A regretful and traumatic experience for using Quad R Design. Please do not be lured like us by the deception of positive reviews on Facebook and Google.
There are only negative reviews on Hometrust.sg. It seems weird why these reviews were not also on Google or Facebook. Hope the one I am posting now will not disappear also into thin air.
Before the contract was signed and deposit / 1st payment given, the attitude of the company admin and ID, Heidi, presented is welcoming and helpful.
Over promises, “free gifts”, discounts, and so called 2 year warranty are also the tactics to attract to decide on finally choosing this ID company.
The whole journey from signing the contract to moving in the house, had been like on a roller coaster.
Heidi, promised that she will follow up closely, update us faithfully on the renovation schedule and also take pictures to update us what to be happening during the renovation.
However, it was totally not the case. She was always super busy with meeting with new prospects, and we also tried to understand when she kept falling sick. Do you know once why she fell sick?
She cancelled the appointment to meet us as the other client wanted to treat her with dinner. We only know after that when we were concerned and asked her why she was so sick. She felt unwell after the dinner.
The updates were super lagged. We are almost like the project manager, especially at the final steps as we are so stressed that we cannot move in the house in time. We already told her we had to move by that date as we already maxed out the 3 month extension at our former place.
Heidi, displayed thorough out the journey, some ID skills definitely, but poorly equipped, lacking much knowledge but acting she knew it all , not willing to admit any mistake or apology. We had to resort to go to their website and google to find contact, which we thought could be the admin. The contact is Kim, the “boss”. We tried checking with the sub contractors, and they mentioned he is one of the co owners or boss. Regardless, we tried to convey our concerns to him in some little hope that this ID company is as so messed up. My husband has warned me that it cannot be only the employees acting like this but I told him we will give them a chance to prove us wrong if the “boss” is willing to guide and step in to rectify the issues and concerns. Yet, it was all a show. Only a slight faster in response and communication for less than a week and everything was back to the same.
From being promised that the whole processes will be taken care of, from us need to contact and coordinate all the electrical appliance and not given proper guidance on when the dates of installation should be and we had to change a couple of times for different appliances. Even the simple promise of coordinating the City gas heater installation gave us a shock. She was not there ! She was not there ! She was not there! This was just one of the case that revealed her lack of skill and capacity as an ID. We told her we would have stacked up dryer and washer due to lack of space. Even if she was unsure or forgotten she could have consulted us prior or on that day when the installer came . If she would informed us that she could not be there, we would still set time to go down ourselves. No! She did not ! She did not care! She thinks too well of herself! Thereafter, we are the one we called CItygas because we are urgent as house owners. She took her own sweet time. She did not even know we have called the Citygas to set an appointment to reinstall. We had to request for her to pay us back the installation fee and it was not an easy process.
Initially we gave the benefit of doubts for her slowness , lack of communication and even poor attitude and busyness. However, it came to be clear , she is just being irresponsible and poorly equipped.
There are truly many many other things to highlight.
Just a few more :
From the start, we share that we want to have a study corner with full shelves partially for display of the many items we have. Because our former place we lack the display shelves. Display shelves mean?Glass or Plastic panel. I told the other companies we sought for quotation the same thing and they also included in the quotation. They also just indicated cabinet. When we were finally meeting to discuss on the details of how all the cabinets be done, we were taken aback when she claimed in the quotation is all about wooden cabinet for the study room. Nothing else. It was told to her at the start before we signed the agreement. It was our lack as we are not well versed in the renovation lingo. Those looking to renovate and find ID or contractors, please scrutinize each individual lines of the quotation. For us, Heidi’s quotation were not clear at the start too. For those we know that were not clear, we insisted her to be clear. However, this part about the study room cabinet, we had missed out as we had highlighted at the start when she “came” to our former house to discuss. The conclusion? We did not have any message or recording proof as we did not know this ID is of this kind of character at the start, managed to negotiate for a lower price or so called a discount (like she had done us a great favour for her mistake).
Next, Kim, the “boss” suggested us to get to with Heidi face to face or call if there is any issues. We informed him it is his employee who is “busy” always, not us. He proposed a call, and he asked if need him to be in the call. When we had the call, he suddenly disappeared (we just communicated via whatapps minutes ago), and Heidi claiming she could not find him, wasting like 15 to 20 minutes of our time. When we started the “discussion”, without Kim, she told us (lols) Kim did not inform her anything what the call was about? Because of past experience with this person, we did a recording of the full online meeting. This meeting includes some claims from the ID demanding us to pay things that they think we should pay, including filling up the celling due to Heidi’s mis-planning and lack of abilities revealed, for the electrical wiring to be redone otherwise the fans will hit the cabinets. In term of refunding back, when due, for example for the room cabinet which the final length were shorter significantly, had to “prove” and calculate to share with her the actual completed length done. Attitude was again shown when negotiating that it should be charged more and we are one with the wrong attitude. She could not admit her mistake. There were also many other parts in the discussions, some related to the payments to refund and to add, Heidi did not . She did not and act to forget , when she should have immediately updated.
Please all, take note of this tactic, the renovation ID, specially dragged on 1 month to 2 month as when owners moved in and time past, memories will be lost. She passed us the “outstanding” fee (not updated as mention as per the discussion in the call” . We had to remind her and that we have the full recording. The next day, all are updated quickly. Why was it done well properly initially?
Another example. If you are lack in understanding of painting of the walls of the house, it is okay. We did not expect the ID to know everything. At the start, we enquired for professional painting company and she shared that their team/s are equally professional and experienced. We also checked with Heidi, that the team of professional painting company shared that certain walls would need plastering. We remembered how confidently she shared that the walls are okay, should not be much issue. She saw all our walls in our house and she did not mention anything. We would have appreciate that she sent the ID teams of painters to review if she was not that well versed. We have painting experiences when we hired painters to do our house. It is usually a team, but this one is just 1 and with his son, learning. They painted unusually fast . Usually painting will paint 2 coat or 3 coats and it will be done in 2 days separately at least. We decided as we are not painters, we may not fully understand so we gave benefits of doubts but there are walls which were not painted smooth, “holes” , “scratches” etc. The painter came back many times, and the ID team even had to find another person to do plastering. We were asked to pay for any extra fee for plastering. We placed our stand that we were only pay for fair price that was what the market rate was with plastering +painting.
Us, owners, are being so inconvenienced, stressed out for all the incompetencies, and more importantly lack of sincerity and care for the renovation. It ends us coordinating even with painter as he did not want to speak to the ID. Poor coordination and communication with sub contractors and owners bearing the brunt and consequences, without any remorse or appreciation from the company nor the ID.
There were many more to share but think that is all to highlight. If want to save cost, please find direct contractors to coordinate yourself. If you want to find ID, please truly find reputable ID , best referred by family or good friends.
