Stuart Bruce, self proclaimed PR Guru, says that this is “One of the best examples of a small business blogging I’ve seen.”

Which is nice.

I’ve also spent a lot of time on the phone with Jane Hughes. She’s writing a piece for the Mail on Sunday, about blogging and the benefits it brings.

In Crest Nicholson news, still no sign of a statement of work for the work that they’re supposed to be carrying out tomorrow…

Kisby, Jeanette wrote:

I am writing to advise that a cheque for the sum of £120 will be sent out today in the first class post to your address at X Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxx.

I’ve just confirmed that those funds have cleared my account, and I have called the Court to arrange for matters to be concluded.

I will of course be updating the pages at

http://www.newhomeblogs.co.uk/weblog1/

with the latest developments. And hello to your other colleagues who appear to have been reading that site over the last few months.

While I have your attention, I wonder if you could give John Lewsley a bit of a kick — he’s been promising to send me a statement of work for work that Crest have booked for next Tuesday, but he’s not returning my phone calls, and so far, hasn’t provided that statement.

Read on for more.

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From: Jeanette Kisby

Please be advised that we will make arrangements to process your retention fee of £3000 back to you as soon as possible without delay.

I’ve replied, reminding them that this needs to include the £120 I incurred in starting the legal action. John Lewsley from Crest Nicholson is coming round tomorrow to do the proper handover. I did suggest they give him a cheque to give to me…

Of course, I found this out because I was researching how to make a claim against Crest Nicholson. Pictons had no luck getting a response from Crest Nicholson, and said that the best way to proceed is via the Small Claims Court. I’ve done that now. The text of the claim is below the fold.

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Unfortunately, I was on a conference call at the time and couldn’t take his call. But the message he left said that he’d try again tomorrow.

However, the poor quality of some of Crest’s work has manifested itself yet again…

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First, there’s the driveway. The weather’s been a bit warm recently, with temperatures in the 26-27C range. Unfortunately, this is enough to slightly melt the material they’ve used on the driveway. As a result if you then drive off it it gets a little churned up, damaging the surface.

No photos of that yet, but I do have a photo of the handle on the dishwasher door. Somewhat ironically this handle had already been snagged and fixed (after several attempts) by Crest. That snag was that the screw on the right side of the handle was loose.

This one, however… well, let the picture speak for itself.

Yes, that’s right. The left hand side of the handle has detached from the door. Either the screw is too short or the handle’s faulty. What’s worse is that Crest knew about this. But instead of trying to fix it by, say, replacing the handle, their contractors just tried to glue the handle back on. You can see the remnants of the glue on the door.

This only manifested itself a few days ago, after the dishwasher door had been opened and closed a few times. A couple of other door handles in the kitchen have the same problem — a little light use and they work loose. Looks like this might be a design flaw in some Symphony Group kitchens.

Staying in the kitchen, some of the lights don’t work. I’d known that some of the ceiling bulbs had gone on the previous inspection. I told Crest that I didn’t care about them fitting the bulbs, but that they should just leave me some spares. But now some of the under unit lights don’t work — I don’t know whether or not the bulbs have gone, or whether it’s a wiring issue.

I called and spoke to Crest about these earlier today (around 9.30am) and spoke to Janet in Customer Services. She tells me that she’ll pass these to Site Services, as apparently Customer Services don’t deal with things until three weeks after the handover. She promised me that Site Services will be in touch soon.