Occasionally we highlight specific problems / cases that people have with Solitaire / Peverel to try and provoke them into acting on the complaint – sometimes, those that Solitaire / Peverel cannot answer, remain unanswered (I refer ‘Andy’ to A N Onymous’ follow up to his ‘One Year of Peverhell‘ titled ‘Wheelie Bad Property Management)

We have been contacted by ‘Berni’, who has been a frequent contributor to TheTruthAboutSolitaire, who has asked us to document her plight with Solitaire / Peverel.

Hopefully, ‘Berni’ will get the response that she has requested, following TheTruthAboutSolitaire publishing the e-mail that she sent:-

Admin,

I wondered if you could bring to the publics attention the failure of Solitaire to acknowledge me and hope that this might make Andy’s actually reply to me, even though I’ve e-mailed him twice directly I’ve yet to have a response! 

Well I’ve tried to be patient and given Solitaire the benefit of the doubt that yes they are improving and yes things will take time however I have now lost all patience and have reached the conclusion that no things are not improving and no they never will.

I have had several account queries outstanding for 2 years now!  After a meeting with our new Property Manager earlier this year, she agreed that our account would be put on hold until these queries, and several others, are resolved.  This has gone someway to pacify me and even though things are still dragging along I have been content in the thought that at least they aren’t getting any more hard earned money from me whilst they muddle along in their incompetency. However today I receive a delightful letter stating it is a Notice Before Legal Proceedings, threatening me that if I don’t pay the outstanding amount in full within 7 days then legal proceedings will be started and numerous charges plus 4% interest will be accrued on the outstanding amount.

To say I was furious would be an understatement and I immediately phoned the Accounts Department.   The chap who answered confirmed that no my account wasn’t on hold, despite being assured by my Property Manager that it was.  When I queried how to put my account on hold he said I had to get my Property Manager to do this – I had, 6 months previously!!  To give him his due, he did then speak with the PM concerned who confirmed the account should be on hold and apologised that it wasn’t.  I have since e-mailed asking for written confirmation of this but am still awaiting a response – I won’t hold my breath!

Andy – I have twice e-mailed you directly now with issues and I have not received an acknowledgement, let alone any progression to resolving the problem.  Please please tell me what else I’m supposed to do?  It’s all very well monitoring this website and coming out with the same old platitudes and asking people to e-mail you directly but what happens when they do this and don’t receive anything back?  I suppose the next step is to contact ARMA but I have serious doubts about the effectiveness of this association as they do seem a bit of a toothless lion.

I wanted this posting to be published so people could see that even though some residents are toeing the party line and contacting their property manager and Andy, the same situation exists – total lack of communication and threatening letters from a company who have previously agreed to put an account on hold pending the outcome of account queries whereby it would appear we have been overcharged.

On a final note, please keep up the good work on this website, you’re doing an amazing job and it’s heartening to know that we’re not alone in our plight.

What’s obvious, is that everyone see’s through the posts that ’Andy’ makes and his assurances that he’ll get things sorted for you (protecting the company image/identity/brand), despite the fact that even he fails to respond to e-mails.  (I can backup the claims that Berni raises, because I’ve never received a response from him despite numerous e-mails)

‘Andy’ can continue to ‘preach’ the gospel, according to Solitaire / Peverel – but despite the assurances he keeps telling us, that things are changing, but take time – he’s simply appeasing us. 

As the old saying goes ‘Leopards Don’t Change Their Spots’ – so why do we think that Solitaire / Peverel will change?

The reason things are taking time to get sorted is simple – they now realise that they cannot get away with the practices that they have been getting away with anymore. 

All of the recent publicity in the press, the websites such as TheTruthAboutSolitaire that say the same things, the forums of people asking questions about why they charge so much – is damaging their reputation and demonstrates that we, the residents – are fighting back and Peverel / Solitaire don’t like it!

I spoke with an employee of a local Property Management Company and they told me that since Peverel has been being mentioned in the press, they have seen a dramatic increase in enquiries from residents whom have Solitaire / Peverel as their Property Management Company and have produced a standard information pack they provide customers with, explaining how they can go about removing them!  (similar to our Essential Guide)

If this local PMC is getting an increase in enquiries, from local Solitaire / Peverel residents (and they’re a relatively small company), what must all the other PMC’s around the country be getting – afterall Solitaire / Peverel claim to have over 100,000 dwellings.  It certainly demonstrates that the ‘Peverel’ brand is damaged and that residents are fighting back.

An example of how hot a topic “Peverel” / “Solitaire” is on the Internet was proved by yesterday (5th Nov 09) website statistics, when TheTruthAboutSolitaire website received over 1100 unique hits!  (our usual number of visitors per month is 2500 – 3500)