cpwee

Hello all, I just want to give an update on our recent post concerning our experience with Koong Yee. The works were finally completed and place handed over to us in mid June. Despite all the earlier delays and missteps, we have to give credit when due, that is they took eventually our feedback seriously, rectified the problems and went out of the way to win back a disgruntled customer. The staff who gave us so much heartache was replaced by his senior (who is definitely more experienced) and one of the directors also stepped in to give us assurance and commitment to see to the completion of our renovation. Both took turns to come in to check on progress and coordinate works, updates were given promptly on a daily basis. Things moved much faster in the last 2 weeks than the first 4 weeks combined! When we finally moved in, only very minor touch up works remained to be done. Throughout this saga, they were apologetic of their shortcoming and never once chased us for payment, even though we asked a few times when we can pay according to the agreed schedule. There was a level of focus of gets things complete first to our satisfaction before settling the bill. We appreciate this effort. Happily living in our new place now.

Hello jamejone183, yes fully agree with you! We experienced this on 2 counts: 1. Sanitary fittings: We were recommended a supplier in TradeHub who is supposed to give good discounts. Did our selection but something just didn't feel right, so we pulled the brake on payment which we were glad we did! We went to the supplier (Lookz Pte Ltd in Balestier) which we bought the fittings from for our previous place - and true enough, the exact items/quantity worked out to be 20% cheaper than what the "Recommended supplier" quoted us. 2. Curtains: arranged meeting with the "recommended supplier" - on day of meeting, we reconfirmed if the supplier was going to be on time and got a "yes". Hence we reached our place on time; after waiting for 15 minutes with no supplier in sight/no news, we called him and it was then he said "I'm still in punggol" with no apology offered. Told us to wait till 45min-1 hour after arranged time if we could - we obviously said no! Went back to our previous curtain furnishing company (Yours Furnishing at River Valley Road) - lovely service, and on day of site visit to take measurements, the lady (in stark contrast) text us half an hour before scheduled meeting time to let us know she was on the way. And I did not even have to text her to get this update from her. Having griped about the above, to be fair, there are 2 saving graces for Koong Yee - the carpenter and the electrician. If anything, these are the only 2 suppliers in our entire experience with Koong Yee who made any sense. The carpenter, being a tradesman, definitely wanted to get work orders so he was enthusiatic and he gave very sound advice during the confirmation - and it was then we realised our PM did not brief the carpenter AT ALL though he claimed to have done it before going on leave. We ended up briefing the carpenter on the requirements which we spent 2 hours briefing our PM on. The electrician was also professional and provided good sensible advice/solutions when we went through the site to brief on the lighting spots, power socket locations etc. Again, our beloved PM failed miserably in his capacity as a project manager, as he did not brief the electrician though he claimed to have done it again. During the walkthrough and brief, he was supposed to take note of quantities/items to calculate the electrical quote on the spot, and came up with horribly wrong quantities which resulted in a quote that was more than double (we already did our rough estimates based on the unit prices given by Koong Yee). Hence the quantities were passed to the electrician for vertification, to which we saw the electrician's face turning awkward, to which he defused the awkward situation of our dear PM not knowing how to do his job very quickly by saying in Mandarin which translated to "no wonder Boss is angry, quantities are not correct." And after he adjusted the quantities, the quote only became what we estimated it to be. In conlusion, the calibre of the renovation company (empty promises) is largely aligned with the standards offered by their suppliers (sub-standard).

Some updates on the renovation progress with Koong Yee. Things finally moved after we made a huge din - contract stated 6 weeks to completion from commencement but nothing moved after the initial hacking. As a result, our renovation completion was pushed back by 3 weeks. And if your PM says he/she is going on leave and tells you they have coverage, let me assure you there is NEGATIVE COVERAGE. When we first met the PM, he did inform us on that he will be on 2 weeks leave, but not to worry as there is a senior covering him - we were totally misled by this. We asked and probed and was told ALL works (painting/plumbing/carpentry/electrical) has been arranged. I have screen shots to substantiate this - just PM me if you need to and I'm happy to send you the screen shots for verification. The latest joke is - my electrical works have been completed yesterday (finally!) and I have not received the quote for the electrical works yet. We were chasing for it since a month ago. Another classic: project schedule given, installation dates for fan and air-con were provided by the PM himself. As house owners, we gave the reminder 1 week before + re-confirmation done 3 days prior, all of which were given ok by the PM, but just 1 day prior to arranged installation date, PM text to ask us to postpone the installation dates as the flooring folks were coming in when according to the schedule put up by him, they were only supposed to come 1 day later. That is why the project was delayed by 3 weeks which we, the house owners, are bearing the consequence now. Complete lack of project coordination and please do NOT take their word when they say they are a one-stop design firm. It's probably our bad luck to get the PM which we did, complete lack of experience and knowledge on managing a construction/renovation project. Absolutely clueless. Anyway, my advice is not to engage this company if you like a fuss free, reliable renovation progress without several unwelcome shocks (to be realistic, some hiccups in a project can be expected).

Don't bother engaging Koong Yee. They are always at the home fairs at Expo soliciting new business, but when it comes to delivery it's a nightmare, or at least I'm in the midst of it now. The guy was nice and friendly at the pitching state, but once you sign off, they just become bo-chap and non-responsive. We engaged them for our house renovation services just recently in April 2016, the ID in charge of our project is on leave (which he did inform us even before we signed off), but was assured of coverage. As most of you may have already guessed, the truth is there is ZERO coverage, so nothing in the house has moved for 2 weeks FYI. PM me if you need the details. From a disgruntled customer of Koong Yee Renovation.