kiven78

Draft quote sent,good thing about henry's is that their quote is fully flexible as in if you got adjustments you may go ahead with no min amount,just compare their T & C with most of the ID firms outside and you will see my point..

thks danny,price wise i would say quite reasonable,main reason to engage ID note's team is mainly due to henry's expertise,display of professionism and their commitment to meet my expectations.Lets hope that Henner club lives up to their reputation

thanks all for warm welcome! our reno will officially start on 17 Dec 09 if everything goes according to plans.

i second seashell's point of CASE = toothless tiger,might as well settle the issue with reasonable solutions peacefully rather than souped up the already messy situation,it might create even more inconveniences and delays than before with adverse end results...

my own opinion on your current dilemma,i would most probably : 1> Check with various trustworthy furniture shops on pricing of pieces of furniture you commit with A & S pte ltd making sure its same or at least similar design and material used for fair comparisons. 2> From there you can gauge the price diff,then sort out the pieces that you can still purchase with A&S. 3> Approach A&S and negotiate on rearrangement on furniture e.g i need coffee table,tv console - $1.5k <which i foresee they dun allow due to their stiff and inflexible crappy company policies *not an issue with Courts/S&C/hommage and some others for fully no amount limitation on exchanges> Having said that i think its gonna be an uphill task to settle this within a short period of time,for that we took the long hard way. That is precisely why we will always try to squeeze deposit to bare minimum just in case of any necessarily last minute changes.We learned hard way by depositing $500 with Inch Design Pte Ltd and discovered to our horror that hommage has a cheaper one,we might have da lose our deposit as they only allow minimum amount $1.8k,went down to their show room in sungei kadut and found that their furniture mostly caters to the upper class category/premium/exclusive types which the sales ppl always emphasize

Hi Nino, this is exactly the one which we saw @ furniture HQ AMK central selling @ $2888- full leather,we merely took couple of pics as usual saying that we need to consult our ID for design advice...after consolidating our preferred pieces we head over to S & C,where we were wowed over by their sincere,passion,professionalism,patient and frankness on choice furniture in full accordance to our style,design concept,# of children and so on, needless to say we commit on their futuristic tv-console,coffee table,dining set w 4 chairs and the same sofa (black cos of our 7yr old little horror) with side-able seats (half-leather) no need for full-leather as its redundant to have leather wrap round the frame,we might as well have the $ use on better aspects.We decided on committing with S & C after scouring through countless furniture shops due to: 1> Their reasonable pricing. 2> Impressive knowledge of furniture specs/pros n cons/aspects. 3> Their frankness and professionalism and understanding. 4> Peace of mind and comfortable with their high service standrads with zero pressure applied on us throughout the entire process. 5> Updated designer design @ affordable price - thanks to melvin's frequent oversea trips. Will post pics of our choice furniture on our upcoming T-blog which i will most probably start after we got our keys on 16 Dec 09

i think most salesman will deliberately up the price then reduce since the product in question is exclusive to their shop...end of day its up to us to decide whether product is worth the price. Sofa wise my opinion is maybe you could take some pics of target sofa and head on to trustworthy HDB furniture shop eg S & C (search for their reviews in forum and u ll understand) and show them the pics,most likely they have similar models made in neighbor countries like malaysia/china/indonesia...price wise you can compare for yourselves but make sure you got the specs correct e.g check whether its full/half leather ( latter is usually recommended ).If im not wrong you could save substantially by this proven method through trustworthy HDB shop retailer. Last resort if you have much determination and grit,go ahead and shoot them through small claims court.You will need to go through consultation 1,2 and then hearings - which is dubbed judgement day,if they were to deny their wrong doings and persist on.If you were to enter this stage please persevere on and let god do the rest for you,sweet victory will come swiftly on hearings.There is no legal nor consultation fee involve other than the small fees of registering ($10) and paying for a meager sum of like $6 for a copy of respondents ROC,our own transportation and time,we were really glad that we persist in that matter.Entire process took us a bout 2 months plus if i remember correctly all the way from 1st & 2nd consultation during which respondent blatantly deny mentioning that mattress in concern is the one used by Westin Stamford hotel,then finally hearings day. Now we are waiting for our cheque,we will definitely enforce the court order if they fail to deliver us our hard-earned $400 deposit.

