Kimberley Harrison Interiors

I’m very disheartened to see Michael’s comments as we pride ourselves on providing excellent client service and we do everything we can to make our clients happy. While we make every effort to ensure client satisfaction, unfortunately, some expectations are unrealistic and cannot be met. First, the client interviewed 15 designers and had a hard time finding anyone to take their small job. Second, the $3,000 they spent equated to nearly 20 hours of work on their project before they decided not to move forward because their budget did not allow for the construction fees warranted by the nuances of work in San Francisco on an old Victorian. I was very clear upfront that we are NOT contractors, and that the client would be signing a contractor’s bid directly but that we would assist with finding a contractor to take their job. I’d like to point out that I do not ever speak to what a contractor’s fees will be; that is up to the contractor to determine based on the job scope provided which, in this case, was changing out old bay windows and updating a bathroom. Third, the client wanted space planning and furniture for their living space and some updates to their bedroom. We provided a site visit and a field measure, full drafting and elevations for the revised bathroom (so the contractor could bid the job) communicated with a window installer, provided drafting for the living space, and began doing furniture sourcing for the living space. Last, we spoke to several contractors who were not interested in this project, yet we persisted in finding someone who was available and could do this type of work. When we found a contractor, we passed his quote along to the client - this is the point at which they abruptly terminated their contract and wanted their retainer back. The client did not want to go any further, which is understandable but up to this point, we had already provided them with a lot of work. For this reason, we hold a retainer – so that clients like this can’t decide not to pay for services we have provided. It was completely reasonable and within my contract to deduct the retainer from their invoice for the work we had completed to date. We turned over all the drafting and drawings that we had done in addition to the sourcing that we had started but were not allowed to complete.

I am saddened to read their review as this was not at all indicative of what actually happened. Over those 5 weeks, we did quite a lot of work, as promised. Further, it was more than just “tile work”. They wanted to reshape the shower, add a new vanity, mirror, toilet, plumbing, etc. Meanwhile, all of this happened during Covid when my team was working reduced hours and remotely, yet we still did the work we were asked to do and provided all components to the client. We sincerely hope they found someone to complete the job for them.