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I just bought a hitachi fridge a couple months back and recently the hinges of its inside shelf plastic cover broke off due to an inherent design flaw. While the fridge is under warranty the cover is not covered as it is categorised as an "accessory". I was very frustrated as this was not openly communicated to me before I bought the fridge. And now I have to pay for something that was not badly designed/manufactured, not explicitly communicated to consumers, and no ownership by the principal Hitachi. Utmost disappointing experience from a Japanese big-name manufacturer. Buyers beware. Safe yourself the hassle - shop for other more dependable and customer-centric brands - there are many out there.

As a noob when it comes to renovating, I had restless nights since the day I got quotations from various IDs ( some quotation are quite confusing tho ) But that's when I started to learn and slowly becoming a so called "expert" in it. Comparing and finalising from few quotations I had in hand was really difficult and mind-taxing. That is when I met up with my designer from Ben Design Firm. The meet-ups was always comfortable and relaxing. Not only, did my ID patiently listen to my Husband and mine ideas and requests. he also slowly guided us throughout our discussions. He also proposed good and constructive ideas to meet our requests. Aside he is responsive to calls and most of our discussion was over the phone, so things were settled quickly. He always does his best and do not over commit and give empty promises. Though, it is the initial stage of the whole renovation, I am very impressed with his professionalism and responsibility. In addition,. he is also very knowledgeableand often advise us the pros and cons during discussion. Just did my handover last week and my whole renovation process with him will be an enjoyable and hassle free one. So far, I am very satisfied, I would definitely recommend Ben Design Firm to others. I am proud to announce my new home. Cheers to all. If u require my ID contact , you may drop me your email or contact number.

Finally settled my whole house renovations and defects after almost 3 months of renovations. Initially, I engaged a female ID, Miss M, we did not go source around as we feel comfortable on her way of talking so we decided on her. Before our renovations commence, the discussion was very detailed and she replied promptly on our questions but it turn out to be a nightmare when renovations start. From hacking, things start to go wrong. Before renovations start we did mentioned to her that what are the things that we do not want to keep and what are the things remains and she jot it down on a piece of paper but still wrong. She thrown away our wooden decking at the balcony which we intend to keep as it will cost a lot for us to do a new decking. The whole renovations already cause us 60k plus for a resale 5rm flat and already burst our budget yet we still got to pay for her mistakes and do a new one, my wife was too kind she said that she is just a ID so don't want her to lose money so we just paid and do a new one. Never expect there are more to come, our cabinet color was wrong, painting color was wrong and there are so many delay in our site end up I cant even contact her, call her no ans, message her no reply and leave the renovations halfway, till the end I cant tolerate anymore so I ring up their office and file a complaint. Shortly after I file my complaint, a Sales Manager, Melissa Quah called me and understand the situations and get back to me the next day. She came over to my place and understand our situation and on the spot we saw her making a lot of phone calls to arrange the supplier to come over to our site and finish up the outstanding things. She confirmed with us on the materials that we have chosen and informed us on which date there will be people around to finish up the balance things. After things are installed and done she will whats app us and update us. Finally, after almost 2 weeks we are done with all the rectifications and balance outstanding works. We are really very thankful to Melissa, although she is not our ID but can see her professionalism on how she handle things, if we have chosen her in the 1st place then there will not be any delays or hiccups in our renovation works. Highly recommend on Melissa Quah as your ID, you guys can call her at 9612xxxx if you are looking for an experience and responsible ID.

