Kit Furniture

Before I show you my progress on the Petit Palais this week, please indulge me while I let off a little steam with the following rant.

At the start of every month the Dolls House Emporium send out an email newsletter.  This month's newsletter included the following statement:  "Call us on TOLL FREE 1800 004 997 or visit dheaustralia.com now to place your order and take advantage of FREE shipping and packaging on all orders over $60 this month!".  Normally, I don't buy direct from DHE as I prefer to support my 'local' dollshouse shops, but there were some things on special that would come in handy and with free shipping I figured why not.  When I went to place my order, shipping charges were added in the checkout.  I thought maybe I overlooked something, but no matter what I did during this month of "free" postage, postage was going to be charged to me.  Eventually I emailed DHE and asked the question why was I getting shipping charges added when it should be free?  This was DHE's response:

"Hi,
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately this email was sent in error and there is no free shipping on orders over $60.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused."

Apparently, the people who work at DHE think this is good enough.  As you may have guessed by now, I don't.  I don't mind that they sent out what amounts to a piece of false advertising and that there are laws against that sort of thing.  Everyone makes mistakes sometimes (DHE more than most it seems).  What really bothers me is that DHE clearly are aware of the mistake and have done nothing about it.  Would it be so hard to send out a second email and say "Oops, sorry" and let their potential customers know what is going on?  Should they maybe honour the promise they made even if if was in error, or at least offer discounted postage or a gift voucher or other gift in lieu?  Any business that wants to attract and keep customers would do something like that.  There are any number of things they could have done to avoid making their customers really annoyed and simply did not bother.  Perhaps they were actually hoping to catch people out if they didn't notice postage being added before they placed their order and therefore make more money?

So guess what has happened DHE?  Yep, customer annoyed.  Really annoyed.  Customer now unsubscribed from their emails as it is clearly pointless to continue to receive them.  Not only are they wrong whenever you want to act on them, but the company has no notion of what constitutes good customer relations, so what does that say about what to expect from their customer service?  The quality of their wares?  It does not inspire faith.  I can't say I've heard any good about DHE since it was sold and from now on I don't care any more.  DHE, you have lost me as a customer forever thorough your own faults.  I very much hope that all of you reading this will also consider all the wonderful alternate places you can buy miniatures before considering an order with DHE.

Okay, with that out of my system, back to Le Petit Palais.  This week saw all the internal doors added and the furniture begun.  The doors are mostly kits from Petite Properties.  The doors in the basement are just plain cardboard in a cardboard frame and painted white.  The furniture so far is a mix of Petite Properties kits and kits by A Sheila's Shed, an Australian maker of laser cut kits in 24th and 48th scales.  Both had pros and cons but ultimately both were good quality kits that I could recommend to anyone.  There are also a few pieces from internet printables, mostly screens as these are by far the best (easiest) type of furniture to make from paper.

The pink attic room will be a bedroom with a printed bed head.  The challenge in these rooms will be finding a way to fill them with furniture that won't be fouled by the sloping roof.

In the attic hallway is one of the kits by A Sheila's Shed coupled with a chair from a P-Properties kit.

The last attic room will be a nursery with a canopied crib in the back corner.  Um . . . OK . . . It will be a nursery with a canopied crib in the back corner if I can manage to make a canopied crib in 48th scale from scratch.  My ability to do this remains to be seen . . .

The yellow bedroom is also in need of a bed, with canopy, at the back of the room..

The dressing room attached to the yellow bedroom looks more filled with kit dressing table and screen and a chaise bought as is at the local doll, bear and miniature fair a few months ago.

The red, white and gold dining room continues it's colour scheme in the furniture with gold chairs and clock with wood table that will eventually be covered with a crisp white (or gold?) tablecloth.

The entry hall has a pair of tables in gold and off white.  Now, how do I make some vases of flowers to sit on them . . . ?

The Drawing room has a sofa and matching chair also in gold.  The remaining rooms in the house are still bereft of furnishings.  As I am now out of kits, it's time to start making my own 48th scale furniture from scratch.  Oh dear.  That is an awful lot of very small furniture.