Never Patronised Living Instinct

[longbow 0]

Bought a leather sofa set from them in early Nov. Expected delivery is 1st week dec. Called them to enquire status at 3rd week of nov, they say will check and get back. They never. Make more calls and still the same answer, will check and get back. But they didn't. Then 1 week later, called again and the sales person has left the company. This is bad! Keep calling the showroom to check till I got hold of the so called "manager" contact which out of 10 calls, the calls will not be picked up! Finally, use sms and got a replied last week saying their factory has run out of leather cos their supplier windup and sofa will be delivered on end Dec. I was furious! I've shifted to my new place and have been waiting for the sofa for weeks and this is the answer I've gotten.

I requested a refund. The manager say will check with MANAGEMENT and get back. It really takes donkey years to come back to me. Many calls were not picked up, sms were not reply. For any layman, do you think something is fishy and wrong. I do! What kind of after sales service?

After another round of marathon trying to track does this manager, she said the bosses are out of town la, need them to sign and issue cheque...blah blah... Ok I patiently waited. Each time she said will get back by today, by tonite. It never happens. Called her, sms her, no reply, no answer.

Finally, say will refund back to credit card instead of issuing a cheque and ask me to wait for another 2 weeks. Outrageous! You call this CUSTOMER SERVICE! Asked me to chase the back if want the money fast. However, upfront, how will I know when they're going to refund the money to the bank. Want me to check everyday with the bank?

In short, me and my family are frustrated and stressed over this issue and was wondering also if when can we get back the refund.

This company has no credibility at all. All empty promises, keep asking customer to wait forever, never get back. Of course I want a refund. Who knows what kind of quality will the sofa be when even the ground crew, the sales are of such unprofessional attitude. The Woodlands Office phone is a dummy/decoy, no one ever pick up my calls. I've tried calling so many times. Their email is also another dummy/decoy, nobody borders to reply.

Advise to avoid buying from this shop. BTW, if I'm not wrong, one of the owner is TCS artiste, May Phua.

1. Lousy after sales/customer service.

2. High turnover of staff. Each time I called the showroom to check status, will talk to new staff. Something fishy too.

3. Phone calls to Office, to manager never got answer <textarea cols="80" rows="20" style='margin:0px;width:650px' id='postcontent' name="Post" tabindex="5" class="rteiframe">Bought a leather sofa set from them in early Nov. Expected delivery is 1st week dec. Called them to enquire status at 3rd week of nov, they say will check and get back. They never. Make more calls and still the same answer, will check and get back. But they didn't. Then 1 week later, called again and the sales person has left the company. This is bad! Keep calling the showroom to check till I got hold of the so called "manager" contact which out of 10 calls, the calls will not be picked up! Finally, use sms and got a replied last week saying their factory has run out of leather cos their supplier windup and sofa will be delivered on end Dec. I was furious! I've shifted to my new place and have been waiting for the sofa for weeks and this is the answer I've gotten.

I requested a refund. The manager say will check with MANAGEMENT and get back. It really takes donkey years to come back to me. Many calls were not picked up, sms were not reply. For any layman, do you think something is fishy and wrong. I do! What kind of after sales service?

After another round of marathon trying to track does this manager, she said the bosses are out of town la, need them to sign and issue cheque...blah blah... Ok I patiently waited. Each time she said will get back by today, by tonite. It never happens. Called her, sms her, no reply, no answer.

Finally, say will refund back to credit card instead of issuing a cheque and ask me to wait for another 2 weeks. Outrageous! You call this CUSTOMER SERVICE! Asked me to chase the back if want the money fast. However, upfront, how will I know when they're going to refund the money to the bank. Want me to check everyday with the bank?

In short, me and my family are frustrated and stressed over this issue and was wondering also if when can we get back the refund.

This company has no credibility at all. All empty promises, keep asking customer to wait forever, never get back. Of course I want a refund. Who knows what kind of quality will the sofa be when even the ground crew, the sales are of such unprofessional attitude. The Woodlands Office phone is a dummy/decoy, no one ever pick up my calls. I've tried calling so many times. Their email is also another dummy/decoy, nobody borders to reply.

Advise to avoid buying from this shop. BTW, if I'm not wrong, one of the owner is TCS artiste, May Phua.