hi, i want share some tips to rent out a flat my own experience. - don't rush to rent out your flat. even a central location flat that walkin to mrt station under shelter in 5 min, could be take 6-9 months or more to get a good tenant. - don't judge the tenant by their profession, nationality, personal status, etc. many people think local people could be less problem of payment, cooperation, etc compare other nationality. many people think have single's tenant is much better than a family that have young kids. dirty place can be somehow clean up with relative small cost but damage place definitely need more cost. - don't shy/ shame to have more than 10-20 pages of lease agreement. make sure the lease agreement written in clear, simple, plain, readable or understandable by common people for each rules/ conditions. do not thinking, it is a standard/ common sense thing. what you think it is standard/ common sense thing maybe not for other people. - be open and straight forward in the begining of the deal, before accept the downpayment. make sure every thing been said have writeen in the lease agreement in simple, plain and understandable english sentence. be open or honest that this agreement is a pure/ 100% business transaction and not something like charity/ non profit/ mercy relief organization, where you can accept a-z, incredible, touching story (just assume it is a real story) of what ever. please don't get anything wrong/ feel shy/ shame about it in the first place, because some tenant think, they are dealing with charity/ non profit/ mercy relief organization instead of normal individual owner. - don't shy/ shame to ask tenant lifestyle/ comfortable level. again, don't judge the tenant by their profession, nationality, personal status, etc. be mature and straight forward that the rent cost is this price for this location/ place. i believe and sure for same available bedroom no. the rent price will be different whether it is 5 or 50 minutes walk to mrt or whether it is central or outside central. because some people have/ used to a very high lifestyle/ comfortable level but with normal earning level. and to achieve that very high lifestyle/ comfortable level, these people will try anything from a-z, incredible, touching story (just assume it is a real story) for excuse of their defence. again, please don't get anything wrong/ feel shy/ shame about it in the first place, - terms of late payment should be as clear as possible. don't shy/ shame to put in clear, simple, plain and understandable english sentence for late payment terms. is it ok if every month payment late more than 10 working days? if payment late than 10 working day, tenant paid the late interest, than when should be the tenant pay for the remaining months. is it ok if every month tenant paid the late interest payment? if the payment due on 1st day of the month, is that mean you will receive the money of that day, or the tenant will take out the money on that day but landlord received 1-3 days later (something like bank transfer/ auto giro/ post/ etc) sad to be hear/ know, something like this people will think/ say "late 1-3 day, you already not happy". to be honest and mature, can you say every month "late 1-3 day, you already not happy" to your car/ flat/ credit card loan person in charge? - be clear about how many bedroom available. if you have 1 bedroom locked, don't shy/ shame to put in clear, simple, plain and understandable english sentence in lease agreement, that the room available is exclude that locked bedroom. don't shy/ shame to put in clear, simple, plain and understandable english sentence in lease agreement, more detail that any kind/ situation, partition to make additional bedroom is not allowed for what ever reason. - be clear about how many percentage that the flat will be use as home, home office, bedrooms and bathrooms only, etc don't shy/ shame to ask this question and write it in clear, simple, plain and understandable english sentence in lease agreemen. do you care if your flat from previously a normal place for living become a pure bedroom and bathrooms only. - don't shy/ shame to share your expectation to rent out a flat. if you expect, a family who will live as a normal family, need kitchen, need living room, need dining room, etc, please stick firm to that expectation. if you expect, any people will do, maybe no need kitchen, no need living room, no need dining room, etc, you can do that too. - be clear about how many average people will visit or just come in and come out in a week. don't shy/ shame to ask this question and write it in clear, simple, plain and understandable english sentence in lease agreemen. do you want about 10-30 different peoples each week in average visit your flat? because some neighbor with young kids feel not comfortable about so many different people come in and out/ by pass their corridor daily. i hope my experience can help many landlord to get a good tenant.

My first experience in choosing IDs so far: I uploaded my floor plan on Renotalk website and requested for quotations. Initially, I was flooded with many calls from several IDs. Almost all of them AGAIN! asked me to send the floor plan to them, even though I uploaded the floor plan on the website in the first place. Also all the IDs wanted to meet me and see the site. I asked all the IDs to drop me an email with their first quote based on the floor plan and my initial requirements for me to consider before I can meet them up. If not, I need to spend next many weeks just to meet them all! Surprisingly, most of the IDs never send me any email after the call. Only a handful few sent me emails some with standard package offers inspite of me mentioning what I wanted to do! Few of them sent me intro email and after that no response! I was impressed by Vincent Blog (http://www.vincentinteriorblog.com/) on his knowledge and advice to new home owners like me. I reached out to Vincent and sent him my floor plan and requested for quotations. (similar to Renotalk). I was recommended to 2 IDs by Vincent. Unfortunately AGAIN, no response by both the recommended IDs, inspite of me waiting for over 3 weeks for them to respond! Looks like every ID in this business is very busy with loads of projects! Appears to me that ID business is a good business to be in! In the next part, I will write about my experience in shortlisting the ID’s – thanks to the Renotalk friends feedback and some personal contacts.

good evening to all, would like to recommend my fellow ID to all for another option and opinion before signing on the dotted line. following is my tblog from renotalk. real live photos of the progress and i would say his efficiency and rapport is really amazing. good share for everyone who needs a reliable id to renovate your place without any worries.

It's been 10 years since we moved into our current flat and we decided to do a re-renovation of our home. YEA!! (one major push factor for renovaion was also that all our down-lights in our home is all down and we could not find the bulb to replace without scraping off the false celing )Initial renovation was done up by a friend but he is not in the trade any more, thus we have to quest out to search for a good and responsible ID who can understand our needs and assist us in everywhere he/she could. We have been in and out of interior houses, and 1 fine day, we stumble upon Fifth Avenue Interior, or rather Designer-D, who gave us the most heart-warming feeling and I felt that my house will be in good hands if i do engaged him, and so we did. It was a long, tedious but in-depth discussion process but D was very very patient with us, and gave us lots of ideas to help in our brain-storming. He was patient with our indecisive decisions, and finally we settled on whichever is needed and start on the renovation. Would be sharing on e process of our renovation, looking forward and feeling excited to see the newly furnished home! Here we gooooooo................... (will be posting out pictures of the reno process) *feeling excited *

