Simonds Homes Queensland closed its doors this week and I say good riddance to them. If I could I would kick them all the way back to Victoria. They are not nice people to deal with in my opinion.
If I were buying a home anywhere in Victoria, Simonds Homes would be the last people I would contact.
As a past employee of Simonds Homes in 2008, I could see the writing on the wall.
Over priced homes and display items that you could not order at any price were only the tip of the iceberg.
Two days into the position and the State Manager was sacked.
The the new staff turned up as Mystery Shoppers to find what the problem was, and a new wave a managers, recycled golf buddies and others came and went.
Repeated attempts to direct my sales efforts to grow the business and my profile in the community I was working were met with cold water.
I heard stories from nice people that had in my view the misfortune to buy their homes and then have to endure the terrible service that they delivered.
Then without warning they marched into my sales display office at Reedy Creek and ordered me out, with the new draftsman the New State Manager and the New Sales Manager as beef, without a reason, without payment in lieu of notice, without 6 weeks pay for the time they had not pay me.
I am currently taking action through Government bodies and legislation to recover monies owed to me. I am sure that there would be others who need help to recover unpaid wages from these guys.
Some say Simonds Homes tactics are a blight on the building industry and this is a view shared by others as told to me who served and said they were not paid by them.
I am sure that there are other sales people, contractors, draftspeople and office staff that feel they they also have been duded that have worked at Simonds Home Queensland.
There are probably similar stories in Victoria.
If you have suffered through not being paid your wages or earnings through Simonds Homes Queensland or Simonds Homes what you feel you are owed by Simonds Homes in Melbourne or Victoria, please contact us here.
Maybe we can start a class action against Simonds Homes to recover our unpaid salaries, wages, commission, and fees.
Gday Rick.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Tristan, I worked at Simonds Homes as a draftsperson for about a year. I dealt with you a few times through your sales and I remember I took you once to pick up your car when it was getting serviced at Springwood.
It's sad that Simonds went under purely for the good staff/people that worked there. The management weren't all too special to begin with. I joined the Simonds team in January of 2008 and within two months of me joining the Director and State Sales Manager both resigned. I was slightly worried at that point and that was almost a year ago.
The company never found its feet. They were selling the wrong product to the wrong people. Designs that were dreamed up by a sub-contracted architect from Melbourne that just didn't suit the Queensland people's lifestyle and needs.
I too was made redundant from Simonds about 2 months ago now and have been lucky enough to have found work only a month later at a good quality mining company.
My favourite moment at Simonds was when I was taken into the boardroom to meet with two of the managers for them to hound me about not working back late into the night. I had offered to work back on numerous occasions for them provided they paid me overtime which I thought was fair having been told in my interview that I would be paid any overtime money if I had worked the hours. However they told me that it was expected of me to work back an hour every day without pay. I told them my opinion of that and expected to be fired quick soon after but I was lucky enough not to be. I then later realized that I may have been immature and not professional to not want to work back without pay so I then started to work an hour or more a day extra. When I was made redundant they gave me my holiday pay but deducted $900 from that because I was paid a week in advance when I started with the company in January. No remorse or care.
They were a company of a**holes to the very end, not a good team of people. I was very angry with Simonds and I must admit that the closure of the company did make me smirk just a bit.
Cheers mate.