Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 20, 2012 7:08 pm Hi Everyone, Should anyone have any queries or questions regarding Wisdom Homes please drop us a line. We are getting more involved in social media these days and are more than happy to discuss anything relating to our company via home forum one, facebook or twitter. Regards, Domenic Vitalone (Managing Director) Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 2Sep 21, 2012 12:43 pm Hi Domenic, Great idea getting on here as your company is obviously growing quickly and I see that you genuinely care about the feedback generated. I am about to embark on building a Wisdom Majestic and I am happy to give you some feedback. We love the design, inclusions and product that you offer - hence why we and so many others are signing up to build with you. You have probably gained an insight already but the biggest problem that I think is bringing you bad publicity is the very slow administration processes. Now I work in admin myself so I understand the kind of contraints that you are faced with BUT your staff need to be more honest with the actual time involved in the processes AND keep the clients up to date with any delays. The most frustrating part for us to date (and we put our initial deposit down in December last year and hopefully will commence building within the next month), is the administration process. I am always asking how long things will take and I am given a timeframe that is usually much less than the actual time taken. This causes unended frustration. I am then having to chase people for answers and once again, this adds to the frustration. I need to say your staff that we have dealt with to date are all very nice people and are a credit to your company BUT they need to either work on quicker turnaround times OR ensure that if deadlines are not going to be met for whatever reason, clients are kept informed of this. Hope this assists you and I am happy to continue to provide feedback (both positive and negative) as it arises during the actual building process and on the final product. Looking forward to seeing that slab poured soon and some reinforcement that we made the wise choice! Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 3Sep 21, 2012 1:19 pm Hi Domenic, I totally agree with Nessie1203 comments.We are also finding the slow admin processes to be frustrating and on occassions it feels like we are kept out of the loop or not provided with accurate timelines on when we will receive certain information.It also appears that this may be due to lack of communication between the Sales and Admin/Drafting areas. I have read on here that some other companies provide clients with access to some sort of portal where they can get up to date information on where there job is up to. Do you believe something like this may be looked at by Wisdom Homes going forward? I am not sure if this is very expensive to setup though. On a positive note,congratulations on the huge growth your company has made in a relatively short period. All the best for the future and looking forward to building with Wisdom in the coming months. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 4Sep 21, 2012 2:24 pm Hi and thanks for your repy. Your comments are appreciated and we do take them on board very seriously. Alot happens behind the scenes that our clients are not privy to in the administation department and we try to manage them the best we can. With that being said we are aiming to get our admin cycle times down as much as possible and get jobs out to site quicker. There are still improvements to be made but we are well on track to make it happen. Rest assured this is a high priority item for the company. On a positive note our Construction departments are doing extremely well and you can look forward to a Quality Wisdom Home on completion of the build. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 5Sep 21, 2012 6:08 pm Hello Dominic, Can wisdom deliver homes without a kitchen, laundry, or bathroom cupboards etc.? I did not have the best experience with your Kitchen company. Moreoever if one is doing timber flooring downstairs, this makes a huge difference. Electrical consultation with Clipsal was also highly unproductive with the consultation lady lacking knowledge, which is why I will not get a gas point ever (without spending a ton of money now) on my upstairs lounge. She missed quite a few points and lacked basic knowledge about regulations and Clipsal's own products. And we pay premium for their service. Also, I would be intersted to know if you can accomodate my own electrician do some work as anything through clipsal is extremely expensive. regards, g Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 6Sep 21, 2012 6:34 pm Hi gunny, Unfortunately we cannot provide homes without Kitchens and Cabinetry. Same applies for electrician. We must be responsible for all works for insurance and work safety purposes. If you are having any specific issues with our Kitchen supplier or Clipsal please let your customer service administrator know the details and we can investigate for you. