Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Dec 23, 2009 2:18 pm This blog is intended to vent my frustrations as a home buyer in Spring Farm,Camden and vent of the continuous disappointment that we are currently experiencing with our builder Cosmopolitan Constructions Pty Ltd.What started out as an exciting prospect of building our dream home has turned into a nightmare.....even before we actually start building..!!!! The context of my blog is as follows: We accepted our Quotation on 7th November 2009.We paid $4k on acceptance of the tender and the cheque was banked on 9th November 2009 by Cosmopolitan .According to the information in our Tender we were led to believe that the next stage was the drawing of architectural plans and scheduling a plan review and colour consultation appointment within 20 days of us accepting our quotation. During the period 9/11/09 and 22/12/09 we were given many apologetic excuses for the delay in the process of drawing up our plans. These excuses and apologies ranged from a shortage of staff in the various departments due to low resources through to being extremely overloaded with work and too busy to return phone calls and emails within a 24 hour period. I initially accepted the apologies in true Aussie spirit and I sympathised with our customer service person. I overlooked workflow problems within the Company-eg.relaying of information from the Sales Office to Head Office. Today ,22nd December 2009, following 3 phone calls to Cosmo H/O ,the 4th being successful in actually talking to our constomer service person, I was told that our architectural plans are not yet drawn.I was told that it is being prioritised for the 1st week of January 2010. This was frustrating as we were advised explicitly by the customer service person in 2 emails in the last week that it was their intention for us to have our plans before the Christmas Break. I feel as though Cosmopolitan has not been truthful with us from the start of this process and find it really hard to believe that they will deliver a project home on time. I feel bitter that Cosmo could actually bank my cheque but not follow through with the processes at their end to deliver a milestone that has been advertised.I feel * that I was not explained the whole process in detail before we actually embarked on the journey to build our home with Cosmopolitan Constructions. There seems to be no transparency with the whole process and every staff member blames someone else for the lack of meeting a deliverable.There seems to be no responsibility or accountability and it is VERY VERY VERY DIFFICULT to actually speak to someone when things go wrong.It is also very slow for corrective action to be taken. I do not care for the $4k that I have paid to Cosmo already.It is evident to me that the whole process will be full of stress and I am seriously considering that I will not proceed further in building our home with Cosmo. Afterall why should I give $340k to a company that does not appear to value a customer like myself. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 2Dec 23, 2009 2:34 pm Would putting a complaint in writing to them, telling them you are thinking of going elsewhere help? I can only imagine how angry you must be, I would be ringing every day and asking to speak to superiors, and every time you ring, make it clear you want to go elsewhere. Even give them a deadline to have it done or you walk. Not sure if any of this will do anything, but hey, you have to try everything, oh, and don’t be afraid to get at least a little angry with them to show you’re serious. Good luck, keep us posted on your progress Current status: Busy making the house our home Built PD Francis 29 on our 576m2 block at Reflections in Tarneit Reflections Estate Thread Our Build Thread Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 3Dec 23, 2009 3:22 pm Or just send them an email telling them to Google themselves - this thread has two hits on the first page at the moment. That might make someone pay attention to you. Cheers, Earl Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 4Dec 23, 2009 3:24 pm What great publicity, especially for you kevin g. Current status: Busy making the house our home Built PD Francis 29 on our 576m2 block at Reflections in Tarneit Reflections Estate Thread Our Build Thread Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 6Dec 23, 2009 4:42 pm mornings Threatening to walk is a good tip. If their poor performance continues, perhaps threaten to get the ACCC involved. I'm not sure what the ACCC could really do but the Office of Fair Trading may be of some help (but then again based on my recent experience with them the staff at the coalface often don't actually know much about consumer law). I really like the idea of telling them to Google themselves. Builders trade on their reputations and it might wake somebody up. Having said that, make sure you deal with the 'organ grinder and not the monkeys'. That is...don't waste time dealing with Cosmo junior staff -- go straight to the top and put it in writing. Phone calls are too easy to overlook and not take seriously. Best wishes and I really hope this works out for you. Pix Built a (highly) modified Allcastle Maxworth 38.7 in Sydney. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 7Dec 28, 2009 8:45 am The story continues...Late last night we typed up an email to the Customer Service Manager illustrating the timeline of the process to date and all the stuff ups along the way by Cosmo.Since their office was closing at midday today for the Christmas break - we followed up our email with an early morning phone call to the CSM. I assume that they may have impressions that we are the worst type of customer however I don't care..I want results not excuses..!!! Anyways- we were assured by the CSM that we would get our architectural plans by 8th Jan 2010.It was acknowledged that there were stuff ups and damage has been done. It was good to have someone actually listen to our side of the story...We live in hope until 8th Jan 2010...... We are building a Renmark 35 in Spring Farm.We love the design of the house and this is the only reason why we are willing to repair the relationship with the builder.This being said, if Cosmo stuff's up 1 more time we will not hesitate to take our business elsewhere. Thanks to all that have replied to my posts.I will provide updates along the way...HoHoHo..Merry Christmas... Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 8Dec 29, 2009 3:41 pm If this firm has a designated Customer Service Manager there are 2 possibilities: 1. They have so many complaints that they need to employ a person to deal with them all, or 2. It is just some employee who has this title tacked onto their other responsibilities. Seriously, I would contact them again and advise that you will be attending their office on 8 January to inspect and discuss the plans. If they do not want to do this then get out NOW, and get your money back through NSW Dept of Fair Trading. Generally time is not " of the essence" of any contract but the repeated failure to provide something vital could be enough to warrant cancellation. Check with Fair Trading first. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 9Dec 30, 2009 8:09 pm Welcome to the pain cosmo cause. Im in a similar boat There customer service manager is full of it. All talk and no action it's the people you actually meet face to face are the ones under pump and loaded with work. It appears they turnover staff quite a bit, obviously they have internal issues I first started back in April 09, finance approved in June 09. Never received final home building agreement till end August, home builder contract was signed mid september. THe customer service manager left our final drawings on her desk for 3.5 weeks and many nasty complaints from myself followed. All they did was blame external sources for the delays when half the time it was due to there own slackness. It's now xmas, we got council approval pretty swiftly, very happy with Holroyds turn-around time. Where on target for a 14 month process. A joke really. 8 months and the shovel hasn't touched the dirt. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 10Jan 06, 2010 11:01 am Same here. We started our process with Cosmo again at the beginning of this year. New sales guy was really good, efficient and reliyable. After we were happy with the initial quote, which took a while to get sorted but also due to changes from our side we wanted to go ahead as soon as possible. And yes, we transferred the $4K to get the plans done at the beginnig of October. The elevations were done fairly quickly but with quite a few errors, which we had to change. From than onwards it is all downhill everything in the backoffice/head quarters doesn't seem to work. We still haven't received the final quote based on the variations of the revised plans (Variations because the quote showed something different than the actual drawn plans). We have though been promised just before Christmas that all plans have been drawn and that everything has been sent off to get the building approval. We have to see what happens. Reading all the other notes though (also under www.productreview.com.au), I am at the moment equally unsure if we should go ahead with Cosmo. Trying to think positive and see when we get the approval. I will give an update as soon as something happens. Happy New Year. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 11Jan 06, 2010 1:01 pm Just thought I'd add my 2cents as I'm also building with Cosmopolitan in Sydney. I've felt the same frustrations and anxiousness when trying to communicate with them as there was a lengthy delay to get a reponse (via email or phone) but I always did end up getting some reply. I signed the building contract at the end of September and my plans have now gone to council for DA approval. There were some delays trying to get everything together for council submission but we finally got there. I don't really have anything negative to say about them really; a lot of things could be better but we knew we'd be in for a bumpy ride because building a house isn't exactly a pain free process. Not defending them at all, but just adding my 2c based on my experience. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 12Jan 07, 2010 11:14 am G'Day All WE RECEIVED OUR ARCHITECTURAL PLANS TODAY!!!! Following the events over the last few weeks I have to say that our Customer Service Manager at Cosmo has made a remarkable effort to deliver our Architectural Plans to us as promised.It was sad that the matter had to be escalated and created much anxiety for all involved.It is a New Year so will forget the problems of 2009 and concentrate oN moving forward now. We have reviewed the plans at home and all seem in order.We have a plan review meeting tomorrow at Cosmo H/O which is a pleasant surprise. Will discuss next steps with our CSM and hopefully things will work much smoother from here on end. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 13Jan 07, 2010 11:42 am Awesome, they sound like they were a long, hard time coming Best of luck for the rest of the building process. Sounds like your builder has a lot on their plate, but I'm sure they want to look after you. Do post them for us to have a squiz! ALL PROBLEMS NOW RESOLVED... 14Jan 11, 2010 8:04 pm A quick update to say that we had a very positive meeting with our CSM last Friday.We are progressing on track for Council Lodgement in a month and possibly Construction starting within 4 months from now. We are pleased that all issues with our Builder have been resolved and are looking forward to the next stages. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 15Jan 11, 2010 8:49 pm glad you were able to sort that out. We are also building with Cosmopolitan at Spring Farm (slab went down a few weeks ago) & I'm really happy with them so far! Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 16Jan 12, 2010 1:23 pm Hi Kevin g Good to hear everything is now on track. We are also building with Cosmopolitan and we are also very happy with the progress. Best of luck with the build! Sanjeeva Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 18Jan 13, 2010 10:01 pm We are building Corella 22 on Delaware Street. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 19Jan 18, 2010 11:25 pm Make sure you ring the Office of Fair trading and find out if your site supervisor has a builders licence and not just a trade licence, if they don't ring your builder and ask for another supervisors. Ask for one that has had a builder Lic for more than 5 years. More experiance less mistakes. Re: COMPLAINT-SPRING FARM,CAMDEN-COSMOPOLITAN HOMES 20Jan 22, 2010 12:29 pm Kevin g - we are building the Rosedale 21 in Cape St. DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair We purchased a 1960s property that is on timber stumps mostly, and a newer section is on concrete stumps. We had a building inspection initially and they reported some… 0 12739 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74688 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 105491 |