One of the biggest problems in the interior design business is dealing with all the customer service issues. You can be impeccable at your job, but the amount of stuff that goes wrong is unbelievable. The fun then begins by arguing with whatever company you bought screwed up product from and trying to make it right.
I am dealing with a recliner where the footrest keeps dropping when my client lays on it, which is not what you want from a recliner. I know, I know- you are thinking- recliner? Ewww. But there are attractive ones that do not look like the chair from Frasier. Anyway, the world’s largest furniture store that I bought it from sent out a local repair company to look at the problem. We waited for three hours, and they never showed. We were told they rescheduled without telling us, and then we were told the building would not let them in. I am sure he was ready to be done on a Friday (as was I) and decided to skip out and not show up. The front desk and cameras easily verified that he was never there. I could wait weeks for these jokers to maybe show back up, or let’s see if we can solve the problem another way.
I reached back out to the place where we purchased. I asked to contact the manufacturer directly. It took weeks for me to get a response from the place of purchase and threats to not order from them anymore. They simply said there was no one else in the area to repair but the joker who did not show up. I asked repeatedly for them to contact the manufacturer. They eventually did to find that they would need a new motor and have it shipped promptly. If I had not been persistent/bitchy, I would have waited weeks to have the jokers from the repair company be able to do nothing and still need parts.
I implore designers to think things through on customer service issues and not accept the no answer you are more than likely going to get. I think part of it comes from me managing a showroom. I knew what we would or would not fix and how to accomplish that. But I also think a lot of it is common sense.
For instance, I had ordered a sofa with fabric provided by the manufacturer. In other words, it was not a custom fabric from some specialty fabric house. I had also ordered the same sofa with a custom fabric shipping to an entirely different state. The one with the fabric from the manufacturer arrived with a slit in the body of the sofa fabric. Everyone denied responsibility, and there was no way of proving it. I needed to get another yard of fabric from the manufacturer and my local workroom would do me a solid and repair it.
The company I ordered both sofas from was dumbfounded. After months (and that is not hyperbole), they tried to get me to confirm the order for the custom fabric, which I could have ordered online and had the next day. I had told them clearly what fabric and what order it was. It was not hard. I did end up yelling at them- why on earth would I wait and waste months for a fabric I could have ordered and been done with??? She said it was confusing because I had ordered two of the same sofas. I guess it was my fault for giving them more than one order. That showroom never had the problem of orders from me again.
One of the worst instances was a kitchen. A simple shaker style kitchen that was not exceptionally large or complicated. The cabinet guy, DJ, started out decently enough. We were trying to get the kitchen done during covid. It shipped slightly late, but when it arrived the problems began. The refrigerator panels were wrong. The cabinet over the refrigerator was the wrong size. There was no filler (filler is an important part of a kitchen. Not everything fits perfectly, and you need pieces to fill in the gaps). We received three different dishwasher panels before the correct one finally arrived. The first was a flat front door instead of a shaker. The next one had a smaller style on the shaker then the rest of the cabinetry. The third one was finally the charm.
The cabinet above the refrigerator had a gap of about 6”. The next cabinet DJ ordered was way too big. Again, the third one was the charm.
Meanwhile, the client decided she wanted a slightly smaller pantry. We ordered it and finally got it in to realize that the door stiles did not line up. DJ blamed the installer for installing the pantry next to it upside down. However, it was what he drew on the shop drawings. The shop drawings in this business are the Bible. You follow them. Architects are paid money to sign off and make sure that they are correct. He ordered another pantry after we won that argument. Unsurprisingly, it arrived with no pull-out shelves, which was what was on the order. DJ then told us we should install the shelves from the original pantry into that one. Let me get this straight- you want a grown man to fit into a 15” wide pantry and drill holes and have the shelves function properly? Are you out of your mind? After more arguing, the company is making a “custom” cabinet to match DJ’s shop drawings. They are paying for all of it, but it has been exhaustive and taken over a year.
What amazes me is DJ still has his job. I know I am not the only designer he made costly mistakes on. I really do not know if it is not caring or great incompetence. But how do companies let someone continue who clearly makes so many errors? Is it because people just do not have the energy to argue about it?
We ordered another kitchen from a different manufacturer, and the crown did not match the rest of the cabinets. We tried 3 times to get it right and finally had to pay someone locally to put a stain on what the manufacturer had sent.
My installer on that job also did not do his job properly. We had to hire someone else to fix it. He actually had the nerve to say to me I did not know you wanted installed at that level of quality. Ok, that’s my fault I did not clarify that things should be installed straight, and doors should be level. I assumed you knew.
One of my sales reps who is a good friend likes to say I have a dominant personality. I find that funny and pretty accurate. But I do not really enjoy having to pull a Joan Crawford “don’t fuck with me fellas” every time I need something. But it seems to be what it takes sometimes.
