Help Needed! Matrix Concept - Alvin

[Seanie Vaio 0]

can PM me matrix concept contact? Thanks!

[ccchua22 2]

Hi missyrui, I had pm you. Please check.

[missyrui 0]

Hi Dumb0710, I had pm you please check.

Hi, could you please PM me Alvin Aw's contact? Where is Matrix Concept located? I can't find it on Google..

[ccchua22 2]

Hi Dumb0710, I had pm you please check.

[Dumb0710 0]

hi pearlyshells,claricezz,holysleepy and cloudstrike.

I had already pm you all. please check yr message.

Hi.. Can u PM me Alvin contact... Thks...

[Dumb0710 0]

can I get this Alvin ID contact pls.. This..

[tr4d3rboy31 1]

After hearing the mentioned stories of Alvin from Matrix concept, I felt that I ought to step forward to share our (me and my wife) fabulous experience with Alvin.

The extraordinary services (be it recommendation for reliable suppliers or advice on the choice of furniture) have never let us down.

His impressive after-sales service (which includes but not limited to assisting us in liaising with third-party suppliers, sharing of home maintenance tips, etc) creates a reassuring experience to us.

Undoubtedly, after about a year from the completion of our renovation, we had proceeded to engage Alvin to install acrylic sheets for both our bathrooms’ ceiling.

I must say that the reasonable price and his personalized service where his team came down on two separate occasions to measure and install the acrylic sheets, have further substantiated my trust and opinion of him and his company.

[Moona 1]

Hi all,

i have my place done up by Alvin last year recommended by my colleague and i was satisfied with his work and recommended Matrix Concept to my friend who is getting her house soon and was surprise when my friend told me that the ID (Matrix Concept) i recommended seem to be unreliable according to a post at Renotalk. Due to my busy work schedule as well as i don't really spend time on all this forum chat however when i saw this post from stupe and his experience i felt probably i should shared mine as this is not my first renovation and i find that to get a good ID is really difficult therefore i spend some of my precious time to share my experience.

I agree that Alvin have a busy schedule because he is hot in the trade, after comparing his price is reasonable and as for service during our project we had a chat group with my husband where he will update and post picture for the house progress i believe thats his practice as this is not the first time i recommended him to someone. As for the render drawing wise initially i also requested to have that according to Alvin we are able to have render drawing but it would cost us $$$ however according to Alvin it is redundant and he would prefer me to save the money for other item. After discussing with my husband we go with alvin along with the 2d drawing and when our house was done up i am satisfied. I would said up till date all my friends appreciate Alvin works there is always a common commend about Alvin is that when he work on your house he treat it as his own house even certain idea he would reject when we have because it is not practical or the end product may not look appealing.

Guess i have shared enough, i would definitely to design my next house with Matrix Concept if i am able to upgrade to landed property hahahha.

Lastly i felt that Stupe if possible shared some photo here then for future reference and also help others who are going to have their home done up in future.

Good Luck everyone hope everyone is blessed for 2016

[stupe 3]

Relieved to hear that there are satisfied customers of his. Perhaps it is my luck then to have received an unsatisfactory experience. And for future/other readers, I hope that mine was an isolated incident.

@ccchua22, creation of new topics require approvals.

As @Sonia Singh gathered, an ID should be much more on top of the project/work. And I agree that it should not be minimal/zero supervision from the owner. Which unfortunately was reversed in my case. Hence the low rating on this part.

Workmanship was relatively ok, but that also meant that it was his contractor who was relatively up to par. Nevertheless, kudos to him for engaging the right contractor.

[Guest Sonia Singh]

Stupe, how unfortunate to read of your disappointment. It's a pity you cannot provide more details but what I gather from your complaint is that Alvin did not meet up to your expectations of a fully fledged ID who would do it all with minimal intervention/supervision from you.

I must say I had quite a different experience from yours but I should qualify that my expectations were different as well. Also, I did not get Alvin's contact from renotalk so I am not fully aware of what has been said thus far about his work here. I got his contact from a friend who had engaged him previously. I've been lurking on renotalk recently looking for ideas for a nursery/kids room and am quite surprised to come across your post.

