Ms. Paula Winter was acting as a designer helping me with a remodel of my kitchen. I had difficulties with our relationship from the beginning, as I felt that she was a bit arrogant and demeaning towards me and my home, being ungracious, putting down the quality of my furnishings and the choices I had made in other rooms. She did not seem to understand or agree with my aesthetic (mid-century/transitional) and maybe should only work on homes whose type of decorating style she enjoys. At one point I wrote her an email explaining my feelings and we agreed to try to keep working together. After that we looked for tile for my backsplash. I said I wanted white subway tile and needed help choosing size and color. She picked out tiles in different styles and colors, none of which were white or subway. I was so embarrassed during this almost two-hour process that I just went along. I left without any samples to try as we had to wait for them to be ordered, and without any white subway tile having been picked out. Two days later I found tile I liked and sent her a one sentence text to let her know. She responded two days later with one sentence saying that she would cancel the samples. I was discouraged that she could not even say something nice, like, "Glad you found something you like." I never heard from her again. She never reached out to me to see how the project was going, even though she knew I still had to pick cabinet handles, paint colors, stools.
A month later I got a bill and she charged me 1.25 hours for reading a one sentence text and responding with one sentence. I asked her not to charge me for the 10 seconds it would have taken for the message exchange and to refund the remaining $275 from my retainer (I did not object to the charges for the tile meeting even though they were of no benefit to me). She refused.
Her customer service is appalling. In her last message to me she complained that I "stifled" her, as if her needs and desires about my project were more important than mine.
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