Benedict August

We are truly sorry to hear that TYC's expectations were not met, however, we would like to shed some light and detail our perspective on how we feel things really went.

After meeting with this client, we were excited he hired our firm to work on his design project. While our firm has been inordinately busy, we remained in communication with the client during the design process, and we did not promise anything that we could not deliver.

We would like to address the items that the client has identified as "issues". We always assume responsibility first whether we are at fault or not, as a principal of good customer relations. However, sometimes a line has to be drawn and reason has to exist.

1. BUILT-INS: During our initial consultation with the client, we were told that he wanted to install built-ins to match the existing cabinetry in their kitchen. We made recommendations in our presentation for the built-in units as requested, however, we were unable to provide the client with the associated costs as all of our resources for finish carpentry were fully committed until well into the summer, which did not meet his timeframe. The solution we proposed was to provide the design plan if he found someone that could complete the work in his timeframe and we offered to meet and/or discuss the details with the contractor. We did not refuse to assist based on the project budget.

2. FURNITURE: We repeatedly advised the client of our policies and limitations with regard to trying out furniture, so we stand firm in viewing this either as a misunderstanding on his part or simply an unwillingness to accept our answer. We did explain to him on multiple occasions that we offer furnishings that are specifically available to the design trade and are not available "to shop" in a retail setting.

3. TIME BILLING: We spent a reasonable amount of time to develop a custom design and propose unique furnishings per the client’s specifications. The client was billed for our time per our Letter of Agreement, and in accordance with what we quoted him during our initial meeting. Once our design proposals were submitted to the client for review, we followed up with him for several weeks with no success in obtaining responses or feedback from the client. The client eventually replied to advise that he decided not to move forward with our firm. We were not given the opportunity to loop back with the client to address any questions and concerns following our initial proposals. He did not accept our detailed explanation of how our time was spent. He did not understand that the majority of furnishings were, in fact, custom, and included several components that needed to be sourced and priced. We did not price out the interior built-ins per #1 above, and when the client inquired about the exterior built-ins for which we provided concept images, we referred him to someone who specializes in outdoor design since this area falls outside of our scope of services.

4. WINDOW TREATMENTS: After several follow-up attempts on our end, the client eventually replied and inquired about the pricing for the window treatments. We explained that the pricing was not for a single window treatment; it was for multiple windows, and not only included the fabrication of the treatments, but also the drapery hardware, freight, tax and professional installation. Without further discussion, he determined that he did not want to move forward or explore alternative options to try and reduce cost.

To conclude:
We genuinely want our clients to be happy, so we do our very best to make sure we can achieve that with each and every client. We understand that we can’t make everyone happy, no matter how hard we try! Our reviews show we have multiple 5-star ratings, in addition to published design projects and several consecutive “Best of Houzz” awards. We feel that TYC’s review is inconsistent with all of the reviews and feedback we get from our clients and we simply think that no matter how hard we tried, he was not going to be happy.

A note to our future potential customers:
We understand that we live at a time where anybody can write anything, at anytime, about anyone! We truly do our best and work very, very hard to avoid issues of this nature, but understand that we can’t always avoid a client that might not be a good fit for us and vice versa. We ask you to check our records and reviews, and see if any of TYC’s words are aligned with our reputation thus far.

We stand firm with our feelings about this project and hope to be of service to all of you!

Sincerely,
Benedict August Interiors & Design

Thank you, Matt. So glad we were able to help with your office. We look forward to working with you again.