Before you decide to hire Arrivae as your interior designers, please take a moment to read about our experience—it has been nothing short of traumatic, and I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what we endured.
The initial stages of booking were smooth, and the designers, in our case, Mr. Ganesh Kodam and his supervisor Ms. Tejal, were extremely persuasive with their promises, which convinced us to proceed and pay the initial booking amount. Following that, we were presented with design options, and everything seemed fine. However, things took a drastic turn once we made the next payment of around 40%.
From this point onward, we had to constantly chase them for updates. We had to beg for the 3D renders, only to be told that there weren’t enough designers to complete them on time. After much delay, we approved some initial designs and layout drawings, and the project transitioned to the operations team(handled by Mr. Sagar and his superior Mr. Sandeep).
Our designer, Mr. Ganesh, had initially promised to help finalize artifacts and other details. However, once the project began, he disappeared. Calls and messages went unanswered, and when we did manage to reach him, his response was, “Nothing is in my hands; I’m just a designer, and this isn’t my job.”
We were promised a delivery date of October 22, which was pushed to the end of October, then November 14. Even as of November 23, our flat remains incomplete. Despite signing up with them in August, work on-site was sporadic, with barely any workers present most of the time. Arrivae outsources their work to local vendors and contractors who operate at their own pace, with little accountability.
To add to the frustration, we were told we needed to pay the full amount to have the modular furniture delivered. When the furniture finally arrived, it was nothing like the approved designs—key elements in the kitchen differed drastically. Upon raising this issue with Mr. Ganesh, he casually admitted to sending us the wrong images. Reaching out to Ms. Tejal resulted in vague promises of a call back, which, unsurprisingly, never came. We were left with no choice but to accept the subpar final product, which was riddled with unsightly fillers and poor craftsmanship.
As deadlines were missed repeatedly, we found ourselves caught in a blame game between the operations team and vendors. The project managers blamed the vendors, while the vendors claimed that Arrivae hadn’t paid them, causing delays. As clients, we were forced to intervene constantly, pleading and pressuring them to finish the work.
They also charged us ₹15, 000 for deep cleaning, which turned out to be a joke—they merely removed the plastic covers from the furniture and left the rest of the mess untouched. We had to arrange for proper deep cleaning ourselves.
In the past two days alone, we’ve had to personally sit at the site from morning until night, ensuring workers showed up to complete the pending tasks. The project managers, however, seemed to be completely disengaged and unresponsive.
If you’re considering hiring Arrivae, my advice is: don’t. Choose another agency or manage the work yourself. Paying Arrivae is a colossal waste of money, time, and energy. Their employees lack accountability, their vendors are unreliable, and the only way to get things done is to resort to shouting and creating a scene—kindness gets you nowhere.
The polished handover videos you see on Instagram are nothing more than a facade. I know this review may elicit a generic automated response from their ORM team, but I doubt I’ll receive a refund or see the pending work completed without another month of constant follow-ups. Save yourself the trouble—look elsewhere.