I saw many home makers buying furniture/stuff from taobao, just want to share my bad experiences, for your awareness. 1. I started buying things from taobao this year. In the past, I used an agent like 65d**g**. Switched due to trying to save cost. I started with only small value purchases to test the system and to minimize loss. Bad countered 1 My first bad encounter is when I purchase the following battery tester. http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.31.Iz6k0u&id=14100066084&_u=71vq1h347384 My warehouse oops did not receive the goods, but seller reported as "delivered". Unfortunately, due to too many items, I did not track this timely, and the payment was released to the seller. When I contacted the seller, there is no service from him, and he declined to make any checking nor clarification with their local courier. This is a S$4 lesson. More cases to share.... Bad countered 2 http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.5.w4002-6193391067.15.KeWHNw&id=37931771877 After a few smooth purchases, I thought the taobao seller listed "Reviews" can be trusted. I am so wrong. DON"T TRUST THOSE LISTED REVIEWS TOTALLY. Many are staged. On 11.11.14, I purchased a bed from this seller. Pattern No. 1When I placed the order the system shows delivery and assembling are inclusive. However, subsequently, the seller (海伦）told me that I had to arrange for self-collection from a distribution warehouse (??) I argued that their system indicated delivery is inclusive. She changed the story but said that they will only sent to the ground floor, and I had to arrange to bring it into the house myself (??). Lucky my forwarder, Oops, is on the ground floor. Pattern No. 2 A few days later, I checked with the seller, and was told the goods was delivered. But when I checked with my forwarder, they didn't receive. I contacted the seller to clarify, and she told me to call their delivery company myself to check, and refused to assist. After another argument, she finally sent a photo of the signed Delivery Order to me. When I email to my forwarder, they confirmed that 1) there is no company stamp 2) the signature does not belows to any of their staff. I contacted the seller again- and she insisted that the goods was signed off. I checked the system info, and confirmed that they delivered to a different company called East Asia. Pattern No. 3 TRUE COLOR is out, now the seller kept insisted that the goods was delivered, even I tried to explain to her she had sent to the wrong place. My forwarder warned me to quickly request for refund, before the system times out and auto make payment to the seller. In the end, I raised a refund request, and she rejected. I escalated to involve Taobao, which indicated that they will resolve this in 4 - 6 days. It's almost 2 weeks, my refund still yet to happen...... Pattern No. 3 Just yesterday (6/12), the seller message me and asked me to return the goods... Vomit blood; i tried to make her understand that the goods is not with me, that's why I requested for refund.The seller just kept repeat the same message that the D.O. was signed, etc, etc...like a broken record. She even asked me to call up the other forwarder who they sent the goods to , and ask them to return her the goods(?). I told her that I had no business with this forwarder (East Asia), and don't have the right to do so.

My wife and I were referred to DC Carpentry by my sister who engaged the renovation film for renovation work. Eventually, we met up with Peter Chan, the manager/designer on 23 Sep 2014 to discuss about the renovation quotation. Our initial impression of Peter Chan was quite pleasant as he managed to guide us through the renovation discussion. We thought we have found the right person to engage for our renovation. However, this was exactly the opposite. About one week after our first discussion (1 Oct 2014), we approached Peter Chan via whatsapp to check if our quotation was ready. He did not reply, neither did he call us back. When my wife tried to call him, he answered the call in a positive tone at the beginning. But once he realized we were asking him for the quotation, he immediately told my wife he was very busy and then hung up the call before we could speak further. After which, we received a whatsapp message from him, asking us not to call him. From then on, there was no more messages from him, even until now. My sister who engaged him for renovation work a month ago, did tried to speak to him several times regarding our quotation follow up. But again, no follow up from Peter Chan, not even a courtesy call or message. It seems like he has no intention to liaise with us at all. Probably he has been very busy but I feel that he could have let us know, or sent someone else to follow up with us if he was really that busy. But instead, he chose to ignore us. There was not even a single message from him at all. Anyway I do not feel that he is really that busy because I saw him sharing some random news feed on the DC Carpentry FB wall that has nothing much to do with his renovation work. I tried to post on the DC Carpentry FB wall more than a week ago, asking them about my quotation follow up, hoping that they will reply. Again, no reply from him of anyone else. Instead, my post was removed by them. When I attempted to post the same enquiry on their wall the 2nd time, my post was removed again and this time, I was BLOCKED from posting on their FB wall. I realized only positive comments are found on their FB wall. The negative ones were removed. And I am not the only one experiencing this issue, which I found it really dishonest and deceiving. Anyway, I am posting this just to share my negative experience with people who might be thinking of engaging DC Carpentry for renovation work. Thankfully that I did not engage them. You might wish to think twice before engaging a renovation film because if the pre-sales service is bad, your renovation could end up as bad.