Homelane Interiors - Homelane Denied Refund of Booking Amount

I saw the advertisement of HomeLane and asked for a tentative quote on the *st of April, ****. I was contacted by a representative. He asked me to visit their Pune Baner Branch. We met on **nd April and he gave me a tour and introduced me to a designer who would be working on my project. We discussed my requirements and the designer showed me the quotation. It was **.** Lakhs. She told me if I book now, they will give a **% discount. I denied it and asked for the quotation to be shared to go through it. I asked for a follow-up meeting and took my wife as well so we can discuss the requirements again and finalize the quote. On the **th of April, we met the Homelane team again and further refined the requirement. The quotation was for *,**,***. She called a sales representative who offered a discount of **% stating it was the closure of the month and the offer is valid for on-spot booking only. My wife asked for a **% discount and he readily agreed and we paid *% (*****) of the total value as the booking amount.

On May *rd, I was approached by the designer for the D* measurement. It was scheduled for *th May. However, on the day, the designer messaged stating that she has some personal emergency and requested to reschedule. I complied with her request and the D* measurement was pushed to **th May at **:** am as I had a doctor's appointment at ** am. On the **th night at ** pm, she asked me to meet for the D* measurement at ** am as there were no other slots available with them. I told her I can't meet at that time as I had a doctor's appointment and asked to reschedule for Sunday or Monday. She mentioned that they don't do D* measurements on Sunday and she has weekly off on Monday. I asked to push it further to the coming weekend (**th May). She mentioned that she has rescheduled it for **th May at ** am. On **th May at *:** am she mentioned that they will reach by **:** am. These were red flags for me as there were constant changes in the schedules.

After the measurement on **th May, there was a radio silence and I messaged her on June *nd asking how the designs are coming up. She responded that she is on leave till *th June. On June **th, she shared a tentative plan according to which everything will be finalized by **th June and the production work will start. We had further conversations over a phone call. On **th June, I messaged that the way the progress is going on, we may not be able to go for production work by the end of July even. She responded stating that she will share all the designs by the **nd of June. She shared the design of only the Kitchen on the **nd. Those were also not as per the discussions.

I waited for a couple of more days to get the other designs. On the **th, I messaged stating that they are taking me for granted and won't even inform me about the delays. I was the one who was chasing behind them. She called me and said she will be sharing all the designs by **th June. She shared only the Living room, Kitchen, and Study designs by the **th of June. Those were also different than what we discussed.

She shared the Bedroom designs on the *st of July along with a new timeline according to which the Production date was the *th of July. I met her at their office on the *nd of July and spent time discussing the changes in the design as per the requirements. She mentioned that she would share the updated design in a day and we will meet on the *th of July to select the materials and colours. On the *th of July, I met her again and selected some materials and colours from the limited set of options (Most of the materials and colours were not available and were out of stock).

Masking was planned for the morning of the *th of July. At around ** am, I got a message from her that we need to move the time to *:** pm as she wasn't well. I mentioned that I will be available at *:** pm and she responded ok. However, I got a call later that she can't come at all and the masking was pushed further. On the *th of July evening, we had an online connection to discuss the design further. Following that, she shared the new designs and quotation on *th July at * am in the morning. To my surprise, the quotation was shot to **.** lahks after applying the discount. Also, the meeting was scheduled to finalise the masking and measurement and design signoff at * pm on the *th of July. As she was on leave, her manager was supposed to come. I reached the site and called her to check on their whereabouts. I was told they would reach by *:** pm. I waited till * pm and left as they didn't reach by then. In the night, around ** pm, I messaged them that I am not going to continue with them and would like a refund of the booking amount.

On the *th of July, she called me asking what went wrong and why I don't want to continue with them. Following were my reasons:-
*. The requirements were getting missed multiple times and I had to contribute and share my ideas rather than the designer being creative and providing options.
*. They were very unprofessional when it came to adhering to timelines. The plan was getting changed time and again
*. The designs shared were very basic. No thoughts were given to the taste and liking
*. Most of the changes required customization and they mentioned that it will be treated in a different order.
*. Very selective range of colors and materials.
*. The first quotation was totally misleading and all the basic materials were considered even after mentioning the requirements of the material so as to bring down the cost and get the client on the hook after booking.
*. Constantly pushing me to adhere to the plans shared by them by giving various reasons like the factory is under renovation and we need to get in line to move fast etc.
*. In all my meetings, they talked about the payment plans. I found that the designer is also like a salesperson there.

Another important point is that they never mention anything about the refund policy while doing the booking. Also, when I told them I don't want to continue, they didn't acknowledge that it was a mistake from their end. I even ask them to provide me with some materials/appliances instead of my money. To which, they responded that they won't do it and that if I want to get it sorted, I should give them the order of a minimum of **% of the quotation (without any discount). I had multiple calls with the Manager, Regional Manager but to no avail.

After everything, I feel I was looted. I think they are running a loot program and they lure the client by providing a discount for on-spot booking and put them on the hook and exploit them. The booking amount they are charging and later saying is non-refundable is the biggest scam I have seen so far.