I've recently tried to have some deign work done for my home
renovations through a well known design and build company in
Queensland, Australia.

Design Build (formerly Majik) in Brisbane are supposed to be a
professional outfit with experienced architects that deliver what you
want for your home renos. This has NOT been our experience.

Despite us providing a detailed list of the renovations we wanted and
a strict budget from the very first meeting, these guys designed our
renos at over DOUBLE our budget (from $120k to $250k). The company
even acknowledged to us their mistakes and the broken promises of
their staff - but have refused to give us back our money.

When discussing the original estimate provided, it was revealed to us
that the quote was far underestimated by the salesman, in what can
only be seen as an attempt to get our business through intentional
underestimating.

We have now wasted 12 months on these guys and it's cost us close to
$10,000 for a set of plans we can't use. Our home renos haven't even
started yet, even though they promised to have them completed by May.

If anybody has some advice on how to chase our money or a similar
experience with DesignBuild, please send me an email.