City Design @ Imm

[charemme 0]

Hi,

I have approach Samson from City design. So far to date, impression are quite pleasant. One of my frd have used their service but not sure if its the same ID, n have not seen their work but so far good comments.

Anyone here have any experience with this ID or the firm to share??

[mint 0]

i only went to them for quotation. but they dont give quotation one, they ask me to pay them a lump sum - i think was $300 or $500 - then the designer will do those prespective drawings and then share the quotation with you - if u are happy with the design, then you sign with them. if u not happy, can dont sign the quotation with them, but the fee you paid for the consultation is not able to take back. also they will not show you the flats that u hv done, unless u signed with them. thats all i know. ~ anyway, im still looking around, not yet decided who to sign with.

There is an unhappy customer...

http://renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showto...ost&p=36733

http://renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2069

All IDs work differently. Maybe that guy is just unlucky to meet an irresponsible ID....

Edited March 25, 2007 by mint

[lawry 3]

$300/$500 just for a quotation and perspective drawing, but not refundable? To view sample flat, still need to sign up with them first?

[charemme 0]

what?? must pay for a quotation tat is crap... who is the ID you approach?? and when was that??

i keep asking the ID if he quotation is providing is free or anot, till now, he is doing the quote for me and have been assuring that i dont have to pay a single cent. Can take my time to see..

[oonik grl 0]

i did went to them for quote. i found the guy who served me was so so only lah. he seems pretty new to me. forgot the name liao...

[mint 0]

i cant rem who.. i was attended by a guy - malaysian i think. so ar my impression isnt good... so far, i did not receive any quote from them, cos they need me to commit $ for their designs.. ssound so rubbish to me.

[dreamgirl 0]

Hi Forummers,

Anyone has ever used 'City Design' ID firm ? Me and hubby went to talk to them during Reno exhibition at Expo but have not decided as we have not done enough homework.

Any comment on price / workmanship / service ?

Thanks!

[purpledino 1]

Hi Forummers,

Anyone has ever used 'City Design' ID firm ? Me and hubby went to talk to them during Reno exhibition at Expo but have not decided as we have not done enough homework.

Any comment on price / workmanship / service ?

Thanks!

My parents engaged them 4 years ago to do up our place...

It was horrendous.

First of all, the people at the exhibitions are sales people, so their aim is simply to sell u the package, and they can promise u this and that. They promised us they can do up the place in 5 weeks. So we rented a place for 5 weeks. After we signed on the contract, we were passed on to this ID, progress is as follows:

Day 1: got the workers in to hack the place down in 1 day. we were so excited!

Day 2: nothing happened

Day 3: nothing happened

Day 4: nothing happened, we called the ID who gave some excuse and said his wet works people will come

Day 5: he said he managed to get us a hood/hob/oven combo for $999 thru a friend, so we wrote him a cheque (in retrospect this was a very stupid thing to do)

Day 5-18: nothing happened. house situation was same state as in day 1. we called him every 2 days and he always gave some crap reason.

Day 19: usually a very tolerant person, i got pissed. we called the ID, who suddenly stopped picking up our phone, and even rejected our calls. we wrote a complaint letter, i called the company, spoke to the salesperson, who got scared as we threatened to send the letter to Forum. another ID took over the job.

Day 20: we found out that the ID pulled the same stunt on other customers (see Day 5) and apparently ran away with some customers' money

Day 21-30: reno carried on

Day 30: we were unable to extend our rent, thus we had no place to stay in. we complained, and new ID grudgingly offered us accomodation in some dingy 3 room flat (which i suspect was some customer who passed him the keys and went overseas hoping to come back to a nicely furnished place) we had to sleep on mattresses and bear with the very old and poorly maintained place

