Reviews of Alana Fletcher Interiors (Interior Designer)

Peichun Hsieh

I signed the contract with Alana on August 14, 2020 and terminated the contract early on October 28, 2020. Beyond the fact that she mispresented herself as a qualified interior designer, here are a couple of events that led to my early termination with her. 1. Never providing a clear answer to questions. During our work, she provided two identical sets of 3D photos and floor plans that seemed representative of my house layout, however there weren’t any specific measurements on any of the graphs. Upon receiving the same sets of 3D photos for the second time, I asked why she didn’t revise the designs and color schemes based on my comments. Her response was that she had been working on my kitchen cabinet design and that she had almost completed it, with everything fitting perfectly in her words. However, at that point in time, I had not chosen my kitchen appliances yet. How could she design my kitchen cabinets without asking my preference of kitchen usage and the specs of my kitchen appliances? 2. Incompetence in sourcing materials. On October 22, she presented me with some flooring samples. I was not satisfied with the price or quality of the products she brought to me. So, I visited a reputable local flooring store to check the price of the products and realized that I was able to find better quality products (thicker top layer of engineer wood and more well-known brands) at a lower price ($3.5 per square ft. cheaper). I texted her and shared the information with her. She scolded me and demanded that I not to look for sources myself, otherwise she wouldn’t offer me information on the flooring and other accessories selections. It’s unclear how I was able to find better quality materials at a cheaper price during a one-hour visit to a local store, yet she claimed that she spent many hours on the work. 3. Inability to offer professional advice. I hired Alana to screen and interview general contractors for me. She was only able to introduce one general contractor to me for the project. When I shared my concerns about the very vague proposal/budget and how that may affect my ability to ask the contractor to complete the job correctly if anything goes wrong, she asked me to “trust” her judgment. I drew the line when the contractor listed $8000 to replace the stair railings alone and was not able to tell me the materials or the design of the railing. I later asked for a quote from a local stair and railing company whose quote for the project was half the price ($4500) with information on the size of railing, #of posts and spindles, and their materials. Even though I had paid over 35 hours of her listed hourly rate (a lot of money for two identical sets of pretty photos), by the time of early termination, all these events made me unable to trust her work ability and I believe that, if I had continued to work with her back then, I would have suffered even more financial losses and emotional strain.