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 7Sep 21, 2012 7:20 pm Well the problem is Clipsal will refuse to admit that their representative did not know the regulation. They will ask us to pay another $250 reconsultation fee and wisdom will also charge a variation fee. All prohibitively expensive for a gas point. There are more....they rush you. The do not try to accomodate your needs. They do not give you enough time to understand what you might need. 2 hours is not enough time for an electrical appointment for a 40+ sq house. Some areas you can never really redo later without incurring huge cost. About flooring, I highly recommend you change your flooring company. It will be one big reason I will hesitate building with wisdom again. I want timber floor, and their price was about 15k above the price I am paying and they would not even be able to supply the quality product I was after. I would have loved if I could have done my timber flooring before the kitchen went on. My contractor will suppy all the insurance requied. Then where is the problem? I know there is no problem as other builders allow this. Ultimately most of the worka are done by contractors. I wonder how much it matters if the contractor is engaged by Wisdom or Wisdom's client as long as the contractor has the right license and insurance. Same goes for electrical. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 8Sep 21, 2012 8:00 pm Gunny, I have to agree with you about flooring,we were very close to signing with wisdom at one point except for the outrageous prices for flooring, the sales rep said he would take it out of our tender, but the problem is I wanted a company to provide me a finished home with flooring and wisdom were unable to provide this within a reasonable cost. The costs dilorenzo charge are outrageous, we could have had our floors laid for less than the upgrade prices, not to mention the extra cost of cleaning (inclusive of tiles,screeding and laying)that to me was enough to think that wisdom were ripping us off, so we built with another company. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 9Sep 21, 2012 8:57 pm Hi, Many builders use Di Lorezo because they're one of the few companies who offer a supply and fix contact and they also have the best range. If you choose tiles within the standard range it's not an issue, if you are seeking to upgrade their prices can be expensive but it all depends on what is chosen. At wisdom we always give clients the option to delete the tiling from the contract and do it themselves after settlement and that way they can potentially save some money if they want high end tiles. As DiLorenzo are a separate company we do not have a say on how much they charge for upgrades however we do know they're a great supplier as they always fix any issues that arise without question and their service is good. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 10Sep 24, 2012 1:06 pm I agree with gunny and gogo regarding the timber flooring. You should be able to have the option of using your own company whilst the house is being built rather than Di Lorenzo.
Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 11Sep 24, 2012 1:18 pm As a large builder Wisdom Homes need to have total control over the job during the construction process. What owners do after the building contract is over is up to them. Smaller builders may operate differently but I know for a fact that most major builders to the same. At Wisdom Homes to guarantee quality and refuse to hand over a house unless the client signs off that they are happy with the construction. I know personally that many items blogged about are exaggerated and don't tell the whole story. If you feel any aspect of home is not quality then please report it to us and we'll investigate further for you. I personally stand by every home that gets built and Wisdom Homes has an impeccable building record. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 12Sep 25, 2012 4:23 pm WisdomHomes As a large builder Wisdom Homes need to have total control over the job during the construction process. What owners do after the building contract is over is up to them. Smaller builders may operate differently but I know for a fact that most major builders to the same. At Wisdom Homes to guarantee quality and refuse to hand over a house unless the client signs off that they are happy with the construction. I know personally that many items blogged about are exaggerated and don't tell the whole story. If you feel any aspect of home is not quality then please report it to us and we'll investigate further for you. I personally stand by every home that gets built and Wisdom Homes has an impeccable building record. Sorry to say that these are just excuses and not looking after client's needs. Exorbitant rates of dilorenzo, clipsal, and timpelle are no excuse to stick with them. The service is not as good as you make it sound. Dilorenzo created delays for our house as they ran out of tiles for which they should have exact measurement of. Tempelle is prohibitively expensive as well and will not see customers on a Saturday even though they are open on Saturdays. So is Clipsal with their pathetic representatives and exorbitant rates. Which reminds me of another quick suggestion - make sure Timpelle, Dilorenzo and Clipsal keep some appointments for busy clients on Saturdays. With exorbitant house prices, we can't skip work and still be able to afford a house. Edit: Dilorenzo actually gives out appointments on Saturdays. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 13Sep 25, 2012 5:03 pm Hi Gunny, I'm happy to speak with you direct if you contract my office. I've been using Clipsal, Timpelle and Di Lorenzo for 7 years and find them to be excellent suppliers and have reasonable prices. If you find their prices exhorbident for upgrades you can elect to do the works yourself after settlement. As mentioned previously if you want us to investigate anything imparticular we are happy to do so. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 14Sep 25, 2012 9:43 pm Hi Wisdom Homes , Please listen to your customers concerns, after all, the best type of advertising is that of word of mouth. I didn't build with Wisdom, I built with the fallen Westminster Homes. They too were using Delorenzo as their tile supplier & I do have to agree, they are expensive. You say if you choose from their standard range you have nothing to worry about? the key word here is " range " which translates into variety, in some instances they only have 2 choices, otherwise you have to pay extra to upgrade....so I ask you, how is this a range? Btw, before we signed with Westminster ( which then turned out to be the worst decision of our lives ) we visited your display homes at Oran Park. What turned us off signing with you was the fact that your sales people weren't really interested in helping us with the questions we had, maybe you were under staffed, maybe they were just tired ,but we took it as a sign of things to come if we commited to you. Building a house can be stressful, the best thing builders can do, is to keep their customers informed with whats happening, as giving unrealistic deadlines, & or not returning phone calls ornot answering emails is really not the answer. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 15Sep 25, 2012 10:02 pm Hi, don't know where you get you information but our tile range has a lot more than two tiles in it. We and one other builder offer a $35m2 standard tile allowance which is the highest of all builders that use Di Lorenzo. There's many tiles to choose from, I'm not sure what Westminster offered but sounds like it was the cheapest tiles available. BTW, I do listen to customers, why would you assume I don't? I'm responding to any of my clients queries and offering to investigate any issues they may ask of me. Wouldn't you want that kind of response by the owner of any building company your building with? Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 16Sep 25, 2012 10:11 pm I never said you don't listen, I merely said that builders who listen to their customer's concerns do well. Please don't get defensive, I think it's a great thing that you are on this forum putting yourself "out there " for customers & being very approachable, I think if more builders did that, they'd be very successful. As for the Tile range, you'll find there are many people who feel the same way as I do regardless of who they are building with. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 17Sep 25, 2012 10:17 pm WisdomHomes I've been using Clipsal, Timpelle and Di Lorenzo for 7 years and find them to be excellent suppliers and have reasonable prices. If you find their prices exhorbident for upgrades you can elect to do the works yourself after settlement. I think what springtime was alluding to was the fact that you are backing your suppliers saying they are excellent rather than acknowledging the issues concerns that your customers have. To say do it after handover is ludicrous, Many people want polished porcelain rectified tiles in their bathrooms (we did) so we were unable to do this after handover if we built with wisdom homes, instead customers are charged exorbitant prices for a product that can be bought from other suppliers for far less, or the alternative is to choose from your standard ceramic tiles. I was of the belief that the $35sqm tile allowance is only included in the upgrade package not the standard package but I could be wrong. Like springtime we too seriously looked at wisdom homes, we on one hand had a great salesman, who was very helpful but at the end of the day, we could not justify the extra tile costs that dilorenzo charged to get the tiles we wanted, again just a potential customer that was lost due to the experience with one of your suppliers. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 18Sep 25, 2012 10:33 pm WisdomHomes Hi Everyone, Should anyone have any queries or questions regarding Wisdom Homes please drop us a line. We are getting more involved in social media these days and are more than happy to discuss anything relating to our company via home forum one, facebook or twitter. Regards, Domenic Vitalone (Managing Director) Hi Domenic, This is a great idea for Wisdom Homes and any other Home Builders to get more involved with sites like homeone... I dont know about everyone else but it makes me feel more comfortable with the builder when they listen to us ramble on and take a little notice... Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 19Sep 25, 2012 10:43 pm Polished porcelain tiles cost extra we all know but tiles are not the only thing to consider when building a home. Alot of builders dont offer main floor tiles in their standard inclusions to begin with and clients need to arrange them themselves. If somebody don't like the price of the upgrade they've got the option to arrange it themselves. You can ask your builder to tack the skirtings to help with that. People that build with wisdom due to the design of the home, designer inclusions and quality of the build, and reputation of the company. We acknowledge that we can't win them all and wish you the best with your build. Re: Wisdom Homes..........The Wise Choice 20Sep 25, 2012 10:44 pm Thanks Marybond2012! I appreciate it. Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 11982 In fairness nobody gave a crap about the ACCC and the gag clauses continued in the pro forma templates of a few other builders after the ACCC took on Wisdom, and more… 20 57613 Hi Everyone, I am exploring builder in NSW and received a very tempting quote from Wisdom home for their momentum series. I just want to know experience of building… 0 3557 |