28 April 2010

Beyond the Boiling Point

From: AVIDA Ellen
Date: Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 10:47 AM
To: Nicole
Cc: Earl, AVIDA Desiree

Hi Ms. Nicole,

Please be advised that your house and lot unit will be ready for inspection and turnover on the 30th of April.

As part of our turnover requirement on bank financing, the latter should issue your loan release prior to the turnover of your unit.

Kindly advise your bank to proceed with the loan release so we can finalize this week’s turnover.

Thank you and our apologies for all the inconvenience.

Best regards,

Ellen
Customer Care Dept.
Avida Land Corp


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From: Nicole
Date: Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 2:35 PM
To: AVIDA Ellen
Cc: Earl, AVIDA Desiree, Stephen, AVIDA Ferdie, AVIDA Noel

Hi Ellen,

I just talked to the contractor and he advised that the house is still green and he has no instruction about it being painted blue.

Is that house going to fall down the moment we move in? You can't tell me it's a quality checked house since you guys couldn't even follow the color stated on the contract. I really fear for this house since you've now rushed things and even the simplest note could not be followed.

Allow me to quote Noel's email last week:

"I have been monitoring updates given to me by Ellen on a daily basis regarding your account since she is my account manager for Avida..."

We already informed you last Monday that the house is the wrong color. Has Avida done anything to resolve this? No. You are obviously not paying attention - otherwise that house would have never been green to begin with.
"...I am handling your account now personally and make sure things will move as what you have expected."

We expect that by now, the house has painted the correct shade of blue. Green is not, and will never be, blue.

I don't think you have any idea just how ANGRY I am at the moment.

Nicole


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From: Earl
Date: Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 4:01 PM
To: Nicole, AVIDA Ellen
Cc: AVIDA Desiree, Stephen, AVIDA Ferdie, AVIDA Noel

Dear Noel and Ellen,

You tried to call Nicole this afternoon but she cannot talk to you right now. If there is anything that you would like to relay, kindly contact Atty. Stephen. Please DO NOT contact us. All communication must be coursed through him.

Thank you!

Earl


Avida, what were you thinking? You'll turnover a green and haphazardly made house?

You think that at this point, another apology will do? For all the pain, misery and depression we've gone through this past year just waiting for this house, NO.

And again, if you tell me that the house was done with quality work, please save your breath. Everyone I've talked to yesterday have the same reaction - they're all asking if the house will fall apart the minute we move in.

This country is known for the "pweda na" mentality. Basically, it means that if a dress you're sewing is supposed to have two pockets as per the design but you're too lazily OR YOU'RE IN A HURRY, then you'll just make it with one pocket and pass it off as "good enough".

And another thing, the contractor told me yesterday that the quality control people will be checking the house today. How can you schedule the turnover BEFORE knowing if there's anything wrong with the house? Aren't you supposed to get the "all clear" report first before giving the go signal that the house is fit to live in?

Avida, whatever you tell us from this point, we will have trouble believing you. The past few months have proved that you'll say anything to make yourselves look good. EMPTY WORDS. EMPTY PROMISES.

9 comments:

poison ivy said...

tsk tsk tsk... walang pinagkaiba sa contractor na nakuha namin for our house renovation. are you thinking about some legal actions already?

g_saturn said...

I hear you sis. Parang bumabalik tuloy lahat ng sama ng loob ko sa Avida. Hay... I would have thought that with the numerous complaint letters we sent them during the 6-month turnover delay of our own unit they would have learned a lesson. Apparently not.

Disappointed buyer din ako ng Avida property. And the reason pa naman why we chose Avida is to prevent all this headaches -- wrong decision. We're trying to make the best of the situation even though construction site pa yung environment namin (which is quite ironic because one of the reasons they gave us for the delay is to ensure that the place is habitable na - wala ng big machineries, construction, etc.). We have to keep the windows close and clean the house 2x a day kundi a-asthmahin ang anak ko sa alikabok. Complaint ko pa is yung fluctuating kuryente (nakakasira ng appliance) and yung maamoy na tubig (when they open new pipes). Napahaba na tuloy...

