All because of the wife....

The client I got from the company event last weekend actually got back to me on Thursday, asking me if I had any design proposal I could share with him.




After emailing him my quotation, I was not expecting him to actually get back to me, seeing how the final figure has exceeded his budget and mainly because I just didn't want to have to deal with his RBF wife handle his project, I was hoping he could sense my insincerity.




Since I wasn't actually planning on handling his project right from the start, I did not bother doing a design proposal for him, I only did an obligatory quote for him, send it his way and hope I was done with him and his wife. I was a little bit taken aback and a little annoyed when he actually ask me if I had any design proposal I could share with him, like I was going to just send him some design ideas I have his way for free, so he can use those ideas and find a cheaper Interior Designer company, I told him that wasn't possible because he hasn't confirmed with me yet.





I told him I could help him look for some reference images online and maybe have him drop by the showroom so we can have a second consultation session to run through the reference images together with him and his disinterested wife, and to that he asked me if the weekend was alright with me and so I asked what time would be best for him....





Between asking him that question and him actually replying back to me, I quickly tried do some sort of design proposal for him, I only had about 3 days to come up with something, so I went to pinterest to find images to no avail, I tried Google Image and those were garbage, so I decided to just fuck it and do up a quick 3D via Sketch-Up for him of his entire 5 room flat, which took me a good 4 hours to complete.




The reason why it was so difficult for me to source reference images for him was because he had already source for reference images himself online, even showed them to me during our consultation. I was attempting to look for pictures that were similar to those he had presented to me, trying to remember the style he was going for based on that minute worth of viewing I had 4 days ago.  I can't find shit because I can't remember the exact style he was going for.





About 2 hours after I managed to complete his 3D for him, he finally replies back and goes...

"I will get back to you again..."

... it's already Sunday evening as I am writing this and he still hasn't gotten back to me yet.

He wasted mine

It's not alright to contact me and ask me to prepare a design proposal for you, only to tell me hours later...

"I will get back to you again."

.... and not actually get back to me.

The fact that he actually told me he wanted to meet me 2 to 3 days later actually made me prioritize doing up his Design Proposal for him, that was why I got to work right after he told me about it.



So you don't get to tell me or insinuate to me hours later that you are suddenly not interested anymore and think that that is alright. I hope he feels horrible for wasting my time, although I highly doubt so, also, I'm sure his wife doesn't give a single fuck and is just laying on her sofa yawning at everything she sets her sights on and then accusing me of things her husband has requested...

"Why am I pregnant? For what reason did I get pregnant? For aesthetics?"

Gawd I really do not like his wife.





This isn't even a really bad customer. The day I actually meet a horrible entitled piece of shit, that is going to make for great blogging material, probably not so great for me in real life though.

Company Event

For the past 2 days, the company has been having an in-house event, where homeowners would sign up days in advance to meet the designers and win some prizes.

Unlike the regular walk-in customers or leads I received from the company, these customers are normally the ones who are actually looking to settle for an Interior Designer and not just out for free quotations, or just aimlessly wandering about Singapore and walking into every other Interior Design firm they come across. 

I was hoping to meet a customer without a lot of renovation requirements, just the simple necessities, because those are the ones who won't be investing a lot of money into their home renovation, they are the one who are easier to convince and sign up with me on the spot, unfortunately for me, I met none of those customers and was instead presented with 3 different couples over the past 2 days, all in their late 20s to early 30s, their head are full of ideas of how they want their home to be and their phones are choked full of reference pictures they have sourced from Pinterest.

The first 2 couples were alright, I spoke to each of them for about an hour, walked them around our showroom, made small talk with them and then bid adieu when I ran out of things to say to them, which was really uncomfortable, which led to an awkward goodbye.





The last couple I spoke to on the other hand was pretty much a disaster waiting to happen, right from the start, I could tell that the wife was really disinterested, and during the consultation session, the husband was the only one with all the ideas, he was the one who truly wanted to beautify his home, the wife would chime in occasionally with this "I'm annoyed because I'm confused" look on her face, made worse by that annoyed tone in her voice, I really have no idea why the wife was even present, so after a while, I just focused my attention on the husband and tried my best to ignore the wife's presence until she interjects.





After a rather lengthy discussion with the husband of the renovation works he wants to do in the Living room and the Kitchen, with his wife occasionally yawning away in the background, we move on to the renovation works he wants to do in the Master Bedroom.

Husband : So I am looking to do a platform bed for our Master Bedroom.

And we discuss about it for about 15 minutes when the wife's' soul suddenly returns back to her body, and she questions me in a rather impatient tone...

Wife : What is the point of the platform? 

Me : Well, you either do it for aesthetics or for extra storage space.

Wife : But the platform is so low for storage, what is the point then? Just for aesthetics? And why go for platform, our ceiling is already very low, won't putting a platform make our room feel smaller?

... HELLO! Wake up! Your husband was the one who wanted to do the platform, I'm simply suggesting on what you can do with the platform YOUR husband wanted.




And how tall do think you are to have to worry about a 2.3 meter floor to ceiling height being too low?



