Cambria Collection Drapery Rod

I just wrote an unhappy enough review for a product, that I am not convinced the bed bath and beyond website will actually post it. If it was Amazon, they would post it. Just in case it doesn't post, I am putting it here so that anyone considering a Cambria Collection Drapery Rod will move on. The cheap one from Target was pretty cheap but at least it was built well enough to be installed.

This is a truly awful product.

I had just got done installing another brand curtain. It was a little bit of a pain, but nothing too bad. This one was bad enough that I just gave up and wrote this review.

The real problem comes from two things, poor directions and poor hardware. The directions were so bad that I never got past step 1.

Step 1 "Attach Bracket Piece A to wall with the two wall mounting screws. Use Plastic anchors (included) if necessary"

No suggestions whatsoever as to why you using the plastic anchors would be necessary. Since the last brand curtain I installed included, I did not use them, and it all worked out fine I did not use them. I did know though that if I just followed those directions it would not work. I would need to take a lot of care to make sure that the rod was level and I would need to drill pilot holes for the screws or they would just not go in. These instructions gave no advise for the best way to do either of these steps which occur before step 1.

So I carefully measured out where the holes should go, got a drill bit somewhat smaller than the screws, and drilled holes to the depth the screw would need to go. Then I proceeded to put in the screw using a standard screwdriver. The head of the screw promptly stripped. Just too much torque was required to get the screw to go into the dry wall even with the pilot hole having been drilled. After several minutes of cursing I was able to get the screw into the wall all of the way, but there is no way it is coming out. The top of the screw is destroyed. Had this been a phillips head screw driver I used I would be less than surprised, those seem to strip all of the time. I was using a standard head screwdriver though! There is no way that should have stripped. The instructions should have given me guidance as to how to install that screw such that it actually goes in.

So I decided to drill a larger pilot hole for the second bracket. Same problem. I now have two brackets installed which are never going to be removed, and cannot even be properly tightened. There probably is some size of drill bit which will make this product actually possible to install. However since the instructions don't tell me what to do I am left guessing. I won't figure out the correct way to install this curtain until after I am done installing it.