Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 23, 2011 11:54 am Ok, For those who have not followed my thread I am in a worried state atm! Our house began to be built in Feb this year and we are still not at lock up. Communication between the company has been less then comfortable to say the least. This all started last year when we had to constantly chase up how progress was going with pre-build and had to even book ourselves in for selections to get things moving as they said 'we will call you' then never do. So my issue is I am fed up with the lack of communication. We were not informed that we had a new SS until I contacted the Customer service rep to follow up on a few issues I had (plumbing in the wrong place etc). I received an email back saying that our SS resigned 2 weeks prior and we were about to get a new 1 who will call. Great! thanks for telling us! things went well for a little while then construction stopped. SS told us that gyprock was to be installed on 9th may. On the friday still nothing. On the Monday I called head office and l/m to see if there was any problems. by 4pm still no call back so I emailed, which I received 1 back saying 'we tried to call' my response was no you didnt as neither DP or I received any missed calls or voicemails. Phones dont lie! By Thursday still nothing happening and still did not receive an answer so I thought I would email them with a cleaverly worded email stating I was disappointed with the lack of communication and that If there has been delays could they please let us know. After 14 months with dealing with our builders I am starting to get a little impatient (am I am VERY patient). Am I overreacting with this as I got a phone call the next morning from SS about the gyprock is to be installed on Monday (today). I replied GREAT! thanks for actually letting me know as I was worried that a 2 week delay was going to push the build back! His response was 'thats the building industry' Ok I understand that there are delays but when I ask a question just give me a straight answer so I dont get more ****** off each time I go to site to see that nothing has changed! sorry for the long winded story but this is where I stand and after being extremely upset and angry with the HO last week I hope that this does not affect the build! I am confident that my email was polite but firm with where I stand but it only takes 2 minutes a week for a quick email or phone call to say 'sorry but we're having trouble with the gyprockers as they are still finishing another job they will start on yours asap!' Any help or feedback would be great! Re: HELP! am I over-reacting? 2May 23, 2011 12:04 pm We had 5 different site supervisors and 4 different customer service people durring our build. We had endless discussions caused by lack of continuity and lost information along the way. Make sure you have all communication (even though there doesn't seem to be much of it), in writing. Minimises headaches down the track. Re: HELP! am I over-reacting? 3May 23, 2011 12:08 pm Thanks Malcolm, i have been trying to email communication with them as often so I have documentation as well as documenting all phone convos as back up. Im in managment and customer service so I understand how improtant it is with communication to eliviate headaches and assumptions down the track! You would think that with spending the amount of money and the biggest investment of your life they would be a little more helpful wouldnt you? Re: HELP! am I over-reacting? 4May 23, 2011 12:29 pm Oh dear - you have every right to feel aggrieved. Sounds like they are just fobbing you off and I would be worried too about how long the build will take with all the delays. Don't know what you can do apart from contacting someone higher up the food chain - good luck and try not to stress too much. At the end of the day they want to build your house and get your money so there is an incentive for them although you wouldn't think so at this rate! For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! HELP! am I over-reacting? 5May 23, 2011 2:26 pm As long as you keep a record of every phone call / email you sent there is not a lot more you can do. Until they go over the contract date they can unfortunately take as long as they want on each stage. A not so nice thought - are they working on other sites? The only reason I ask when things started to slow down on our site and they stopped answering the phone / emails we checked some other building sites = alarm bells ringing. That was when we realized the builder was going belly up. So just do a little bit of checking to make sure they are still working - in any sites around your area. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: HELP! am I over-reacting? 6May 23, 2011 2:39 pm Thanks for the advice Kyton. I have been in contact with another buildee on this site who have just started their build with the same company and they have not had their site touched in 6 weeks after lay of slab. This is 1 thing i am VERY worried about. They have been a large builder in Adelaide for 25 years and build some nice homes at good prices and heard some great things about them but in the last 6 months things have gone down hill VERY quickly. They said when we signed the final contract they were expecting a 20 week build time but give 26 weeks incase! well half way through that and still not much Re: HELP! am I over-reacting? 7May 23, 2011 4:46 pm Ok - what we did was we started phoning every 1/2hr until we finally spoke to one of the directors. We also phoned Dept of Fair Trading to ask whether they had heard anything untoward about our builders. We luckily also knew their kitchen cabinet maker personally so made the call to them to ask whether they had heard anything. By the time our builder finally spoke to us we were forewarned that things were dire. Then we started the steps towards sacking them - luckily for us they were helpful and apologetic so made the transition very easy for us. I wish you luck in the coming days / weeks Some things are worth waiting for. Re: HELP! am I over-reacting? 8May 26, 2011 11:51 am Thanks for all the support guys. so far things are back ontrack and found out through the gyprockers that our builder doesnt have any gyprock contractors atm thats why there was a delay. Our SS had to call in a favor. they are really nice when I spoke to them and got the job done in2.5 days and back today to flush it all. YAY! Im sure Ill be back when something else goes wrong Hi everyone, Looking for some advise. We are about to build an above ground pool in our backyard. There is a private sewer line running under the pool at 1.6m… 0 11759 Much a do about nothing. You can see the fall heading to the actual drains. Stormwater ingress will be minimal and it's far better to have the top sitting flush rather… 12 6245 Levelling compound Ardit is the best but buy a bag of sand and make sand dam to protect your wood floor 2 15253 |