STUDIO D

The consult and walk-through was 20 minutes; the designer verbally identified furniture to be replaced. Studio D emailed a contract 2 business days later offering in addition to staging: ? "Design Plan & Furnishings Selections ? Fresh Orchid Arrangements ? Interior Plants and Weekly Maintenance ? Installation, Labor, Delivery & Set-Up of Furnishings ? Removal or ?Breakdown? of Furnishings" Subsequent correspondence with the designer was terse. When we requested confirmation on removing several pieces of we received three word responses, e.g. "Please remove the rug." Studio D provided the recommended furniture except a dresser for our bedroom; they stated the size of the room did not accommodate the dresser they brought. Coincidentally, we came home to find a gouge in our bedroom wall. Studio D blamed the cleaners. We repaired and painted the wall ourselves. The quality of the staging furniture was fair. They were clearly showroom pieces: rugs needed vacuuming, love seat had incidental stains, and the end tables had sticker residue. After the setup, we received an email from the designer cc:ing their bookkeeper stating they had not received a check and payment was due immediately. I followed up via email and phone; our check was with the staging crew who picked it up the day of the staging. The fresh orchid arrangements, interior plants, and weekly maintenance were not fulfilled. The response to my request as to why was, "We use a boilerplate document and I made the mistake of not catching and removing the lines regarding providing plants." I asked for a discount; the designer's response was, "I can have my plant person bill you directly" along with instructions to the staging crew to estimate the cost of additional furniture to accommodate the plants. I called the designer; they were polite, but expressed no inclination to fulfill the contract as written even for items as incidental as flowers. The designer lamented about how little money they were already making on the staging and could not justify additional expense. Completely unprofessional. Subsequent correspondence with Studio D was made through our realtor. We gave them notice we would not be extending our two month term. After the tear down, I followed up with the designer via phone to ensure we would receive our full security deposit. They needed to confirm the furniture status with the staging crew. After a week with no response, I followed up again via email. The designer handed me off to their administrator. I finally reached them several days later and received my confirmation. Epilogue: we replaced the staged furniture with new purchases from Ikea and Cost Plus for $500 less than the cost to rent.