Sure. Gather together all your e-mails, etc, proof of what you have explained here to us and invite him to meet you in small claims court. Contract or no contract, the guy has to produce. Remember that great song “Nothing from nothing means nothing”?

Thank you so much. We had agreed on a flat fee. I don't see why I owe him much at all when he was the one to quit, I didn't. All we got are 6 dining chairs. NO options for lighting, window treatments, table, bed, etc. I have considered a lawyer but that would only add to the expense. Of course, he got 50% of the fee up-front. I asked him for an accounting of his time and what I got back was that he charges $185/hr. and he traveled here and there but found nothing?? REALLY bothers me!!

So are you saying his total flat fee was $6800, and you paid $3400 of that? And he charges $185 an hour? I agree with above; at least threaten to take him to small claims court.* Tell him that you kept an accounting of everything. My guess is, when you threaten court, he'll back off. You don't even have to hire a lawyer to call his bluff. And if you wrote a check-- unless he's cashed it-- put a stop payment on it. If you charged it on a credit card, write to your bank and protest the payment. They'll pull that money right out of his account and hold it until this is settled.

*This might be too high for small claims court, but you could threaten court.

And I'm sure you know this by now, but never pay anyone 50% upfront, for anything. If they have to buy materials and need money, then they can show you what they're buying and an accounting of what that cost them before you pay.

Thank you, Diana. Yes, his total flat fee was $6800. I hired him about 3 months ago so my check is long gone. In our area you do pay a design fee up front. His fee is outrageous even for this area. Most charge around $100 or a bit higher/hr. I can't believe he is okay with loosing so many possible referrals from me. We live in a new, very high end (read extremely $$$$) gated community with lots of new people moving in who may want designers. Very frustrating. Thanks for letting me vent and your good advice.

Hi pnusser. Well, that was gonna be my other point. He's obviously too dumb to realize that word-of-mouth is an amazingly powerful thing. And while you may lose some money, you do ultimately hold the power here. I'd bad-mouth him and his "services" from now until the end of time-- as far and as wide as possible. If it was me, by the time I was done bad-mouthing him, he'd have to change careers.

Well, yes-- the guy does sound like a fraud, and it sounds like you do have a claim here. Courts and lawyers, though-- the very thought makes my stomach hurt-- but on the word-of-mouth thing-- yes-- I'm big into that myself. It really is a huge thing. And don't forget the BBB and all those online places where you can leave reviews, too. :)

"He 'fired' me"
Well, I'm not an attorney and I don't know what state you live in or their laws regarding contracts. Though I tend to believe they maybe similar state to state. When reviewing our current contracts and agreements with our attorney a few years back I was told that once both parties execute the contract, both are equally obligated to perform unless there is an action that triggers an out clause. So, unless your contract gives him an out by an action or inaction on your part, he can't "fire" you or quit. He maybe very well on the hook for returning your entire deposit or worse. But as always, consult a real attorney and good luck.

It is always a disappointment to learn of such situations. 50% of your agreed total is about 18 hours at his stated rate. Practically speaking, that's undern3 days of work.

A colleague routinely charges $95/hour, but also handles all purchases with the 20-40% trade discount going to the designer, not the client. This effectively raises the rate and whether the client knows what he/she is really paying is a matter of their private communications. Another colleague charges a flat 20% of the total project budget-- charges a start up fee and bills monthly. In an overseas project, this arrangement would have paid me four times what I charged. Point is, there is a lot of variety in how payment is arranged with pros and cons that should be explored at the outset.

At 250-550/hour for a lawyer, you probably have less than two days of time before you have consumed as much as you have already lost--hard as it is, I recommend going away for the weekend to have a good time, come back fresh and then conduct a post mortem to draw out lessons that can guide your next steps. Don't get caught up in the injustice of it (you will, but try not to) and focus on what, specifically, do you need to have in place to select the right person (word of mouth is huge), monitor performance (clear and specific objectives and timelines that shift only with good, understandable reason) and deliver fair pay for performance (so discuss he various approaches and decide what works for mutual benefit).