Two years ago, my fiance (now husband) and I engaged Alvin to carry out extensive renovation on my in-laws flat, which we were going to move into after the (then) tenant's lease ran out. From the get go, we knew the flat needed a complete gutting and overhaul, it was a 12 yr old flat that had only been simply renovated from its original condition upon receipt from HDB and which had been properly trashed by the tenant (it had been sub-tenanted to a number of foreign workers for 4 years). It was also a large flat, a nearly 1500sq ft EA. The size of the flat and extent of the damage meant that renovation was gonna be $$$.

Given that we were going to be newlyweds and were also both students at the time, we had a tight budget. We sought quotes from a range of companies, contractors, IDs, ppl who were a bit of both...and Alvin's was the most competitive. Price, however, wasn't the only factor. We did not want extensive built-ins or redundant decorative features and already had plenty of furniture from our previous homes which we intended to re-use. Being students and renovation newbies, we had time to spare and were keen to get involved in the process. Hence paying for the standard ID package was a waste of money for us but on the other hand, I couldn't deal directly with sub-contractors cos I still needed someone to tie things together (I also would have had trouble communicating with sub-cons as I don't speak Chinese or any dialect).

So long story short, we ended up choosing Alvin because he was a happy balance between the two. He isn't your typical flashy ID with the bells and whistles that are de rigueur in the market these days but he can provide useful and practical design input and manage sub-cons. I also appreciated that in his initial quote he was transparent and honest, we knew exactly what we were paying for and were very clear on what we needed to source for and fund ourselves (like curtains, some fittings for the kitchen etc). No hidden surprises there that would end up costing us more later on. Since I knew exactly what I wanted from him and we were clear on what he was going to deliver, I never expected 3D renders or the like, these were unnecessary to me but if they were, I would have gone with a company that would provide it as part of a package. I'm surprised you expected something that, to my knowledge, isn't part of his package in the first place.

Despite being a reno newbie I was very clear on my vision of the place (I am trained to interpret plans and draw them to scale, albeit in a diff line of work altogether) and he was able to build on that and advise me on where my ideas could be improved upon and what would go with the materials/colours/furniture I had in mind. I remember a few funny instances where we had discussions over things we both felt strongly about, for example I had wanted to paint my bedroom doors black and he was very insistent I shouldn't and delayed doing it to give me time to change my mind. He ended up being right! Of course there were other instances where I disagreed with some of his work on site and he had to make rectifications but it turned out well and was done with minimal fuss.

My point here is that I was never going to leave everything in blind faith to whomever I engaged to carry out the reno, be it contractor or ID, it is after all my home and I made sure to check the progress of the works on site every few days. I also never had a problem with communicating with Alvin, my husband and I had a group whatsapp chat with him where he updated us on the progress and milestones in the reno with pictures. It was an efficient way to also quickly communicate anything that needed to be rectified or clarified. He also didn't "disappear" post-reno and was on hand to help with anything that needed rectification that we only spotted after the house was handed over.

We were pleased with the outcome for our flat. Two years on, we're still happy and have recommended him to many of our friends. At the end of the day, choosing an ID or contractor really is a matter of whether the person you ultimately engage can meet your expectations and it is best both parties are clear on what these are from the start.

Anyway, to end off, here are some before and after pics from close to the end of the reno!

[mrslo 0]

Stupe

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Alvin and his team did the renovation for my place more than two years ago and the workmanship and materials etc are still holding up well.

Surprised to hear of your encounter - hope that it was the correct Alvin that you were dealing with. There are many cases of misrepresentation out there.

Post-reno (even after 2 years), Alvin is quite prompt to give advice and even help resolve a water proofing issue that was on the outside of the building. The estate management has not be able to resolve it so Alvin personally found an interim situation.

So far, friends who have popped by our place have asked who did the work, and we've always been happy to pass Alvin's number to them.

No ID would want to do a bad job knowing full well that clients have many opportunities to give feedback about the quality of the work.

Hope that you have settled in your place after all.

