Tuesday 24 March 2015

Sleepless night...

I did not sleep a wink last night.  After receiving the bad news that our site works were going to cost us $40,000 I was up all night stressing about what we were going to do.

Our options as I see it?
1. Pay the $40k and build this house
2. Change house design and put a smaller house, or a double storey house on the block instead
3. Sell the block of land and don't even think about building a house ever again

The other issue we have to compound this problem is the promotion we received when we bought our block of land.  Our developer (Villawood) will pay our 5% builders deposit if we sign an unconditional contract within 12 months of signing our land contract; that makes it May 10th.

If we change house design, we need to start the whole process all over again (for the 3rd time).  Porter Davis were happy to remind us that if we decided to change house plans then we wouldn't make it in time to sign a contract before May 10. There is absolutely no way they could possibly help by speeding up the process, that would be just too helpful.

I was so stressed out that I couldn't go to work today.  I needed time to think this through.

The first thing we did was get in contact with our land sales consultant and told him of the issue we were now having with this new builder and that our contracts could be pushed out yet again. He was incredibly patient and said that we would still get our builders deposit.  He will advise Villawood of the issues we keep facing.  The service we've received from Nabil at the Pasadena sales office has been nothing short of exceptional.  This bloke deserves a medal.

As usual our Building Co-ordinator with Porter Davis was absolutely useless and couldn't help us with advice on how much we need to change our design so that it fits better on our block and we don't need to sell our first born to pay it.  We tried going back to the sales office to speak to someone but unfortunately the sales consultant was at a meeting.  We took some brochures home with us to look through more designs......we couldn't find anything we liked.

What came next was totally unexpected.....I suggested we go back to Boutique Homes.  We were unsure about this, but figured we could at least go and chat with our old consultant.  After all, he has been the most professional and trustworthy rep we have dealt with any builder.  Thankfully he was there and we had a chat.  He did not make us feel awkward at all and was really quite respectful.  He said he would drop everything and get in contact with his Manager and see if there is anything they can do for us.  He is hoping that we can just kick off were we left off, hopefully with all the same pricing.

He wasn't kidding either.  About an hour later we received a call from him just to let us know that he's been trying to contact his manager but hasn't had any luck as yet.  The customer service from this bloke is second to none.  He was calling us just to let us know he is still working for us.  In contrast with service from Porter Davis?  I've had to email, call and even rock up face to face, just to get a response from someone.  And finally when I do hear back, I get a standard response of, "Thank you for your email, unfortunately I am unable to assist with this...."

David (from Boutique) called me back again this evening to advise that he was able to get in contact with his manager, who was happy to hear we're thinking of coming back and will contact the General Manager to discuss our situation.

We're going back on Saturday to discuss the possibility of returning to Boutique Home.  I have a sickness in the pit of my stomach about this; after the forgery situation, I'm worried about trusting them, and I'm concerned they will try and take advantage of us for returning.

I guess we'll find out on Saturday.

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