An alternative option, of course, is to trust your own judgement and sense of design. Since pnusser gave this "designer" photos and ideas, I'm guess she (or he) has a good design sense. The downside is that everything might take a bit longer, but in the end-- it's all you-- and you save money in the process.

I agree that I'd just chalk it up to a lesson learned, and I don't care what the person you've hired is doing-- I can't think of any scenario where I would pay someone 50% upfront. If they have to buy materials-- maybe-- but, even then, that's usually not 50% of a total flat fee cost.

I'm a great believer in lawyer letters. You have a claim.

Sorry to hear that. Hope you get things straightened out soon.

Small claims court will see your case without a lawyer, and only a small processing fee. You can also contact local social service agencies or your local university, if applicable, to ask about getting free law consults. Call friends that may have lawyer contacts, and ask for referrals of same. Your consult may only last seven minutes, but will give as much guidance as you need re. whether to file - what I see so far is a broken contract with no hourly rate stipulated in writing to support his claim on your cash. If and when you do file, there are booklets available at the courthouse to explain the process you will be entering.

In the meantime, I encourage you to erase the the 'Love it...' post above, ( your comments herei are exposed on the internet), report this NPU to the BBB, Angie's List and by all means post a detailed review, if he is here on HOUZZ. I wish you the best of luck with your future design plans, in and out of court.

If your designer is a licensed designer you should have a contract. On that contract should be a stamp with information to report to license agency, and how to pursue mediation vs law suit. Much less expensive. At least that is what TX laws are governing licensed interior designers. If you did not hire a licenses designer, then small claims is probably your only recourse. Listen people out there, this is one reason why you want an ASID designer.

Thank you for your advise. Our 'terminated' designer is a member of ASID. We do have a signed contract but there is no info to report anything. We live in NJ. In asking for a certain amount of my money back, his latest is that "I broke the contract because I bought a piece of furniture that he did not approve of". There is no such wording in our contract, obviously! I can't imagine any designer telling me I am not allowed to purchase something with my own money. I got tired of waiting for ideas after 12 wks. and needed something for the holidays. He knew that way in advance.

Wow; that is unbelievable. I guess ASID is another place where you can report this untalented nobody. If you don't want to hire a lawyer, your only recourse, really, is to report him to all these places, and let other people know who he is and how he does (or doesn't do) his job. With a signed contract and the money he basically stole from you, I would take him to court-- in a heartbeat.

Thank you, all, for your concern and support. I very much appreciate your thoughts and comments. This is a great site for everything! BTW, this designer is on Houzz.

I hope you will leave a detailed review for him soon.

Please let me know how I go about leaving a review, if you don't mind. Thank you.

You can leave a review via the button at the top right of your ID page.

Thank you! This is such a mess and NOT of my own doing.

I am so sorry to hear that.... It gives a bad name to designers.... Ask him to show you his work hours and try to discuss with him in a positive way that clearly it was not a good fit but it would be only fair for him to return most of the money.... If he still does not respond that he did not live up to your contract , and yes you can review him on houzz.... Try to stay positive and in the end you will end up with a beautiful home! But it is always unpleasant when these things happen, I am still trying to get back money from a rogue web designer! Sometimes business relationships can be a bad match but than you will know more of what you want in a designer and find the perfect fit!! Good luck with this , and try to see it as a process rather than a mess because in the end, you will end up with a beautiful home!!

A couple of points that may be relevant:

(1) All contracts should have a termination clause. Read yours and see whether you or the designer needed a cause to terminate, or whether you can do it simply for convenience.

(2) If you agreed to pay based on an hourly rate, then the hourly rate is relevant. If you agreed to pay based on a flat fee, then the amount of time spent may not be relevant, but, a percentage of expected work product would be. Again, it depends on what is prescribed in your termination clause.

Oh and ps... I hope that the next designer that comes into your life understands and respects you and your money as redecorating and renovating can be costly and stressful . Part of our job is give peace of mind to the client and make the process as fun and enjoyable as possible!