing-arm over and press it firmly against the headrail to lock it in place' just can't happen due to insufficient gap for the kinked design of the swing-arm to fit.
So I'm stuck with a blind that isn't fully secure, using brackets that don't seem anywhere near fit for purpose, with the swing-arms sticking outwards into the room.
First response from blinds2go customer service is that these are the correct brackets, and is there anything else they can help with? Well, yes - explain why the design of the brackets doesn't allow me to follow your own instructions fully.
Anyone else fitted venetian blinds from them, and able to say whether there's either a trick I should know about, or whether it is actually a big bowl of wrong on blinds2go's part?
Images were supposed to be:
1) part of their instructions https://ibb.co/48pR89y
2) state of my current install https://ibb.co/0n652GM
I have fitted similar blinds from B2G and I don't recall the swing-arm having a dog-leg like that – I don't see how that could possibly work. Their diagram of the bracket seems to contradict itself too - only the 'ghosted' bit of the drawing on the r/h side suggests there is a dog-leg, the other drawings don't show one.
Thanks johndoh, nice to know I'm not going mad. I've pointed out to them that their own instructions show a bracket without a dog-leg, and that this is precisely the thing that's stopping it from closing. But he did initially 'guaranty' me that the brackets sent were the correct ones.
Hopefully we have some blinds2go employees on the forum!
If it was me (and they couldn't/wouldn't send the correct brackets out) I would stick them in a bench vice to straighten them out. (A bodge I know, but it would be a solution).
They push right-to-left to close. Your pic looks the other way round? You haven’t got them on back to front have you?!
Yes, they close from right to left which is how I've got them installed.
I mean, if these are the correct brackets for their venetian blinds, then I'd love to hear from someone who's managed to complete the final step of installation! (Fully accepting that these things aren't always perfect and may need a bit of previous knowledge, but install up to this last swing-arm point has been fine)
The dogleg thing pushes all the way back (leftwards) then lies flat against the front of the blind. Maybe you haven’t got the blind seated all the way or something?
The dogleg thing pushes all the way back (leftwards)
Yes the little lip at the very end of the arm sits against the blind when it is pushed fully to the left, the dog-leg we are discussing is the one halfway down the arm – it's that that is jamming against the blind and not letting the arm push all the way in.
That looks back to front, generally you shouldn't see the tab once installed, it should swing into the back of the profile.
What's the rear of the profile like? Is it symmetrical?
*That said they're not exactly my end of the market so normal for us isn't necessarily normal for them.
Just had an part order confirmation email from blinds2go. No explanation or anything, but it states '13 x bracket'.
So either they're sending me a load of the same brackets, or the original ones sent were in fact wrong and they're sending me the correct ones. We shall see.
See 1:50 in to their installation video
Confirms written instructions and what johndoh said.
Edit, also swing-arm looks flat without dog-leg!
On that video, they do have a little dog-leg but it is nothing like as pronounced as the images on the OPs installation.
With the blind taken out, does the dog leg go fully back? I have these at home and initially mine wouldn't go in but think it was down to poor alignment with the blind.
Just spoken to them. Appears the brackets I have are incorrect, as the replacements being sent out have no pronounced dog-leg on the swing-arm and are instead flat like the instructions. These *should slide into the gap and close up against the headrail.
yeah was going to say, as per above, on inspection mine have the dog-leg but nowhere near as much as your pic, so they still fit flush in the space above the blind. Weird that they'd have multiple bracket options which were essentially the same thing yet incompatible!Appears the brackets I have are incorrect, as the replacements being sent out have no pronounced dog-leg on the swing-arm and are instead flat like the instructions.
Weird that they’d have multiple bracket options which were essentially the same thing yet incompatible
From what I remember when I looked at buying some to match existing a number of years back their product comes from at least 3 different manufacturers depending on what you're looking at.
That (take it from the op it's aluminium louvres but the opposite applies) 50mm headrail will be different to the 50mm headrail for wood slats. Both are likely different from the electric versions of the same if they sell them, powered possibly different from battery too etc etc.
Far too late to be helpful, but we went through a right rigmarole with Hillary's, Blinds 2 Go etc. and ended up going to our LBS (local blind shop).
Price was very reasonable and quality is great - on par with some I bought from John Lewis.