Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Simonds Homes problems 82May 07, 2009 1:24 pm We have had just problem after problem with Simonds homes and they have not even poured the slab yet! What problems can we look forward to when the house actually starts (if it does even start) The sales consultant was very friendly and nice, but as soon as you pay a deposit things go downhill. Just a warning to anyone considering going with Simonds homes, re-think about it, as the problems will make you regret it! Our CSO constantly blamed the sales assistant for not getting the paperwork sent to her, yet she also said it was OUR fault! (since when does the customer have to take responsibilty for the sales assistant???) We were told a larger shower would fit in the ensuite then 2 months later at contract signing it was left out. After another month of constant asking about it we were told it didnt fit and we shouldnt have been told it would fit. Bad luck to us. After pushing the point they charged as $1000 and moved a wall 10cm. They couldnt even add up the total of the promotion they had, and kept saying we were over when we were a couple of thousand dollars under. Dont trust them they cannot add up, then told me to add it up and give them the answer!!! At the gallery they do not even have a computer program to show you the different colours like other builders. We were quoted $200 to upgrade the underlay, and chose this but our colour consultant left this off the quote, so when it got to contract and we had to add it they said the cost was $400. They didnt care that we already had a quote and after speaking again to the rep at the gallery he said it should be $200 they still charged $400???? Where do they make up these figures. Our site costs were also rediculous. We had a flat block with no rock, and were given site costs of over $15000. After complaining it was dropped back to $9000. So I really think they must just make these figures up? We had friends building on the block next door with porter davis with site cost of $3000 which is why we complained! Our CSO also emailed last week to ask if our land had settled yet. We already owned the land 6 months ago which was BEFORE we signed up to simonds, and she already had all the paperwork. I asked her to go back and please re-read our file. They have not even sent the correct information to the bank to confirm the house warranty yet, as the bank cant supply them with proof of funds until they have this. Our site start was supposed to be last month, but now we have no idea when all the problems will be fixed. Managers are no help at all. They just told us if we are not happy we dont have to build with them! (But they will not refund our deposit!!!) I think Simonds have too much work that if you question any mistakes they get upset and start to overcharge. These are also only a few of the mistakes, I have at least another 10 errors I can think of. Shame on Simonds, I always thought you were a great builder but not anymore. Please if your thinking of building in Melbourne pick anyone but Simonds unless you want to go through what we have. Re: Simonds Homes problems 83May 08, 2009 6:13 pm We were quite happy with Simonds until we got the contract price. Now I can understand some of their pricing as we have got around about 2m worth of fall over the whole block. But when we got the price we started to think and look long and hard as we had previous soil tests done through another builder and simonds pretty much came back with opposite results. So we argued the price with them and they were able to bring the price down $4000. They we had a read through the contract and soil test and we noticed that on the contract they had charged us for a H Class slab when on the soil test it stated we only required M class. So be careful. We notified them of this difference and they had a look and it was the ESTIMATOR got it wrong!!! So now they are looking over the whole contract again; waisting more of our time. With the upgrades I really do think sometimes it is worth spending the extra. We went all standard choices except the carpet we went a better quality which will last us longer for a extra $600 (better then paying $5000 down the track). I will keep you all posted on the price change when we find out. Our original site costs were around $20,000 so hopefully they have come down a little. Re: Simonds Homes problems 84May 09, 2009 7:52 am wow! @ simondsarecrap's post Must say our experience with Simonds has been pretty good lately, haven't had any major issues YET (fingers crossed). Our current CSO is very good when compared to our previous one. Im sure this can make a massive difference. After reading your post I am going to re-calculate the promo items we selected, we should have had some credit left over but were told that we were over and were required to pay the difference.... Re: Simonds Homes problems 85May 09, 2009 9:55 am Its easy to check the promotion as they can actually email you a list with all the prices and which items you are supposed to have selected. After checking ours they had included 2 extra overhead cupboards that they were trying to charge us for, when they would not have even fitted on the design as we had already picked 7 overhead cupboards which filled the kitchen! (So not sure where they were going to fit these extra ones!) Also we picked the mirrored doors for bedrooms 2, 3 and 4. They actually put down 6 of these instead of 3, so had overcharged us by $1500 in the promotion just in this part. Also we only had 1 sidelight beside the entry door, so at the gallery they confirmed that they would only charge us half the promotion price as the promotion