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Just to recount a recent episode with Novena furniture. I purchased their 3-seater sofa recently and asked for delivery 2 months later as my house was still under renovation. I purchased the set for two main reasons: 1. Seat was firm with good springs 2. leather cover with only a stripe of fabric in front. When the 3-seater sofa was delivered two months later, I discovered the design was slightly modified. First, the fabric part has increased in proportion relative to the leather part. The entire back was fabric and there are more stripes on the sides. Second, the seat was not as stiff as the one we saw in their showroom at Marina. I called them up and told them it is not the same as the one I saw. Even before asking what was different, the salesman seemed to have read my mind and insisted (over the phone) that they were identical! I went to their showroom one day later and discovered the sofa set has long been removed. Therefore I couldn't make any comparison. The salesman seemed cocky and even chided that I should have taken photos in the first place! This post is to warn you guys out there to always take photos (or videos) of whatever furniture you are purchasing. However, even that is not foolproof! How do you measure firmness of a sofa? In conclusion, what you see in the showroom could be very different from what you will eventually receive!

I once visited La Cafa Mode Studio at Marina Square. I saw this nice L-shape sofa which the sales person (a middle-aged bespectacled Chinese man) quoted a price of $1699. At that time, he was the only staff in the showroom as it was already late at night. I went back one week later and decided to get it. To my surprise, another sales person (a middle-aged Chinese lady) told me the sofa costs at least $2500 and there wasn't any promotion of this item in the preceeding weeks. I thought the middle-age man made a mistake and confronted him. To my surprise he said he didn't meet me before and I must have made a mistake! Something fishy is going on as I recalled the male salesperson told me one week ago he has a factory in China and was able to customize most of the furniture to our liking. He even claimed he was the boss of the company. But the lady told us he is merely a salesperson and joined the company later than her. What is going on??! So guys beware of La Cafa! Something fishy is going on there!