ComplaintsforDréa Peters Interiors

• Initial Complaint

  09/19/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 6/29/22 (invoice 6/24), we paid Drea Peters Interiors $43,479.27 for materials for a home remodel. Drea Peters Interiors was serving as a designer for the house, but has forced us into a situation where we have to get these materials through her business or we cannot move forward. On 7/7/22, we had further communication about procurement/management charges ongoing through the project. DPI promised 5-8 hours/monthly ongoing (only if needed was stressed). On 9/16/22, we have yet to receive any of these materials at our house and got a surprise bill for around 119 hours of work, totaling over $17k. It was discounted heavily to just under $10k because she knows none of this was authorized. We received no communication after 7/7/22 until the bill arrived that there would be these kinds of charges. We disputed the charges and she has taken away all our access to our design plans (a separate $20k charge and lawfully our property) and is withholding the $43k of materials that we have already paid for. We seek to end this relationship immediately and either receive the materials, a full refund for the materials or reducing this bill down to something reasonable like what was estimated (***** total hours instead of 119). The bill itself is full of charges that are minor details of the design plan that she never finished in the first place. We paid around $20k for a design that was promised to be a complete design. The entire business proposal was a complete design plan BEFORE construction started and she has never delivered that. Instead, she's still designing as she goes and making up details on the fly and charging us for these decisions she was supposed to have completed months ago, before we even started construction, but we never knew she had not done them. She's just making up the entire process as she goes and we're held hostage to it because we're already in for so much money.

  Business response

  10/12/2022

  
  
  Thank you so much for your consideration and review of this claim.  There is a lot of information. I apologize in advance but I did not want to risk missing any key information.
  
  If there is anything you wish explained, or additional documentation we can provide, please do not hesitate to contact me.
  
  Attached please find our document with the detailed response.  We will send the supporting documents in separate emails to help keep things organized for you.
  
  
  Sincerely, 
  Dra 
  
  
  

  Customer response

  10/18/2022

  Complaint: 18038233
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  It does not address the issue and instead is a stream of narcissistic rambling that might make *********************** blush.  It is objectively false and tries to reframe our entire history where we are monsters and she is a hero. If she "exceeded expectations", we wouldn't be in a dispute.  My wife is not trying to be a designer. She merely wanted to feel good about a massive upgrade on our home she's been looking forward to for years and did not get any of her expectations met about the process. I was involved at every step even if I was not in every meeting.  I work from home and we've both been involved in every communication, positive and negative. Regarding the contractor, he provided full numbers up front in a simple spreadsheet, he does not charge anything until work is done and verified and his numbers do not change.  The difference between the contractor and designer's business practices and professionalism could not be more *****.

  We do not have a large amount of the materials we already paid for. She has never provided an itemized list of the materials at all, so it cannot be determined how much is missing. She did not give us any notice that she was charging WAY beyond her estimated figures or even that we were being charged at all throughout July, August and September.  We have emails from her stating that she would notify us by the 15th of July if she was going to overrun her project cost and she failed to do this.  Instead, she is holding our materials hostage and surprised us with a huge bill that massively overran her expectations.  We generously offered her $4,640 plus the $2750 retainer/deposit, which would cover more than half of her bill.  We also offered her the opportunity to accept and still take pictures and add this project to her portfolio.  The key provision was that it was the final transaction as she cannot be trusted to not run up more charges.  She declined and noted that her lawyer would be contacting us.  This never happened, we are not in our house, the project is not complete, we are missing key materials that we already paid for and she has refused at every step to work with us, which is how she has conducted her business for the last year.  She has complained about working with every vendor and our contractor throughout the process and completely refused any questions or pushback at any point from either of us.  Her method of dealing with questions is to get into a zoom call and bully and condescend and talk endlessly about her documentation.  All communication has to be on her terms or else there's a problem.

  We have consulted with a lawyer and are talking through the next steps this week.

  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

  Business response

  10/18/2022

  I appreciate the BBB's time and attention to this matter.  However, DPI will no longer dignify the claimant's low brow and antagonistic accusations with our time or attention.  There is no validity to any portion of his response.  As previously stated, the items we are withholding for lack of payment are decorative in nature and have not prevented the client from returning to their home.  That is their choice.

   

  We have done our part to submit the timeline and documentation needed for public record. This has been an unproductive process. DPI provided more than ample documentation to depict just how much time and attention the claimants have needed, and continue to need, to date. Beyond the allotted time, their requests (as shown in our well documented project management software) become billable hours per all of our contracts. 
  
