Taylor Wimpey - a moan!

Charlie6433

Hi All

I have been browsing this site to get advice on Taylor Wimpey and their schemes but feel compelled to write after recieving such a poor service from them! To give you an idea i have copied and pasted my letter of complaint below! its a long one sorry!

anyone else had issues with them?! We are now buying a older property btw :T

I wish to make a complaint about the way we have been treated by **** at your Wards Bridges Gardens office, it’s a long story so bear with me!

I first visited the site on Monday 17th Feb after trying to book in on the opening weekend but it was fully booked, I had an appointment and spoke to a lovely young lady with long hair, her name has gone out my head im afraid! She took our details for plot 92 and off I went armed with the property details and a plan to get house valued and ready to go on the market that week.

I got my house valued by 2 estate agents who came in at over £100k. I visited the site and xxx dealt with my query after she explained a little more about the plots we decided to go for plot 107, the first 4 bed available (we need a 4 bed as we have 2 children and my job requires me to have a home office) she put my name on the plot and told me about easy mover, which sounded great, I was under no illusion that we would lose value to get a quick sale (after 16 years in sales I expected this!) we booked in for Charles Derby to come that afternoon and the house was valued.

I then nipped into the office on the Friday as I had forgot to pick up one of the mortgage advisor leaflets, (we wanted some independent advice as we weren’t using help to buy etc so wanted to get a good deal for a good deposit) **** actually said to me as I walked in ‘Hi don’t worry everything is fine I just need to speak to XXX at Skitts to get his valuation and we’ll have the figures for your easymove, your plots is still yours so don’t worry’ I assured her I wasn’t chasing her I just wanted a leaflet and off I went.

On the Saturday (22nd Feb) we went over to Reflections @ Telford to view the showhome just to check it was enough space for us etc, it was beautiful and I must commend you on the quality of your homes! The Lydford was perfect, exactly what we wanted. Whilst at the showhome xxx called at 12.37pm, to inform us that our house had been valued at 93,500, I explained we really wanted 96000 but let me do some sums with my husband and il get back to her, I then called her back at 12.53pm and asked if there was any negotiation there at all, to which she said no, which was fine. She then said she would see what she could do but not for me to hold my breath, I said il have another talk with my husband and call her back.

I called her back on Sunday at 13.48pm to tell her we’d be down to pay the £500 fee that afternoon, she said (exact words) ‘save your breath iv sold it’ I was in complete shock, we had put so much thought, time and effort into into this, and if im honest I was heartbroken. She said she had a buyer that wasn’t reliant on the sale of their house so decided to sell it to them. I was very emotional and all she kept saying was im sorry but that’s how it is. I rung back to ask for her bosses names, and ask some further questions as to why we hadn’t been informed to be told’ im not arguing this is how it is’. I wasn’t arguing I was merely asking her to explain her lack of integrity and complete disregard for us.

To add insult to injury whilst speaking to a family friend we were told that she was also waiting for plot 107, and when she called Saturday afternoon she was told that it has sold? So my question is at what point was it sold, and why at no point did xxx feel she needed to inform us that the house we had done nothing but think about all week had been sold to someone else?! And at no point did xxx push us to pay the £500 to secure it completely? Which I now realise was so she could hang on for a first time buyer or a cash sale.

To be honest what has upset me more is not the loss of the house, it was never ‘officially’ ours and we are not that naïve to think it was a done deal, it was the lack of respect and integrity. I manage 48 branches across the UK and if I thought any of my sales teams were treating people this way I would be rethinking their employment! I felt xxx never really took us seriously (I was on annual leave for the week therefore visited in my jeans and scruffs, would she have treated me differently if I wore a suit I wonder….?) she made me feel like a timewaster, and at one point questioned if I ‘needed’ a 4 bed, had I thought of going for a 3 bed instead, to be honest I found that downright insulting, finances have never been an issue, I just felt I was getting ripped off on the sale of my home, that was the issue not the money! We had the deposit saved already as we weren’t using help to buy etc. we had also been approved by your mortgage advisor service.

