I found my experience with Felicity to be confusing for the client, and in my experience, unprofessional. See attached email I received from her when I told her I was going to write a review of my experience. I have also included photos of the management of some of the projects she oversaw.
In my opinion, there was a lack of transparency on the billable hours we were charged for. Design Hour Invoices were billed to us with no breakdown of what
occurred specifically during those design hours. Throughout our working relationship with Felicity, we would simply receive an invoice for "design hours" (see attached photo). In fact, we only ever received one billable design hours invoice from her, with a breakdown of what happened during those design hours. When I requested she send the breakdown of all of the design hours invoices, multiple times, my requests went unaddressed. We felt we didn't understand what we were being charged for, despite asking for breakdowns of detailed invoices. Upon speaking with other designer/decorators, we found it hard pressed to find someone that did not provide the transparency of a breakdown of their billable hours for each invoice. We also found that the other designers we spoke to digitize the breakdown of their billable hours for the client, which for us provides a much easier way to see what we are being billed for, and what's being accomplished in our project.
Damages to our home during her supervised install of the sub contractors: During her supervised install of our interior and exterior lighting items, we came home to find a hole in our dining room wall (see attached photo), and scratches and damages to our installed $4,000+ brand new dining room chandelier (photo included).
She didn't bring these damages to our attention, during
the install. We had to point them out to her. She also then charged us for her to follow up with people to have the damages to the product fixed. The cost of the damage to our dining room wall fell on us.
We were planning to replace our front door,
which she assured us she could help us with. See attached rendering she made for the door. It is hand drawn on graph paper. Having someone with CAD design experience would have been much more helpful for us to understand the design of the project. She also charged us for this design work that was never able to implemented.She told us she had a great connection to make a front door. Charged us for design work on the door. Charged us for follow ups/contacting the builder of the door. Was unable to get her recommended door person to show up for over 5 months to even measure the door/start the project. Why then should we be charged for the design of the door?
We were confused on placed orders: She ordered a halogen chandelier for our home, even though our
entire home is LED lighting. I'd sent her an email (see attached) specifically requesting an LED chandelier be ordered, and when she sent us the invoice with the item number, it corresponded to a halogen light. Why would a halogen light be ordered, or recommended, if our entire home is LED? Why would we go backwards in technology? It felt to us like we needed to double check every item number she ordered, to ensure it was correct. On one of the items we returned, she also told us the company doesn't refund the sales tax, which was over $200.
Lastly, if you try and explain to her why you're upset, see her responses in the email. The "customer is always right" mentality felt to us like it fell on deaf ears.
In my opinion, the transparency of receiving a breakdown of billable design hours makes for a better designer/client relationship. We would also feel much better working with someone who uses CAD design and computer software for our projects, rather than hand sketches. read more