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sheer083

Absolook Interior Design

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On ‎20‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 2:07 PM, leafe said:

Lengthy comments based on my experiences (disclaimer: comments on the Sales Designer i had, do not applies to all within Absolook, thus I will not disclose his name openly) :

engaged Absolook during one of their events (after 3 other ID failed to provide me the quotations), thus the person who approached me is kinda young which initially i was lack of confident with. during the sales-talks, he since to be sincere (who is not when trying to earn the money) and able to provide some genuine comments. he knows my project is small (1 room condo) and i have a budget which i emphasized to him. when i asked him to provide the quotation based on to-scale drawing, he failed to do so. He based on my estimated measurement as he promised if there is a different can be refund/top-up. but after i paid the deposit, things are going slow despite i told him my targeted date to move in. submission of 3d drawings (which is totally different from what i have described and wrong color) and the amendment of quotations after actual measurements / change of items. even though he has a back-up during his almost 3 weeks absence (reservist + personal), afterall it is his project, thus his back-up will need to keep consult him whenever i asked something. now i only crossing my figure hard that i can have my unit ready as per the targeted date which he promised. Will update again when the reno starts/finish.

Before/after Service: 2.5/5

Perhaps his lack of experience, all the ideas were from me (he still can asked me what i like to do, send him the picture) which different from my expectation of an ID. As my unit is small, I need him to provide constructive ideas in terms of space-saving which he din. I provided a quite a common functional dining table, he looked lost which made me worried if he can deliver that. I will need to talk to the contractor directly when on-site. Till date, i see no creativity generated by him. Not sure if it's a too small area to play with (but i do not see it as a limitation)

Creativity / Constructive suggestions: 0/5

the more i compared, the more i discovered that their pricing is 30-40% more than direct-contractors, 10%-15% more than other IDs (not sure if it is so-coincidentally that Absolook's pricing is the most expensive). during one of his sale-talk, he highlighted that their pricing definitely not the lowest, as what they are delivering are quality and service which they are proud of (no comments on quality of carpentry work as i have not started reno, will comment later but i see the service level is not there) which i also made to believe that what i am paying is the quality and service. he also sales-talked to me that their carpenter is a subsidiary to the company which only handles their projects, thus definitely cheaper and better quality (again) which I do not know how true is that (can anyone comment?). 

Quality of work: TBA/5

that's my comments so far... i will update 3 weeks later. 

subsidiary to the company which only handles their projects?

I thought is their in-house carpenter le..no? hmmm

so those videos and photos on fb doesn't justify the quality of the work done...hmmm

 

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3 hours ago, leafe said:

omg.. 

they are holding too many carnivals/promotions which they cant handle anymore. and they leverage on the quality of work. just found out that they have a few carpenter team which the [only 1 china nationality] contractor who handle my job single handed had a bad quality. not sure for others [malaysian nationality]. the staff is rude and finding excuses for all the issues, treating us like idiot..  

the ID did not do his frequent visit?

 

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Hi guys,

I have just recently finished my renovation with this company and it was quite a disappointing and unpleasant process, 

My personal opinion is that Absolook does have very good and skillful contractors BUT choosing the right ID is very important. 

Like what many mentioned, choose ID that has been recommended by homeowner whom they engaged before.

I WALK-IN and got assigned to an ID which caused the start of our nightmares.

I will pen down my renovation journey soon. 

 
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On 11/1/2016 at 10:17 PM, supernightmare said:

Hi guys,

I have just recently finished my renovation with this company and it was quite a disappointing and unpleasant process, 

My personal opinion is that Absolook does have very good and skillful contractors BUT choosing the right ID is very important. 

Like what many mentioned, choose ID that has been recommended by homeowner whom they engaged before.

I WALK-IN and got assigned to an ID which caused the start of our nightmares.

I will pen down my renovation journey soon. 

 

able to share which ID u engage with?

 

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I have entrusted my first and newly BTO flat with Absolook and would like to conclude my journey with them was an unpleasant and disappointed experience. Below are the positive and negative qualities based on my renovation process.

