Bett Homes / Gladedale - Garage Door

[Colin Jack]

Finally got round to getting my garage door fixed.

Phoned around a few repair companies explaining the problem. Settled on one company and went through all the details with the chap on the phone.

When it told him the town I lived in the conversation went on as follows:

Him - “Ahhhhh that will be the Bett Homes estate then.�

Me – “Yes, how do you know?�

Him – “We’ve fixed loads of garage doors on that estate! They employed their own joiners to install the doors and from what I have seen they made a right mess of it.�

Me – “Why doesn’t this surprise me! They really are a shower of useless B******S!!!�

Him – “Keeps me busy though Ha! Ha! Ha!�

Me – “So you don’t need directions then?�

Him – “No. I know that estate like the back of my hand.�

Me – “OK see you soon then.�


You couldn’t make stuff like this up!!!!!

[Colin Jack]

An update:

The garage door has now been fixed and all I can say is:

'So that is how it is supposed to work! It has never worked like that before! What a difference!'

[alanm77]

sounds like Kintore to me , at least us poor sods are keeping a local garage company in work (Me Included)

what do you expect from a s*ite manager who couldnt give a monkeys , heard he has been shipped to elrick , must be promotion !!!, god help the poor sods at elrick (must make queuing for a week in the cold worthwhile to secure a must have property and end up with him )

[Colin Jack]

alanm77,

I'm affraid not, we are quite close to the Bett Homes / Gladedale office in Stirling.

It would appear that their incompetence is country wide. No surprises there then :laugh:

Colin.

[Jackie]

Hi Colin

I have been reading with interest all your comments re this appalling builder.
It doesn't give us a lot of hope regarding our own issues having moved into a new show home in Sept 2007.
See below a list of our complaints working backwards as of today...
January 2008

More snagging issues are turning up every day the latest being a huge whole behind the hob which causes an almighty draught on your ankles when standing at the cooker.
The loft hatch blows open for god knows why, don't want to venture up and find a big hole up there too!!!
Experiencing ponding in the back garden althouth the rain has been relentless.
Dog is almost swimming when he goes out for a pee!!!

Re your letter of 9 November 2007
I wish to inform you that, with reference to letter from Gordon Haggart dated 9 November 2007 stating that the garage doors were brand new and undamaged when fitted and the various other issues in that letter, these matters are now in hand with our solicitor.

Re your letter of 13 December 2007
Listing some more issues that have been attended to
We agree to most of your list apart from.......
Various screw cover throughout the house have not been attended to.
Noisy plumbing in en suite and bathroom have not been attended to.
Seal at utility back door has not been attended to and is still hanging off.

You have listed that no further action will be taken re our request for the gas fire instructions - don't understand that one at all, you can't provide us with a manual for the gas fire, surely a health and safety issue?


To customer service.

1. Patio slabs have been redone but need to be pointed and Patio doors resealed.
2. All toilet seats rubber grommets still on order any sign of them yet?
3. Please can we have the instructions/description for the fire that is fitted in the lounge (this is now an urgent Health and Safety issue so would appreciate the paperwork asap)
4. There is a loud knocking noise (which seems to be getting worse and lasting longer) each time we run the hot water taps in both the ensuite and family bathroom. It is especially disturbing when we retire for the night as it goes on and on while we are attempting to get to sleep.

01 November 2007
To customer service...

Issues below have not been answered within your 10 days response time, now past?

1.Loose Patio slabs have been rebedded but as a result of that one is now chipped (which I have shown to Duncan) and both have sealant running across the middle where they have been turned.
2.Patio doors require to be resealed (Duncan said he would do it himself, last week, but didn't show)
3.Utilty back door rubber seal is hanging off!

From our original list below, the following have been resolved.....
3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11(not fully resolved),12,14,15,16,18..thankyou

19 October 2007
To customer service...

Currently some of our problems are being tackled and resolved one by one via the site agent.

