ComplaintsforHouse to Haven Interiors LLC

• Initial Complaint

  04/08/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  ************************************* with House to Haven Interiors was our interior designer and sourced a hood and mantle from Francois and Company. We made two payments for the hood/mantle through ********. ******** charged us hourly for her time spent working on the hood/mantle. We noticed our full payments weren't applied with ******** and Company and we communicated with ******** and ******** and Company over the course of a week looking for the missing $1,672.43. ******** never commented regarding the missing funds. The Vice President of ******** and ******* contacted me stating "this is very unethical of your designer, but we've learned she kept the missing money from your two deposits, totaling the $1,672.43. We did not authorize ******** to keep portions of our deposits. She didn't disclose that, we never signed a contract stating that was going to occur nor did ******** even admit to keeping the money until we confronted her about it. She charged us double in her practice without disclosing that information. ******** charge us hourly for her time which we gladly paid, then also silently keeping portions of our payments to ******** and Company. We made the following payments for our mantle/hood for ******** and Company:7/14/23 $9,784.78 (only $8,376.02 was applied, ******** kept $1,408.76)12/15/23 $1,659.51 (only $1,395.84 was applied, ******** kept $263.67)The total amount she secretly kept was $1,672.43. In addition to withholding funds, ******** incorrectly ordered carpeting for a theater room in our home. We were forced to reorder a new roll of the correct size carpeting. The carpet vendor, ****** as well as out builder, ******* Construction, stated it was ********'s order error due to her incorrectly ordering size for the patterned carpet. Upon learning of this, ******** stated in-person to ****** that she "doesn't feel comfortable ordering carpet". ******* Construction did a back-charge to ******** with House to Haven because her mistake in ordering caused the unexpected cost of needing to purchase a replacement roll, which she refused to pay. That back-charge is also attached.

  Business response

  04/16/2024

  Good evening,

   

  We are happy to respond in detail to these complaints as we have on numerous occasions and once again provide any and all necessary supporting documentation, payment history, check images, written statements by the vendors mentioned, and ample written correspondence detailing that these claims against House to Haven Interiors are not based whatsoever on facts and are absolutely false.

   

   Regarding the first claim of withholding monies, what *************** continues to refer to as "missing funds is in fact the profit of House to Haven Interiors through the designer discount extended to us by ******** & **s designer trade program as plainly seen on the invoice *************** previously shared (See Set 3).  These funds are the revenue of House to Haven Interiors as the wholesale buyer and designer retailer of Francois & ** products, which were sold to the Illas builder, ******* **nstruction - our original purchaser in this transaction.  Following Spicolas original deposit payments highlighted on the attached check images, we received little-to-no response or collaboration from them after repeated attempts by House to Haven and ******** project manager regarding the details of the installation of these purchased pieces, nor feedback on the necessary site preparation for the incoming cast stone materials.  We in fact made repeated attempts over several months time to collect the second deposit payment from ******* in order to move forward with the production of these items as the construction timeline was a repeated concern of our clients, which ****** (in writing) thanked us for at the time.  *************** inserted herself in direct correspondence with ******** to work out these construction details herself as she has done with several other vendors represented on this project, which seemed best in this case to allow her to do moving forward as she seemed to be managing much of this project on her own, independent of *******.  It seemed best to allow *************** and ******** to proceed with final payments and scheduling/installation details directly, at which time we requested that ******** assign her as the ******* customer directly from that point forward at the pricing originally quoted to ******* by House to Haven Interiors.  This pricing, as shown on our attached invoice to *******, was shared with ******** on February 13th so that they could pass on the remainder of the balance directly to ****** for all future and final payments.  ******** not only made an error in their following invoice to ***************, but disclosed our designer discount to her by sharing our trade invoice details during the transition, which clients are absolutely not privy to nor are we required to share with them as ****** claims.  This mistake has been acknowledged by ******** & ** and their numbers were rectified within 3 days time between the project manager and *************** as plainly seen in the correspondence attached between February 19th and 22nd.  House to Haven Interiors was not in fact silent during this time as *************** claims and responded to ******* initial concern over the payment discrepancies she was seeing from ******** on the same day (February 19th) by confirming Spicolas two payments to House to Haven with ******** copied on the correspondence.  ******** realized their mistake having not matched our original invoice to ******* and immediately rectified the billing.  By February 22nd, ****** and ******** had signed all necessary documentation to move the order forward.  In no fashion does House to Haven Interiors owe the profit margins from the two deposit payments made by ******* back to the Illass as not only was this not a transaction between House to Haven and the Illass directly (see check images attached) but was an absolutely standard resale transaction for goods purchased tax-free at wholesale cost from our trade vendor and provided to the purchaser at retail price (+ a courteous discount extension of our own).  These revenue margins make up the entire intent of a designer trade program with any vendor in our industry and is corroborated in the written statement provided by the Founder and CEO of Francois & **, *******************************.  ******** and ** also emphatically denies *************** claim to have stated that we acted unethically whatsoever in our business/resale practices.

