Far from wonderful (George Wimpey)

Name: home_inspector

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Product:	George Wimpey
Date:	29/09/03 (2909 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great service in sales office (prior to purchase)

Disadvantages: Atrocious after-sales care, sloppy workmanship throughout (see opinion), unfinished roads for many months

George Wimpey are a large national housebuilder with an extremely poor standard of after-sales care. George Wimpey are winner of the BBC "UK's Worst New Home Builder" award, April 2003. It's not hard to see why.

Over the last few years George Wimpey have built a development in Congleton, Cheshire. (The Ridgewood development). Some of the customers are so angry and fed up with George Wimpey's neglect that we have made a website to name and shame the company. The website has been created to highlight George Wimpey's repeated failure to carry out remedial works, and in particular to draw publicity to the disgraceful level of neglect that they have shown to the roads and communal areas of our development since all plots were sold a year ago.

To see photographs of the state George Wimpey left our development in, visit our protest site:
WWW.GEORGEWIMPEYHOUSES.CO.UK

We will be seeking to publicise the website through direct campaigning at George Wimpey's nearby developments, including St Hilary's Park in Alderley Edge, and Minerva in Chester. All prospective buyers of George Wimpey homes need to be made aware of the reality of living on one of their developments.

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Here is a selection of our experiences on George Wimpey's Ridgewood development.

~~~ Repeated failure of heating and plumbing systems.

~~~ Mortar all over the exterior brickwork.

~~~ No tiling around the bath or hand basin.

~~~ A collapsing staircase - extremely dangerous.

~~~ Incorrectly labelled electrical circuits on the circuit-breaker box ... extremely dangerous for anyone wishing to isolate a particular circuit, eg. to fit a new light fitting.

~~~ Huge cracks appearing in walls, plus many other examples of shoddy, rough "Friday afternoon" workmanship.

~~~ Missing kitchen cupboard doors which never get supplied.

~~~ Mysterious craters appe
aring in driveways (the tarmac literally falls into a black hole).

~~~ So called "lawns" which consist of cheap low-grade turf thrown down over builders rubble (these lawns aren't even included as standard... Wimpey have the nerve to charge extra for them, and if you don't pay you get a garden full of rubble for free).

~~~ Leaking, badly fitted pipes that have caused damage to decor and furniture.

~~~ Unfinished pavements made up of loose rubble and raised manholes - a terrible eyesore, and a hazard too. The development was abandoned by George Wimpey after the final house was built in December 2002. George Wimpey supplied a date in mid-July 2003 on which the roads/pavements were supposed to be finished. Needless to say, this date has passed and absolutely nothing has been done.

~~~ On one part of the development George Wimpey have STILL not activated the street lights after over a year of the houses being occupied.

~~~ George Wimpey have failed to mow the grassed areas on the development, allowing everything to become overgrown and neglected. Some residents have become so fed up they have started to maintain communal areas at their own expense - but they shouldn't have to because it remains George Wimpey's responsibility in a legally binding Section 38 agreement with the Council. George Wimpey have never issued any apology or explanation for any of these matters. The council are so ineffective that they will not enforce the Section 38 agreement - in fact they don't want to acknowledge that our development exists (except when it comes to collecting council tax - they're very efficient in that one area).

~~~ A fitted oven not functioning for the whole of the festive period (how nice to live off take-aways and microwave food throughout Christmas and New Year) because Wimpey's "emergency careline" staff refused to send an engineer out, saying it was the manufacturers re
sponsibility and the manufacturer didn't reopen until mid-January. Actually it had nothing to do with the manufacturer ... it was Wimpey's "electrician" who left a loose wire when he installed it!

~~~ Problems are not remedied for months.. and months.. and months. Complaints are ignored by the Customer "Care" Department... over and over again. They send out the standard letter every time... "we have noted your complaints"... they're experts in the art of fobbing off but not so good at actioning the necessary remedial work.

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The problem here is that George Wimpey look upon their customers as a nuisance and an irritation. They don't quite grasp the fact that their salaries, bonuses and pensions are being paid for by... yes that's right... the customers.

If you're thinking of buying a new home from George Wimpey, bear in mind that the show homes are well presented and free of defects. The treatment you receive in the sales office is extremely professional. But everything changes from the day you move in. Suddenly they just don't want to know.

Don't expect an easy ride when you move in. You're going to need excellent DIY skills and it helps if you have friends who are skilled tradesmen. It also helps if you have an extremely flexible and accommodating boss who is prepared to let you have half-days off work all the time to deal with the sporadic problems that develop with your house.

And you have roads and pavements like something out of a third world country.

You certainly don't get the quality of life that George Wimpey are advertising.

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