So that’s the end of our journey with Taylor Wimpey! We were warned about you by many people, there are no available plots now for a couple of years on the Lydford so we’re looking for an older home, I doubt I could ever really trust yourselves and would always be wondering when you would bump us off in favour of a quick sale with no chain.

As for us our house is on the market at its CORRECT value, we have numerous viewings including a couple of new developments who were horrified to hear our story, and I feel positive that we will find our dream home again, as the Lydford once was. But I could not bring myself to spend 1 penny on your houses purely through principle.


Many Thanks for your time,

ognum

OP, I am sorry for the pain this has caused you but I do feel you are going a bit over the top on this.

These people are in the buisness of selling houses, you showed interest in a house but had not placed a deposit or sold your property. You took a week to make up your mind and let them know, she probably deals with 10s of people a week claiming they are interested in a property and then doesn't hear from them again.

Where I live any house old or new is sold very quickly, your offer needs to be in the day after you have viewed. You clearly felt you had time, why didn't you keep the seller informed before a week had passed?

All the stuff about about your father in law is totally silly in my opinion, I can tell you are angry but move on and find something better.

I would advise you not to mention people by name on a forum unless you are prepared to give your name and address on an open forum too.

Charlie6433

Well i suggest you reread as we reserved the plot on the Friday and it was sold on the Saturday so a week hadnt passed! Thanks for the support, it was merely an arena to have a rant which clearly i was mistaken!

i agree the letter was over the top but felt better for writing it lol, il also edit the names and take your point.

ognum

Charlie6433 wrote: »

Well i suggest you reread as we reserved the plot on the Friday and it was sold on the Saturday so a week hadnt passed! Thanks for the support, it was merely an arena to have a rant which clearly i was mistaken!

i agree the letter was over the top but felt better for writing it lol, il also edit the names and take your point.

I did say I was sorry for your pain at the start. Glas you felt better for writing it, I am sure you will find something better in the future.

Good luck!

goonarmy

Was this an inconvinence or was there any loss?

Charlie6433

No monetary loss but just gutted as we loved the home and theres no more available for 2 years, and obviously all the time wasted arranging stuff quickly so we could put deposit down.

Its more the service side im bothered about and the lack of communication when spending such a large amount of money!

Im just sounding off and dont expect any reply off them, just wanted to get my point across!

Thanks

Dan-Dan

It`s a shame you didn’t take a step back and write the letter in a calm state of mind , because if you had , and it had come across less emotional , and more factual , you never know , you may have got a reply of some sort

As you know, no doubt, what you have typed above, is just a mash of angriness

kixxb

Good that you've been able to vent but I don't expect you'll get a satisfactory response.

I'm currently looking to buy a new build and have found that the level of service greatly varies from site to site and even within the sites themselves - I'm learning which staff to seek out and which ones to avoid!

Thrugelmir

Well i suggest you reread as we reserved the plot on the Friday

You hadn't paid the reservation fee though.

kingstreet

My advice would always be to stay away from newbuild sites until you have an acceptable offer on your property.

You really have to be "proceedable", as you will be in competition with those who are...

KatieDee

I feel so bad that you missed out on what you felt was your dream home but think of it this way...if they are like this during a sale, imagine how they might be during the building of your new home!

As others have said, the market is moving fast at the moment (although a sale in 24 hours is just silly!) and if you fell in love with the property as quickly as you did, there will probably be many other people who feel the same way. After I viewed the first property I fell for, I made sure my offer was in the morning after...a quick decision some might say, but I really didn't want to lose out on it.

Perhaps consider it a lesson for future purchases. If you see it and want it, make sure you put things in place straight away! Of course, this still can't stop things going wrong but at least you won't fall at the first hurdle.

Regardless of what other people are saying about you losing the property due to not acting fast enough (which is true, I'm sure you know this by now!) I appreciate that it's not what you want to hear right now. Rest assured that you will find another property that you love just as much, if not more!

Also, older properties have bags more character than the majority of new builds ;-)