Positive

  1. They do have a handful of skilled and passionate sub-contractors in hand. All their sub-contractors are very knowledgeable in the area of their focus and will give honest and valuable suggestions. These guys are really helpful and trying their best to extend their help to us as and when required.
  2. Absolook does have an inspector in place to check on the whole renovation process. The inspector played a very important role as he has the power to spot on defects and fine their respective contractors who did sloppy work. The inspector has very sharp eyesight in spotting defects and was more customer-orientated than my id and the manager. He was the one who speed up the whole touch-up process within 3 days as promised as it was dragging too long in the hands of our ID. Besides that, he listens to our issue with id and manager without been defensive and always set the right tone throughout our communication. Just for information, our whole renovation process took us about 3 months to finish off.

 

Negative

  1. Lack of idea. Before signing the contract, we did show our id as to what we want through images but after confirmation, the 3D design turned out to be a rather simple one and was nothing near to what we had showed him. Rather than leaving him alone to draft out the 2nd 3D, we provided him as to what we want to do but with a cost to pay for which was charge to us for every single item that we want to do.
  2. ID was lacking in experience and inattentive. Before the start of renovation, we have emphasized again and again on our expectations in certain areas. However, when renovation started, there will some areas that the id missed out or due to lack in experience was not able to detect earlier before the start of the renovation so add-on was required whenever the contractors came site survey. In addition, whenever problem surfaces, it was resolved either by the contractors or ourselves through argument.
  3. ID was not helpful and irresponsible for instance, DO for home appliances was not in his job scope as he does not want to be responsible for the delivery thus suggest us to deliver and lock it up in a room. Then my question to him was what if the item delivered gone missing, his reply to me was report police.

  4. ID and manager were trying all ways to charge us. For example (just one out of the many incidents), the paint used to paint the bomb shelter’s door and the door frames of the rooms can be used interchangeably but they claimed it can’t be done so.

  5. ID will only come onsite when serious matter happens or if called upon. Absolook do have many projects in our BTO area but often we saw our neighbour’s ID more than ours.

  6. ID and manager were not customer-orientated as they will lose their patient and raise their voices and more importantly, whenever there are arguments they do not know how to manage us. For instances, it was our first time telling them that we will comment on Facebook about their work and their reply to us was using lawyers to threaten us if we do such posting.
  7.  Electrician charges was way too high by Absolook where nearly $5k without GST was quoted leaving us with no choice to outsource it. When such decision was made, my ID started to push responsibility by saying “if should there be any damages on their carpentry that was caused by electrician works, they will charge to the electrician company”. He also makes it clear that he will not be involve in the electrician works since we are not using theirs. Hence, we have to oversee the electrician works on our own.

With that, before starting renovation, we do have high expectations with Absolook as we believe that do have a good team who are meticulous in ensuring a smooth-sailing renovation process through their fabulous Facebook reviews and websites. However, after engaging them, it was not like how it was mentioned in their website that “making the whole process hassle-free and a pleasure experience”. We felt that our renovation journey was a hair-pulling and teeth-gritting experiences whenever we shared with anyone.

(PS: We do know of neigbours who engage Absolook but by different ID were not facing such problems like us so choosing the right ID is very IMPORTANT.)

 
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34 minutes ago, supernightmare said:

I have entrusted my first and newly BTO flat with Absolook and would like to conclude my journey with them was an unpleasant and disappointed experience. Below are the positive and negative qualities based on my renovation process.

Positive

  1. They do have a handful of skilled and passionate sub-contractors in hand. All their sub-contractors are very knowledgeable in the area of their focus and will give honest and valuable suggestions. These guys are really helpful and trying their best to extend their help to us as and when required.
  2. Absolook does have an inspector in place to check on the whole renovation process. The inspector played a very important role as he has the power to spot on defects and fine their respective contractors who did sloppy work. The inspector has very sharp eyesight in spotting defects and was more customer-orientated than my id and the manager. He was the one who speed up the whole touch-up process within 3 days as promised as it was dragging too long in the hands of our ID. Besides that, he listens to our issue with id and manager without been defensive and always set the right tone throughout our communication. Just for information, our whole renovation process took us about 3 months to finish off.