[Victorialoh 0]

Hi Stupe,

Alvin from Matrix did my place and completed it last month. To be fair to him, here is my experience which i feel is totally opposite of what you shared!

-He was very prompt to reply my mass spams of messages everyday (i am a meticulous person down to the dust).

-He provided 2D drawings and had a very reasonable quote compared to my 3 other quotations (some of which were personal recommendation and backed up by market reputation). He was so chosen because he had a better use of space and design concept.

-His workers did a good job with workmanship and i personally checked the materials as i personally went down everyday after work to ensure the ins and outs were all properly done before any possible plastering or boxing cover ups (i can discern and i know because of my work and my previous house reno experiences). He even personally came to touch up some areas after his man left and inspected my house everyday and updated me on my house progress (we were on a tight timeline with major works).

-His recommendations were good too for the lightnings and it was a breeze to purchase something that i dont specialize in.

-He was very patient in even giving advice on my selection of almost every piece of furniture, blinds, fittings and even bed sheet colors to ensure it all goes together!

I have recommended him to almost everyone i have met who would be doing their houses as well.

[ccchua22 2]

Hi stupe,

Thank you for your reply.

Firstly I not helping anyone. I also use alvin aw as my ID.

What you written here is a bit shock to me then as I use alvin aw as my ID. He is very response and responsibility person.

I only buy toilet items in jalan besar and lighting at chan huat in balsetier recommend by him. The rest I bought all by myself.

Normally he will ask his contractor to start work first.later the day they completed. He will personally come in and check.

I will whatsapp him and he reply very fast.

last is the cleaner is one man show also. He did a good job cleaning my whole house including windows.

Anyone who using Alvin Aw please feedback here.

Thank you very much!

As you were saying posting need to be approve ?

By who? You can post anythings here?

Is freedom here.

can share with us your reno picture?

here is my link for my reno

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s763.photobucket.com/user/ccchua22/embed/story"></iframe>

Edited January 4, 2016 by ccchua22

[stupe 3]

You seem curiously protective of this interior designer.

Here is my attempted post, which for some reason is still not approved yet.

Hi fellow homeowners,

Creating some awareness based on my experience with this 'interior designer' Matrix Concept.

Got my place some time ago, and like most people, I started scouring the interwebs for a reputable/recommended ID.

And of course, this forum came up in my search results. From this forum I got in touch with a few IDs, based on how 'hot' they are trending.

Well long story short, I settled on this ID.

Won't be able to write a chronology of events, but here's the summary:

- On pre-selection meetups, portrayed a 'simple' / 'modern' styling, quote "not like the other IDs out there". Pricing was competitive.

- Apparently totally 'got' us and our needs.

- 3D renders with scaled sizing? Nada. Zilch. Only got a 2D hand-sketched piece of excrement. And we only got this a few weeks after work has started, and after countless requests.

- Project management? Hardly. It was I that had to take multiple on-site visits, take photos, and send back to ask 'what is going on here'. Wasn't this one of the fundamental functions of an ID?

- Ideas? BS. Concepts proposed were of sub-par quality, uninspired.

- Often tried to convince us that some things were not 'necessary'. You might be thinking - hey that's good right, help me save money. But you know what happens in the end? It didn't jive.

- Needed to get stuff like furniture, curtains etc? The 'recommendations' and contacts given were in almost all cases, priced higher. Some were even ~35% more.

- Need to meet up with the ID? Yeah good luck trying to get his time. And good luck trying to get replies to questions on the same day.

- The packaged post-reno cleaning was a disaster. Used a dirty mop, with dirty water, with filthy brooms, and 50% of the place was not wiped down? My son can do a better job. And he did.

So how do I rate this experience?

Schedule - 6/10

Price - 7/10

Project Management - 3/10

Ideas - 4/10

Quality/Workmanship - 7/10

Want-to-fire-and-get-a-different-ID - 12/10

Hope this helps.

[ccchua22 2]

Hi stupe,

Can you share the problem with us?

What are the various problem/ issue? example using photo to show us?

The package you compare with others ID is cheaper or more expensive?

Have you release yr last payment?

Edited January 4, 2016 by ccchua22