Sobha Developers CRM - Creative Reasoning and Manipulation

Hi Everyone,

I purchased a Sobha property (really expensive- more than Rs. 1 crore.) one about a year back. My experience with them has been very bad. Few things that I want to mention are:

1. Yes, the 18% penalty is applicable even if the delay is no fault of yours. In my case, they sent the communication to the wrong address!!

2. Their quality has come down many notches in the last 10 years. They seem stand lesser and lesser for quality.

3. Read all the agreements very carefully. There are bent to be changes in the square footage, power backup, common area specification etc. The final “sale doc” you sign may not be the same as the one shown by the sales person. Make sure to go through the “Specifications” with a fine toothed comb.

3. I had to point out many flaws in the construction stage itself in my house to get it rectified. Many of the flaws were never rectified as there was no written record of the request. So keep in mind, while dealing with Sobha have everything in writing.

4. On the day of the possession I realized that I was being charged more than necessary. I pointed this out and later got my money back after a tussle with the top management.

5. They have a tendency to go back on their word as far as common facilities go. For example, our pool was not functioning even during handover.

6. The worst part of dealing with Sobha was how greedy their workers were. They know that we are people who will pay that little extra for quality (at least that is the assumption by buying a Sobha). At every instance- electrical, plumbing etc. they will try to make that extra buck. I got the feeling that the workers deliberately left these loopholes in to make that extra buck. Worst case is that even the Project managers will get a cut out of the money the plumber/electrician/painter etc makes. BEWARE OF THEIR PLUMBERS IN PARTICULAR.

7. Before taking possession make sure that everything is in working condition and complete. Here, look at the completion of the project mainly instead of your apartment. My case- my house is done, my project is still going on more than a year down the line!!! Be firm, do not get entangled in their tactics of “sir, please take possession NOW because of …….” . You may fill in the blanks, they do come up with some very creative reasons.

8. Post possession and occupation, be ready to deal with their CRM Dept. In most companies CRM is Customer Relationship Management, in Sobha it is Creative Reasoning and Manipulation. Most of them have no idea how to deal with customers. In case anyone from Sobha is reading, how about hiring some people from the hospitality sector to give some class to your team. Most of the CRM team is freshers right out of college and with no powers. This is when you wish you never bought a Sobha.

9. Be ready to realize that the money Sobha took to maintain the property as Maintenance deposit is not enough to cover anything. They keep this amount really low so that they can sell the property.

10. Last but not the least, their promise of 1 year of maintenance after possession is total bullshit. They do not maintain the property for free. It is usually digging into your corpus or asking you to cough up money so that we are forced to live with their good-for-nothing staff for 1 year. Most of this staff happens to have no background other than being uneducated relatives of Sobha employees who could not get jobs anywhere else. Maybe, this is in tune with Mr. Menon’s way of taking care of the poor and useless.

An Unhappy and Disgruntled Sobha Customer

Sobha Developers - Be careful in dealing with Sobha - Lack or No Transparency

It has come to our notice that Sobha and other developers are not being very transparent in their dealings. Suggest all to seek original proofs/receipts (specially financials). Heard that SDL is not willing to share the proof of Service Tax submission with the customers and are keeping quiet when people are asking for refund. Heard that lots of Sobha customers are trying to get to talk to their MD, but they are not being allowed to go beyond CRM.

Suggest all customers to ask for the details of each financial transactions. Get the commitment of water supply (in Bangalore specially). It seems SDL gives fake promise about water and customers spend 3-4 k per flat to get tanker water. Check the BWSSB, KEB, all hardware purchase receipt, STP MSA etc. Go as one unit instead of seeking this individually. Heard that they are very stingy in refunding money...so better go as one unit and demand all these. If anyone has any official statement of service tax return, please post. Not sure whether SDL used to perform the same way as they are doing today. Kind of arrogance in their dealing (post sales). Doubt whether they act in a similar fashion with corporate customers (definitely not).