She made it sound like I was the one who had suggested the platform to them, like introducing the platform bed to them was my way of earning more from their project.



Please! The last thing I want to do is handle your project, so no, I'm not trying to make more money from you because I don't want to make your fucking money.



I did not appreciate the accusatory tone she was using against me.



I actually spoke to them for 2 fucking hours and it was so agonizing. I actually feel really bad for the husband because I can tell that he really wanted to share his ideas with me to make sure what he had envisioned in his head will be translated clearly to me, but every time I turn to my right and see his wife at his side, looking so disinterested and yawning away, I just wanted them to go away and never contact me again because I just can't deal with the wife's attitude.





She looks like the type that will leave a scathing review of me online if her project doesn't go smoothly. Had the husband come on his own and shared his ideas with me, I would have been more opened to actually helping him, I would have been more interested and would view him as a potential client because he was easy to talk to, but alas, he decided to bring that which he married along, so all I will be doing is dropping them an overpriced quotation and hope that they will be petrified away by it.



They are not the kind of client I want to deal with for my first project. Just No! So....

Buh Bye~

----

I recently receive another customer lead from the HR in my company and I really don't like customers who write shit like...

"You have been invited to quote us for our renovation works."

Invited? Wow! What a fucking honor it is for me to be able to do a FREE quotation for you. Did I mention that you get the quotation FOR FREE!?!?!

Doubts

I have been receiving more and more customer leads from my company and so far, all of them have lead to dead ends. I have not been receiving any sort of income for the past 2.5 months since I started work and that is really uneasy, that is why I am giving myself till the end of May to decide if this is really the right career path for me.



I have been surfing Interior Design forums lately and it's always really fascinating/frustrating reading through some forum post written by clueless individuals who think that all Interior Designers are out to cheat homeowners off their hard earned money by charging them exuberant amount for renovation works.




"Your Interior Designer is charging you $9 per square feet for tiling works? That is ridiculous, I was at ABC Tile Shop recently and the tiles only cost $2.50 per square feet on average. This is daylight robbery!"




"How come your painting works so expensive? $1500 for the whole house? How many cans of paint does your Interior Designer think your house need that will amount to $1500? You better be careful, they are trying to charge you extra because you don't know how much a can of paint will cost."




It's like they can't help but spew stupidity.



"Oh tiles are only $2.50 per square feet so you should charge me $5 per square feet max. And that is already being very generous." 


Fuck off!

What about labour cost?

What about cement cost?

What about the Interior Designer's fee?


You assume the Interior Designers are just going to be stationed at your house every other day to overlook your entire renovation project for free?


You think co-coordinating with a dozen different suppliers and scheduling when each item will be delivered for your renovation project is a piece of cake?


 Then go and do it your fucking self!


Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it will be good. The fact that some companies are actually able to quote their renovation works at almost cost price makes me wonder how good their design will be, how low high quality of their carpentry works will  be, and most importantly, how much effort they will actually put into the project that hardly has any profit margin.




I met a client about 4 days ago who had a renovation request that was pretty much impossible to achieve...

"I want to redo all the toilets in the house, I want a completely brand new kitchen, I would like for you to shift the air-con and also to polish the entire condo's flooring.... and I want to move in by the end of April."

... by the end of April, that is only 6 weeks away, and with works that extensive, even if I were to start the renovation right on that day, I still won't be able to hand the new home over to him on time.


Estimated Timeline

1. Sign with Interior Designer - 1 Day (if confirm right on the spot)

2. Discuss and Finalize Design - 2 Month (includes material selection and 3D drawings)

3.Hacking Works - 1 Week

4. Tiling Works - 1 Week

5. Fabricate Carpentry - 2 Weeks

6. Install Carpentry - 1 Week

7. Cleaning & Painting Works - 1 Week


Just from the the Design phase itself, it's already impossible to complete the renovation within 1.5 months, you tell me how to move in by the end of April ?


So I told him it was going to be impossible but he didn't care, it's not his problem, he kept saying...

"Just try."

Just try? You tried going up to a penguin and telling it "Fly. Just Try" and then see it take flight ? No!



He then ask me to do up a quotation for him and normally I will ask for a week to complete the quotation, but since he was rushing for the renovation to be completed by April, he was very insistent and wanted to see the quotation in 2 days. When I said...

"Earliest I will send to you is by Tuesday."

... he goes...

" By Monday. Just try."

Seeing how desperate he was, I thought the chances of him actually signing up with me was very high, that was why I made the effort to actually rush out the quotation for him, I even asked one of my senior designers if he was able to help me run the project so we can split the profit, that was how optimistic I was about this customer and fortunately for him, I was able to complete the quotation by Monday.


Unfortunately for me, he had really atrocious handwriting, so I was unable to decipher the written email address he have given to me, which prompted me to give him a call, asking him what his email address was....

*makes the call and finally gets his email address*

Me: Okay, I will send you the quotation via email now.

Client : Yeah! Send it now! Send it now!

Me : Okay, I will be sending it to you now. Bye

Client : *hangs up*

Not a single word of thanks. And the way he commanded me to send him the quotation was so fucking infuriating.