Hi nino, my own personal opinion of your misfortune : i believe that they provide you guys with 'Price gurantee' to assure lowest possible price in case price fluctuate before delivery which we were promised by rougue salesman -JIM LOH.This price guarantee is useful to a certain extent - your purchase will be price protect within stores model (apple to apple price comparison),models found in store A will most likely be exclusive to that particular store therefore you can only hope that price will fall within that store you commit before delivery. As long as you have proof that price falls,they should honor their in store price guarantee policy. Nino i can feel for your pain and frustration but please preserve on for consultation 1,2 and finally hearings - judgement day for which justice will prevail > we just received Order of Tribunal in our favor requiring ACKERMAN & SMITH Pte Ltd to refund us our $400 deposit,failing which we may enforce the order accordingly .Reason of victory is due to cowardly Jim loh failing to turnout for the hearings Kino you may proceed to lodge a claim against them by all means if they do not honor price guarantee,but i reckoned that all trust is shattered judging by your encounter.

i second milktea's saying on S & C furniture grp,personally my own opinion : 1st visit > me n my wife went down couple of weeks ago where we were kinda turn off by certain remarks but took it down gracefully as we thought they make sense anyway.They were too busy attending to groups of customers anyway so we left after browsing through some catalogs.. For the coming weeks we visited IFC,inch design@sungei,novena,defu,furniture HQ,IMM for inspirations... Then it was at Hommage Trading No 25,Tai Thong Crescent that we chance upon Mr nice guys Eric and his friendly colleague.My wife took a special liking to a platform bed frame which is quite 'rare' so i just go along with the flow,we were served with such patient and professional,unbiased opinion of a friend rather than a salesman during our 2 hrs there.Eric happens to be S & C 's lady boss brother,was all frank and not pushy at all during our talks there unlike in many other furniture shops if u know wat i mean. Well in short there specialise in bedding acc though there do have a couple of catalogs for dining,living furnitures...saw someone mentioning about the presumed nice beef noodles served just around the corner - chk wif eric n he ll glady point the way.After trying out their beef noodles i give 7/10 gravy tasted full bodied but was lukewarm-a pity it wasnt piping hot,definately better than those foodcourt ones but not the best i still prefer the stall at purvis street near bugis MRT =) Next offday we decide to call melvin double confirm their operating hours before heading down to S & C.Both mel & wife took turns to serve us as there were 2 other grps of clients which didnt bother us as we took our time scouring through their collection of catalogs.Finally after abt 3 hrs we made up our mind on a TV console,sofa,coffee table and a extendable glass top dining table /w 4 chairs - $3.5k,payment wise we decided to opt for their OCBC 0% interest but their line were down so have to return another day to swipe the visa. Overall experience was 1st class,we were being treated like friends thouh its our 2nd visit there ,they were simply honest,frank,straight forward,non pushy,understanding even as they have not had dinner yet -10pm when we left...and the list goes on ratings : service 9/10 range of designs 8/10 quality> TBA punctuality> TBA pricing- reasonably good. For those who wish to purchase/order furniture do your own homework 1st and go down check it out personally,asking yourself whats the piority like for me is: 1. Service - if service suks then i believe even if cheapest in town oso no point,90% of shops we visited failed miserably in tat aspect. 2. Design - they update their range pretty often as Mel always go for tradeshows and overseas trip 3. Durability - is equally important and u bet they will tell u honestly their life span even if u dont ask 4. Delivery punctuality - though will result in certain inconvenience but still better than never!

yeap they do take 'OCBC 0% interest free installment

hi kel, i can understand tat been there but not done it feeling,i suggest u gif melvin a call before u drop by just in case shyt happens =) O by the way there are closed on Monday,they can even waitup for u if u gif them a call in advance!

With special thanks to 'super simon' i have decided to go with henner club after comparing their prices with 8 other ID firms

Hi all, Good day n thanks for taking ya precious time to read my post,as the topic implies we are seriously looking for a cheap n reliable ID firm to compare with the 8 firms we been. Our 1st appointment is on 21 Oct 09,times catching up pretty fast on us ad we still couldnt reach a final decision on the right firm to use. We sincerely thanks any kind advices given here Best Regards Kiven ng

Hi Simon, may i have Henry's contact number pls? Quite tempted to ask for a quote after like 8 quotations from various ID firms ...

Hi Zio,well for altar tables you might wanna pop by rocher centre for a huge selections there,im sure you can find one that suits ya prefence n budget =)

Thanks a lot for the kind info pinky! =)

Care to PM me S & C address please?

Much as i empathise with 'new shopper' , this is yet another fine example of not paying too much deposit up front for fear of kena defective products received with no immediate resolution provided by unscrupulous company.At least we could fight for our rights when faced with misrepresentation / defective items.

Hi Pinky may i know the address of this famed S & C outlet,please.

From my own understanding they carry Simmons,Serta,Tempur,Napure and Kingkoil for import & export models which are exclusive to them.I heard and read from somewhere that they carry Englander as well...just make sure that you dont fall into their trap by buying from below branches > http://www.ackerman.sg/contactus.html.

