Email From Harron

[Rich]

After sending several emails to people at Harron, I've just received the following response:

Good afternoon

We are in receipt of your email in regards to the forum that is running currently for Oak Dene Mount.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We do take all customer feedback seriously and we are aware that some residents have experienced a less than satisfactory service. We are constantly trying to improve the service we offer all customers and hope that in the main most home owners are happy with the service provided. That said we are in the process of making contact with all residents who are still experiencing problems and will continue to communicate with them until all matters have been resolved.

Best Regards

Lisa Cooke
Customer Services Manager
Harron Homes Ltd.

I think this is a really positive step by Harron and I'm sure people will feel that it shouldn't have got to this stage but for them to acknowledge their problems and commit to resolving outstanding issues is a great news story and good for the forum too.

[charliesufc]

It's good to hear them finally acknowledge that they are aware of issues with bad customer services , he's hoping this a step in the right direction ,
Good work Rich

[greggg356]

I appreciate this is an old thread,however we are due to sign contracts in the next couple of weeks.
Could anyone tell me if they are still dissatisfied with their homes or have things improved
Thanks

[winterfell]

Oct 6, 2016 17:11:52 GMT greggg356 said:

I appreciate this is an old thread,however we are due to sign contracts in the next couple of weeks.
Could anyone tell me if they are still dissatisfied with their homes or have things improved
Thanks

We had some issues and have some snags outstanding after 4 years but I love the house and think its good quality overall. Just my opinion, for what its worth.

[greggg356]

Thanks,were they major issues or ones that could be solved easy enough

[winterfell]

Oct 6, 2016 19:04:23 GMT greggg356 said:

Thanks,were they major issues or ones that could be solved easy enough

Hi

we were missing a window (!) but Russ sorted that out for us when he joined. That was the most extreme and everything else was sorted relatively quickly. We had some silly stuff and things like the drainage etc are not really down to Harron as the ground is really soggy and I have sorted that out for us by improving the soil. 

I won't lie and say it was a perfect journey and one of the main issues has been the amount of work customer services has on at any one time I think, but overall I love the house. We are ripping the kitchen out because it is a bit crappy but then we did not choose it. Its a nice family home on an estate with some very decent people. 


 Mine is just one experience so see what others say too but I can't say I am unhappy. It wasn't a lot of fun getting everything sorted but I stuck with it and all is more or less ok now. 

[greggg356]

Thanks for your help winter fell much appreciated

[kp]

We love our house, afew snags to sort but everyone has been great at getting things sorted

[rachael]

We love our house. The layout of it really works for us, better than all the others we looked at. But...

The thing about Harron Homes is that they do have some great architects and designers working for them. It is just a real shame that, in our experience at least, the rest of the company doesn't deliver. We had (and still have) a lot of snags and problems, some significant, some bizarre, a lot of shoddy work and basically not a single job was completed with pride (in a lot of cases, not even actually completed!) - what we moved into was certainly nowhere near the standard that the sales team & company website lead us to expect. We've had weeks of extra work done to our house since we moved in and it's still not finished; it's been noisy, messy and stressful. We bought a new build expecting a finished house to move into - not unreasonable, or so we thought!

We moved in 2 days before Christmas 2015 so maybe we were unlucky and they rushed the build (and others completed at the same time) to hit their bonus targets for the year. Not a nice thought but I can see how poorly concieved targets can motivate site staff to cut corners. However, since then we have had to do A LOT of chasing to get anything sorted and there isn't any excuse for that. Site staff turnover was so high it became a joke. Now site is closed and Customer Services don't return calls, and they don't send the emails that they promise either. They've had our snag list for 9 months but still can't be proactive; I just tackle one issue at a time now and then move onto the next one. For a company that is making so much money, they really could and should invest in a bigger and better aftercare team.

There was a poll for Harron Homes this year and I think about 1/3 responses were negative so it seems that some people have had very different experiences.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

[winterfell]

We moved in just before Christmas 2013 and had pretty much the same experience with getting things done. They have definitely not learned about customer care and after sales as this has been the most common but of negative feedback I've heard.

[kadypants]

We love the development, we love our house and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. But the aftercare from Harron has been poor. We are still awaiting a fairly simple snag to be sorted after 3 years. And that's after a lot of badgering to get other things sorted.

I wouldn't try to put anyone off buying Harron but I would say to make sure you read everything and get anything they agree to in writing, purely because their customer services staff change so often you might struggle to keep up!

Overall we are pleased with our house and we do feel it is worth what we paid etc.