Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 23, 2009 7:26 pm Hi,
Hope to be posting some pics soon of dirt being turned over etc... I am in the process of finally organising my post contract variation and have stumbled across a problem... Met with the Sales manager of Vic from the company, who had written down french doors before kitchen to be confirmed at colours, $800 No Charge. I have also cavity wooden doors to the rumpus and before the corridoor leading to the rest of the bedrooms/laundry etc... I assumed that the french door would have been wooden due to the other doors being wooden. However they have come back to me and stated that the $800 was for aluminimum french doors and that's what I can have ot pay the $1285 for the wooden french door. The picutre of the aluminimum doors that I have a choice from are all extrnal type french doors and would look odd I believe as an internal door, considering I have no other external doors internally... At my colour consultation, they had evidence of what the manager had written, however I had forgotten to mention the door as I was so worried about the colours etc... (Thanks to all in Michelle's forum for helping me ) What do I do now??? Do I offer to pay the difference of $485 and get the timber door? Or do I try and get them to provide the wooden doors at no charge? I have my signed contracts what seems to be like an eternity ago and they just cannot seem to get things right... I have not signed the latest post contract variation as this was an issue amongst other things... Thanks in advance for any advice that people may have and sorry for the long post.... Cheers, Tillie Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 2Jan 23, 2009 7:44 pm from what I read, I don't believe they are telling you the truth. From what you say, if the other doors therein are timber, it would be fair for you to assume the french doors were timber too. The fact that they did not specify aluminum (the cheaper option - as they allege) does not cut the cheese for me!
There must be a reason you went away with the impression that the doors for value of $800 (no charge) were timber. Surely they said it to you or YOU specifically asked for that and that was their response. Be assertive with them, remind them no one in their right mind would put aluminum french doors surrounded by timber doors. Clearly, you all thought you were talking about timber french doors when you had the discussion initially. I think your rep is telling a porky because s/he has stuffed up. Not your problem!!! At worst, last resort, offer a compromise half way or something... Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 3Jan 23, 2009 7:58 pm you know the more I think about it, I would be furious if this happened to me. There is no excuse for them not confirming this fact with you when they took the note down (or at colours) you said they have evidence of this from the colours appt... so it could have been discussed then when you discussed colours. Frankly, if this happened to me, so I'm not saying you should do this, I would go and see the rep in person and I would put them straight - I tell ya, I would go "bananas" - and I'm mouthing the word "bananas" as I'm typing it here!
Seriously what type of unprofessional misleading and deceptive idiots are you dealing with??? Ask them! What have you got to lose. A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 4Jan 23, 2009 8:08 pm Thanks Annietom for your reply
This is doing my head in...Signed contracts last year in October and they are still not able to get it right.... I have just had a look at the Dowell website at their aluminimum french doors and they are definately external doors... I do have to become more assertive, I can assure you that they have tried to pull the wool over my eyes with a few things, but have managed to catch them out, which really doesn't help my stress levels, building on my own... I also cannot believe that the state sales manager would put down a price for external doors as an internal door!!!! I will be sure to go in person next week and talk to her face to face, maybe a compromise it may have to be like paying the difference of $485???... This is just dragging on and on... Look out once the building actually starts.. Thanks again for your advice, Tillie Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 5Feb 06, 2009 9:25 am Hi Tillie
My post is not meant to scare u, but be prepared to deal with them... With AV J everything drags on.... we signed our contract in July-Aug 2007 and nothing started till April-May 2008. nay how we moved in , in Oct 2008 . They kept delaying coz they could not get enuff building material And u would probably realise sooner or later that the CSO in the head office are very rude and not at all helpful... If u ask for a time frame for nething, they love saying,, oh it'll be hard to give u any time frame... With them u have to be really on top of things... Did u realise that while building, u cannot speak to ur Site supervisor.. Ur messages will get passed onto the head office people and lots of time there were miscommunications. By the way how did u go with that door? All the best with ur building.... Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 6Feb 06, 2009 9:33 am Oh and i was so busy bagging them that i nearly forgot to mention this....
