day/nite shades
Edelwoj -
When we bought our (used) Dolphin LX one of the day/night shades was broken. These are the accordion, pleated style with a semi transparent lower half and a nearly opaque upper half. You pull it down half way for daytime privacy and all the way down for full, nighttime privacy.
I tried the local Dolphin dealer and got a 3 week stall and it was going to cost me $75 to have them fix it. I started calling around to all the various residential window blind and shade companies including the ones who clean them (as opposed to selling me a new one). Check out your Yellow Pages under "Blinds" and "Blinds, Cleaning and Repairing." Most would repair them for a very reasonable price.
Without too much trouble I found a small place that cleaned blinds and the fellow there said he'd fix the blind for $10 a string. Bring it in in the morning and he'd have it ready by closing the next day.
The repair cost me $10. Works like a charm!
Bottom line #1: Don't get caught up in trying to have long distance, expensive repair companies or the manufacturer do a simple job like that. Find a local who'll do it cheap and be thankful for the business to boot.
Bottom line #2: There's always somebody who'll do it for less. You needn't go for the most expensive solution unless you have buckets of money to waste and you enjoy keeping him in his Cadillac!
Bottom line #3: It's okay to learn how to do it yourself, but if you'll only have to do the job once or twice in your lifetime, and it only costs $10, is it really worth the effort? Especially when you can have a guy who does it for a living do the job once and get it done right?
Life's too short to waste on a broken blind.