   

   Our hourly fees for design services are an entirely separate entity of our business and are absolutely and consistently billed for hours rendered on activities such as Procurement, Vendor **rrespondence, Quotations, Invoicing, etc. as have appeared regularly on the Illas monthly invoices for design services since the start of our relationship in 2021.  Paying double is an outlandish assertion and absolutely false.  We wish to note as well that as of the date of this response, the Illas are currently 31 days past due on their outstanding design fees owed to House to Haven Interiors for hours previously rendered for the month of February, 2024 and beyond.  Our attempts to collect on this delinquency for prior work performed continue to be unsuccessful.

   In regards to the claim that we incorrectly ordered carpeting for the Illas theatre room, this falsehood is three-fold.  Firstly, House to Haven Interiors did not place this order for carpet materials.  This is of course very clearly demonstrated through simple transaction records between the vendor and purchaser for this order and is corroborated by ******* ownership in the attached written statement by ******* Owner/CEO, *******************************.  ****** has never assigned blame to us for this reorder nor holds us responsible for the measurements collected by the Illas builder, ******* **nstruction.  Months prior, the Illas actually threatened legal action against ****** for this same claim which proved unsuccessful and after which time they sought to then assign blame to House to Haven Interiors for the alleged material shortage.  At a recent meeting requested by *************** in which ******, House to Haven Interiors, ******* **nstruction, and the Illass were present, the carpeting was demonstrated to have been cut by the installer in such a way that rendered the rolls unusable.  House to Haven Interiors is in no way responsible for the direct oversight of contractors and/or consultants to perform work based on our selections, with which our clients have entered into a contract directly.  We provide no warranty, guarantee, certification, or responsibility for the performance, quality, or timely completion of any work performed or materials installed by contractors, nor their agents or employees and therefore take no responsibility for the additional carpeting that was ordered by ******* from ******.  ******* ordered this additional material from ****** as a result of their mistake, independent of House to Haven Interiors.  Lastly, even if a square footage shortage was proven to be the actual reason for the required reorder, these quantities were in fact very clearly communicated to us by ******* themselves via the blank square footage chart we provided to them to fill in with the appropriate quantities required for each room.  House to Haven Interiors did not produce the quantities required this order.  We have attached multiple examples of correspondence demonstrating this as well as the email where we received the square footage chart back from ******* after they filled in the appropriate quantities by room for each of our selections, which was then shared with the vendor to generate an estimate for the clients/builder.  This is also corroborated in ******** attached written statement.  This is our regular practice with all builders we work with which is precisely what ******** meant in her conversation with *************** by not being comfortable placing these orders ourselves, which we in fact did not.  They must come from the builder and of course did in this case.

   

   We at House to Haven Interiors take great pride in the over 300+ hours spent faithfully serving the Illass since this projects inception and all of the creativity and expertise we have invested into the design of their new home, in which we have handpicked nearly every detail.  We are sorely disappointed and equally shocked at the ultimate outcome of our relationship with these clients and never anticipated such sudden hostility and dissatisfaction with our services.  We always take a client-first approach to any of our projects and have honored nearly every request, exception, and demand of the Illas since the start of our time together - many of which are far outside our normal scope and all of which were provided at half of our current rate for hourly services.  ******** even sacrificed her maternity leave to continue meeting the demands of the Illas timeline for furnishings, lighting, etc. rather than recommending them to another firm for completion of their home as she truly valued their business and trust.  However, after dozens of unpaid hours required in responding to these and other false accusations, unfortunate communication of a threatening nature from the Illass builder (and personal friend), our integrity and the ethical nature of our business practices constantly called into question, the intentional misinterpretation of our roles and expectations as the designers, and several of our valuable and long-time trade relationships potentially jeopardized throughout this project, we simply cannot absorb any further time or monetary loss as a result of these false accusations.

   

   Sincerely,

   House to Haven Interiors

  Customer response

  04/20/2024

   
  Complaint: 21540884
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  ************************************* never responded to my emails with ******** and *** inquiring directly about the missing funds. ******** merely stated the payments made by my husband and I, but she didnt respond to a week-long communication search among the three parties searching for the missing funds. ******** was very well-aware that she, in fact, withheld funds from our payments, but sat silently on communications where we searched for the money. ******** did not make a mistake or error, a leader from their headquarters called me to inform me that they discovered ******** had withheld funds. The leader stated Im sorry to inform you what your designer did was unethical. Obviously ******** was aware that what she did was indeed unethical, as she didnt admit to it over the week of the missing money search. 

  Sincerely,
  
  ****** & ***********************

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