A few months ago, one customer from a certain interior design firm was disappointed with what they received. The firm has assured the customer that the project will be complete by 8 weeks. But by the end of the dateline, things were not done.
During the process, the firm have also told the customer that there are more things to be done and there will be additional charges whereby all this was not said at the begining.
Here is the story from the customer,
“Update: The ID said they’ll stop all works and will be sending lawyer letter to us cos of this viral post.”
“Super long post ahead, so bear with me.“
“6th October was the day we officially sold our house but was given 2 months extention of stay, meaning we had to vacant the old house by 5th December. The seller of our new house was kind enough to allow us to move in 10 days earlier than the official handover date. This is so that we are able to have the renovation to be completed before we had to leave the old house. But nope, renovations started on the official handover date and even told the ID Irving Zhu from Interior Times Singapore than we need to move in by 1st December. He said will expedite the works even though works are said to be completed within 8 weeks. 8 weeks from 28th October is at most is by 29th December. Before we signed the contract, we were told that they have a wide selection of tiles (which is from hafary), vinyl and other materials.“
“After we signed, the tiles we wanted was out of stock, the vinyl we wanted was discontinued, the window grilles we chose got no more stock, and was told to choose other colour different from our current windows, i didnt want to compromise i told them to source for other supplier, which they did. Dont understand why need customer to tell them this. So after hacking of walls were done, we were told we were not able to just overlay the vinyl as the previous owners had already overlaid theirs instead. So as per their advice, we need to hack the whole floorings and toilet walls, which costed an additional $7.5k on top of the quoted $39k and additional $5k plus for electrical works. And also another $1.2k cos the walls were not even and to even out the walls. And after hackings were done, only minimal works during that period despite us reminding them how urgent we are. We wanted herringbone for the living area but was told that the layout of the house is not possible to have it done (??). So we thought okay la since need to expedite then do the herringbone in the rooms instead but once again gave reasons like its takes abt 2 to 3 weeks to complete and wont be in time for us to move in. But less than 4 days later, herringbone was installed. When its time for laying of vinyl at living area, vynil had some defects so they need to return back to supplier and will only be delivered on the 4th of Dec and installation the next day. 5th Dec is the date we need to vacant the old house. But we still moved in with dust everywhere.“
“I took leave the whole week of next week thinking that there’ll be works but nope, i wasted my bloody leaves cos only minimal works were done. We were told that by 1st Dec it will be a liveable condition for us to stay but the water heater was not even installed. And i had to do extra job by boiling hot water so that we can shower. Works were scheduled as and when they liked, with the same repeated excuse; short of manpower. Ever since we moved in, not once i saw the ID’s face, only once when i insisted the electrician to come and install the water heater but he came instead but in the end didnt fix at all cos the wires were too short. electrician eventually came few days later. But when the ID came i told him that one of the track lights wasnt working and he said that it was faulty, when it was brand new. So okay i took his word for it and i informed the electrician abt it, so instead of checking the light, he just removed it from the track. But when my husband brought back that light to the shop, eventually the light was not connected at all and my husband had to fix it himself.”
“The tiling works in the kitchen was quite slow and had to chase the ID to get the grouting in the toilets to be done, and again he said delay because short of manpower.”
“Carpentry started and that was the started of my bitchy mode. Contractors came into the rooms with slippers on. We had to leave the house because of the strong glue smell, came back home at night to see my house macam Chingay all lights were on. Whatsapped the ID and his coordinator, told them off and ID can even say there is nothing he could do. Contractors used our 2 brooms, dustpans and dining chairs without permission. Brooms were used to sweep outside the house and i asked them to pay back, ID said will buy for us 2 brooms to replace but only bought one. Even when we told the ID about the slippers issue, the contractor still came in with slippers on and quickly removed them when he saw i came back from work unexpectedly. Carpentry and tiling works done in the kitchen but i wasnt happy with the drain protrude out from the kitchen cabinet. Told the ID to do something about it but he didnt bother to come over just send people to come. I couldnt take it and called his manager. Talked to the manager, David but he kept interrupting me and he said he will check and get back to me soon. That was on a Friday so by the next week, no news from him, called him again to ask for an update but no answer. So i decided to post a very bad review on their facebook page, and he called back. So he sweet talked saying will come over on Friday to rectify my kitchen but before that requested that i delete that post first.“
“Friday he came with the ID. At last can see the ID’s face. That was mid of January. We said we dont want to pay the last payment of $2k plus cos it was way long overdue. Works not yet completed but they kept saying they gave ot of discounts prior to the start of works. So i asked the golden question, when will everything settled? I didnt even give them a date but they said by end of January and i jokingly said dont just say end of the month skali dragged until after CNY. They giggled and said no la. By end of Jan we still not able to do cookings or laundry. That was already 5 weeks after the 8th week. And our spendings for food and laundry is way more than the last payment. And today, 8th of Feb, there are still paintings to be done, collapsible door to be fixed, plastering at different parts of the house to be done. And now they are already looking forward to their new year and here we are still in this house with house still incomplete, we had to clean the house ourselves, despite having them to clean our house which will only be scheduled in two days time.”
“It’s not that we dont want to pay them but works like these, very bad service, who can tahan like this. As per my understanding i bought an EA not a Bungalow so im not sure why it takes them this long to complete this house. So should we just accept that they have short of manpower and just suck it up? “