1. Lousy after sales/customer service.

2. High turnover of staff. Each time I called the showroom to check status, will talk to new staff. Something fishy too.

3. Phone calls to Office, to manager never got answer except calls to the showroom.

4. Always give empty promises and asked customer to wait forever.

This is purely for sharing of my very bad experience, no flaming whatsoever. No doubt their sofas are nice and I like it a lot, however, due to their approached towards customer, I'll better look else where. The way they're trying to hide issues or whatever under their sleeves. They've known the factory issues much early but choose to hide and inform customer only after consistently asking for status. Basically, no TRANSPARENCY.

So purchase at your own risk!

[bullwrath 0]

Wow, u must be very depressed to write the same story twice.

Cheer up mate, it's x'mas afterall.

****s happen, but it won't rain all the time

[pinkpetter 0]

Poor thing. mmm is living instinct related to living story?

[shearerkk 0]

Poor thing. mmm is living instinct related to living story?

Dont think they R related

[Noeltan 0]

My sympathies with you. I nearly bought their sofa too for my guest room but didn't like the pushy auntie sales person they have. (Lillian is her name I think)

She keeps telling us that she was the top sales person in Barang Barang and that the actress is her daughter etc etc blah blah!!!

In hindsight, guess I am lucky I alked away. If not, might suffer the same fate as you!

[livinginstinct 0]

Hi Longbow,

I'm Ben Low, the director of Living Insintct.

I'm surprised to hear this from you. I would like to get down to the root of the problem, because the fact that you have written publicly here "not to patronise Living Instinct". This is very serious and has strong implication to all my potential customers and there would also be loss and damages to my business for any misrepresetation.

However, I'm pleased, on the hand, that you mentioned "No doubt their sofas are nice and I like it a lot, however, due to their approached towards customer, I'll better look else where"

I believed this could be an misundertsanding somehow. Could you please contact me at office@livinginstinct.com? or call me at 9798 6655. Please tell me the name of the "manager" that gave you the empty promises & your purchase invoice number.

Looking forward to your reply...

[B2B 0]

Hi Longbow,

I'm Ben Low, the director of Living Insintct.

I'm surprised to hear this from you. I would like to get down to the root of the problem, because the fact that you have written publicly here "not to patronise Living Instinct". This is very serious and has strong implication to all my potential customers and there would also be loss and damages to my business for any misrepresetation.

Hi fellow forumers, I am a regular contributor in several forums including shareinvestor, Singaporebrides and other car forums. Often I have come across many such threads where one complaints about a company they are not satisfied with. Some of which I believe might cause potential loss of reputation.

I am just curious to find out if such complaints have any legal implications? any legal experts here?

[waileong 0]

Hi fellow forumers, I am a regular contributor in several forums including shareinvestor, Singaporebrides and other car forums. Often I have come across many such threads where one complaints about a company they are not satisfied with. Some of which I believe might cause potential loss of reputation.

I am just curious to find out if such complaints have any legal implications? any legal experts here?

What's there to say? You can be sued. Whether it happens depends on the situation. And whether the firm succeeds in its action depends on the merits of its case and how well it argues.

But if I were the firm, I'd be more concerned with winback and customer service than legal action. There can be no good publicity from a firm suing a little consumer, it just creates the wrong impression. That's why legal action is only undertaken when all other avenues for reconciliation are exhausted.

[lawry 3]

Hi fellow forumers, I am a regular contributor in several forums including shareinvestor, Singaporebrides and other car forums. Often I have come across many such threads where one complaints about a company they are not satisfied with. Some of which I believe might cause potential loss of reputation.

I am just curious to find out if such complaints have any legal implications? any legal experts here?

I won't dismiss the possibility of certain people (competitors) who badmouth rivals. If the company in question was indeed slapped with an unfair accusation, it might be worth their while to pursue some justice to restore their reputation.

But what if there are genuine victims out there with a legitimate grievance with supporting evidence and no where to turn to? I don't think why anyone should be forced into submission and keep quiet about it if they were indeed shortchanged for what they paid for.

A company screwed things up, instead of resolving it amicably, leaving no room for dissatisfaction. Prefers to evade the issue, leave it as it is, refused to offer any plausible solution, any refund or compensation. What can consumers do then, apart from exposing the details of the misdeed.

The company would have to think twice or thrice about repercussions if they are hoping to silence unhappy customers with a lawsuit. It's very bad PR.

Example,

Can IKEA sue customers for warning other people in a forum that their bookshelves sagged, with an accompanying picture of the bookshelf?

Do they even have a case?

Edited March 12, 2009 by lawry

[oohaahcantona10 0]

Hi Longbow,

I'm Ben Low, the director of Living Insintct.