Day 30-50: the new ID was very calculative. having gotten us into so much trouble, i would expect the company to be more accomodating, but this ID was trying to charge us for so many things! in retrospect, i think he was trying to make more money by making suggestions to save money, e.g. we were quoted false ceiling for entire living/dining room, but he suggested L-box so that 'the place will not look so cramped', but didn't give us a rebate (i believe there should have been a discountas our living/dining room is quite big, so cost savings from false ceiling -> L box should have been at least a few hundred dollars)

in the end we paid 40+ K to do up our 5 room flat which i think is very expensive (the only things we did was homogenous flooring, toilet, kitchen, L box living dining, kitchen cabinets). they probably took the opportunity to make us 'carrot head' as we were 'newbies' to renovation...

in short, i hated the experience. would have chosen another ID if given another chance.

Now that I'm doing up my own place, I'm putting a lot more effort into research as I never want to have the same ridiculous experience we had with City Design ever.

Apologies for this long email. But I just want to warn you guys about this company. They are very slick, all their staff wear nice black shirts, and their company is quite large.

But i believe there are other smallers who can provide much, much higher standards of service and quality for a better price! just browse through this forum!

my 2 (maybe 5) cents' worth...

[jt88 0]

I'm not trying to generalize but I tend to avoid exhibition IDs. cos I think good IDs would be spending time at customer's homes and not burn the weekends at booths waiting for customers. this exhibition is on-going. Just which out every Saturday's Strait's Times. You see them like..every week, same faces, same promo, same showflat, almost same venue (always either Suntec or Expo) and same packages. so not competitive. just my 2cents.

Edited September 11, 2007 by jt88

[dreamgirl 0]

Hi Purpledino,

I really symphatize to your horrible reno experience!

Thanks for the warning, and I'll better do more research. We also sense that the person who served us during exhibition seems to be a salesperson rather than ID from the way he "hard-sell".

[purpledino 1]

I'm not trying to generalize but I tend to avoid exhibition IDs. cos I think good IDs would be spending time at customer's homes and not burn the weekends at booths waiting for customers. this exhibition is on-going. Just which out every Saturday's Strait's Times. You see them like..every week, same faces, same promo, same showflat, almost same venue (always either Suntec or Expo) and same packages. so not competitive. just my 2cents.

yup i agree. you notice most of the recommended ID firms in this forum do not routinely place big ads in the papers, or participate in reno fairs. though the prices offered at the fairs may be cheaper, in the end you will probably end up paying more!

Hi Purpledino,

I really symphatize to your horrible reno experience!

Thanks for the warning, and I'll better do more research. We also sense that the person who served us during exhibition seems to be a salesperson rather than ID from the way he "hard-sell".

yup. do they still do the '$500 deposit' trick? think the sales person (or 'project manager' as they call themselves - so that they can say that they are 'managing your project behind the scenes' and pass u on to someone you haven't even met before) probably gets like a $200 cut or something for every deposit secured...

[junxian 0]

Hi all

Anyone can share their experience with City Design @ IMM ? Especially those who engaged them to renovate your home before.

The ID I spoken to seems to be quite creative and knowledge able ...

Thanks in advance !

[Yang Guo 7]

i went there to get a quote before..their creativity is indeed one of the good one i have seen.but cost is on the higher side

[junxian 0]

i went there to get a quote before..their creativity is indeed one of the good one i have seen.but cost is on the higher side

just back from 2nd appointment with the ID.

The price range really made me double from the cheapest that i've got.

[jwn 0]

they are expensive!!

at the expo fair, i didn't quite like their portfolio.. their design like all quite similiar for all the units they do! got a lot of red, and bold design, unfortunately hubby and i like simple, minimal, rest and relax design.

however, the guy who served us was very polite, so in the end we still ask them to quote.

2 weeks later they sent the quote, it was SUPER expensive! for instance, they quote me $1250 for laminate on my living and dining. then i found out it's china material. i ask to change to supreme, they charge me around $2k! other IDs are charging me around 1.4k-1.6k for supreme (i give exact colour and material cos i only like that colour). it is ridiculous