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htng

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Posts posted by htng

  7. Posted

    I bought a synthetic leather sofa and the quality sucks. After 1 year, the synthetic leather started to crack. It looked awful and I threw it away in the end. My car has full leather seats and after 7 years, still no cracks and looks new.

    From HTL? I thought they only sell full leather

  13. Posted

    9055879798_c8e0f7a5a3.jpg

    Absolute bargain at just $80!

    Warranty: 10 years limited international warranty (always the best for Samsonite luggage)

    Purchase date: 2011

    Collection area: Sengkang Anchorvale Lane

    Contact number: 97738806

    Style Soft Suitcases

    Brand Samsonite

    Size Small Suitcase

    Dimensions 45(H) x 35(W) x 23(D) cm

    Capacity 33.7 Litres

    Features

    20" Expandable Upright Suitcase

    *Polyester / nylon*

    International Carry On

    *Expandable, up to 30% added capacity*

    Lockable trolley system w button control

    *2 wheeler design

  22. Posted

    It's your money, don't give up and talk with Patrick, (put aside your frustration) calmly tell him what to fix exactly.

    I would not expect no from him, but if he say no, then tell him that cannot pay the rest of the money (maybe you have not paid anything).

    See how he reacts to that response.

    Good Luck.

    Did his tiler change ppl? During my time, they rejected the defective tiles twice till the tile supplier scare. I have to tell them no time already so must faster lay tiles. Haha! I feel the tiler is great. Maybe change ppl

  25. Posted

    Sorry, after renovating my place, I no longer feel the need to come into renotalk. LOL! Usually only come in and pm a few friends as and when needed. I engage them before and I am not Patrick doing his self advertisement. Anyone who is interested can pm me directly. I wont say he is perfect. No contractor is perfect in this world. Of course if you have the biggest spending for reno, I think every company will suck up to you. If you have tiny budget, have to endure a bit lor. This is the real world mah. After engaging various contractors, I can tell u I vomit more blood before with other contractors. If I were to describe here, maybe will write 2 pages long.

    I have to share my side of story too. My experience with Patrick was extremely horrible.

    1) He never offered any advice to me from the start of the renovation. I know that contractors does not offer design ideas but I do expect technical advice from them.

    For my case, he did tell me the difference between white laminate and darker ones, glossy vs matt. End of the day, it is really up to you. I always tell my friend. If you are not familiar, dont get contractor. If you got no time to manage them, also avoid contractor. Pay extra 20% to get ID to manage.

    His reply is always :" Up to you" if I asked him anything. I'm not sure if he understands the pros and cons of the issue or is he nonchalant about it.

    2) He does not like to hold responsibility. This is in reference with point 1. If anything goes wrong, he will say it is my fault because I'm the one who wanted it this way, not him. Then he will charge me extra for the rectification.

    When I work with him, there are some things he ask me to avoid because he encounter some bad experience with his past project. For instance there are some screw up sink sellers trying to sell top mount sink to do undermount. Patrick mention those kind leak like mad bcos of the small contact surface. Initially he did for some clients and he got a huge headache. Initially I feel he is talking rubbish because shop says can but he say cannot. In the end, I email some reputable sink makers and also visited the high end shops and the sales say some sellers did sell topmount sink for undermount which is really crap. When my sink mixer leak after 3 months, I thought Patrick did a lousy job. So I engage a certified plumber to look at it, he says I paid so much for such a lousy china made "mixer" which is crap. He dismantle everything and show me how lousy that mixer is. He sold me an italian made mixer for even cheaper than the china one I bought. Now already 6 mths pass and the mixer still very solid.

    3) He does not renovate in the interest of the house owners. For example, he didn't ask if I wanted a concrete housing or plywood housing for my sink area. Friends who have visited my place asked me why I didn't choose a concrete housing as it is more lasting.