I'm surprised to hear this from you. I would like to get down to the root of the problem, because the fact that you have written publicly here "not to patronise Living Instinct". This is very serious and has strong implication to all my potential customers and there would also be loss and damages to my business for any misrepresetation.

However, I'm pleased, on the hand, that you mentioned "No doubt their sofas are nice and I like it a lot, however, due to their approached towards customer, I'll better look else where"

I believed this could be an misundertsanding somehow. Could you please contact me at office@livinginstinct.com? or call me at 9798 6655. Please tell me the name of the "manager" that gave you the empty promises & your purchase invoice number.

Looking forward to your reply...

Just thought I'd contribute to this thread since admittedly, when I read longbow's entry a couple of months back, I was deeply concerned because prior to that, I had committed to the purchase to an L-shaped sofa from Living Instinct. However, after exercising my right as a pessimist to wallow in self-pity for the next two days, I decided to give the firm the benefit of doubt since a) I love the design of the sofa, so much so that the moment me and my wife saw it, we kinda knew that was the one for the house; b) I have no wish to subscribe to the "guilty until proven innocent" mentality.

And I am glad I stuck to my gut feel. Sofa was delivered without fuss last Sat (delivery was originally fixed on 28 Mar, but we called to postpone it by a week as reno completion was slightly delayed, which the firm dutifully obliged), and more importantly, was in perfect condition. In fact, I intend to return to Living Instinct some time this week to see if they can fabricate a matching ottoman.

At the end of the day, while I have found this forum to be immensely informative over the past few months as I fussed over my new apartment, I think it's important for users to take certain threads/comments in perspective. While I have no doubt that the bulk of the cases cited are genuine, they may not be reflective of the company/firm in question as a whole.

[guy77 0]

but their sofas are really very nice...

[piggybank 0]

yes, i just ordered my sofa from them last week...

[Guest melancholic]

Just thought I'd contribute to this thread since admittedly, when I read longbow's entry a couple of months back, I was deeply concerned because prior to that, I had committed to the purchase to an L-shaped sofa from Living Instinct. However, after exercising my right as a pessimist to wallow in self-pity for the next two days, I decided to give the firm the benefit of doubt since a) I love the design of the sofa, so much so that the moment me and my wife saw it, we kinda knew that was the one for the house; b) I have no wish to subscribe to the "guilty until proven innocent" mentality.

And I am glad I stuck to my gut feel. Sofa was delivered without fuss last Sat (delivery was originally fixed on 28 Mar, but we called to postpone it by a week as reno completion was slightly delayed, which the firm dutifully obliged), and more importantly, was in perfect condition. In fact, I intend to return to Living Instinct some time this week to see if they can fabricate a matching ottoman.

At the end of the day, while I have found this forum to be immensely informative over the past few months as I fussed over my new apartment, I think it's important for users to take certain threads/comments in perspective. While I have no doubt that the bulk of the cases cited are genuine, they may not be reflective of the company/firm in question as a whole.

Yes. And let's give credit where credit's due. Unlike Lawry's ID who self-destructed and made things worse, the director of Living Instinct came out to try and win the company's reputation back.

Let's not forget too the real horror stories like those from Co'zy and the companies related to them/Janet like Inch Design who continue to set up their webs at furniture expos to catch unsuspecting flies. What can I say? Unless real victims identify each other and take class action, even CASE can't be bordered to help. Case in Point, CASE has not bordered to reply to my query on Inch Design after more than a week.

[livinginstinct 0]

I would like to express my sincere thanks to melancholic, guy 77, waileong, among others, that give Living Instinct a fair chance with your good advise & feedback.

Till date, I have not heard from Longbow and I hope, whoever you are, whatever you have done, it has already caused us pain for quite a while now. I sincerely wish you could stop posting this complaint and terminate this forum as it really caused a lot of unneccessary doubt on my customers.

I also appeal to Renotalk to help us to terminate this forum as we have suffered unnecessary. As a host of this website, I hope you can disallow any allegation or misrepresentation that will cause losses and damages to an enity.

[donut88 1]

i think this idiot Longbow is a fake. He only register for this forum and post a complain 1 time and he vanished.

Let's not take his complaints seriously about this company.

though i never buy anything from this shop, i can see that Longbow is a fake.

if the shop's MD can come to this forum and release his hp number for longbow to make contact, i think this shop has integrity and transparency. Salute to the MD!!