was for 2, but our CSO said she cant do that. So you cant believe what you are told at the gallery as your CSO will just say it is wrong. You need to be REALLY careful with any Simonds paperwork and check it over and add up the price on all items or they will just overcharge you. If you request a change but its too hard for them then they will just leave it off the plans and not tell you about it. (If it doesnt fit maybe a call to the customer would be a good idea to inform them instead of just leaving it out and hoping the customer doesnt notice until its too late. Another big error we had in our contract was they had actually drawn up the plans with pot draws under the sink. As you cant have pot draws under the sink as they cant fit, why would a company like Simonds make such a big mistake? Then after contract they just move them onto the island bench without asking us which then stuffs us up as we were having a powerpoint on the island bench and then they have to run conduit up the outside of the island bench which would look stupid. Such a big mistake by Simonds meant we had to just cancel the pot draws all together. Also if you picked Render in the promotion be really careful and get out a ruler and add it up yourself if you are being charged for going over the promotion amount of 20m of render. They had added a charge of $600 for going over the 20m of render but when we added it up we only had 18m of render, so why would they charge us $600 for going over? This took weeks to fix up as they just said it must be right. They finally checked it for us and deleted the $600 charge as we were under 20m of render. So as you can see its mistake after mistake and they just keep coming along. It would be nice if your CSO called you back too! She takes days to call or email us back. We asked for a new one but they will not change her. (I think she is a work experience girl, by all the mistakes she makes) But really you must check EVERYTHING with Simonds. Re: Simonds Homes problems 87May 14, 2009 11:28 am simondsarecrap - I'm sorry that your experience has been so bad so far. That's horrible to be going through all of that and not even have a house started. Things have picked up for us since I had a minor "dummy-spit" at both the SS and CSO. My main issue was that they weren't keeping us informed about our build, so nothing major... It seems to have worked for this week anyway But given that we are only about a month off finishing, I'm doing my best to avoid creating any waves that might cause work to slow down. They did attempt to issue us with an invoice for generator hire because the power wasn't connected when they started. They explained that without the generator our house would have been delayed a week. The problem for us was they started our house 1 week before the land was titled and so if they had waited like they should have, the generator wouldn't have been required. We won that battle and said invoice was retracted. The other issue which I am 'monitoring' at the moment is the bricks at the entrance of the house - there are about 6 bricks that are wrong (backwards we think). The SS has agreed to fix that so I'm watching to see that it is actually done! For me it's a careful balancing act of watching them carefully to make sure that we get what we are paying for but staying off their backs enough so that they just get on with building our house. It's like walking on eggshells My blog: http://artstitcheshome.blogspot.com Re: Simonds Homes problems 88May 14, 2009 12:07 pm Focus06 We were quite happy with Simonds until we got the contract price. Now I can understand some of their pricing as we have got around about 2m worth of fall over the whole block. But when we got the price we started to think and look long and hard as we had previous soil tests done through another builder and simonds pretty much came back with opposite results. So we argued the price with them and they were able to bring the price down $4000. They we had a read through the contract and soil test and we noticed that on the contract they had charged us for a H Class slab when on the soil test it stated we only required M class. So be careful. We notified them of this difference and they had a look and it was the ESTIMATOR got it wrong!!! So now they are looking over the whole contract again; waisting more of our time. With the upgrades I really do think sometimes it is worth spending the extra. We went all standard choices except the carpet we went a better quality which will last us longer for a extra $600 (better then paying $5000 down the track). I will keep you all posted on the price change when we find out. Our original site costs were around $20,000 so hopefully they have come down a little. Well nope they haven't come down. When I previously told you that they had brought it down $4000 well that brought the total price for the whole lot to $170,000. Now they have changed the slab to M class but it is still $170,000 and they state this its because the slab is structured differently. But they also said that it only saved us $2000 from H to M class when M is their standard. So really in the end it has not saved us anything. Does anybody know what they are on about or have had the same experience? Re: Simonds Homes problems 89May 14, 2009 12:24 pm Focus06 Focus06 We were quite happy with Simonds until we got the contract price. Now I can understand some of their pricing as we have got around about 2m worth of fall over the whole block. But when we got the price we started to think and look long and hard as we had previous soil tests done through another builder and simonds pretty much came back with opposite results. So we argued