"The Chariots" development, AndoverWe know that more than a few Taylor Wimpey new home buyers are far from happy, not only with the quality of their new home, but more importantly with the poor level of service Taylor Wimpey offer when they ask for help.
One development featured extensively on this Forum is their "The Chariots" development at Andover.
So when we discovered an article by Taylor Wimpey stating
"Buyers can depend on first-class customer service at the Chariots" we felt Taylor Wimpey CEO Peter Redfern should be contacted, bearing in mind
buyer's stories like this regarding quality and customer satisfaction at The Chariots something needed to be done! Really?
Especially as the buyer and myself on his behalf, had written to Mr Redfern on numerous occasions with neither of us receiving any reply or response from him personally.
19 June 2014
Mr Redfern,
I am astounded that Mr Buyer is STILL 8 months on, having to live his life around inflexible arrangements your company's regional office is making with the various sub contractors attempts to fix defects in his home. Indeed, Mr Buyer has been acting as a project manager, on your company's behalf, throughout the long drawn out process.
Far be it for me to suggest the obvious, that if Taylor Wimpey had actually built this home properly in the first place none of this would be necessary.
But for Mr Buyer to be informed that: "Renelec, they cannot commit to an appointment on the 23rd June 2014"
and that:
"coordinating multiple trades is difficult" (something your site managers already know!) is quite frankly beyond the pale. Surely your contractors should be forced to fit it with your customer's needs not the other way around!
I fully realise you have other duties, but do you not think it is now time you personally got invoved with this?
How long are you going to hide in the background, choosing to leave it to your staff who are obviously not up to the job and/or cannot be bothered?
Mr Buyer has been very patient and far more polite than I would have been!
So to give you some encouragement to get involved, I will be making posts on Twitter on a daily basis from now on until Mr Buyer notifies me you have met with him.
You have been copied in on most if not all of Mr Buyer's e mails.
I have contacted you several times regarding this.
It is now time for action Mr Redfern, are you up to the job?
1 July 2014
Mr Redfern,
I note that you have not had the decency to personally reply to either Mr Buyer or myself regarding his defect-ridden Taylor Wimpey new home and the poor customer service he has suffered over the past eight months.
I also note that you found time to appear on a BBC programme broadcast last week and I cannot believe you said what you did with such sincerity - especially regarding Oxley Wood where the timber frame homes are rotting caused by poor workmanship and cladding leaks!
However I found this to be the most galling piece of Taylor Wimpey "spin" yet
"….home-buyers at The Chariots have been so impressed with the Taylor Wimpey experience, that every single customer who bought a property there between December 2012 and October 2013 would recommend the leading housebuilder to friends and family, according to a survey.."
Imagine how Mr Buyer and his wife feel after reading this BS!
We received this reply from Mr Redfern last week which we would like to share with everyone.
1 July 2014
Thank you for your emails.
With regard to Mr Buyer, we are in contact with him and are committed to resolving his concerns. One of my senior team has already offered to visit Mr Buyer in his home and at his convenience, however, the customer has asked for that meeting to take place after the issues are resolved.
We are not prepared to enter into any further correspondence with you regarding Mr Buyer, or any other customer, whilst your approach is threatening and aggressive. Your correspondence, in this case and in the past, has generally not been trying to constructively assist in resolving an issue on the customer's behalf, and has often contained both factual inaccuracies and clear differences from the views and opinions expressed to us by customers directly.
Our commitment is to our customers and we will seek to resolve any issues directly with the customer concerned. We will only work with a third party where that is both at the customer’s specific request and where that party behaves in a constructive and reasonable manner.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Redfern
We leave it to you to decide who is being unreasonable!
We can confirm that Mr Buyer has written [yet again] to Mr Redfern in response to his e mail above and confirming that what we have written is both accurate and correct in this case.