     

 

 

Negative

 

  1. Lack of idea. Before signing the contract, we did show our id as to what we want through images but after confirmation, the 3D design turned out to be a rather simple one and was nothing near to what we had showed him. Rather than leaving him alone to draft out the 2nd 3D, we provided him as to what we want to do but with a cost to pay for which was charge to us for every single item that we want to do.
  2. ID was lacking in experience and inattentive. Before the start of renovation, we have emphasized again and again on our expectations in certain areas. However, when renovation started, there will some areas that the id missed out or due to lack in experience was not able to detect earlier before the start of the renovation so add-on was required whenever the contractors came site survey. In addition, whenever problem surfaces, it was resolved either by the contractors or ourselves through argument.
  3. ID was not helpful and irresponsible for instance, DO for home appliances was not in his job scope as he does not want to be responsible for the delivery thus suggest us to deliver and lock it up in a room. Then my question to him was what if the item delivered gone missing, his reply to me was report police.

     

  4. ID and manager were trying all ways to charge us. For example (just one out of the many incidents), the paint used to paint the bomb shelter’s door and the door frames of the rooms can be used interchangeably but they claimed it can’t be done so.

     

  5. ID will only come onsite when serious matter happens or if called upon. Absolook do have many projects in our BTO area but often we saw our neighbour’s ID more than ours.

     

  6. ID and manager were not customer-orientated as they will lose their patient and raise their voices and more importantly, whenever there are arguments they do not know how to manage us. For instances, it was our first time telling them that we will comment on Facebook about their work and their reply to us was using lawyers to threaten us if we do such posting.
  7.  Electrician charges was way too high by Absolook where nearly $5k without GST was quoted leaving us with no choice to outsource it. When such decision was made, my ID started to push responsibility by saying “if should there be any damages on their carpentry that was caused by electrician works, they will charge to the electrician company”. He also makes it clear that he will not be involve in the electrician works since we are not using theirs. Hence, we have to oversee the electrician works on our own.

     

With that, before starting renovation, we do have high expectations with Absolook as we believe that do have a good team who are meticulous in ensuring a smooth-sailing renovation process through their fabulous Facebook reviews and websites. However, after engaging them, it was not like how it was mentioned in their website that “making the whole process hassle-free and a pleasure experience”. We felt that our renovation journey was a hair-pulling and teeth-gritting experiences whenever we shared with anyone.

 

(PS: We do know of neigbours who engage Absolook but by different ID were not facing such problems like us so choosing the right ID is very IMPORTANT.)

 

 

could you pm me ur ID name? thanks

 

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I heard from my friends ( they engaged Absolook as well), their pricing for electricians works can easily cost 5k plus and is much more expensive than others ID firm. Anyone who engage them, knows why? 

we are speaking to one of the ID now and he strongly discouraged if we going to engage outside for the electrician works and air con. ( engage them on both easily cost about 10k for a 4 room) 

Plus he kept forgetting on the stuff we told him, not sure if it is on purpose or really forgetful. (Both is equally bad, thou we know we cannot expect 100% perfect from him) but can really foresee his forgetfulness or act blur act dunno when comes to renovation, end up we might be paying more compare to what we receive. Thou he says whatever quoted now can be removed later after we collected our keys. But we believe it won't happen. (Happening to our friends now) 

We also noticed that he have very poor colour combination knowledge. The colours he advise are all different, from kitchen to bedrooms. -.-||| Rojak ah? Now, we are really unsure if we should engage him. Sigh!!! 

Absolook should really take note on the before and after services provided to customers. 