the price with them and they were able to bring the price down $4000. They we had a read through the contract and soil test and we noticed that on the contract they had charged us for a H Class slab when on the soil test it stated we only required M class. So be careful. We notified them of this difference and they had a look and it was the ESTIMATOR got it wrong!!! So now they are looking over the whole contract again; waisting more of our time. With the upgrades I really do think sometimes it is worth spending the extra. We went all standard choices except the carpet we went a better quality which will last us longer for a extra $600 (better then paying $5000 down the track). I will keep you all posted on the price change when we find out. Our original site costs were around $20,000 so hopefully they have come down a little. Well nope they haven't come down. When I previously told you that they had brought it down $4000 well that brought the total price for the whole lot to $170,000. Now they have changed the slab to M class but it is still $170,000 and they state this its because the slab is structured differently. But they also said that it only saved us $2000 from H to M class when M is their standard. So really in the end it has not saved us anything. Does anybody know what they are on about or have had the same experience? We needed to go up to the H class slab and were charged an extra $3,565 to upgrade it. That's for a house of 25 squares. I would assume that if you went back down to the M class slab they'd have to reduce the the site costs and also the contract price accordingly. Have they included the $2000 difference in the $4000 that they'd already agreed to take off the site costs? Sorry, I'm no help at all! My blog: http://artstitcheshome.blogspot.com Re: Simonds Homes problems 90May 14, 2009 1:07 pm artstitches Focus06 Focus06 We were quite happy with Simonds until we got the contract price. Now I can understand some of their pricing as we have got around about 2m worth of fall over the whole block. But when we got the price we started to think and look long and hard as we had previous soil tests done through another builder and simonds pretty much came back with opposite results. So we argued the price with them and they were able to bring the price down $4000. They we had a read through the contract and soil test and we noticed that on the contract they had charged us for a H Class slab when on the soil test it stated we only required M class. So be careful. We notified them of this difference and they had a look and it was the ESTIMATOR got it wrong!!! So now they are looking over the whole contract again; waisting more of our time. With the upgrades I really do think sometimes it is worth spending the extra. We went all standard choices except the carpet we went a better quality which will last us longer for a extra $600 (better then paying $5000 down the track). I will keep you all posted on the price change when we find out. Our original site costs were around $20,000 so hopefully they have come down a little. Well nope they haven't come down. When I previously told you that they had brought it down $4000 well that brought the total price for the whole lot to $170,000. Now they have changed the slab to M class but it is still $170,000 and they state this its because the slab is structured differently. But they also said that it only saved us $2000 from H to M class when M is their standard. So really in the end it has not saved us anything. Does anybody know what they are on about or have had the same experience? We needed to go up to the H class slab and were charged an extra $3,565 to upgrade it. That's for a house of 25 squares. I would assume that if you went back down to the M class slab they'd have to reduce the the site costs and also the contract price accordingly. Have they included the $2000 difference in the $4000 that they'd already agreed to take off the site costs? Sorry, I'm no help at all! Nah they haven't included the $2000 in the $4000 as they took the $4000 off before we pointed out that they made a mistake with the slab. Re: Simonds Homes problems 91May 14, 2009 4:13 pm Then I have no idea what they are on about. If they've admitted that there is a saving of $2000 then they need to credit that amount back to you. You should be able to see what extra they've charged frot he slab in the contract - as M class is standard there is only a charge if you vary it to H class. I'd be pushing the issue with them as you shouldn't be paying for something that you're not getting! My blog: http://artstitcheshome.blogspot.com Re: Simonds Homes problems 92May 14, 2009 10:19 pm I believe you can take or authorise someone to do the inspection. Please see domestic Building contract act.Sec 19 :access to building site 1: A builder must permit the building owner(or a person authorised by the bld owner) to have reasonable accessto the bldg site and to view any part of the building works. penalty 20units.THis act takes precedence over ur contract Re: Simonds Homes problems 93May 15, 2009 12:37 am hi after reading through the threads it looks like there are good volume builders as well as * ones and looks like they are getting away with it.Why not we categorise them from 1star to 6stars just like the hotels. 