Design 11 - opt for them if you want to spend three times what the product actually costs.

We decided to get our home painted and thought it would be nice to get a new house number. I put out a note on the community FB site for recommendations - and ended up looking at Design 11. They had a nice design - in a rust colour that would look great on the house. So I used their chat function on the website to ask them about the product. I was concerned about the possibility of staining on the wall after rainfall - and asked exactly that specific question. I was told that although it was a 'natural rust' - it was sealed several times and there was no chance of any staining or leakage and 'they had sold a lot in that colour without any issue'. Reassured by this - I spent the R4k for the sign and ordered the product, which had to be custom made for us. About two weeks later - the sign arrived and it looked great. We had the sign installed and we were happy. Then we had rain one night - the first rain of the season - and when I left the house the next morning there was terrible rust coloured streaks all the way down the front to the house - totally unsightly. I could not believe it - this was exactly hat I had feared and questioned them about. I emailed Design 11 immediately with photographs and they told me that they would look into the situation. They later came back and said that they must have forgotten to seal the sign as a part of their manufacturing process. We had rain for the next few nights and our newly painted house looked terrible. They said they would replace the sign - but that I must get the sign removed and send it back to them in Cape Town! I asked if they could manufacture a new one - but they said they would just seal this one properly. I asked them to replace it entirely - and they refused. I then asked for a refund - they refused. Then they said that they would replace the sign with a new one - but I would still have to return the old one first - it was their 'policy'. I refused to do this - telling them that they could collect the old sign - when they delivered the new sign. Again - this was against their 'policy'. At no point did the Director or Owner of the business talk to me directly - but via a third party who had no authority. Clearly they were just going to re-seal the old sign - and expected me to cover the costs of getting the sign removed and couriered back to them! I refused - clearly customer service and satisfaction is not a priority for Design 11 and I told them they could come and get their sign and I would like a full refund as the product was unfit for purpose. They then contacted me to say that they would send a replacement and I could just keep the old. So they remade me the sign - in a different colour - and said it would be with me in 10 working days. Guess what...it did not show up - so I contacted them again and someone had made a mistake in the production process and they had to re-start the manufacturing of it! So - we eventually got our new sign three weeks late. This is a Company with no regard for their customer experience - their product, through no fault of my own, ruined the front of our home and we incurred significant cost in getting the sign installed, removed and installed again - plus the repainting of the entire front of the house (a further 6k) - and they still took no responsibility, offered any kind of assistance getting the damage sorted, did not show any empathy or regret over what had happened. They adopted an entirely arrogant, customer unfriendly 'policy' - and opting for their services was a very expensive exercise for us. Totally unrecommended - and I intend to relay this experience via social media to our community and to other prospective customers who are looking for similar services and product.