I wasn't impressed by all of the no-name brands, but the price made up for many of them. Still, I prefer to shop at the "big two" as there is more selection and more name brands. The price of their non-food stuff is great, and I love checking the specials online.

Approximate cost: $50

Very convenient as it is close to the shops. It is hard to exit and travel north, but if you're willing to go out the "in" or do a U-turn in the Bull and Bush parking lot it works well.

Approximate cost: $70

Mmmmm, deep fried bananas! I'm glad they put these back in the tropical meals. They may not be the best for my waistline, but they taste great.

Approximate cost: $10

I purchased a stove top - the manager gave me a special price for a 5 burner induction stovetop that was better than anywhere else I could find. Great service as well.

Approximate cost: $2000

In May 2012 I had a new kitchen pantry unit, and cupboard above my fridge put in. The job only took about a week from quote to installation which I was impressed with.

Once installed, they used the wrong handles. I had specifically asked the guy who did the quote (I'm not supposed to use their names here) to use matching handles to my existing kitchen. He said that was the same ones that they always use, so no problem. The installer showed up with different ones and then the fights began. Oh, the installer also put the cabinet above the fridge in very crooked so that from the side you could see unfinished particle board. They (DesignARobe) would not take responsibility for the mix-up, even though the quoter told me the installer put in the wrong handles. The quoter finally inspected the job, agreed to fix the crooked cabinet and to change the handles. After one month they did say they'd send out the installer, but he never showed up (no phone call either). About three days later he did show up. He replaced the wrong handles with ones that looked similar to my existing kitchen handles but were only 30% of the size as he used the existing holes they drilled. The installer removed the cabinet above the fridge and tried to re-install it. During re-installation he cracked the side of it, and still put it in crooked. He ran out of time and didn't put the finishing boards on it so that it looked way worse than when he started.

I immediately reported this to the office and the owner (minority owner I found out) stuck to his guns and told me the job was complete. After hanging up he decided to charge my credit card for the complete amount and sent an SMS me saying the job was complete. I assume he wrote down and kept my credit card number when I paid the deposit. I told him it was illegal to charge someone without authorisation, and either he had to refund the amount in full or I would dispute it with the credit card company. After he argued a while and tried to make me pay most of it, he finally refunded the charge.

He agreed to come out and meet me at 7:30am on Saturday to see the job for himself. At 8am on Saturday I phoned him asking where he was. He said he had changed his mind and would send the quoter later that morning. I was mad he stood me up (again) without phoning me, and convinced him to come. At about 9am both him and the quoter finally arrived. It took an hour of arguing with them. They told me many times they would sue me if I don't pay in full and the owner took photos of my pantry with the wrong handles. He said even though I only had a few items stored in it, the photos would prove in court that I was using them and he would get the full amount for the job. Finally I broke down and agreed to pay an extra $60 to change the handles on the three biggest doors and live with the rest of the handles, in exchange for them changing the three handles and fixing and finishing the crooked cabinet.

On the third round of fixing they did a crappy (but just barely acceptable) job of fixing the crooked cabinets and replaced the three handles with large ones. The previously crooked cabinet was now straight, but wasn't centered properly and they left large screw holes and chipped paint in the surrounding wall.

I paid them in full and am glad to see the back-side of them for the last time. My best retaliation is to write this account so that others can decide for themselves if they really want to do business with DesignARobe.

The quality is okay for the parts they did right, but if they screw anything up, good luck getting it fixed! It took me a lot of effort and about two months and still I'm happy.

Approximate cost: $2040