Hi wako, i would personally advise that you may wish to go small claim court directly for instant resolution,below is reply i get from CASE : We thank you for contacting us on the above reference. Hi Mr ng, We can assist you by negiotating on your behalf with the company on best effort basis on your request and we do not guarantee whether they will accede to it. If we are not able to resolve the issue or the company do not response to our letters, the other alternative, you may want to approach Small Claims Tribunal (www.smallclaims.gov.sg) to pursue it further. (Please note that SCT take cases within the 1 year time-frame). Having explain the above, we would appreciate if you could kindly revert back by 4 Sept 09 whether you would required our assistance or prefer to approach Small Claims Tribunal direct. We would like to inform you that we write on your behalf to the company and wait for their response within 2 weeks, if they do not reply to us, we will send another reminder and the procedures could take about 1 to 3 months depends on how fast they response to our letters or whether they will response to us. In the meanwhile, kindly see attached on how CASE can assist consumer in a dispute. After reading above reply,i took the obvious route of going straight to Small claims tribunal cos i understand that if they fail to turn up on our 1st appointment -( 7 Sept 09 for our case as we went down yesterday for a claim) a court order will be issued against them according to the friendly staff. Till then i beseech all victims to take appropriate actions to put all scrupulous companies to task less they take consumers right for granted. Some documents and fees to take note for those who decide to justify their claims through Small Claims Tribunal: 1> x5 copies of claim forms ( 1 for personal reference) 2> x2 copies of invoices 3> x1 copy of company ROC - can be obtain at a fee of $4.80 from Crimson Logic Chinatown point #19-01/02 4> $10 fee for claims <$5000 - for claims above 5k kindly refer to www.smallclaims.gov.sg for details. im looking forward to at least retrieve the $400 deposit come 7 Sept,will post the outcome for you guys.

yea i totally agree with your point on being dodgy - asked for a piece of pure dunlop type latex laced mattress but keeps pushing us to take their 'Heavenly piece of ****ty crap' said made of superior high density polyxxx material way better than latex which is total bull****.We were totally conned into getting the piece of crap only because JIM LOH promised us Heavenly bed from Westin,its a case of serious breach of consumer's trust and misrepresentation.For that im ready to make life **** for big time con-artist JIM LOH,my online CASE submit approval for starter: Online Submission Acknowledgement of Successful Submission. Dear Valued Consumers, Acknowledgement of Successful Submission Thank you for bringing your case to us. Your dispute has been successfully submitted and your reference number is T20090812895. An officer will reply you within three working days and advise you on your recourses. Should you then wish to continue with this convenient mode of submission, please note that the time taken would be dependent on your ability to submit the necessary documents through email and if required, payment, through normal post. On the other hand, if immediate attention is necessary, you could also choose to visit our office at Ulu Pandan Community Centre with your documents and payment.

This goes to show that how unreliable/unethical/irresponsible they are to close sales at customer's cost.I strongly believe there are alot of innocent victims who might have chose to suffer in silence either they dont know how to fight for their own rights or they felt it's a hassle to go through all these procedures.I personally felt that we cant let these sales bandit get away scots-free since its concern our next 10-20 yrs of personal sleep health/comfort,not forgeting that not everyone can afford to invest in a 2k plus mattress.This is a total betrayal of consumers trust on salesman,how can a company hire such a despicable conman to market their products.

Im now lodging an official complain through CASE official complain site : http://www.case.org.sg/online_complaint.html Will keep you guys posted of latest developements,mean while just make sure to check(the company reputation) check(brands trustworthiness n triple check(salesman reputation online if any) before you guys commit yourselves to any home purchases.

ACKERMAN & SMITH *Please beware of this company and i strongly suggest u do your homework before buying anything ,especially a mattress which you will spend 1/4 of your life on.Below is a true account of our horrible experience we went through under ACKERMAN & SMITH pte ltd. My wife and I went to the home decor fair at Expo in August hoping to land ourselves great deals. After trying through the various mattress brands,we were somehow confused as there wasnt a clear cut on the best comfort mattress we tried.It was then at Ackerman & smith-simmons booth that salesman - JIM LOH told us that the piece of mattress (Arlington Plush) was the one Westin hotel used for their- Heavenly bed which we had foolishly believed without pior check. The main reason for us to actually place a deposit on the mattress is because its a heavenly bed from westin.To our horror when we decided to verify our buy by checking online and calling up simmons salesline ,its actually an exclusive model from simmons to ackerman & smith - its not even similar in any aspect to heavenly bed from Westin according to simmons CSO - wee kiat and his manager.The unethical salesman-Jim Loh has the cheek to argue that its similar in certain specs and that simmon manager dont know anything about heavenly bed detailed specs but the fact is otherwise.We were shocked when we discovered that we can only changed our arlington plush to a similar or greater value item in store which we seriously wont.We were conned into getting a product that wasnt meant to be /promised and we were only allowed to change it to something that we dont want/need.He even avoid our calls and kup our calls after we did a detailed check and demand for our deposit to be fully refund as this is a serious misleading,truth bending,betrayal of consumer's trust case.We will log in our complain with CASE and post our horrific experience in all related forums to warn all prospective mattress buyers about this dishonest sales person.