The customer is replacable (Persimmon Homes)

Member Name: AnnoyedHomeBuyer

Product:	Persimmon Homes
Date:	17/10/09 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good locations, reasonable price, nice saleswoman initially

Disadvantages: Stingy, terrible attitude to customer service when not directly selling.

We were buying a Persimmon Home through their home-mover scheme - where they pay the estate agent and HIP fees. We found a full asking price buyer quickly - twice - but unfortunately due to minor problems they fell through. The property was back on the market for a couple of days with a lot of interest (we currently have a city centre flat, with parking) and within a couple of days we had an offer. Unfortunately, it was well under the asking price. As we had plenty of other interest, we told them we'd wait and see for 1 week. Persimmon (encouraged by the estate agent) then rang and told us we accepted that offer or they would remarket our house. This is despite promising us when we signed up that we would be allowed time to find another buyer if needed. We said we were waiting, as the offer was too low for us to afford the property easily & if they wanted to remarket the house, could they return the deposit we'd paid, minus the HIP fee. We were clearly told at the time that this was refundable at any stage, but it is now being kept as an "admin fee". The staff (not the normal saleswoman, who was actually lovely) were incredibly rude and made it very clear that customers on that site were two a penny, so they really don't care. They are also keeping deposits paid towards extras, although they did not tell us they would do so at the time.

Overall, I'm quite relieved we're not buying - as it was becoming clear that they would skimp at every corner (e.g. the kitchen floor would need skimming by us before any flooring could be put down, the bath was likely to sink and need resealing but they would expect us to do this,) but am annoyed at the way we have been treated.

Summary: Don't feel their customer care could be trusted