He hasn't gotten back to me since I have send out the quotation so thanks for wasting my time asshole. Made me rush out a quotation for you within 2 days and don't even drop a single word of thanks, fucking piece of shit.




He probably realized that it is impossible to move in to the new home if he opted to do renovation works, and he shouldn't be thinking about doing renovation works under such a tight schedule.



And for fuck sake, don't ask a contractor friend how much it will cost to renovate your home, and then come to an Interior Design firm and expect them to match that price, that's not how it works.

Carrot Dangler

The third month has begun and I have yet to sign any contracts.


I am actually starting to worry that my boss will realize I am not performing well and have me fired very soon because during my first interview with him, he had this to say to me...

"Normally a new designer like yourself will take about the first 2 months to learn the ropes before he or she will start to sign a project with a customer. If by the end of the third month, you still have not signed any projects yet, then this is probably a personal issue and you might not be suitable for this job."

The first two months didn't feel too bad, since I was still in the learning phase, I wasn't really bothered by my obvious lack of motivation to sign projects with the customer leads that were given to me by the company.



Most of the customer leads I received from the company were only in for the free non-obligatory quotation and attempting to schedule any meet up with them after informing them the quotation was ready will be met with the same replies..

"Can you send me the quotation via email first so I can take a look at it?"

... which also translate to...

"Just give me the free quotation your company has promised me, I won't reply to your texts or emails once I have received a copy of it."

Every time without fail, once I have emailed them the quotation, they just stop responding to my text completely. It will be marked ✔✔, but they will never respond back.

I was recently ignored on Whatsapp by one of my customer and what really aggravates me about that particular customer is the fact that she was the one who implied a second consultation session with me after our first session...

"You take your time to prepare, then we can meet again another time."

.... which prompted me to make sure I had all the necessary items ready for our second consultation, that includes the Quotation, Space Planning Proposal as well as some Reference pictures I could show her to give her a better understanding of what I am going to propose to her. 

During our first consultation session, she had some renovation requirements that were not conventional, like installing a fish tank in her feature cabinets. I did not really bother to ask her about the fish tank specifications, thinking that installing a fish tank in a cabinet would be as simple as leaving an open space in the cabinet for the fish tank to sit in, little did I know that there was actually so much more things that had to be considered, like creating a concrete base or a metal stand for the fish tank to perch on, because simply placing it on a cabinet shelve made of plywood and supported by a few pegs will cause the entire feature cabinet to eventually collapse after a period of time from the weight of the water filled tank.

I thought instead of having to quote her on a custom made cement support that will cost a few hundred bucks to fabricate, it would be better if she actually went to get a metal stand for her fish tank elsewhere that will cost below a hundred bucks, that way, she saves money and I don't have to worry about having to create a permanent cement support fixture in her home she won't be able to move at all, so I asked her...

"Hi, may I know what fish tank you are going to get for your new home?"

... and she replies hours later with....

"Haha, I think Goldfish? Does that matter?"

Ummm....No, the species of the fishes doesn't matter because that's not what I asked. So I had to ask her again....

"Haha, not the type of fish, I meant the fish tank, because I have to check with my contractor the price it would cost to do a cement stand for you."

... and from then on she just stops responding, I see the ✔✔ go blue, not even a minute after I send her the text, so I waited, assuming she might have gone and ask her husband for the fish tank model, she never got back to me. 

A few days pass without a response and by then, I had already completed the quotation and a space planning proposal for her as well as some reference image to show her. My aim was to share with her the genius idea I had that would save her a fair bit of money for her fish tank installation fiasco, so I wrote her another text on Friday asking...

"Are you free this Sunday for a second consultation?"

...hoping she would be agreeable, thinking she might have forgotten to reply to my previous text and will reply to this one. 

The ✔✔ went blue, but there was no response, 

It was Sunday yesterday, she did not respond to the text at all, I was worried she would show up yesterday because she had neither confirm nor reject my appointment with her, thankfully she didn't. 

On one hand, I was glad she didn't because I don't want to deal with a customer who will show up for an appointment without confirmation, it is extremely irresponsible and very ignorant to assume that a designer only has you, a single customer to deal with, and when the designer isn't around when you show up, suddenly it's the designer's fault that you wasted your own time, happened before and that particular dumbass of a customer actually left a 1 Star review on the company's Facebook page, pretty fucking stupid for someone who has a University Degree.

On another hand, I was a little annoyed that my customer didn't have the basic courtesy to just reply to my text, if I am reaching out to you and you no longer require my services, don't assume that by not responding to my text, I will get the message, I mean I will get the message eventually, but you will be forever remembered in my mind as the fucktard who went the extra mile to waste my time, at least drop me a simple text informing me of your decision...

"Hi. Sorry, but I have found an Interior Designer so I don't think a second appointment will be necessary anymore. Thanks"

...that would have sufficed, I would have understood that and wish you all the best with your renovation works. But because she did not have the basic courtesy to reply to my best, here's wishing the carrot dangler all the best...

All The Best!

 ....with her bulk purchase of carrots and sticks.