Local conditions
Storm season is what “near me” is really for
The Week It Matters
Most of the year, distance is irrelevant. A blind hung by someone two hours up the motorway works exactly as well as one hung by someone two streets away. Then summer arrives, a front comes through off the range, and the whole corridor from Tweed to Brisbane finds out at once who its window furnishings company actually is.
Two things break in a storm here, and neither is the thing people expect. The first is an external blind that was left down when the wind got under it. The second is quieter and far more common: the power drops out, and every motorised blind and curtain in the house comes back up having forgotten where its limits were. That is not a fault and it is not a warranty claim. It is a ten-minute reset, and the only question is how long you wait for someone to come and do it. We have customers in Tweed who have had exactly that call answered.
The second-order problem is the one nobody quotes on: salt. Anything within a few streets of the water — and on this coastline that is most of it — gets a constant film of salt on its componentry. It is the reason we specify differently within sight of the beach than we do at Robina or Toowong, and it is the reason our warranty says plainly that salt air, storm and weather damage are not covered. They are not covered by anyone. A company that tells you otherwise has not read its own terms.
If you are still deciding between fabric and slats, the rundown of every type of curtain and blind we make is the place to start. Which is the honest version of the near-me argument. It is not that we are closer than the next company on the map. It is that when something needs a person rather than an email, the drive is an hour, not a freight consignment.