 
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8 hours ago, lifeissimple said:

I heard from my friends ( they engaged Absolook as well), their pricing for electricians works can easily cost 5k plus and is much more expensive than others ID firm. Anyone who engage them, knows why? 

we are speaking to one of the ID now and he strongly discouraged if we going to engage outside for the electrician works and air con. ( engage them on both easily cost about 10k for a 4 room) 

Plus he kept forgetting on the stuff we told him, not sure if it is on purpose or really forgetful. (Both is equally bad, thou we know we cannot expect 100% perfect from him) but can really foresee his forgetfulness or act blur act dunno when comes to renovation, end up we might be paying more compare to what we receive. Thou he says whatever quoted now can be removed later after we collected our keys. But we believe it won't happen. (Happening to our friends now) 

We also noticed that he have very poor colour combination knowledge. The colours he advise are all different, from kitchen to bedrooms. -.-||| Rojak ah? Now, we are really unsure if we should engage him. Sigh!!! 

Absolook should really take note on the before and after services provided to customers. 

Hi, we have the same issue also. We met this id from Absolook and he bring us to the project that this he is doing. We felt sincere from this id. Moreover the quote was good and plus the voucher and etc makes a good deal and therefore we discussed further with the id.

However nightmare begins when we started telling the id our requirement, id keeps forgetting what we said and each meetup is like a new meetup. Initially the id did ask our theme and our colour preference. Then he show us suggestion which is totally not the colour and theme which we mentioned.

Thus he give me the book and say I can choose laminate from here without attempting to suggest other colours. I was thinking we engaged an id is to help us design and we provide you our requirements, theme and colour we like/don't like. Again, we thought to give another chance.

The thing that strike me was this incident. I called him to arrange a meetup and clear all the doubt and decide as it is really a good deal. He did not pickup then I was thinking might be meeting client thus I whatsapp and thinking he will call back. He never call back thus I waited for days to see if he call me. In the end he call me weeks later. This strikes me, I told my fiance imagine we engaged this id and halfway went MIA, our renovation how? We decided to look for alternatives even it is a good deal.

We engaged this id from another firm, the whole renovation journey was good. He listened to us and suggest us idea. And we use our own electrician and its works well, no complain from our id and electrician. And he help us liase with the HDB cement screeding contractor and manage to negotiate it to $400. He initiated to call the contractor when we told him that they quoted us $600. We were like omg he is so nice and dedicated and initiated all this little thing that makes us feel that feel lucky we made the right choice! 

Edited by jasminelin
 

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2 hours ago, jasminelin said:

Hi, we have the same issue also. We met this id from Absolook and he bring us to the project that this he is doing. We felt sincere from this id. Moreover the quote was good and plus the voucher and etc makes a good deal and therefore we discussed further with the id.

However nightmare begins when we started telling the id our requirement, id keeps forgetting what we said and each meetup is like a new meetup. Initially the id did ask our theme and our colour preference. Then he show us suggestion which is totally not the colour and theme which we mentioned.

Thus he give me the book and say I can choose laminate from here without attempting to suggest other colours. I was thinking we engaged an id is to help us design and we provide you our requirements, theme and colour we like/don't like. Again, we thought to give another chance.

The thing that strike me was this incident. I called him to arrange a meetup and clear all the doubt and decide as it is really a good deal. He did not pickup then I was thinking might be meeting client thus I whatsapp and thinking he will call back. He never call back thus I waited for days to see if he call me. In the end he call me weeks later. This strikes me, I told my fiance imagine we engaged this id and halfway went MIA, our renovation how? We decided to look for alternatives even it is a good deal.

We engaged this id from another firm, the whole renovation journey was good. He listened to us and suggest us idea. And we use our own electrician and its works well, no complain from our id and electrician. And he help us liase with the HDB cement screeding contractor and manage to negotiate it to $400. He initiated to call the contractor when we told him that they quoted us $600. We were like omg he is so nice and dedicated and initiated all this little thing that makes us feel that feel lucky we made the right choice! 

I have to agree that every meet up to me is like a brand new meetup, repeating everything all over again. We have to show him the design we wanted and he just incorporate it in with no further suggestions. There isn't any new design ideas at all. A lot of excuses given to us from him, no explaintion on why we should choose the other one. 

If not, just ignore the question I asked and talk about others or just brush it through. Selective listening does not reflect good customer service at all!!!!! 

