Bangalore
Property Buyers - Experiences of an Ittina Customer
I happened to purchase multiple Ittina flats. All flats were purchased in Ittina Neela, one of the so called ‘Walk to work’ project from Ittina. (For God’s sake, the distance from Ittina Neela’s gate to any office in Electronics City is not less than 6 - 7 km! These people must be sued for false advertisement in the first place. But this is nothing. To see how bad things can get at Ittina, read on.)
I belong to the IT industry and am aware that these builders have their way because we keep pouring money. I believe my colleagues must benefit from my (consistently bad) experience (for all the flats from Ittina). The lesson I learnt was that I must never buy a flat from Ittina again – and of course, never recommend it to anybody. Read the experiences, and make your own decisions.
Quality? What’s that?
One aspect we IT folks swear by is quality. We know that without it our customers will throw us out and get a competing vendor. At Ittina, you have to teach them how to spell QUALITY. For them, there is nothing that quality has to do with their flats. They will build the flat – the owner can improve its quality after possession, if s/he wants – even if it means practically reconstructing your flat. I am not exaggerating. After spending enormous amount of time and energy shouting at the customer care executives, site supervisors, electricians and plumbers, I gave up.
Flooring – pathetic quality – tiles laid in an uneven manner – even broken tiles.
Finishing – No intention to do a well finished job – very badly finished electrical outlets, bathroom tiles and commode, plastering.
Water, Water everywhere – Seepage in virtually every bathroom wall (so you see it in the neighboring room too) as well as under most windows.
Flat is ready to possess sir – just that the doors are broken – Terrible woodwork – you will have to get them replaced.
Laborers – Deal with them yourselves – ABSENCE (yes, absence) of customer service – there used to be just 2 customer care officers for entire Ittina when I had to deal with them, sitting in Koramangala – support at the site after possession is pathetic – especially since quality of construction is very poor.
Delay in possession: Possession delayed by more then a year! Ask some of the owners yourselves.
2 Years into possession – No Lift – No Generator – These have not been fixed even after 2 Years of the ‘delayed’ possession.
Ready to possess – but your flush tanks will not work sir – flush tanks not even fixed properly on the wall – no water for the flush tanks – because the sewage treatment plant is not yet ready! This was finally made to work after 1 year of delay.
Car park is ready – but our laborers will stay there – Even 4 – 5 months into possession, laborers stay in the basement meant for car park. Why care for the customer? We’ve got our money!
Uneven floor levels in the bathrooms – have fun sweeping water into the drains for the rest of your lives in your flat
Bathroom with no showers – no wall mixers – basic amenities – if you want a basic amenity like a shower, get it fixed yourself. And we are talking about flats that were sold at 12 – 15 lakhs. One decent quality shower fitting costs less than Rs.1000 or even Rs.500.
Pathetic customer service team: With a team of just 2 people managing entire Ittina’s customer service, the service was pathetic. The experience is very similar to dealing with a Govt. office – where the onus of getting the job done is on you.
On the day we were supposed to register one of the flats, they simply called up and said it will not proceed since the ’registrar office stopped registrations that day’. When I enquired with the registrar’s office, they said it was business as usual. People at Ittina thought that customers never bother to contact Govt. offices and will never figure out the truth. I later came to know from a more honest Ittina employee that the delay was because their MD left Bangalore without signing the papers for registration, and it will now have to wait until the MD comes back. How can you trust these guys? You can imagine the tension if someone suddenly says your registration cannot proceed.
*14. Champion of bounced cheques - they will issue any number of cheques and those can freely bounce like a ball. Its an offence if your cheque bounces - but since Ittina is above the law, they don’t care. Your suffering is not their problem, because the flat is ’sold’!
I’m sure I have missed out a number of other terrible issues with Ittina – you just have to have coffee with any existing Ittina flat owner to figure them out! Or, simply type ’Ittina Review’ in Google and you will get enough reviews with only sad stories. The moment you finish ‘buying process’ of the flat at Ittina, your struggle begins.