Complaint letter

I have nice things to say about my house, but will get to that another time.

But for now, allow me to vent my complaint in a letter sent to the PD representative in the homeone forum, and subsequently forwarded to the general Porter Davis e-mail address, 'cc'd to our sales consultant, and our Building Coordinators, whom we were essentially complaining about.

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Dear Sir/Madam,

We are extremely disappointed that our Building Coordinator and her manager have not been able to resolve an important but basic issue.

Porter Davis prides itself on delivering excellent customer service, however our customer service experience at this stage, has been an extreme let-down.

Our request is that our construction plans are updated to reflect the electrical plans before we sign off on them.

We have spoken numerous times with our Building Coordinator regarding this. Their response has been to discourage us from rectifying the errors in the construction plans and instead to simply sign and return the Final, incorrect construction plans. We have also been told that if we do not do this, we will be penalised with a delayed start date.

We find this incredulous: We have identified an error in the construction plans. We have asked for it to be corrected before signing off on it. We do not understand why this is such a battle!

Ultimately, we simply ask that all the plans are consistent to avoid further confusion once construction begins.

The detailed account of this issue has been documented as below. The discrepancies between the Construction Plans and Electrical Plans in the contract document are attached.

We trust that Porter Davis, as Australia’s Most Professional Builder, will take this opportunity to promptly resolve this issue (i.e. construction plans to reflect the electrical plans) and provide us with peace of mind.

We appreciate your consideration and will be anticipating a call from senior management to expedite this matter.

Regards,

nasi_goreng

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25/01/2012

After having received the Final Construction Plans to be signed, we sought clarification that the electrical plans will determine the placement of the exhaust fans, as there were some discrepancies between the Construction Plans and the Electrical Plans, both referred to in the Contract Document.

The discrepancies noted were:

1.     Exhaust fan in Master Ensuite – Construction Plans indicate the exhaust fan to be placed over the toilet. Electrical Plans indicate the exhaust fan (model CEF40) to be (logically) placed over the shower cubicle.  (Refer to Attachment 1)

We would just like to note that Porter Davis was first to swap the locations of the Toilet and Shower in the Master Ensuite. This in fact, was of extreme inconvenience to us, as we were never told of this, until we noticed this change in the plans on the day of contract signing. PBC (Previous Building Coordinator) later informed us that the new plans were necessary to ensure that future evaporative cooling was possible.

             

It does not take a civil engineer, an architect or a builder to realise that by relocating the shower cubicle, relocating the exhaust fan along with it, is necessary.

The Moreland 27 plans can be found on the brochure published by Porter Davis, from when we first signed on with Porter Davis to build the Moreland 27. This brochure has been attached - We have also attached a mirror image of the plans, to reflect the initial location of the shower and toilet in the Master Ensuite, with a Right-Hand driveway (Refer to Attachment 2).

2.     Exhaust fan in laundry - Construction Plans do not indicate the addition of an exhaust fan in the laundry. Electrical Plans clearly indicate the “Draftstoppa” and “Airflow 250 exhaust fan” in the laundry (Refer to Attachment 3). 

We were informed at both our electrical appointment and by PBC, that the electrical plans would determine the location of all the electrical selections (which we assume to include the exhaust fans, as these were only discussed at our Electrical appointment).

A notation in the Construction Plans (Sheet 7 of 13) states, “Location of all electrical & service points are approximate only, and are subject to position of structural members on plan”.

An email was sent yesterday morning seeking confirmation regarding this matter (i.e. location of 2 exhaust fans), in order to give us peace of mind.

We then received a telephone call from BC (Building Coordinator), who was adamant that the electrical plans did not indicate the positions of the exhaust fans, and there wasn’t an exhaust fan noted in the laundry. The attachments above clearly indicate that BC had not been referring to the updated Clipsec/Electrical Plans (dated 13/07/2011) as per the contract. This document dated 13/07/2011 also states “1x additional exhaust fan to Laundry” on Page 1 of 4.

Her manager MMM, then informed us that in regards to the exhaust fans, the Construction Plans would be followed, regardless of what the electrical plans indicate. She insisted that changes to exhaust fans cannot be made in the Access range, due to building regulations. We refer to Attachment 2, to emphasise that we are not requesting any unconventional changes, but merely to amend the exhaust fan to where it ought to be, following the unexpected changes made by Porter Davis. We were then repeatedly told by MMM that no changes could be made, as we “had already signed the plans” at contract.

At this stage, the Final Construction Plans have not yet been signed and returned, but the Electrical Plans have in fact been signed at our Contract appointment.

  

We also did not appreciate being told by MMM that if we want more clarification regarding these discrepancies between the plans provided by Porter Davis, we would “miss the February Site Start” and the build may have to start in April. We felt that it almost seemed as a threat, that we ought not to question Porter Davis’ discrepancies in their plans.

We are merely seeking clarification prior to the start of the build, as we are certain that along with ourselves, Porter Davis too, is keen and determined to have as smooth a build as possible, once construction commences, in order to have a good-quality build that Porter Davis’ reputation is built upon.