Please DO NOT buy a Persimmon new home!This company is about as bad as it gets! 3-star rated by its own customers for "satisfaction" five years in a row. Even the CEO and main board directors acknowledge how bad their company is!
This is what they say they are doing:
In the Financial Times, Persimmon’s recently-appointed CEO Dave Jenkinson said:
"Persimmon is listening hard to all of its stakeholders and we hear the message that we need to continue to raise our game in customer care.
CEO Dave Jenkinson announces Persimmon homebuyer retention
"The initiatives we have already announced, including the action taken in the new year to deliver greater accuracy of anticipated moving in dates by adopting a more targeted approach to the phasing of sales on specific sites and the improvements and investments that we have made in our customer care team, operations and technology over the last few months are beginning to take effect.
"We are now accelerating the pace of change through the introduction of a contracted retention, which will give homebuyers far greater satisfaction at the completion of the purchase.
"Moving into a new home should be a positive experience enhanced by all the benefits of a new build that is designed for modern living. We are determined that the experience is not overshadowed by teething problems and providing a homebuyer’s retention is an important step towards achieving this.
Chairman Roger Devlin, said:
"This is a first among the UK’s large housebuilders and I hope will lead the way in change across the sector. This move, and the urgency with which we will introduce it, is a clear and unambiguous signal of cultural and operational change at Persimmon putting customer care at the very centre of the business."
But they've been saying the same thing for years!
Persimmon Annual report 2015 on 22 February 2016.
CEO Jeff Fairburn stated:
"The Group’s priority is to serve our customers well by providing good quality new homes and great service. All of our team are[sic] responsible for delivering high levels of customer satisfaction….Our sales teams across the business are trained to provide excellent levels of service to our customers."
"During 2015 we invested substantial resources in new customer focused initiatives to improve our customers’ buying experience and our NHBC/HBF 3 star rating. We have introduced dedicated customer liaison managers on our larger sites, improved communication processes with our customers, introduced new processes to strengthen our build programmes and provided additional resources in our customer care teams. These initiatives are showing some early signs of improvement in our customer satisfaction ratings and we will continue to pursue this agenda to secure further progress this year."
The early bird scheme should be just that you get first refusal when the plot is released for sale and the price is established. If you don't go ahead you should have any fee fully refunded, but I guess they can and do refuse. (An indication of how this company operate!)
Persimmon Homes' standard specification is indeed basic. They do have a "Finishing Touches" catalogue of extras which they make enormous profit margins on and yes, Matron is correct, those on site get a good commission too!
The photo is of a Persimmon new home in Stalybridge as handed over!