Taylor Wimpey new build home recent experiences

alw123_2

Hi this is just a reply to those recently asking for feedback on buying a Taylor Wimpey Home.

We completed on our home at the end of March and whilst we don't regret buying our home we are certainly getting frustrated with things on the customer service side. It is along story but I will just highlight some issues.

When we had our Familiarization visit (you have these about 2 weeks before completion and you go through the house to note any faults) we highlighted around 25 snagging issues, none of these were major(although one was the paintwork which we were promised would be sorted by completion date) and as we were one of the first to buy we knew the site manager would be on hand to rectify any still outstanding when we moved in. 22 hours before completion they told us they wanted us to complete (send them the money!)but not move in for another week whilst they repainted the house! As moving any other day was not an option for us we agreed to move in and have the paintwork done around us. On moving day the house was not ready and there was a 3 1/2 hour delay from the time we completed to the actual time we could begin moving our stuff in (Taylor Wimpey did refund us the additional charges from the removal company with very little fuss) but only 3 or 4 of the snagging issues had been resolved.

Very long story short there are issues noted at the Familiarization visit still outstanding. Some of the reasons are:

• Items ordered for us have been fitted to other houses
• Workmen have come to the door on the day they are due to do work and told us they can't do it until Taylor Wimpey pay them
• they order the wrong item - not once but four times so far
• Contractors come with wrong items - not once but again four time so far
• Contractors just dont show up on site at all
• contractors do such a poor job you have to have them come out again but this can take weeks or months
• contactors come out to lok at a job, agree what needs doing - and then do nothing which means you then have to start the whole process again this has happened 3 times so far for one item.
• We have had 3 site managers in 6 months and each time a new one starts we have to start the whole process again.
  
  We have contacted 3 different people from head office, each and every single one of them has broken a promise they had made to us. We initially made contact with them 5 weeks ago asking them to take ownership of our issues and co-ordinate timescales and ordering items so we no longer have to waste days waiting for people who dont show up or bring the wrong thing but, nothing has changed.
  
  On Saturday there had been one broken promise too many and I decided to put up a sign inviting prospective buyers to come over and discuss our Taylor Wimpey experience. I thought that had kicked them into gear but since then we have had the wrong item turn up for the fourth time and yesterday the site manager brought the renderer round to our house to repair some damage. He is still on site now bit still hasn't repaired our house. I have the head of sales coming round for a meeting tomorrow and I have ordered a pvc banner to put up inviting prospective customers to chat with us which will also arrive tomorrow. That should make for an interesting morning!!!
  
  This is just my experience and I am sure it is not the same for everyone. We still love our house and as I said earlier none of the snags are major, its just frustrating that they can't/wont resolve them. Use your gut instinct after speaking to the sales advisor and site manager, I wish we had, and if you do decide to go ahead and there are any issues make sure you keep notes of everything!

ethank

I had 43 mostly minor snags on my list but you need to be on them to get them complete. It is generally the same contractors completing snags who are building the new homes, so if you are not on the site managers case - he will favour the new houses.

It took around 6 months for all snags to be completed in my home, but some of that time was down to me. Both of us work full time, and so was difficult to arrange access at some times, so it did drag out a bit.

The site manager did say at one point that he had spent a lot of time on my snags and I would now have to go through customer services. I did find that things were resolved quicker by not contacting the site manager, but by contacting customer services at the head office.

I think one of the issues highlighted by ALW123 above may be in their regionalised structure, there is not one head office - they have about 20 with 20 different customer service teams. On our development - we have Taylor Wimpey South Midlands and Taylor Wimpey North Thames on the same site building houses.

Love my home!