I tried to hire the Decorating Den to work on renovating a condo I bought in Venice. I spoke with Diane, and made an appointment for which I would be flying from my home to Venice to meet with her. On the day of the appointment, I was waiting, but she never showed up. I waited 30 minutes with no word from her, then phoned her office. Someone in the office told me my name was on the calendar, and that she would call Diane and let her know. Diane called me back a little bit later, after her office contacted her. She obviously had no intention of being polite enough to phone me and tell me she was going to be late. When she did call, she wanted to come "in a few hours" because something on a job needed her attention. I had no problem with that (except I already had plans for the afternoon) but still couldn't figure out why she didn't have the decency to call and let me know she was held up, but I chose to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was to come the following day, which she did.
When she came, I showed Diane the condo. She said she wanted to bring her workmen in to see it, but couldn't schedule that when I was in town. I told her I would find a friend to drive over and let her in. She suggested I leave her a key "under the mat". That was unacceptable to me as I don't know her or her people, and as I wasn't going to be back for months, anyone could find the key and use it. Not very secure.
I found a friend who would drive over to let her in. When Diane called my friend, she pushed for my friend to let her in at a specific time. My friend was engaged at that time, and reported that Diane was very pushy about getting the time she wanted, not accepting that my friend's schedule might not jive with hers. But, they set up a time and Diane and a workman, Rob, showed up. They were to take measurements of the place and look over some of the things that needed to be done. Part of the work was HVAC. Rob turned on the HVAC to see how it worked, while I assume Diane was supposed to take the measurements.
My friend reported that everything went well. I was then very surprised when Diane called me and asked 2 things: 1.Did I have a floor plan of the condo? The answer here was no, but she couldn't accept that. The condo was built in the 1970s, and no one left me a floor plan. I did suggest she call the building manager, but I don't think she had any interest in doing that herself. 2. Can I get my friend to drive back over (she lives a distance from my place) and let her back in because she didn't get the measurements. When I asked her why, she said, and I quote directly here, that it "was too hot" to get measurements.
I asked my friend about this, and she said it was hot in the condo when they entered, but it cooled down when Rob turned the air conditioning down. My friend also said Rob offered to help her measure, and she declined.
Overall, I'm sure Diane and her company do beautiful work, but trying to work with someone who didn't respect me enough to call when she was late and is willing to put people out (by asking someone to drive back over to let her in a second time because it was just too hot) is putting herself first. I must be old fashioned. When I am going to spend the amount of money that it takes to do a complete renovation, I would like to think that there is some resemblance of customer service- and dare I say it? MANNERS- on the part of the person I hire. read more