AVOID AT ALL COSTS
We engaged Mi Casa to help us design and order some living room and dining room furniture. We paid £450 + VAT for their site visit and design service (which is not offsetable against any future order).
We have not had a worse experience with any vendor ever. We had emphasized that a key criterion was delivery by a certain date, which the team repeatedly assured us was feasible, given their "strong" relationships with their suppliers. Needless to say, they failed to deliver anywhere close to their original timetable. Mi Casa repeatedly made promises they could not (and did not) keep in an effort to produce a sale.
Among the specific issues we encountered:
* Refusal to share presentation materials - despite paying for their design service, Mi Casa does not share a soft or hard copy of the options they present. You have to memorize them. Needless to say, this makes it very cumbersome to think through options or make a decision
* Refusal to share brand names - Mi Casa does not share the brand name of any items they suggest. They also don't share more than one or two pictures of any item. This makes it impossible to do any research on the quality, sizing, understand the look of any product
* Lack of responsiveness - the team would go days or weeks without responding to emails, request for follow-up calls or meetings when they knew we were on a tight timeline. Attempts to chase for a response were met with curt responses, blaming us for the delay!
* Poor relationship with suppliers - Mi Casa were unable to ascertain precise delivery times for products, indicating they would only get an estimate once the order was placed. It took them weeks to get responses from their suppliers. In one instance, we placed an order for a coffee table after they confirmed delivery by our required timeline. After payment, they emailed us 3 (!) weeks later indicating the item was not even part of this season's collection and production could not even begin for 3 months AFTER our delivery date (implying a 5-6 month delay). What kind of retailer doesn't even know what products are available by their suppliers? When pushed on this point, they lied about what they promised.
* Limited product depth - they are only able (or willing) to suggest a handful of options for any item
* Over-priced - we later found out that their pricing was 20-30% above market. We were willing to entertain a premium for a premium service and on-time delivery, but neither materialized
After protracted negotiations, during which the proprietor of the business, was unapologetic about the repeated failures to deliver, was quite rude, and told numerous falsehoods, we were able to negotiate a slight discount to compensate for the severe delay. Even then, when settling the final bill, they presented us with an erroneous calculation that tried to charge us more than what was agreed.
In the end, one of the products they delivered, a dining table that was supposed to seat 8 adults only comfortably seats 6 adults. Despite our room having ample space and the requirement for an 8 person table being abundantly clear, they were unable to size a simple table properly!
Avoid at all costs. read more