6stars could mean they comply with the document.professional,and finish the work as per schedule and the 1star the worst,and newbies could be assessed after of completed projects. We have to workout the standards.We have the consumer power.what do u all think? Re: Simonds Homes problems 94May 15, 2009 7:03 am There is too much variation with each builder to give a fixed rating like that. Maybe you could use those ratings for the Site Supervisors. As they are they ones that control what tradies work on your build and ensures quality is maintained (if they care). Re: Simonds Homes problems 95May 15, 2009 12:27 pm I agree. The quality of your build and of your building experience rests on the people involved with your projects - the SS, CSOs, sales staff. As we're experienced, the one volume builder can have varying qualities of people in these roles so it would be very hard to rate the builder overall. My blog: http://artstitcheshome.blogspot.com Re: Simonds Homes problems 96May 15, 2009 1:41 pm Hi All, I can understand your pain...I am on the same boat.. Horrible Customer Service, poor attention to detail, misleading information and Dont care attitute. Totally helpless and at the mercy of these builders who claims to be best. With the promise of site start date in december which eventually after constant chasing and complaining....they had our construction started in April. With our file floating from West office to now north office. It took us 9 months from the date of initial deposit to get the site start date. Now we had slab poured on 15th April. Since then we already had supervisor changed and today when I called to follow up on the progess, he mentioned he is handing over my file to some third supervisor on monday. Cant belive it that, in less than a month I will have 3rd supervisor. Not sure how many more suprises..totally helpless and could do nothing but wait and see our time and money going in drain .... Re: Simonds Homes problems 97May 17, 2009 3:01 am Simonds Homes are in for an absolute shalacking from me and my legal team int he very near future. I am going to set up a website that targets them and I will spend all my spare moments to ensure they will fail. I cannot begin to mention the numerous frustrations that I've had with them but he list includes a 6 month delay on completion, ** workmanship, poor communication, countless management changes, but the one that now takes the cake is that they are asking for a number of appliances that have been in the house for 6 months, but have conveniently walked away. Their response was that they'd contact their legal team - my response - I will now spend the rest of my life making sure they fail. Nothing personal - just business. I am now refusing dialogue with them - only through lawyers. Bafoons and idiots is my only suitable description. Re: Simonds Homes problems 98May 17, 2009 1:05 pm mandave ::angry:: Simonds Homes are in for an absolute shalacking from me and my legal team int he very near future. I am going to set up a website that targets them and I will spend all my spare moments to ensure they will fail. I cannot begin to mention the numerous frustrations that I've had with them but he list includes a 6 month delay on completion, ** workmanship, poor communication, countless management changes, but the one that now takes the cake is that they are asking for a number of appliances that have been in the house for 6 months, but have conveniently walked away. Their response was that they'd contact their legal team - my response - I will now spend the rest of my life making sure they fail. Nothing personal - just business. I am now refusing dialogue with them - only through lawyers. Bafoons and idiots is my only suitable description. What area did you build in? What house and size did you build? What were some other problems you had? Sorry just curious as we are planning to build with them. Re: Simonds Homes problems 99May 17, 2009 3:53 pm mandave ::angry:: but the one that now takes the cake is that they are asking for a number of appliances that have been in the house for 6 months, but have conveniently walked away. What do you mean by that ? Cheers Re: Simonds Homes problems 100May 17, 2009 5:33 pm We had a similar experience with the head office experience at M. We had one CSC for our prel contract who was rude, incompetent, lazy and just couldn't care less. She went on leave and we got handed over another one with no notification, who was just as bad. I kept asking about issues on our contract that weren't right and she kept blaming us despite it being our previous CSC fault. I kept telling her things weren't drawn correctly on the plans eg-overhead liftup cupboards which we chose months before at color consultation, and then got told it was our fault we hadn't selected them and it will be another $600 for two lift up cupboards. I kept getting told things weren't possible eg-getting the setback brought forward despite the council telling me I would most probably be able to get it, being told you couldn't have overhead cupboards directly over our feature kitchen window despite it being in one of their display homes (got this one through after much hassling of people higher up). etc etc Although now we are building the experience has been a million times better. Our SS seems very switched on, is polite, gave us his number to ring him directly with any problems and states he goes to our house every 1-2 days to oversee things. I think this is what your building experience comes down to-how good your SS and tradies are. Hopefully things contintue the way they have been. I am not a brick expert, but rendering would be 1 option, it would be costly to do the entire house though.... 2 6683 Hi all, has anyone been ask to do the weeds in their property while in the middle of build? We are under the impression that they are in control of the site while they… 0 2779 Have had a few issues with out recently done bathroom floor. Probably around 18 months old First there has been been a crack running through a grout line which I put… 0 2181 |