This really pissed us off. Seriously hope that their bosses is looking into this. 

I really hope my friend (renovating in process) and my Neighbours ( engaged them) are not suffering in pain. 

Edited by lifeissimple
 

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On 11/7/2016 at 11:44 PM, supernightmare said:

I have entrusted my first and newly BTO flat with Absolook and would like to conclude my journey with them was an unpleasant and disappointed experience. Below are the positive and negative qualities based on my renovation process.

Positive

  1. They do have a handful of skilled and passionate sub-contractors in hand. All their sub-contractors are very knowledgeable in the area of their focus and will give honest and valuable suggestions. These guys are really helpful and trying their best to extend their help to us as and when required.
  2. Absolook does have an inspector in place to check on the whole renovation process. The inspector played a very important role as he has the power to spot on defects and fine their respective contractors who did sloppy work. The inspector has very sharp eyesight in spotting defects and was more customer-orientated than my id and the manager. He was the one who speed up the whole touch-up process within 3 days as promised as it was dragging too long in the hands of our ID. Besides that, he listens to our issue with id and manager without been defensive and always set the right tone throughout our communication. Just for information, our whole renovation process took us about 3 months to finish off.

     

 

 

Negative

 

  1. Lack of idea. Before signing the contract, we did show our id as to what we want through images but after confirmation, the 3D design turned out to be a rather simple one and was nothing near to what we had showed him. Rather than leaving him alone to draft out the 2nd 3D, we provided him as to what we want to do but with a cost to pay for which was charge to us for every single item that we want to do.
  2. ID was lacking in experience and inattentive. Before the start of renovation, we have emphasized again and again on our expectations in certain areas. However, when renovation started, there will some areas that the id missed out or due to lack in experience was not able to detect earlier before the start of the renovation so add-on was required whenever the contractors came site survey. In addition, whenever problem surfaces, it was resolved either by the contractors or ourselves through argument.
  3. ID was not helpful and irresponsible for instance, DO for home appliances was not in his job scope as he does not want to be responsible for the delivery thus suggest us to deliver and lock it up in a room. Then my question to him was what if the item delivered gone missing, his reply to me was report police.

     

  4. ID and manager were trying all ways to charge us. For example (just one out of the many incidents), the paint used to paint the bomb shelter’s door and the door frames of the rooms can be used interchangeably but they claimed it can’t be done so.

     

  5. ID will only come onsite when serious matter happens or if called upon. Absolook do have many projects in our BTO area but often we saw our neighbour’s ID more than ours.

     

  6. ID and manager were not customer-orientated as they will lose their patient and raise their voices and more importantly, whenever there are arguments they do not know how to manage us. For instances, it was our first time telling them that we will comment on Facebook about their work and their reply to us was using lawyers to threaten us if we do such posting.
  7.  Electrician charges was way too high by Absolook where nearly $5k without GST was quoted leaving us with no choice to outsource it. When such decision was made, my ID started to push responsibility by saying “if should there be any damages on their carpentry that was caused by electrician works, they will charge to the electrician company”. He also makes it clear that he will not be involve in the electrician works since we are not using theirs. Hence, we have to oversee the electrician works on our own.

     

With that, before starting renovation, we do have high expectations with Absolook as we believe that do have a good team who are meticulous in ensuring a smooth-sailing renovation process through their fabulous Facebook reviews and websites. However, after engaging them, it was not like how it was mentioned in their website that “making the whole process hassle-free and a pleasure experience”. We felt that our renovation journey was a hair-pulling and teeth-gritting experiences whenever we shared with anyone.

 

(PS: We do know of neigbours who engage Absolook but by different ID were not facing such problems like us so choosing the right ID is very IMPORTANT.)

 

i am also considering absolook (among others) as per my friend's recommendation, like your neighbours, they have nothing but praises to their ID in having their dream home renovated.. thanks for your feedback.. 

 

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My house was done by Absolook and their work indeed have great quality

I have recommended some of my friends to my Designer Dylan and all had given positive feedback..

 

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