Engaging in a contract with Meridith Baer Home has resulted in the single most WORST consumer…read moreexperience of my life.
My husband and I incurred a financial loss of $21,000.00 after entering into a contract for home staging of our 5.5-million-dollar property located in Bluff Park (long beach) that we were preparing for sale.
Our experience commenced when Mary from Meridith Baer Home visited our property for an initial consultation. Mary walked the property pointing to just about every piece of furnishing stating "this must go" and "this must go". Despite our home being fully furnished, Mary assured us that Meridith Baer Home could far improve on our current furnishings by implementing an elevated and cohesive transitional design utilizing new or near-new furnishings. Mary informed us that Meridith Baer Home "only utilizes furnishings ONCE or perhaps twice" before donating them.
So, we signed the contract, gave Meridith Baer Home $21,000.00 and donated practically all of our furnishings, artwork, and accessories.
The staging installation was scheduled as a two-day process. At the end of day one my husband and I went to the property to meet the designer and assess the progress. We were in utter disbelief of the condition and style of the furnishings that had been delivered. The furniture/furnishings were old, damaged, broken, stained, had a terrible odor, and in general, in terrible condition. Not the "transitional design using new furniture" that was promised by Mary or what is shown in Meridith Baer Home social media. We contacted Mary and arranged for a meeting first thing on day two.
During our meeting, Mary, the project designer, our real estate agent, and myself conducted a walkthrough of the property. Mary agreed that all existing furnishings should be removed, and other furnishings should be brought in. We presented Mary with the broken furniture, stains on the sofa, odors in the rugs, and the poor quality of the artwork. We expressed our concerns about the significant deviation from the promised conditions. Mary consistently interrupted our questions and only responded with the phrase, "It will be fixed."
At the conclusion of the walkthrough, my husband requested a private conversation with Mary, excluding the designer and our realtor. He wanted to discuss the situation candidly and understand the reasons behind the discrepancies between the promised and actual conditions. Mary responded by stating that no private conversations would be held, as the designer was in a position of authority and could address any concerns directly. My husband, avoiding any potential embarrassment for the designer, chose to remain silent and refrain from further discussion.
Upon leaving the meeting, we were informed that the following day, the existing furnishings would be removed, and suitable replacements would be delivered. Later that evening, while reviewing the security camera footage, we discovered a video recording of Mary and the designer engaged in a conversation in front of our Ring video doorbell. In this conversation, Mary made light of and mocked my husband's request for a private discussion. This revelation led us to conclude that we could not proceed with the project, as we believed that Mary and her team were not acting in good faith.
We contacted our realtor and requested that he inform Mary about the recording and our decision to withdraw from the Meridith Baer Home project. Our realtor informed us shortly thereafter that he had been instructed to request that we submit a written cancellation of the staging to Meridith Baer Home. That same day, we submitted our cancellation and requested that all of their property be removed from our home and that a refund be issued.
The property was removed several days later, but no refund was issued. When the property was removed, their staff took hours to remove it. After reviewing our security camera footage, I could see real-time that the staff was lying around on the furniture and overall, fooling around without working. Again, how very disrespectful to conduct themselves this way in someone's home.
In conclusion, although we sought legal counsel to recover our $21,000.00 loss, our counselor advised that the cost of seeking a refund and the personal time spent attempting to recover this loss might not be worth our while. Therefore, this was a $21,000.00 lesson.
The Meridith Baer Home contract is completely one-sided. We signed the contract against our better judgement. My husband and I are both business owners and in our businesses we would have NEVER signed a contract that offered ZERO protections to us. Given the Meridith Baer Home "name" we decided (against our better judgment) to trust the name and brand. This was not a wise choice.
After this fiasco, we did additional research and found that our story is not unique. There are lawsuits on the internet representing the same exact experience we had. For pictures/video DM me.