Eldeco is at it again

Imagine a brand new housing complex, less than an year old, where residents are charged around Rs. 3000 per month for maintenance service and then what are they provide with:

1. muddy water in the taps
2. seepage in the walls,
3. a fountain which is not even fitted, let alone not working,
4. overflowing drains which are not rectified even after 4 days of complaining, (I have not seen this problem even in 20 year old houses and this building is hardly an year old)
5. street dogs freely roaming in the campus,
6. power backup which takes an eternity to come in action.
7. centralized complaint system, but there is no one to pickup the calls made by residents to make the complaint. And when the poor residents walks down to the office, there is no one there too.
8. Prepaid system for electricity system with an IVR that does not work, so that the helpless residents are not able to know if there is any balance left in their account or not. They have to rely on their memory or wait for the electricity to get cut to know when the account recharge is required.

Can't believe it? Come to Eldeco's Ananda Apartments in Sector 48, Noida and you will get to see all of this and much more.

A concealed threatening from Eldeco

Today we recieved a letter from Mr. Vishal from Eldeco Marketing saying that the maintenance payment that we make to Eldeco for maintaining the "beautiful and wonderful" (pun intended) Ananda residential complex where we live, will now be made part of the "pre-paid" system that is used for track our electricity consumption.

At first it does seem to be a good idea to ensure that regular payments are recieved by Eldeco, but wait till you read the next para of the letter. It says that in case the payment for monthly maintainance is not made then the electricity supply may be disconnected!! That is even when I am regular in paying my electricity dues!!

I wonder if this is due to the comments that I have written on my blog about the pathetic service from Eldeco. But why am I wondering, I should have expected this from them given the kind of people they are.

More on Eldeco

This is what one of the readers have to say about the Eldeco and Ananda, Noida:

The blokes at Eldeco Infrastructure and Properties Ltd, the makers of Eldeco Ananda at Noida, have a way of plumbing to new depths of ineptitude. Case in point? The massive steel tubes that have come up in the basement car park. Who ever wanted them anyway. Even assuming that these barricades serve a purpose i.e. we get disciplined enough to park our cars in a way that enables others to also find their space, these bars could have been a little lower and hence making it possible for people to get out of their cars without fear of banging the door onto these bars.
Someone in Eldeco needs his head examined. Not only is this effort so hopelessly counterproductive and irritating, it has also cost them a tidy packet, with all the fabricating and welding and painting, which amount could have been spent on a better treadmill at the gym.

Customer (Non-) Support from Eldeco

We had filed some complaints regarding the finishing of our house when we shifted to Ananda in January 2007. Some of the complaints have been taken care off but most of them have not been taken care off till date. See the portion circled in red in the photo, which has been taken from the complaint register maintained by the Estate Manager at Ananda, Noida. We had filed complaints on 23rd Jan, 2007 and till date some of them have a "not done" status.

I wonder what does Eldeco mean by customer satisfaction, with complaints remaining unanswered for nearly three and half (3.5) months. They do not seem like an progressive organization and are not at all bothered about the customer once they have sold the apartment. The funny part is that they are not even ready to handover the maintanence to the residents even when we have been asking them to do so since last 5-6 months. It seems Eldeco wants to derive some sadistic pleasure from putting us to this misery.

I think even Government of India departments are better performers now. Earlier I was staying in a flat constructed by NOIDA and I used to crib about lack of support from NOIDA, but I think Eldeco has managed to put even NOIDA to shame.

The Strange World of Eldeco

Recently read this article on Eldeco: http://news.gurgaon-properties.com/gurgaon-properties-building-on-his-business-dreams/
It says that ".. (Eldeco) are trying to deliver dream homes to savvy customers, not just in the metros but in the second tier cities as well."
Sure they do know what the customers dream of, otherwise how would they how to make them a nightmare. Eldeco Ananda at Noida can be made a good case study on how to turn customer's dream into nightmares. The list of problems here are endless.
1. Erratic power supply (even with power backup), which even causes the bulbs in common corridors to fuse every week, not to speak of what happens in our homes.
2. Water supply which seems straight out of Yamuna river. Even Noida Authority flats have better water quality then at Eldeco Ananda.
3. Poor construction quality, seepage in walls galore.
4. Massive delay in delivery. The deadline for possession was March 2006. Its now April 2007 and the work is still at least 5-6 months away from completion. Though some brave hearts like us have agreed to shift due to monetary pressures.
5. Its summer now, but the swimming pool is still empty. I think they are waiting for the winter to set in to start the swimming pool, so that people can enjoy sun bathing by the pool side.
6. The piped gas supply has not started yet. The residents are made to believe that it is not safe to start the supply until 75% occupancy is there.
7. High maintenance charges with no accountability from Eldeco Management.
8. The gymnasium is a sham, with 72 houses, they have equipment which can not even handle 5 persons at the same time. Private gyms which charge much less are much better than this.

Maybe its Ananda, Devil style.

Eldeco Marketing

Sometime back I had a discussion with one of the marketing folks at Eldeco Properties and Infrastructre Ltd, regarding the house that I had bought in their premium project at Noida, Eldeco Ananda. I had a problem regarding my electricity bill which was generated by Eldeco themselves and had asked the marketing person to get the mistake rectified, to which he had agreed to and told me that he will get back in a couple of days.
After a few days I found that the problem is still there in my bill, so I called this person again and asked him about the status. He said, matter of factly that this was not his problem and he would not be able to get the issue fixed. When I said that then why did you commit to get back to me when we talked the last time. To my utter disbelief he said that he had never said that he will get back to me and instead it was I who was supposed to get back to him. Now I wonder if the problem was with my bill and if I had agreed to get it resolved then why would I get back to him. I would get the issue resolved and be happy, why the hell would I give him a call to tell him that the problem has been fixed. That would have been the most stupidest thing to do.
So I got a litte disturbed and the cumulative anger of all the promises broken by Eldeco till then, caused me to say that "Enough is enough, I had made a big mistake of buying a flat from Eldeco and now I will make sure that no body from my friends and my acquaintances buys a flat from Eldeco".
To my utter disbelief the person said "if you want to do so, then sir that is your problem".

Shocking, isn't it? but true to the last word. With persons like this in the marketing department, not even God can help Eldeco. Not to talk about the poor people like us who have been hoodwinked by Eldeco to buy a flat. :-(