According to Duncan the following items cannot apparently be resolved on site.
1. Please let us know what happens next re the fitting of a new garage door.
Having been informed by the joiner, who fitted our actual doors to the garage that the door was in this condition when fitted and due to the said damage the margin on either side of the door was therefore not good, and difficult to fit, only further endorses our claim to a new door.
Your site agents have offered us the plastic surgeon to repair the garage door but that is not acceptable. The doors, in this condition, will be problematic and costly in the future!

2. The entrance area hall carpet needs to be replaced, due to a burn.
3. The sub standard hob needs to be replaced, due to dents, stains and scratches, again the site agent cannot do anything for us.


The following additional items are missing.
1. Grommets under all three toilet seats are missing. So we require 6 in all (three sets of 2) to stop the seat moving about when you sit on it and also to stop the clatter when the seat is replaced
2. Lounge fire instructions and description. (Site agent says that Sales should have this for us).
A question we require answered is why do some of the windows have no kitemark on?

12 October 2007
To customer service:
Site agent has had a further few items sorted
out this week.

However we would like to stress that...

1. We are not happy with a repair to the newly fitted garage doors.
Angus and Duncan, suggested, this morning, that the plastic surgeon do a
repair next week but quite honestly the doors should be in new condition as
they have only been fitted weeks.
2. The burn mark on the hall carpet is not acceptable.
3. Hob is sub standard, we thought it was just scratched but on further
inspection it is dented, stained and scratched.

We keep hearing this phrase 'sold as seen'............ We bought a new house
at full price and expect it to be in new condition.

We look forward to your comments concerning these issues.

Once again I am contacting you as I have no contact e-mail for the Construction Department.

We have now been informed, by our neighbour, that our missing items, i.e.
fridge door shelves, dishwasher cutlery baskets, etc., were given to her a
year ago, as hers were missing, by the then sales exec.

We have a few more issues to add/amend to our already extensive list below.
Adds...
23.There is a singed hollow (possible cigarette burn which has been cut out)
in the middle of the hall carpet noticed when vacuuming and now stands out
like a sore thumb!!
We are a non smoking family and friends.
24.There are lumps of concrete/wooden stumps from a previous fence running
from back to front at the side of the house.
25. Grill pan in the double oven is not the correct one, we have been given
one that does not fit.
Amends...
3. The dining room radiator problem has been temporarily fixed by plumber
who partially straightened a bent pipe but he said needs to be fixed
properly with a jointing piece to be added.
8. Clothes dryer has now been supplied. Thank-you!
12.Leaks appear to be fixed but ceiling now requires attention due to water
damage.
Please let us have a copy of your snagging list, we are aware that you have
one but to date we have not been privy to it!

24 September 2007

In the absence of a courtesy visit due to have taken place one week after
our move in date of 13 September 2007.
Please find a list of queries, noticed to date, not to say there won't be
more!

In no particular order of severity.

1. Kitchen fridge door shelves missing.
2. Dishwasher cutlery baskets missing.
3. Dining room radiator not working.
4. Driveway - when raining a large puddle forms outside garage doors where
there is a dip/hollow.
5. Badly damaged garage door.
6. Lounge and dining room windows have rusty hinges.
7. Signage holes on side and front of building, require filling.
8. Clothes dryer missing from garden.
9. Cloakroom window key missing.
10.Front path slab broken.
11.Back garden patio slab loose.
12.Leaks at boiler caused ceiling to be mushy, does not appear to be drying
out at the second leak.
13.Bedroom 2 has various nail pops.
14.Roof tiles broken and chipped.
15.Kitchen floor tiles chipped at utility door.
16.Utility taps very loose and shaky.
17.Abrasive scores/scratches on hob top.
18.Seals around sinks and hob not visible?
19.Long crack on ceiling in family area - starts middle of patio doors to
middle of room.
20.Various screw covers missing throughout.
21.Gas fire instructions and description missing.
22.Should we have an NHBC health and safety card?
Jackie

[Tony]

This is terrible - the hole behind the cooker may be letting in vermin as well a draft and should be looked at asap.

