HouseHome

Thank you, Lynn! Mariah led the project and team beautifully, as always! And she absolutely loved working on your home with you. :)

Jamie,
At the beginning of your project, I had to reschedule our consultation twice. The first time was because my son’s open heart surgery was moved to a later date. The second time was because my father was dying and I needed to be with my family and say goodbye to him. Both of these things, while of course, not your problem, certainly warrant some patience and kindness with our scheduling. Rescheduling your appointments to start your project was not ideal for anyone, but my family comes first. You never communicated that this was such a problem at the time, even though I was transparent as to why I needed to reschedule.

Your other items that point to delay are also unwarranted. I was late to an appointment with you by 25 minutes because when I got about 10 minutes from the office, I had a notification that your tile sample was delivered. To have this for our meeting, I asked if it was okay that I turn around and grab the tile, even if it meant I was late to do so. You agreed.

I admit I was not on my A-game during this season, but employed wonderful people who were helping to not only hold me up personally during this time, but professionally as well. That to say, I absolutely needed extra assistance, and there were a few mistakes on my part, but I moved to resolution quickly and apologized.

I paused on posting your kitchen for sale so we could remedy your disappointment and waited for your response to my email, which was never met with discussion.

When you communicated that you were frustrated with some things, I replied with a full, thoughtful reply not only once again apologizing for the rescheduling, but to ensure you were fully aware of why things might have felt a little different in the beginning of your project. Not once did you express understanding or even common kindness for these two life-changing events, that were occurring at the same time as your project was getting started, and I still delivered a kitchen design with multiple optional changes that you loved so much you couldn’t decide which to choose.

Overall, I will apologize once again for the minor mistakes and rescheduling that needed to take place for a major surgery and death in my family. You are the only client who was not at all understanding and have treated the very legitimate reasons for delays as “excuses” even though I was paused to understand how you wanted to move forward. I even offered feedback on your comments but received only a “Are we going to work together or what?” type of reply and was still trying to determine if we should move forward with your projects, or if you even wanted me to do so when you paid your bill and send me a note saying we were done.

As for the final email I sent you, I accidentally sent it to my assistant instead of you and then resent it once I saw you didn’t get it. My “excuses” as you call them were always honest issues or minor miscommunication, as I am only human. We never resolved your concerns so of course I was not proceeding with the project until that was resolved.

I wish you luck in the future with your project. I understand that you are very happy with our contractor and our designs.

As always, I have kept records of all of our conversations, and am happy to resend them to you as it seems your recollection of how these instances took place is not accurate.

Hello -

I am disappointed that instead of coming to me personally you chose to take this complaint public, especially being a realtor in this community as well. Not once did you mention any issues during our design and renovation process, other than typical bumps along the way of a very large renovation, any of which were resolved immediately. On the contrary, I have full transcripts of our communications, all of which were positive, other than what is mentioned further in this response. We parted ways back in September 2020 on understanding terms (I have this transcript) and haven't spoken since. Since you have decided to leave a bad review nearly SEVEN months later, which is quite peculiar, I'm sure you would understand why I would feel the need to set the record straight on what was a perfect 5-star review record standing here on Houzz, as well as being awarded Best in Customer Service 4 years in a row (top 3% of 2.5 million professionals).

I work very hard as a small business owner to go above and beyond for my clients. I also expect the same excellence from the contractors I work with. I value those relationships a great deal. I run my business with integrity, excellence and kindness. I also want to work with clients and contractors who value those attributes as well. I trust certain professionals and recommend them for work. However, at times, I have to make difficult decisions where I must support my clients or my renovation contractors / crews. In your case, it was necessary that I side with my flooring installers. Knowing this would mean I lose you as paying client.

To clarify the so-called "firing", my flooring crew showed up, on time, as scheduled to install your new flooring. When the lead was unclear in verbal communication with you, you got angry and fired them there on the spot, with zero allowance for him to clarify. This is a crew I work with on a regular basis, who exceeds in quality of workmanship, all while being incredibly kind, respectful and professional during installation. Because there was a language barrier and you instantly decided to not even call his boss, he and the rest of the crew were escorted off the property by your husband like criminals (this was the description used by the general contractor and the flooring crew). Everyone was in shock including the general contractor and flooring company owner. I decided it would not be a good fit for me and my company, which carries an excellent name, to continue working with someone who treats other professionals in such a poor manner. I explained this in our communication, that I was severing our relationship based on your mistreatment of others. However, I offered you and the contractor that you continued to retain, all of the necessary information to complete the job (even allowing him to reach out to me with any questions free of charge), including all boards digital images, and my designs.

Regarding your specific ratings, none of which hold any truth:

Work Quality - I did everything with excellence. I have written documentation of how happy you were with choices made, how happy you were with the design, etc. I have emails and texts from the contractor before and after we parted ways that you absolutely loved everything about the remodel.

Communication: I communicated with excellence. I have documentation of how promptly I responded to your messages via email and text, of all of my communication regarding orders, deliveries, scheduling, meetings, etc.

Value: I work extremely hard and make the most out of every single hour I put in, and in invoices I break down specifically where my time would go. I also gave you every single one of my discounts (many), instead of a standard designer practice of keeping that difference. I have documentation of you thanking me for sharing my discounts. I also had an hourly rate with you that was incredibly competitive with other designers.

I never once became upset with you. That is 100% imagined and false. I do not become upset with clients, as I am honored to be hired by them to make their home their dream, take that privilege seriously. and whatever it takes to make them happy is what I will do. Nothing was measured in error. That is also completely false. You wanted all vanities to go wall-to-wall just as they had been previously. All that had to be done technically was measure the current ones to order replacements. Ultimately the contractor confirmed and approved the measurements, as that is part of his job.

It is apparent this 7-month delayed reaction is a personal decision to attempt to hurt another professional's small business, based solely on me having to make the character decision to no longer work with you, while it carries zero truth or honest substance. I'd be happy to share all of our communications with you, in addition to the communications between me and the contractor whom you praise, and I welcome you to contact me personally to resolve any further miscommunications you feel were made.

Thank you,

Christine Rapert
Owner - HouseHome

Thank you, so much, Jim! It has been such a pleasure working with you!

Aw! Thank you, Leslie! You & Chad are a delight to work with. Looking forward to the next 2 bathroom remodels...thanks for inviting me back for more!! YAY! :)

Aw, thanks so much, Rachel! You’re a joy to work with. :)

Thank you, Emily!! I always love repeat customers, especially when friendships form along the way. :)

Thank you so much, Curtis! You & your family were a joy to work with! :)