Shelve Your Net Enthusiasm; Custom Closet Installation Requires a Trip Offline

Web sites have a long way to go to match the old-fashioned service and personal touch that some bricks-and-mortar stores still offer.

After all, how does a commercial Web site, usually with no live presence, provide online customers with anything beyond mere listings of products and prices?

Well, it can provide plenty by making the most of the medium.

While trying to get organized a few months ago, I came across Containerstore.com (https://www.containerstore.com; [888] 266-8246), the online presence of a Dallas-based retailer.

The site has a nifty feature to help plan storage-area redesigns. Using measurements you provide, designers at the site draw up free blueprints showing how to install shelves in your closets, laundry room or garage.

You view the plans on the Web site after entering a user name and password. The catch is that the designs are based on the Elfa shelving system sold by Containerstore.com.

I figured getting some ideas couldn’t hurt, and an online design would at least save me the trouble of driving to a store.

As it turned out, I had to spend about half an hour filling out the Containerstore.com form, and I got grumpy waiting almost a week to get back the designs. (A Containerstore.com spokesman said the wait was because I was among the first users and not all the kinks were worked out; it should take about three days.) While I waited, I called one of those outfits that always stuff ads in the mailbox--in this case, Closet World [(800) 452-5673].

In the end, I got nice, workable designs from both. The prices seemed comparable, given that Closet World’s included labor.

But I ultimately decided to go with Closet World. It wasn’t that the Internet couldn’t offer me service; the e-mails from Containerstore.com and the phone representative I spoke with were cordial. It was simply that the Internet couldn’t offer me labor. I wanted those shelves installed.

The Containerstore.com site is simple enough; just head to the “plan a space” area, click on the closet or space of your choice and begin answering questions. (You do have to give your name and phone number.) You also can print a form, fill it out and take it to a Container Store. I had to run back and forth between the closet and the computer to fill in the blanks (what the height is from ceiling to floor, how many shoes you own, whether the person you share the closet with is messy or neat, etc.), and one of the asked-for measurements threw me (“door frame to wall right, door frame to wall left”).

I submitted forms for both closets, promptly receiving an e-mail acknowledgment. “You will receive a reply from us shortly,” it said, and it offered a toll-free phone number.

Two days later I received an e-mail asking to clarify my floor-to-ceiling measurements in the hall closet (the ceiling is slanted) and to confirm whether the bedroom closet had sliding doors. Then I was asked to give my phone number along with the best time to reach me. All day Saturday, I responded--which was the following day.

At 5 p.m. Saturday, having heard nothing, I called and was told by a customer service rep that, yes, my answers had been received, but the designers were running late with their plans.

I never did get a phone call, but the following Wednesday I had my designs. They were a bit tough to read; they looked like faded pencil sketches with lots of small inch measurements. But there, in detail, were my closets. The total for both closets, including tax and shipping: $708.78.

A Closet World representative, on the other hand, spent about an hour with me, measuring, then discussing styles and colors. Delivery and labor were included in the estimate, based on an apparent 40%-off sale and a $100-off coupon. Cost: $1,000. Added bonus: deferred billing.

The designs were almost identical, though Containerstore.com had turned shelves sideways in the slanted-ceiling hall closet.

The decision wasn’t difficult. Though Containerstore.com offered a 25% discount, ordering from it would mean several hours of my time installing. Closet World, I decided, could come do the job.

I had to leave work early when the installers came. Later I discovered they’d misunderstood a direction for the installation in the hall closet; I had to be home again so they could fix it.

I probably could have installed the Containerstore.com shelves in that time. But I already had another task: putting away all the shoes.

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Jennifer Lowe is deputy food editor of The Times.