June 2023 by Mario Novielli
What seemed like a great company to trust with my first professional design experience, ended up being a nightmare.During the consultation, design phase and ordering, everything went as planned. The team was friendly and communicative. After ordering the furniture in June of 2022, the relationship went sour. Initially I was told that the weekly invoice amounts would decrease over time which wasn’t the case. The last straw was an item arriving that didn’t fit and there was zero accountability taken. Instead they stated they would take it back as a one time courtesy and then they alluded to the fact that if they were given the opportunity to take measurements, for a third time, this wouldn’t have happened. At no point did I decline them from coming to my house to measure a third time.The issue with the mirror was escalated from my designer, Haley (interestingly she’s no longer with the company), to the owner, Amanda. Not only did Amanda state she was not taking back the mirror, she also took 5 minutes to berate me on how I’ve been a super difficult customer for the past couple of months. After that call, I tried to take over the remaining responsibilities of the project, which honestly I had been doing the entire time, and they continued to charge me weekly for the “work” they were doing to track the products. (I’m unsure of what this “work” consisted of since I did not receive detailed invoices as stated in the contract.)During the last 5 months of the project I would ask for very simple requests. “Can you provide the tracking information for X product?” It gave me so much anxiety to ask these questions knowing that it would most likely lead to a hefty charge on Friday (they charge you weekly on Friday). Somehow asking for an update on the shipping of one chandelier turned into a $230 charge. The invoice showed they were tracking “other items” which was odd because months prior they stated that they would hand everything off to me and I explained I was keeping track of every single item (I created a Google Spreadsheet). It didn’t make sense but I paid it in order to avoid breaching our contract & incurring legal fees for said breach.I don’t believe that I was given the proper experience after spending tens of thousands of dollars, and also being thousands of dollars over budget, and I let the owner, Amanda, know this. For future clients, I would suggest being very clear with your expectations and understanding the project in totality. I would also suggest setting up phone calls vs. sending emails back and forth. They will take every opportunity to send multiple emails which will quickly add up with their hourly fees ($300 - owner, $225 - senior designer, $175 - designer, $110 - assistant designer).I’m sure Amanda and the team are going to try and twist the story but I’d be happy to chat further with anyone that’s interested. You can connect with me via LinkedIn - Mario Novielli.(Note - during the issue with the mirror not fitting, I had a call with Amanda and she started off by saying that she didn’t read the email thread, she’s 400 emails behind and she has people writing emails for her. (Pretty concerning when she’s charging $300 an hour. Leads me to question all of the other instances I was invoiced for the “time” she spent on my projects). Again there was zero accountability taken, just a continuation of all the things they’ve done for me, the main being that they’ve saved me $2,000 on shades. I was frustrated at this point and shared with Amanda that I felt like I owned 80% of the entire process. I also stated that if she wanted to come to my house to “style it” and take pictures she could pay me. At this point Amanda stated that she would no longer be returning the mirror, that I’ve been demeaning and rude the past couple of months. I would agree with Amanda that my comment was unnecessary, but I don’t believe I was rude or demeaning throughout the process. I was direct, firm and polite. When you are thousands of dollars over budget, I’m sure you would have a similar approach.)
