3D Innovations
Contact Person: Mr E. (9645 3517)
Review: Simple, humble, down to earth man. You would easily recognise him from his 3/4 pants and T-shirt dressing. He would honestly advise against works which are unrealistic or wasting money. Try to assist us to save as much as possible. Perhaps i caught him at the wrong time, he went into reservice for 2 weeks after our 1st meeting.
Pros:
- Reasonable carpentry prices
- Responsible person who will oversee the project himself
Cons:
- Charges quite high for other services such as haulage, hacking etc.
- Response rate abit slow as he is a very busy man.
- 3D Innovation is a GST registered company. Our GST amounts up to $1.4k+, not too happy about that. Can use the money for better uses.
Verdict: Rejected
Absolook ID
Contact Person: Mr M (9150 3383)
Pros:
- Nothing much to mention.
Cons:
- First one to meet up, and first to receive the quote from. However nothing impressive.
- Price wise on the high side (The most expensive in the bunch of IDs i asked to quote)
- Unsure of the company's new package offering
- GST Registered
Verdict: Rejected
YIS Renovation
Contact Person: Mr K. (8588 7433)
Review: Young, energetic guy. Will go all lengths for his customers including going to JB to buy lights!
Pros:
- Carpentry price is cheap but not the cheapest
- Overall pricing is reasonable and one of the lowest
- Had good rapport with him.
- Patient and gave many suggestions on how to save money including introducing vendors for us to go direct
- Fast reponse with good follow up
- No GST
Cons:
- Too little discount! =)
- Not much design suggestions, maybe cos we gave too much info to all the IDs that non really gave us constructive ideas.
Verdict: SELECTED
Impress 21
Contact Person: Mr H.G (9831 6066)
Review: Quiet, humble person. If you are on a tight budget, do consider Mr Henry too, he's great!
Pros:
- Low Carpentry prices
- No GST
- Low Overall price
- On Par with YIS Renovation's prices (we had difficulty deciding between the two)
- Fast response with good follow up
Cons:
- None i can think of.
Verdict: Rejected.
Weiken
Contact Person: Mr W. (9680 4331)
Review: Met him at Big Box branch. Not much interaction. Requested a quotation via email.
Pros:
- Big name company
Cons:
- GST Registered
- Carpentry on the high side
- Pricing is probably the 2nd highest
Verdict: Rejected
Homemaker ID
Contact Person: Mr S.C (homemaker_idesign@yahoo.com.sg)
Review: Was introduced by Hubby's Uncle
Pros: No GST
Cons: Price on the high side
Verdict: Rejected
H2O Interior
Contact Perion: Miss K. (9008 2640)
Review: Found their review online, decided to drop an enquiry.
Pros:
- No GST
- Reputable. Recommended from Renotalk.
Cons:
- Price on the high side for carpentry
Verdict: Rejected
Innovate Space
Contact Persion: Miss F. (9750 4512)
Review: Recommended by one of our neighbours
Pros:
- Not much impression
- Fast Response
Cons:
- First and second quotation differs in pricing for the same thing
- Told me her Innovate space has GST and said she may discuss with her management to absorb the GST. Used another 2nd company for requote with no GST. However the pricing all changed.
- Price on the high side
- Inconsistency found
Verdict: Rejected
The selection process has been an ardous and tiring journey done by myself. As we already did our own space planning, most of the IDs have an easy job. However, some did not perform to our expectations despite giving them what we want from the start. As this is my first time doing this, i'm glad i did not stop at the first 3 quotes i received. Having a bigger pool allows more for comparision and i learnt alot in the process.
Lessons Learnt:
- GST is a very big deciding factor in this process. E.g. for a 20k project that amounts to $1.4k SGD and a 30k project is close to $2k SGD. These money can be put to better use. And due to GST, most of the IDs i found initally exceeded our budget.
- Carpentry is also another deciding factor. If you are unsure of the 'market' rates, i would suggest to look at JS carpentry's website for cost estimates. anything close to their pricing is consider cheap. We did ask JS to quote, unfortunately no reponses after the 1st SMS.
- Have at least 5 IDs to compare. My first 3 quotes are from Absolook, 3D innovations and Innovate Space, if i only stop at 3, i would still have exceed by budget by almost 10k including the GST.
- Communication & Connection. Having someone you can communicate easily is rather rare. I believe good rapport is needed when selecting the ID. Some are not really interested to entertain your requests or have understanding of what you want.
In Summary, my top 3 picks are Impress 21, YIS Renovation and 3D Innovations. For 3D innovations, if it was not for the GST, he may be one of the strong contenders. In the end, it was a pretty close fight between Impress 21 and YIS Renovation. We chose YIS Renovation as Kenny has been really helpful and we felt a good rapport there. He makes us comfortable when making decisions and no hard sell or pressure in deciding. He is a flexible person and around our age which makes it easier to talk to. Well, thats the end of the selection process. KIV for more updates!
