A complete waste of money. An initial design consultation fee of $250 yielded a visit by a “professional interior designer” to my new home to discuss the project, my objectives, and my preferences. After that, I decided to move forward and engage them for what they describe as Phase 2, the initial design selections and concept. For the prepaid Phase 2 fee of $2,295, Donna Mancini promised to “begin to create conceptual designs”, to make “material and finish selections”, and to “source product options to be able to create a preliminary cost outline.” They promised that “this phrase culminates in an initial design presentation.”
About three weeks later, I was invited to a meeting with the “professional interior designer” at the Donna Mancini showroom. I had assumed that the meeting was to update me on her progress, and certainly nothing during the course of that meeting caused me to think otherwise. Nothing, that is, until, about 55 minutes into the meeting, when the ““professional interior designer” started to wrap up, and stepped out of the room. Upon returning, she presented me with a new contract for Phase 3, entailing a further payment of $10,000 along with a commitment to pay her $150 per hour for “any revisions” (from what?). It was only at that point that I understood that my Phase 2 was complete and that I had just sat through the culminating “initial design presentation”.
Oddly, this initial design presentation did not include a complete design of any room in my home – even on a “preliminary” basis. I was treated to a Power Point presentation containing slides of, for the most part, overhead schematics showing generic furniture symbols. She presented some specific photos of furniture cropped together – probably random pieces in Donna Mancini’s inventory -- but, as for such things as a living room coffee table, sofa table, end table, niche bookcases, I would just have to imagine them as generic symbols.
It also became apparent that the “professional interior designer” had not paid much attention during the $250 initial design review, after all. She disregarded my explicit insistence that my living room be oriented toward a back water view, and not toward the proverbial fireplace with a wall television. I had told her that I was disinclined to even have a television in that room and asked her to prepare other creative options. So, what creative options did she come up with? Well, apparently her idea of a "creative options" was a single option: the proverbial living room arrangement – everything facing the fireplace/television. She informed me that the “architecture” of my home mandated this arrangement and her concept would allow me to “cozy up” to the gas fireplace during those cold Florida winters – the same fireplace that I had told her could never be lit.
The “professional interior designer” decided to simply ignore an array of items that she promise to include – window coverings, most ceiling fans (she did show me an over-sized and over-priced ones earlier), closet designs, artwork, specific accent pieces, etc.. On the other hand, she did include several pieces that I specifically told her not to include.
As for the promised “preliminary cost outline”, I guess, to Donna Mancini, that was satisfied when her “professional interior designer” blurted out, “I think you’ll spend more than $100,000…” Needless to say, I was not provided with a copy of any plan whatsoever – just fond memories of the Power Point presentation. When I advised Donna Mancini that I was not moving forward with them and outlined the reasons for my dissatisfaction, Donna Mancini reacted with all the professionalism and class one would expect. The issues were with my communications and my failure to understand their "process".
So, for more than $2,500, I received absolutely nothing of value from Donna Mancini.
And, afterwards, for the princely sum of $0, I received an incomparably superior design consultation, plan and execution from one of the local furniture retailers.
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