BLUUM OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENTS

Service Provider Response

We are saddened that this client was confused by the Preliminary Presentation of her landscape design. In July of 2009 we began communications with her regarding developing a design for her landscape. She purchased a landscape design with a down payment of $593.75. This is typically a 30 day process from start to finish. It involves an initial visit by our designer to access the customer’s wants and needs, along with a visual assessment of the site. Then after a couple of weeks, we return with the Preliminary Presentation (the first of three) to show the client “rough concepts” of the design, in order to make sure we are on the right track with the clients wishes and budget. This entire process is documented in a short video on our web site. It was after this first presentation, when the client became disenchanted with the process. She considered our “rough draft” an “insult”. We certainly didn’t mean to insult her; it seemed she expected to see the finished product. Her comment at the time was, “We were counting on something more like the television show, Curb Appeal, in that it would be more of a comprehensive makeover with a glorious, enchanted wildlife garden”. Obviously the initial “rough draft” design couldn’t live up to that sort of expectation. Despite our repeated efforts to assure her that there were still two more consultations in which we would fine tune the design and add the details she requested, she became disillusioned with the process. As far as the time line is concerned, she communicated to us no urgency initially, and we proceeded with all of the design work in priority order. Even though the seasonal demand was high at the time, we were still producing all projects in a reasonable timeframe. Once we learned that she was anxious to get the work done, we made an extra effort to keep in touch and move forward with the design process. Most important, we only charged her for 4.75 design hours (equal to her down payment) even though we had actually invested well over 10 design hours in an effort to produce more concept choices than normal. All completed drawings were given to her, along with our sincere and poignant apologies about her misunderstanding our well communicated design process.