Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  09/13/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Hello,I would like to file a complaint against American Design Concepts for unfair business practices. They did not provide any initial estimate / rate structure and later sent inflated invoice and has been harassing me for extra payment even though they have not delivered their services in full. Earlier this year, we bought a residential lot with the intent to build on it. The builder we were working with offered to give us a no obligation bid (have documentation as proof). The builder had us work with a drafting company (American Design Concepts) that they partnered with for our building plan. We initially thought this would be no obligation / no costs if we chose to not proceed with the project as per builder. But then towards the middle, American Design mentioned that this would be billable and even threatened to stop working if we dont make an excess payment for additional time spent due to inefficiencies on their end. We were unable to pull out since we had made some progress by then. Ultimately, we were unable to proceed with our home construction, one of the main factors being delays we experienced with getting the building plan done due to American Design not giving us time to understand requirements, lack of proper guidance and long turnaround times. American Design Concepts did not provide us with any initial estimate and rate structure. They did not have any contract to sign. The invoice contains line items that they never communicated to us and we never agreed to. We were told that any subsequent changes to the plan would be included in the total drafting costs. As we were unable to proceed with our home construction, the plan was unfinished.Even though this was supposed to be a no-cost bid, I paid $2800 to American Design. The total amount they are asking is $4056, which is for a finished plan. I dont consider it fair to pay for services that were never provided and charges for items that were not communicated to us.

  Business response

  09/13/2022

  The claims being made are very simply untrue, and not reasonable.  I created a very nice custom home plan in very short amount of time (by industry standards) for this customer, especially when they were so indecisive.  Unfortunately through no fault of mine they decided not to move forward with building the home.  The claim is that they thought this was a free service, I believe this to be a lie.  Below is my most recent e-mail correspondence with the customer.  In this e-mail I provided direct contradictory evidence of their claims. 

  This customer knew full well that there would be design charges, and these design charges were discussed in detail via phone, and also reaffirmed and accepted via e-mail. (see e-mails)

  I believe this simply to be a situation where a unscrupulous person is trying to renegotiate a service after the service has been performed.  This individual just sent in partial payment  7 months after the original invoice dated 2-17-22.  To this point this customer has never voiced to me any level of dissatisfaction or dispute that I recall.  I believe they feel they can bully me into renegotiating the fees for services provided because they decided not use the product.  

   

  I would be more than happy to supply direct evidence to counter the claims of this customer.
  

   

  See e-mail of our most recent communication below -
  

   

  Hello,
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  From:G
  
  Hi ***,
  
  
  
  
  
  On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 10:17 americandesignconcepts wrote:
  
  Hello,
  
  
  
  
  As we discussed on the phone I do not want or intend to charge you for the full 7-8 extra hours.  That would be an additional $1,100 minimum for the plan.  However, I cannot keep redesigning floor plans with these major shifts in direction without being compensated.
  
  
  This is what I propose.  I will agree to only bill you for 3 additional hours for your plans, above the standard rate we already discussed.  That will be an additional $450, which is significantly less than the added time I already have into your plans.  I will only add this reduced extra amount if we can efficiently finish your plan from this point.  This means we need to pick a concept layout and stick with it.  We cannot continue to make these major changes in direction that require the plans to essentially start over.  If from this point, we again make major changes in direction, I will have to track those hours, and bill accordingly.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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