Rachel of CM Staging provided sub par furniture at a premium price. On the day of staging, despite my asking to keep two double wide front and back doors closed as much as possible, she left doors wide open all day on the hottest day of the year and overworked two air conditioners, which was my concern. I asked her more than three times to close the doors (I lived across the street and visited her progress) They both broke down the next day and she claimed no responsibility with the scheduled open house eminent. She refused to acknowledge or speak about it. During the process, she was in dispute with artists as well and everyone she came into contact with. Contrasting the initial meeting, she was disorganized on site and insisted on complete control of my contractors to assist her company but could not manage them effectively. Her inventory looked appeared very much less in value next to some of mine that was used as well. I removed pictures of her work off the website and any shots used then focussed on pieces that were mine in the beauty shots. She was not my choice as the recommended stager was booked. I highly recommend to utitlize a different stager and I seriously believe as do others that she is quite unstable. I attempted a hold back of last months rent in order to have a discussion about the 5k cost in overstressing the airconditioners to keep up with 95 degree blistering heat moving straight through the house all day long concluding with the open house conducted in 85 degrees due to her negligence. I finally ended the relationship when she was not cooperative whatsoever in discussing the airconditioner matter and the house was not selling with her work presented. When retrieving her inventory she packed the items up so quickly she did not allow me to inspect the contents she took out of the house as much of the furniture was mine as well. This allowed her to conceal the perfectly good outdoor furniture, stow it away and then later claim I damaged it. She charged me 818.00 for unused outdoor furniture because they were "over watered" (rain) to make up money she felt she wanted to recoup on from a negotiation I made on reversing the order of the monthly fee. She took me to court for the holdback (2,300) and piled on huge costs to make it look like she lost money (she wanted 8,000 now). I tried to change date of hearing but couldnt and she was awarded in my absence. The outdoor furniture was also in her claim and she has proudly displayed the same furniture on her site subsequently in the for sale category with other less trendy items. She received insurance from her claim, my court claim and resold it all as well as new- Her work is not worth the cost by far. I found her to be unprofessional, mean spirited and devisive trying to character assassinate to deflect from her bad job and poor results. Since then, she continues to upload her website with my pictures of my furniture for her presentation of how she styles in the after shot for which she had nothing to do with the placement, scale scope etc and she makes you believe she is an authorized agent of a previous HGTV show-her work is not highlighted nor credited as such and stylists will be involved other than CM staging. The art shown on her site highlighting completed projects is not hers, as was the case on my project (and other projects the works of art are not from her inventory) The art for my project was tastefully placed and chosen by the artist and myself and my agent- she fought us (see above on very argumentative) on every single piece and now advertises this on her website to take credit for it. Overall the tastes of CM Staging (Rachel the owner) extend little beyond basic accent pillows with straightlined furniture giving very little value for the money spent with CM Staging and the inventory promoted. I was expecting from a stager the flair for what appeals in todays market with an ability to communicate. I did not receive that at all. I believe the scope of her staff (parent) speaks to minimized ability to create and co-operate with fellow creative types thereby jeopardizing the outcome of a successful project as it did on mine. The links to HGTV shows do not credit her- stylists from the show would have a say in the presentation so she is not doing it herself, yet she charges as such- This is misleading advertising- false advertising and I was misled. My home received very little traffic with the pictures of her work on the real estate site. Later I used my pictures of my furniture previous to her being involved and the house sold shortly after. While lots of factors are involved to home selling, staging should be an enhanced tool. I did not find that CM Staging enhanced my home or the process. CM staging provides no evidence or results oriented information. Overall she leads chaotically and the overcontrolling nature of working led to a very difficult process. I do not recommend this company for any aspect. The owner has responded to this review below. As a consumer who works hard for every penny, it is a shame that CM Staging charged too much for less than quality work and service resulting in damages to my property. CM staging was not able to employ sound business problem resolution skills when asked directly to address the actions they took that were detrimental. CM was never awarded far above what was asked for, in fact it was less than half of what they originally wanted (8000) when they tried to obtain over triple over the holdback final payment due to the damages they caused- this in my full absence and lack of ability to defend. Being out of the country at the time, the court had no option but to go with only one opinion at the time. Therefore the issue of CM Staging's culpability was not even able to be addressed. The response below is not accurate and I believe CM staging should address the issues, make reprisals and provide better service and professionalism. I truly do not recommend this company in any way, at all.
Regarding the company's response below- no one was ever forced or coerced to commit insurance fraud. CM Staging, as documented, insisted ( as witnessed by many others), to direct all trades on two days of installation. CM Staging left the doors wide open for 10 hours not two on two days not one (as many witnesses saw). I requested many times for her to shut the doors- her chaotic style as referred to contributed directly to over stressing not one but TWO air conditioners as my HVAC expert advised me would occur if she kept it up. When she refused to acknowledge her involvement via discussions afterward, it was clear to me that she could not afford (based on no meaningful work lined up) to pay for what she damaged which is when i simply asked her if she was not covered by insurance. This is by no means coercing her to commit fraud and the way she describes things here, identifies her challenges as i mentioned before- she is not thoughtful, truthful, or by any means an agreeable, capable /versus advertised service delivering kind of company at all. Her slander at my having a glass of wine in my hand at one point while watching this nervous frenzy and future debilitating action on my property is testimony to her non reality perception of how to evaluate anything. CM is not happy with my revealing that she sold the furniture she charged me full retail for claiming it was over watered (outdoor furnture) from rain. This is something she would have claimed on her insurance as well so triple dipping is not good business practice. This is bad business practice. Outside the initial mediation meeting where the judge begged her to consider my views she even threatened me by saying she was going to try and prove all sorts of things to intimidate me to drop the case against her. This type of action by a service provider is still one that I highly encourage not getting involved with. Her response below is complete testimony as to the nature of the company you would be dealing with. If CM staging had enough business why is my opinion so important to her-it is because there is an insecurity of the quality of work and the way she works, and what kind of work she actually provides versus implies that is revealing and rather than working on correcting it CM staging appears to be more concerned with taking time to continue to argue my thoughtful opinion and this in itself is very telling of the type of relationship you can expect from this provider. I find her response comical, immature, and completely off point and certainly revealing, as my earlier description as to the true nature of the typical business philosophy. I wish her well in the future.
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