Kitchen designer needed. I already gave a deposit.

amother

Aqua

Mon, Aug 10 2015, 4:39 pm

amother wrote:

Send lifeboat a p.m. She did a gorgeous job on my kitchen.

As an aside, why would you ever give a deposit before you know what you are ordering? You lost your bargaining power. This is the best deal for the seller and the worst for you.

I can't enlarge at all, and whatever options I have aren't that major, its a matter of placement of sinks. appliances, etch. pretty much. Relatives used the guy, so that's why I chose him.

amother

Papaya

Mon, Aug 10 2015, 5:19 pm

amother wrote:

I can't enlarge at all, and whatever options I have aren't that major, its a matter of placement of sinks. appliances, etch. pretty much. Relatives used the guy, so that's why I chose him.

That's great and use the guy. He has no incentive whosoever to give you a good price. What would it have hurt you to price the job properly? You opened up your checkbook without proper brakes. This guy is going to maximize his profit on you.

Imagine walking into a car dealership and saying here is your deposit. I will buy a car from you my relative was happy. Ok now tell me what is the price. You will get list price and not a competitive price.

You need to approach contractors and say you are interested and what is your price before you pay anything.

amother

Aqua

Mon, Aug 10 2015, 11:29 pm

Kitchen people dont come to your house to measure until AFTER you give a deposit.

Until the kitchen guy measures and sees your kitchen, theyre not 100% sure what cabinets you need, and many get the shock then, that what they thought the kitchen would cost, is actually not accurate.

Ive heard this from many people who used different dealers.

amother

Papaya

Tue, Aug 11 2015, 12:20 am

amother wrote:

Then you have been snowed. Kitchen people will want money to draw up a design because once you have that you can compare prices. Once you have that first design you can shop cabinets. They will all do modifications of the first design free - every.single.one.of.them. You went about this completely backwards. No one orders cabinets without field measuring no matter who drew up the design.

I recently put in a high end kitchen. I took lifeboats basic design. I not only shopped it locally at several frum places I went to the several of the high end kitchen places in the Architects and Design Building. All modified it for free to fit their vision. For the same quality cabinets I received quotes from $20,000 to $60,000. This range was just for my cabinets. Had I done what you did I am sure the kitchen would have come in at $60,000 or above it. Instead I got it at the low end pricewise for the highest quality. I ended up ordering from lifeboat and using her basic design which was praised by all the kitchen places btw. She credited me the money paid for the design. I know I got a great deal.

What did you get for your deposit? You don't even have a design. You went about this completely backwards.

If I were you, I would get my money back since there was no work done. You can tell the contractor you are not comfortable until you have a firm price. Go get a design and then competitively price the job like a responsible homeowner. I think you will find you will save thousands.

amother

Aqua

Tue, Aug 11 2015, 1:04 am

amother wrote:

Possibly right.

But, the deposit was about $1,000. If the actual price is way way more than the ballpark price, I can take a walk elsewhere and forfeit the deposit which will be well worth the loss, if I end up saving thousands.