Advanced Home Decorating Ctr

03/19/12

Con Artists!! Avoid these people!!

by csoccio

These people are on the 3rd version of their name "Meadowlands Decorating", "Chairs N More" and now "Advanced Home Decorating". They seem very pleasant at first and promise the world, take your money as a deposit and then it starts to go wrong.

They came to my house at the end of October to give me an estimate on recovering my 6 dining room chairs and a wing back chair. I said I wasn't in a rush and could wait till after the holidays if they were busy. They said it would be no problem to finish by Thanksgiving. The also said they could fix my clock/doorbell that wasn't working. So they took my dining room chairs and clock/doorbell. Several weeks passed and I didn't hear from them. The week before Thanksgiving I gave them a call to see what the story was. Everything was fine they would have the chairs done. Everything arrived two days before Thanksgiving. The delivery people had no idea how to install the clock doorbell or how to make it work but they wanted payment in full. I left the chairs in their plastic because we were painting the room. When I did open them they were not well done at all but I let it go and didn't make a big deal out of it. I was more concerned with getting the clock doorbell working again.

After multiple phone calls Carl and Yvonne finally came to see what was wrong with the clock/doorbell the second week in Dec 2011. Carl fiddled with it and got the doorbell to make a sad noise at least when you rang the door bell. He said he needed to order another part. And he took one of the broken chimes to fix and another one for reference. I asked when they would be back to complete there repair. Carl was snarky and said he'd let me know. Yvonne tried to smooth it over and said they'd try before Christmas.

Christmas came and went. Many phone calls. No response. I called Service Magic to help me get them on board. Service Magic contacted them and said they were "on vacation" and they'd call me when they got back after New Years. Nothing through the whole month of January. I called at least 3 times, maybe more until finally sending a hostile email in February which they were so surprised!! They were going to order the part don't worry blah blah. So they finally ordered the part they said they were going to order in December!! After a week or two I asked for them to just give me the chimes back and lets forget it. The part was on it's way supposedly and it would arrive on Saturday. Of course UPS never showed according to them. Another week passes and I ask if the part had arrived. Carl emails and says yes the part arrived. "More news soon" he says. Really???? That was several weeks ago. I contacted Service Magic to get after them again. I said I wanted a refund because the work was NEVER completed. They said they couldn't help me because the invoice only said "clock" not "doorbell" even though it's all one device. Service Magic at least got them to return the chimes. Keep in mind they didn't deliver them when they said they would be cause they were both "sick" and I had to wait an additional week for them to be returned.

I didn't dare return the poorly upholstered chairs for repair after this disaster with the clook/doorbell.

I spent $1200 to have my doorbell not work and have my chairs returned in worse condition then they left. These people are out to get your money and have no idea how to be professional. AVOID THEM!!

06/07/10

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY

by choffie

I found AHDC through Service Magic. They were pleasant on the phone and came to my home to discuss recovering my dining room chairs. But I had to beg to get my chairs back before daughter's graduation celebration. Delivery details were ENDLESS; the chairs came just a few hours before the party. The seats were now 4-5" higher than before, making it hard to get them under the table. When you sat on the chairs, the new screws holding the seats on were so long they poked holes in my guests backsides! We used folding chairs for graduation (!) and the chairs went back. VERSION 2: the screws were now so short, and the seat bases were so damaged by the repeated drilling, that the seats fell off. The excuse? They had "summer workers" and couldn't possibly supervise them properly. VERSION 3: After carefully and pointedly demanding that they remove the seats, cut new plywood bases, and reassemble the seats as they were originally manufactured, which was agreed to, the company merely put angle brackets on all four sides of the seats and screwed them into the frames. NOW: the chair legs are all splitting lengthwise due to the stresses of being screwed together in a way that they were not designed to withstand. My only option now is to buy new chairs. I will be nearly $1,000 poorer between the costs of reupholstery and the cost of new chairs. And they probably won't match the table.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY FOR ANYTHING. They lie about what they will do for you, and each time you call they will pretend it is the first time you've called. Cheery greeting, no information. Worst vendor I have ever dealt with.

• Pros: they seem nice at first
• Cons: almost everything goes wrong

01/26/09

Great find for Reupholstery, window treatment and more

by MMBrowne

Advanced Home Decorating Center

I highly recommend Advanced Home Decorating Center. I have used them several times. Once to reupholster my Grandmother?s wing back chair. They did an excellent job. People are always complimenting me on it.

Then I went to them for some bamboo type shades for my new TV room. Both times they spent a long time with me and were very patient. I found the service to be very good, thoughtful, proactive and professional. With good old fashion customer service. I plan to use them to furnish my Dining room. I know they will help me find the right dining set. I have found a good business for all my decorating and furniture needs.

• Pros: Creative, Very experienced
• Cons: Parking

01/18/09

Custom Blinds and excellent personalized service

by ZanneNJ

I contacted Advanced Home Decorating for a quote on blinds for my shore house. They accomodated my hectic schedule by staying open late to allow me to look through their samples. They also delivered and installed the blinds at no additional costs. (Try getting that personalized service from a competitor at no additional cost!) Keep in mind my home is over 100miles from their store location. There were no hidden costs and my blinds look terrific. I will definately do business with them again and highly recommend their services.

08/09/08

Avoid this place at all times

by MrsLong

Looking for great service, reliable customer service and friendly honest sales staff? Go somewhere else. Advance Home Decorating Center is not the place for good quality. When I moved to town back in May 2008, I had already ordered a dinette set from AHDC. It was my first piece of brand new furniture for my the apartment. When delivery came, I was surprised to see that they gave me two chairs of a different color that were not part of the dinette set. The delivery men told us that two of the four chairs we brought were not in stock. They gave us two all brown chairs (ours were white and wood) for the meantime while the others were getting ordered. My husband and I said fine. We paid in full that same day. Bad idea. Week after week, we called about our chairs. Week after week we got the run around from the owner's wife who works with him at the store. At one point, she had sold our already-paid chairs to someone else and we have to wait another few weeks. Finally in August 2008, we got our chairs. Four months for them to delivery our chairs when they are 4 blocks away from us.