  We will submit one last example.  NOTE: This project has been terminated as of Sept 16th, 2022 due to lack of payment.  
  
  On Oct 14, 2022 the contractor asked us to verify elements of an already finalized + submitted paint schedule.  DPI provided the paint schedule in person, via sharable link, via phone call and via hard copy *** on Sept 9th, 2022. 

  
  NOTE - We had an onsite meeting with the painter to review the amended paint colors on Sept 8th, 2022. Later that same day we had an on site meeting with the client to review the same content.  The following day we spoke with the contractor to review the content again, and then sent him the link + subsequently the *** versions.  We also sent the painter the link and the *** document the same day.  These were all actions independently requested by the client, contractor + painter.

  
  3 weeks later (Oct 14,2022) we are being asked to verify the same information we were previously asked to provide, over 6 times, in multiple formats.  This is one small example but clearly depicts the inordinate amount of communication needed for each and every minute task.  No client or contractor has ever displayed this level of time demands on our design team. Over the course of 3-4 months, that time adds up and now that the clients have gotten everything they can out of us, they do not want to pay their bill.

  
  It should be stated that we truly like this contractor, as well as all of our trusted vendors. We continue to help him even during the unpaid stage of this small project.  When we work with him, we simply bill our standard project management fee which is 15-20% of the remodeling fee - as stated in our contract. We made an exception in this case to help the claimants and have been met with a lack of gratitude or appreciation at every turn. Any vendor that caused an issue was selected by the client in an attempt to save money, not DPI. Further, we are no longer extending discounted rates or courtesy adjustments to their bills and their unpaid bills are accruing late fees. 

  
  From this point forward our legal team will be handling this case.  These former clients, their needs and their project are no longer a consideration of ours. 
  
  
  
  Tell us why here...Tell us why here...

  Customer response

  10/19/2022

  Complaint: 18038233
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  
  

  It still does not address the issue.  We are still lacking up to $43k worth of materials that we paid for.  There has been no effort on the part of the business to resolve this or even provide a list of what she's provided and $ amounts for the things delivered or missing.  We have no way of knowing the $ amount missing because she refuses to even discuss it.  Her responses are dripping with complete contempt for the clients which lines up with her overall attitude during this project.  We have been miserable with her for months, but tried to keep the relationship civil to just get it done, even through paying several surprise bills.  She has steadfastly refused to accept any responsibility for anything that's happened throughout this process and will say anything now to try to defend her business.  Her communication has been very poor throughout the process.

  
  

  Her response quoted below is particularly telling.  She wrote an enormous diatribe in her first response attempting to frame our over 1 year relationship where we are horrible people and she is the perfect business, but if we have anything to say in response, we're lowbrow and antagonistic.  

  However, DPI will no longer dignify the claimant's low brow and antagonistic accusations with our time or attention.  There is no validity to any portion of his response.

  
  

  She also proves with this statement that she has never considered any resolution that doesn't have her getting exactly what she wants, even though she makes up whatever she wants at any time.  All the documents she provides are under her complete control and can be manipulated at any time (invoices, spreadsheets of costs, etc.).  We do not even have access to anything anymore, including the design plan we paid $20k for.  

  Again, we very generously offered her most of what her final bill was, provided it was the final bill and specifically said she could take pictures of the completed project.  I've attached a screenshot of the email.  In her own words from her initial response, she has been lying by omission and also now lying directly about my previous response having no validity.  We have tried to resolve this peacefully.  She has not.  We refuse to get in a phone call with her, but we have tried to communicate via email several times.  She has refused at every step to resolve this.

  Her own responses have specifically indicated that this BBB complaint is an enormous offense to her.  She specifically told my wife that she views this BBB complaint as a way to harm her business.  This is a person who cannot even comprehend that this is our only path short of getting a lawyer to get any accountability from her business and is in fact, the whole point of the BBB.  She does not have her business on ****** or Yelp or anywhere where we can review her, but that is not our goal anyway.  Our goal is to hold the business accountable to deliver a very large $ amount of materials we paid her for in good faith (and were bullied into paying for immediately.)  By her own admission, when my wife, at least a month after payment, asked about status of the materials, we got an angry response from the business about us micromanaging her and she took away our access to the very ****** board we could use to get information.  (We have the voicemail).  She also admitted in that voicemail that she changed course from our agreement that materials would be delivered to us.  She started having things delivered to her without our consent and now here we are.

  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

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