I was a bit concerned from the number of negative or iffy reviews, but I figured, hey, Amazon returns have gotten way easier. I ordered 4 sets. Each box was intact, contained the blinds, the instructions, and all the mounting hardware. Nothing was missing and nothing was broken. Great! As others have said, I will reiterate--these don't use the universal mounts that other blinds do. But honestly it was very little work to remove the existing mounts from my old blinds--under 5 minutes with a manual racheting screwdriver, probably would be even quicker with an electric one. I will say, probably open the mounting instructions--the exact same ones that are printed out in the box--from the item listing on your computer, tablet, phone. The way they are printed, the images got skewed somewhat and aren't great quality. It isn't rocket science to mount these but it is helpful to be able to see the images clearly and in the correct dimensions. One thing I didn't see addressed in the directions anywhere is what these little plastic bits are for. I still don't know, but I didn't need them to mount my blinds inside the window frame. Also, I'm not sure how you could possibly use all the screws that were provided, but I'd rather have too many screws than too few, and to be honest, they are pretty cheap screws. I was mounting into soft wood but I do not recommend installing the mounts without drilling a pilot hole into anything hard. I'm pretty sure if you just tried to screw-gun these screws in, they'd break. I was able to do it with no drill but like I said, very soft wood, and I'm used to doing this so I've figured out the best way to do it without breaking stuff. Installing the blinds was pretty easy! It does feel like they're not going to snap in...but they will! You just have to put some weight behind it. Once you see how the mount works, it's clear why the force is required, and it means they're not going to just pop out and fall down at the slightest breeze. The hardest thing for me to get used to was just learning how to operate cordless blinds. I've never had them. I think they're pretty great, though, honestly. Perhaps the one thing I dislike is if you put the blind in a window that isn't really easy to access, there's not really a good way to move the blind up and down from an arm's distance. I think that is probably universal to cordless blinds, though, and not unique to this particular product. Are they heavy-duty? No. They're not. But they're about what I expected for the price. If you need slats that are going to hold up to abuse (like curious pets) then I'm pretty sure you'll have to spend more on a different product, because these would not. Other reviewers have said their blinds melted. Mine have not been in the heat of the summer sun but they have been in direct sun and no sign of melting. They darken the room very well, which is what I wanted them for, and I'm thrilled they were available in grey, too! Doesn't show the dust as much as lighter colors and actually works with the room (I can't believe I even notice that this color 'works better for the room' than another color...) Other little things to address: no, you can't really shorten the length of the blinds, but I'm not sure that you would need to much. Because they're cordless, they only go down as far as you pull them down. If you pull them down to the window's sill and there are still slats that haven't unfolded, that's not an issue. Each slat 'opens out' as you extend the blind...so if you have them set where the slats aren't tilted and the light comes through between them, but extend the blind down as far as you want it to go--all the slats will be spaced apart. It just doesn't bother with the ones that aren't needed, so if the blind is longer than your window, that doesn't matter. Why try to take out the slats? Last bit of advice--you don't have to place the mounts at the very ends of each blind if there's another space that works a bit better (i.e. has not had six screw holes drilled into it previously!) which is a nice change from your traditional mount that really does have to be in either corner of the window...but you should take care when you're snapping the blind into the mount, for the sake of aesthetics, that you get it roughly in the middle of the window, assuming the blind is not the exact width of your window (which it really shouldn't be--you don't want the blinds to touch the sides of the frame. As long as there's not much more than 1.5 inches of free space on either side, they'll still work just fine blocking the sun.) I think the manufacturer does do a pretty good job on indicating how to measure your window openings to determine the correct size of blind on the item page--so just stick with that. All in all--I'm very satisfied.