We added a door to the rumpus too. its a sliding door (goes in the cavity of the walls). I dont think we particularly said that we want wooded, we assumed it will be wooded, just coz the rest of the internal doors are wooded.... Any how our door is like the rest of the internal doors in the house..... What i think is u shud question them , as to why would they think of putting external doors internally. IMHO dont not pay them extra at all... Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 7Feb 06, 2009 12:35 pm Hi Anny,
I have spoken with the state sales manager who has sorted it out for me, he is brillant, so I am getting my timber doors at no cost. However some of the other staff, I really have to question. I totally agree with you in regards to the miscommunication, I am up to my third post contract variations with them and really hope that they shall finally get it right. I got an email from an executive ??person who stated clearly that AVJ believe that aluminium french doors are a quality product as and external door matching in with windows and sliding doors, I emailed back stating that he obviously was not aware of where the doors were to be fitted That is ridiculous that once the commencement of building starts that you can't speak to the site supervisor. I have had issues from the beginning, but I admit that the man I deal with has come good with everything he has tols me he would do. With regards to the door, he was on leave for 5 weeks and it was another manager of some sort who said I had to pay for them. So Anny what kind of door to you have on the rumpus?? Are they vinyl wrapped doors?? I am going to bring this up when I get my next lot of contract variations, as I too have added cavity doors to the rumpus, to the remainder of the bedrooms, the WIR and ensuite and would not be too impressed if these were not timber. Thanks so much for your advice, it is greatly appreciated. What was the quality of workmanship on the home? A friend of mine is nearly finished her home which took 51 weeks for them to get on site and has had alot of time issues also. Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 8Feb 06, 2009 6:44 pm Tillie,
I had a very similar thing happen to us at our recent final interview and it made me very very angry. There was steam coming off me, I'm sure. We had a fixed price contract which specified a specific front door listed as: "PMAD 104 (front door) in leiu of standard $450". This is exactly the model door we asked for. However at colours/final interview, the rep said that we had been charged the wrong price and had only been charged for an "internal" door of the same sort so we would need to pay the rest or we could not have the door!! But it was clearly written next to the price what we had asked for! I said to him "how come noone has picked this up for over 6 months since it has been on our contract and going through your office? and what stops you from adding additional amounts to all other items on our contract and just saying 'whoops our consultant put the wrong price'?" to which he said "sorry i understand it is not acceptable but there are allowances for this in the building contract you signed so if you would like that door you will have to pay the extra amount". (in hindsight I shouldve pulled out the contract and asked him to point that out - but knowing builders there probably was some kind of clause to that effect). In the end we agreed but only after a few harsh words on my part about the j*rk of a sales consultant we had and how p'd off I was at the situation. Sorry to hijack your thread but reading your original post brought back all my angry feelings! It sounds like you had a really nice consultant though and I'm glad you got what you were after in the end! I hope all of our bad luck is over now and once they actually start work on our house it will be smooth sailing! Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 9Feb 06, 2009 6:53 pm Hey Tillie, as you see, you are not the only one to fall for these sales tricks - and that's what they are! Pure and simple. There is no excuse and with my legal experience, I can assure you what they did is not only unethical, but a breach of contract and Alulei above should seek damages.
If they've done it b4, they'll do it again, and furthermore, it is unnecessary. It's not acceptable, and quite frankly, gives the industry a bad name. Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 10Feb 06, 2009 9:18 pm Alulei, that's terrible on their behalf considering the amount of money that people spend on their homes, it really does take the shine off building a new home... Annietom, who may I add helped me greatly and gave me the courage to pursue this further in getting what I wanted and at no further cost, has hit the nail on the head, they are all sales tricks and does give the industry a bad name.
I too hope for smooth sailing Alulei, but will be sure to watch them like a hawk Cheers Re: Need some clarification please on what to email next..... 11Feb 09, 2009 10:49 am Tillie Hi Anny, I have spoken with the state sales manager who has sorted it out for me, he is brillant, so I am getting my timber doors at no cost. However some of the other staff, I really have to question. I totally agree with you in regards to the miscommunication, I am up to my third post contract variations with them and really hope that they shall finally get it right. I got an email from an executive ??person who stated clearly that AVJ believe that aluminium french doors are a quality product as and external door matching in with windows and sliding doors, I emailed back stating that he obviously was not aware of where the doors were to be fitted That is ridiculous that once the commencement of building starts that you can't speak to the site supervisor. I have had issues from the beginning, but I admit that the man I deal with has come good with everything he has tols me he would do. With regards to the door, he was on leave for 5 weeks and it was another manager of some sort who said I had to pay for them. So Anny what kind of door to you have on the rumpus?? Are they vinyl wrapped doors?? I am going to bring this up when I get my next lot of contract variations, as I too have added cavity doors to the rumpus, to the remainder of the bedrooms, the WIR and ensuite and would not be too impressed if these were not timber. Thanks so much for your advice, it is greatly appreciated. What was the quality of workmanship on the home? A friend of mine is nearly finished her home which took 51 weeks for them to get on site and has had alot of time issues also. Hi Tillie.. Sorry for the delayed response... I am not sure wht that door is made of. but its exactly the same as any internal door. I will check my contract and see if they have written any description of the door. Workmanship was good I must say.. everyone who comes and sees the house really like the way the tiles have been layed with minimum grout. I wasnt happy with the cabinetmaker's job , so he came latter (after the handover) and fixed all up. Havent had a big list of problem for 3 months maintenance, just minor things like cracks, painting,,,,so all gud until now We had time issues too. They would not send us the letter stating the "start date". I had to nearly ring them every day in the head ofice. They kept giving various excuses... we signed the contract in November and got the letter stating the start date and finish date sometime in March end. Although they started 2 months after the mentioned start date but they did the handover 1 day before time... While i was across this behavior's pre appointing my (the builders) surveyor, I did tell the builder i was aware what they were doing and while i disagreed with it, they… 13 14589 I am not based in Victoria however i had a quick look into your question to understand what you were asking. The way I read the regulations, overshadowing relates to the… 1 2233 1 13125 |