I hired Nicole Perrault/HOD for a residential home remodel. After following her on Instagram and seeing her work, I decided to engage her team for her services and to limit my involvement in "project management" as I have a full-time job and family. At the onset, Nicole and her team were very pleasant - appeared organized and detail-oriented and were collaborative in taking our design inspiration photos and working them into the spaces being renovated. After the contract was signed and we moved forward with HOD, my experience with Nicole and her team ended up being nothing short of very unpleasant and highly disappointing. Hiring HOD added significant STRESS and excessive DELAYS to an already difficult process - adding exorbitant and unnecessary costs to my bottom line (like over $1,000 for a Staples-style spiral notebook of our materials!). What?!
Ms. Perrault/HOD made several egregious errors (detailed below) and over-promised/under-delivered in MANY of her commitments. Ms. Perrault became defensive and combative with me (her client) when pressed for resolution to issues HOD made errors on - and refused to accept responsibility when they were brought up, going so far as to even ask me if how I was treating her was how I treated my own clients! Note - I was stern after the FOURTH or FIFTH error, but never disrespectful. My clients are never faced with the abundant errors I experienced with HOD, and if I ever do make a mistake - I resolve it immediately, apologize, and cover the expense. That is how you do business, HOD. Additionally, it was discovered that several reviews on YELP were actually written by HOD staff.
After several unpleasant experiences and costly mistakes, I terminated our agreement with Ms. Perrault/ HOD only to have them hold items in their warehouse hostage for several days while they attempted to force my hand in signing a "mutual termination agreement" drafted by their Attorney to cancel the contract (which is NOT legal or required). This "agreement" included a non-disparagement clause that read "The parties agree to refrain from making any public or private statements which disparage the other party regarding matters related to the Service Agreement." I contacted my legal counsel, redacted that clause (and others) and returned to HOD - and after threatening legal action, I finally got my items released to my contactor.
- Nicole quoted me $100k for our project, knowing that final design decisions could impact that number. I pressed Nicole/HOD repeatedly once our final scope of work had been completed for an "all in" number so I could plan and budget accordingly. After weeks of requests, the final bid came in at almost TRIPLE what Nicole had quoted, right before we started.
- I discovered a serious error in one of the auto-cad drawings of our hallway with a miscalculation of over 4-feet of space that didn't exist. This after the HOD team and been on site and in the space several times and only after I reviewed the auto-cad drawings and took a moment to measure myself.
- I requested a project start date to plan for a rental and could not get a solid date from her for weeks. While I spent time looking and applying for rentals - those rentals would then go off-market as the lease market was in high demand.
- I was quoted a 6-8-week timeline for completion of the project. We moved out April 5th, 2021 - the project is STILL ONGOING, almost DOUBLE what Nicole/HOD had quoted.
- HOD is REALLY GOOD at BILLING. I received invoices and bills through their slick Ivy web portal for project supplies, materials, and design time. HOD would bill me for site check-ins and other "design time" - amounting to THOUSANDS of dollars for many things that I didn't ask for (such as, sourcing options for wallpaper when it was already selected!). The site visits were no more than an opportunity for Nicole/HOD to walk the site and self-promote on their Instagram stories - billing me $150+ for each visit and not producing a detailed update for me as the client.
- I requested detailed weekly updates. The updates received were not detailed at all and required constant follow-up , even after speaking with Nicole on several occasions about expectations on what these updates should entail. Updates like..."working on stairs" would be sent. What are you working on? Are you meeting the iron worker to measure? Install? Consult on design? Like...what are you doing?
- HOD asked what I wanted to do with a wood-topped pony wall in my entry way. I reminded Nichole/HOD that during our first site visit and walk-through, and literally the very FIRST item on my very-detailed list I handed to them was to address the pony wall and stair treads (which were an ugly red-brown wood tone). EVERYTHING in the house was being touched - why would we leave those details untouched?? The contractor agreed to resolve the issue and you guessed it, MY EXPENSE. I reached out to Nicole/HOD and requested her to cover her oversight - she refused read more