My experience with this Contractor for my Kitchen renovation

I found this contractor V&B Furnishing Pte Ltd on Carousell after sourcing for many others for my kitchen renovation. I did many review checks on this particular company, and all were top-rated, especially on Carousell, he had 5 star reviews.

 Mr M, the main Guy in charge (I’m assuming it’s his company), was very patient and offered detailed explanations for all my queries.

After much consideration, I decided to work with him for my kitchen reno as he seemed very professional and straight up. The main items on the reno were the kitchen cabinets and floor tiles (overlay). There was an agreed timeline of 4-6 weeks for the reno to be completed.

However, as soon as the renovation started, many things didn’t go smooth (this is somewhat expected of course). But the one that was really upsetting for me was the Customer service that I received.

It was the classic case where after you make payment, somehow you are treated differently, often poorly. As this reno was being done in a resale flat where my family was still living, doing a kitchen reno was difficult in and of itself. But this was made worse by my contractor’s plan. Hacking of cabinets and tiles to be done first and after that only measurement and fabrication of cabinets will be started. This was interesting for me, as from my research, most other contractors would take the measurements first and start the cabinet fabrication. Hacking and dismantling of old cabinets will only happen right before the new ones arrive. This is to minimize the downtime in a working kitchen.

However, his reasons were such as my old kitchen tiles were in the way and there was no choice but to do it this way to get a proper finish. After much discussion with my family considering that we won’t have access to the stove or sink for the agreed 4-6 weeks, I decided to proceed with his plan anyway. My almost 20-year-old cabinets really needed to be replace and I decided to bite the bullet and just settle it (later on I found out from other contractors that this is not the norm, and that hacking of old cabinets can be done right after the new ones arrive). Apparently, some contractors do not wish to go through the hassle of the extra coordination.  

Hacking of cabinets was completed on 3 July, the new cabinets arrived and installed only on 4 august, with missing items such as dish tray cover, cabinet shelves and even the cutlery tray. This further delayed the schedule. There were few minor defects, which to his credits, he promptly corrected.

By the time the countertop, stove, sink and lastly the backsplash glass was installed, it was almost 10 weeks. For a good 2 months, we did not have access to the kitchen (my family cooks every day). All that is still fine, one can’t rush a renovation if they want a proper job. But what turned out to be most difficult for me was the customer service.

Mr M hardly responded to my text messages or calls. Every text for an update for the progress took days and only after multiple chases. Most of my calls were ignored by him, and often there was an excuse that he was overseas and was busy.  

It was very draining and stressful to keep on chasing him for minor updates.

After major payments were made, receipts were not issued promptly. The 2nd receipt was not given until the final 3rd payment was made almost 1 month later.

For me it felt like I had to almost beg for an update and I came to a point where I had simply given up and just accepted things that I cannot change. This somewhat made it easier for my unnecessary mental stress.

I do not think a paying Customer for a renovation project has to go through such challenges for basic professionalism. Unanswered calls or texts when my family was really struggling to get a working kitchen back, was quite irksome to be honest.

I do not think he made an effort to somewhat expedite the kitchen reno as he said he would. That is fine but the additional 4 weeks of delay knowing that my family was already struggling without a working kitchen is especially difficult for me to accept.

From the start to the end of the reno, there were many hiccups.

·        During the hacking, my downstair neighbour’s kitchen ceiling tiles started popping out. I stopped work and reached out to my contractor who wasn’t onsite but simply told me to inform my neighbour to report to HDB and that shouldn’t be my concern. After scaring him with potential injuries they might have if the tiles were to fall on their head, he decided to come down. We agreed to fix the broken tiles back for them.

·        The tiler tried to reuse the old drainpipes that was previously buried in the old cement base even though in the agreement it explicitly mentioned that new pipes will be used for the plumbing. This was because my contractor had not mention to him anything about using new pipes before the work started.

·        The electrician left exposed wires and the light switch hanging  while the cabinets were on it’s way and I had to convince him to organise it properly as it was a obvious safety issue.

·        The countertop skirting had issues aligning perfectly because the hacking of the previous sink base was not done properly. The subcon and i had to work out something on the spot to fit the countertop and it wasn’t a perfect alignment.  

And throughout all of this, the main guy; Mr M only came down once and that too when I had convinced him to come down due to my neighbour’s complaints about their tiles popping out. And this was on Day 1 of the renovation.

It has been 4 months since my renovation completed, and he is yet to come down to view the finished work.

I do not know what to make out of this.

I simply feel that no paying Customer (a substantial amount at today’s kitchen renovation rate), has to go through such experience. And handling the subcontractors is not the Customer’s job but the main contractors. Any challenges or unforeseen circumstances faced during the reno should not be handled by the customer, unfortunately, I was the one who had to deal with these.

Just a few days ago, I found a couple of cabinet doors not closing properly. It looks like the slow-closing hinges has already started rusting and one of the doors has sunken in already, it has been only 4 months since the cabinets were installed. I have reached out to him regarding this, and as expected, he blue-ticked my texts with no response.

I will not recommend this renovation company to anyone.