Terrible customer service from Coventry Homes
We were initially very excited to be building with Coventry Homes. We were drawn in by their beautiful and unique home designs. We were also impressed by the charismatic sales rep at our local Coventry Homes Sale center. The fact that they were the preferred builders for the Edmonton Oilers also drew us in.
However, after we signed up to build with Coventry, to our dismay, we discovered the following issues even before excavation started:
1. Coventry makes errors and expects us to pay for them.
For four months, the sales rep showed us plans that didn’t match up with the price that we had signed on our addendum (apparently, their drafting department missed 20 square feet). On discovering his mistake, he inserted the extra fee of $2600 into the upgrades agreement and tried to get us to sign it without discussing the fee. When we asked him why he had not discussed it with us, he was dishonest, saying that he had in fact discussed this.
2. Poor knowledge of the features of the home, dismissive of our questions, and making up facts.
When we asked about the radon detection system, our sales rep dismissed radon as a legitimate health concern, saying that it was more likely for a person to get brain cancer from cell phone usage (radon is in fact the #1 risk factor for lung cancer in non-smokers). He stated that radon detection systems were basically a way for the government to make more money. He also believed that there was a siren on the radon detection system that would go off like a fire alarm, if radon surpassed a certain level.
3. Not giving us a proper timeline and not keeping us updated unless we contact him. Which was followed by an abrupt answer to our inquiry.
Coventry’s original timeline was to break ground in January or February, the excavation time is now delayed to end of May. We would have appreciated updates about this delay instead of total silence from our sales rep.
4. 72 hours notice to come up with over $36000.
We had paid over $36000 for the initial deposit for the house back in October of 2017. In May of 2018, we were informed by our sales rep that our next deposit of $36000 was due, and he was only giving us 72 hours to submit the payment. This was ridiculous as 72 hours is not enough time for two full-time professionals to arrange an appointment with our lawyer, meet with the lawyer, and to get our paperwork and cheques ready for payment. Most builders give the client four to six weeks notice before the deposit is due.
In all fairness, we do appreciate the efforts of Coventry Homes’ assistant manager stepping in to personally oversee our building process, due to the incompetence of our sales rep. We understand that the assistant manager is incredibly busy and yet is willing to sacrifice his time to help us out in this way. We have also heard some very positive feedback from our friends and colleagues who have Coventry built homes. They seem to be happy with the build quality, despite also experiencing an unnecessarily difficult and stressful process due to poor customer service. Hopefully, the building process does not get any worse for us, as we may opt to cancel our build if we don't think building with Coventry is worth the hassle. At this time, we cannot recommend Coventry Homes to anyone for building their new house. We sincerely hope that our sales rep and Coventry Homes will redeem themselves, firstly, through better communication and, secondly, through a quality-built home. If this is the case, we look forward to posting a very positive review of Coventry Homes.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $700,000.00