    I approach a few ID and contractor before. ID confirm recommend plywood whereas some contractor says concrete housing very lasting. This one I totally agree but if you say design style, confirm plywood design looks better than concrete. Sorry if I offend some ppl here but I am just saying based on my own opinion. Nowadays, ppl do things based on design already. Why do we buy ID magazines to refer and also engage ID? We do it due to style, design and trend. If we really care about long lasting, we should engage engineers to do our renovation? My mother keep telling me concrete for my 1st reno, now 2nd reno, still tell me concrete. Please la, now no longer the trend to use concrete lei. For my mum generation, a lot of sink cabinet all concrete. For my case, my sink is just beside my kitchen cabinet, now L shape so I dont ask them to do 1/2 wood, 1/2 concrete bcos I am worry about the thermal expansion for both materials.

    4) He never give me a schedule or update of the things that he is doing. This is because he himself also didn't know the status! I know this because he couldn't answer me whenever I asked him.

    It is always:" I will check" but he never got back to me. This is very bad because I'm not able to return to the new house to check on daily basis.

    Yes, this is the problem when you engage contractor. Bo pian la. One man show taking up multiple project. Seriously, I dont expect them to be good in project management.

    5) It is very difficult to get hold of him. I'm very lucky if he ever picks up my call. But then, he always sounds hostile, giving the impression that he does not like to be disturbed. This is especially so during the weekends when he would just forward his calls to his wife. It is very frustrating because I need to get hold of him urgently to discuss on the renovation stuff and he is not available. On the other hand, his wife will always pick up the calls but she has no idea of what is happening.

    Just call his wife, leave a message and she will get back. Usually I drop an email to her

    6) He will give me a black face if I pointed out any defects to him and will mention that nobody does it this way. Why? So that he don't have to rectify the mistakes caused by his people.

    This dont happen to me so I cant comment. Usually, I talk to him slowly even if it is his error. I think I learn the hard way from experience. Last time my old contractor burst my conceal piping when doing reno still talk a lot of crap. Say it is the house fault not his fault etc and refuse to rectify. I am extremely upset and I get my friend who is a lawyer and ask him to issue that guy a lawyer letter. LOL! I didnt expect the contractor to be super aggressive. Even he say he bankrupt and go to court also wont do.. After a few days I cool down and I talk to him nicely. I suddenly realize maybe they take the softer approach better?

    7) The main reason why he never collects any payment in advance is because Patrick has no design nor colour combination skills. He needs to do this to lure customers. It is a good move considering that most contractors / ID would demand some $$ upfront.

    If you need design, get ID. I seriously dont expect a person like him to recommend me colors or design. Even if he does, I am also scare to try. Magazine has a lot of recommendation already. Well, I can say collecting payment is his business strategy. It makes me more comfortable as I believe things in doing then collect $. There are some cases of contractors/ ID taking money and then missing in action. If I am in their shoes, I feel worst. My standpoint to him is simple, not satisfied, no payment and this works well.

    The overall feeling I have is that I need to tell him what to do exactly, visit my house on daily basis to check on the status and inform him if there is any mistakes. It turns out that I'm the contractor, not him.

    Yes, end of the day, it is not his house but ours. I can tell u 99.9% of the contractors/ ID will not point out their own fault. I know an ID who flys in from abroad to do/ supervise projects for those rich folks. That guy really has a lot of pride in his work and he only demand the best. However, only the rich can afford him. I met him once to talk about other stuff and whenever he talk, he wont talk about budget but rather "How confident are you in making this up to my expectation"...His detail for workmanship really impress me. There is one time he scrap part of his original ideas and redo that portion because the contractors he engage did a **** job. See, that is what I call passion and pride. I never ever encounter such incident again. Most of the time when I visited my friends place, their ID will say. Aiya, it is like this one la, a bit only...Bo pian...Will they tell the contractor to redo? Will they redesign that portion again?

    I'm not lucky to have someone to remind me of this. I hope there won't be a 2nd case. For those who are still having renovation with him, do stand firm when pointing out defects to him because I know he likes to give people black face.

    Definitely have to stand firm. Got problem, must fix.

    For those who wanted to sign up with him, pls try to call him and see if he is willingly to entertain your calls or give you ideas or feedback on your renovation. After all, getting hold of your ID / contractor and able to communicate with him is the most important thing, right?

    Do not be lured by his no payment upfront because there is a catch.

    I would highly not recommend him to anyone.

    I engage his ~ 9 mths back so all my incidents are quoted based on 9 months ago.

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