Gladys

Nicole said...

@Ivy - yes, we're definitely reviewing our options. I just wish it didn't have to end up this way. The whole situation is really depressing.

@Gladys - That is ironic! And funny =) Yes, that's the same reason we chose Avida over the other developers. Sigh. But if anything else is wrong, please tell us (so we can prepare for it).

Maxi said...

Hi Ms Nicole,

I was able to talk to the the Avida Property Manager and I asked about your house color. They told me that your house will be painted in green and there was no request for blue. Did they placed your request somewhere? Try to look around, somebody house might be painted in blue right now hehehe.

My mom was informed by some security guards that we are lucky compared to the other houses within the site. Mahihina daw yung mga naunang houses. The durability of the house is major issue. Its really scary, I suggest that you bring another constructor, plumber, building inspector, and electrician during your turnover.


@g_saturn - My mom talked to Emer during the construction of our house. I think Meralco is already on it way na daw. Not sure when that will happen, maybe next year? Try to buy UPS to protect your appliances.

Maxi

Nicole said...

Hi Maxi,

The Avida Property Manager you talked to, was it Frolan? In any case, the color was stated in the contract so they can't say there was no request =)

Aside from the contract, there's a sheet that we signed (given by Avida) that gave options for our color preference and was also the basis for the color stated on the contract. They are really making me pop a blood vessel!!!

The first houses were built using the Vazbuilt system which according to the facilities manager in my office is a very good system. So good it's patented. That's the patent issue Avida was referring to. In 1999, Vazbuilt filed a patent infringement case against Avida which Avida lost. Ayala Land was then ordered by the court to pay nearly P140 million to the Filipino inventor of prefabricated houses.

You can read more about it from this link:

http://www.vazbuilt.com/vb/newsIx.asp?p=1&href=071226_PatentWin

But when we do the turnover, Earl's uncle (who is an architect) will come with us to inspect the house.

g_saturn said...

Hi Maxi,

According to the Property Manager (Engr. Frolan) Meralco will come in after the elections. So, it could be anywhere from May 11, 2010 to who knows when. I'd take what they say with a grain of salt. Mahirap nang ma-disappoint ulit at di ko na kailangan ng additional stress.

Regarding the UPS suggestion - I have actually thought about that but that would just be a band-aid fix. It does not really address the real problem. Before turnover, common decency dictates that Avida should provide sufficient and clean electricity and water supply to all homeowners. Recently, pumutok ang transformer sa village kasi hindi kinaya ang load - madami na kasi gumagamit. Tanong - hindi ba nila na-foresee ito? More 70 homeowners na ang nag-move in pero ang load lang ng transformer is for what? 20 or 30 houses? Dapat nai-plano na ito beforehand. For two days naka-generator kami at fan at ilaw lang ang nagagamit namin. Mabuti na rin ito kaysa wala pero naiwasan sana ito kung napagplanuhan ng maigi.

We are homeowners at Avida and quite frankly it breaks my heart that we are encountering these issues. This is the place I call home and I would like to speak with pride that I am an Avida homeowner. I would like to encourage friends and relatives to buy from Avida. These are the things I cannot do right now until Avida resolves all the issues/problems encountered at the village.

Yun lang po. Bow. :) Vote Nicole for Homeowner Assoc President. Hehehe. :)

Nicole said...

Hahaha! Actually, it's probably going to be Maxi since Avida told him that they'll get his name for the homeowner's association =)

Anonymous said...

So sad that after purchasing a house and lot in Avida Land, this is what will happen to us.=(

Nicole said...

Some got lucky, we didn't. Better not to expect too much. On the bright side, other developers are worse. Sigh. I think all the developers are the same at this point.

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