[Jackie]

Hi Tony

Took your advice and site agent came along and filled the hole with expanding foam.
However it has highlighted the fact that there are other draughts around the kitchen units. But we can't see if there are other holes.
Jackie

[Colin Jack]

Jackie,

Expanding foam - the usual quick fix to shut you up.

We used to get a lot of mice in our kitchen when they discovered that they could get in via the holes made for the pipe work. They used to nest at the back of the fridge and under the dishwasher, both places are lovely and warm. Now we just we have them under the floor, within the cavities, between the floor and ceiling and in the loft.

We tried the expanding foam as well but the mice love this stuff and chew through it in under 2 seconds. The best solution is wire wool because they can't get a grip of it without jagging themselves.

A neighbour of mine has removed well over 100 mice from his property. He just about drove himself to a heart attack trying to cover up all the access holes Bett / Gladedale so kindly left. I have lost all my humane traps to the little buggers - yes they can eat their way out of a plastic trap.

If you start to get a very sour milk smell in your kitchen or anywhere else for that matter - then mice are there.

www.abadbett.com

[Jackie]

Hi Colin

Congratulations on your garage doors.
So far, over Jan/Feb we have caught 3 mice in the garage so the thought of holes behind the kitchen units is not a pleaseant one.

The draught is worrying in the sense that very soon all houses will require an Energy Efficiency Report and we are surely entitled to occupy a house which is properly insulated.

I know I have a very long and boring list of problems but if you have any advice at all re any of the issues on it I would be grateful.

I send Gladedale long e-mail weekly and it is beginning to pay off. The loud noise regarding water pipes has now been identified as pipes being fitted hard against timber. A joiner took a morning to pare back the wood at various floor, vanity unit and loft areas. We now have peace perfect peace although Gladedale said originally that it could not be fixed!
Jackie

[Colin Jack]

Jackie,

Where to start? Only advice I would give is to sell the house, if you can.

Seriously though:

The loft hatch blowing open is, believe it or not, quite normal because of the ventilation requirements for the loft space. The wind creates quite a difference in pressure in the loft from that in the room below which sucks the hatch open. There should be 2 rotating locks on the loft hatch which when engaged will stop this. That is if the loft hatch has been fitted properly - this is Gladedale after all.

Ponding in the garden should be reported to the NHBC if it is within 3 metres of the property. You will however be blamed for the rain, the ponding, the fact that you have a dog and any other problem which may affect the price of cheese. Ponding on hard-standing is a bit more serious.

WARNING - If Gladedale do actually do anything about the ponding, that would be amazing - I am on proposed solution number 4, but still nothing has been done. Be very aware that if Gladedale connect the drainage solution to a rodding eye or any other pipework within the property, you could be in big trouble with Scottish Water. I know because they tried to pull this stunt on me. When I queried the solution and contacted Scottish Water about it I was told in no uncertain terms that THERE WILL BE NO CONNECTION MADE TO THE PUBLIC SEWER VIA THE ROOF DRAINAGE SYSTEM, PLEASE INFORM YOUR HOUSEBUILDER ACCORDINGLY. So it just goes to show the lengths Gladedale will go to to stitch up their customers.

Regarding the lounge fire, you are quite right this is a serious issue and yes you should have an NHBC Health and Safety card, for all the use it is worth, but it does have the phrase on it - 'If you require further information, contact the builder'.

Just keep on at them.

Have you met John Croal (Customer Care Manager :woohoo: ) yet? Or as the good lady says 'Creepy Croal - that small weedy excuse of a man who just ooooozes insincerity.' What about the Goldfish? You will see what I mean if you ever have the misfortune.

Please keep us up to date via your postings.