I'm from an Interior Design company myself and I would like to rant.. Recently, I have a client approaching me for renovation works for his dessert shop in Bukit Jalil.

Conversation started in early December and he claimed that he needed his shop opened by 2nd week of January. I told him it's a very tight timeline, as everything is from scratch.. shop location unconfirm.. No kitchen specialist plan.. No design plan.. Absolutely nothing, except he wants it to be a dessert shop, like one of the one in the market already.

Managed to convince him on a later timeline, but still very very tight timeline, and he agreed on it..

Slightly more than 1 week ago, he had his shop confirmed. I went to the site visit etc.. and he claimed that he has already confirmed us as his contractor for the ID and renovation works.

Things only went well after that, and he wants the 3D floorplan and design concept in a week's time and we sent the invoice of RM10,000 to him for the 3D floorplan service which will be discounted from his overall renovation cost. estimated to be RM200,000..

And because of his urgency, we started the construction of the 3D floorplan and detailed construction floorplan before we receive any payment, something we don't do anymore as we have many many experiences of job done, and the client took our 3D plans to competitor to quote.. Sigh...

Day 1.. he said okay will settle... Day 2... sorry bro, busy.. will settle... Day 3... tonight settle for you.. Day 4-8, totally ghosted... call no pick up.. text no reply.. while my team put on OT to complete on his job by this Wednesday..

Seriously... he wanna cari makan... we also wanna cari makan... why waste our time like this.. If don't want... say don't want la... As I'm sincerely align with his urgency, I'm currently in a limbo to proceed or not to proceed.

While I understand there are alot of bad practices in the industry, ID firms are being abused as well.. The closing rate for this industry is really really low as it is very competitive.. So we spend alot of effort for nothing..

It's like... I order cakes and drinks from you... then when bring them to my table, I already cabut and left the restaurant..

Lesson learnt again... Never give free services...

True man... It waste our already limited resources. I mean... if he can benefit from this.. Still fine.. but the thing is.. he totally ghosted without even receiving anything.. I rather be made use for his own benefits rather than this current predicament... Not like he has any grudge with us.

Haha.. Actually a few months back, there was a movement called ' Say No to free quotation ' in the ID industry. Because ID firms spend 1-2 weeks to prepare a floorplan and also the detailed quotation.. only for it to be turned down 90% of the time.. My designers and QS are so occupied with 'enquiries' that they don't have time to actually concentrate on the confirmed jobs.. Sigh.

Yea man... All is not lost.. Learn from experience. This is the real world..

Lol.. I see you are really negative.. But thanks for your advice. The world needs people like you. Kick you when you are down.. so you can learn to stand up faster.. Maybe thats what the politicians are teaching us now.. Don't help the rakyat.. so they can be more independent. Cheers

Thanks man.. Yea. I have to be honest that indeed I got carried away with the client's 'urgency'. Kill it with kindness is exploitable in this prey and predator world.