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Trent SmithMetropolitan Adelaide, SA
- Verified customer
Read the fine print, do your homework & learn from my mistakes.
We built with Dechellis Homes in 2022 and wanted to provide a snapshot of our experience, in the hope this would help someone looking for a builder they can trust and be comfortable with.
Unfortunately our experience was not overly positive.
Pre-Build:
Sales person we dealt with was very knowledgeable, he did work hard for us, but unfortunately by the end of the process he was unprofessional & rude, telling us we were one of his worst clients and we ended up dealing with the office team from then on. (I should have backed out at that point)...Read more
2 comments
These issues were raised across the process of the build. I have sent an email to the above and to provide accurate feedback of outcome after they looked into these matters. Please see below outcomes
... Read more
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Daniel H.Metropolitan Adelaide, SA
- Verified customer
Terrible builder poor workmanship poor management poor communication
After three year build process which was a headache from the start. Promised so much but got so little. no communication what so ever. felt like an owner builder poor workmanship and poor professionalism
Terrible salesman terrible site manager
Refusing to come back and fix problems (lots) not just little problems
Regret building with this builder have built for homes previous with other builders with no problems.
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WarwickAdelaide
- Verified customer
Dechellis Responsive and Profesional Builders
This project was the 2nd time I have built a new home, but the first time I've used Dechellis Homes as the builder. The reason for choosing Dechellis was as much as anything else the quick response times we received from the sales person we dealt with.
All dealings with Dechellis were very professional and efficient and the end result was an excellent home built very efficiently and without any problems.
Our site building manager (David) was very easy to deal with. He always answered my phone calls and he always delivered the things he said he would do, when he would do them.
I would recommend building a new home with Dechellis Homes and I will probably build with them again in the future.
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- Verified customer
Very professional, high quality and personalized service.
From day one building of our house with Dichellis we had high level of confidence. Visited lots of home displays and decision was actually very easy.Great designs and striking quality were very hard to match by other builders. Building process were prompt. Had change of site manager but it did not disrupt project. As a matter of fact everything went even better. Customer service and support during building was very good. On handover there was a couple of minor faults which were adressed very proptly with no hesitation. Would deffinately build with them again. Well done Dechellis Homes
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Mike BAdelaide
- 2 reviews
- 3 likes
- Selected Review
Good design, quality builder
It was a positive experience building my new home with Dechellis. The project was not entirely straight forward, as it involved a land sub-division, but the quality of the service I received from my first contact right through to completion was exceptional, and I am also delighted with the quality of the finished product.
My initial reason for choosing Dechellis was the attractiveness of their designs and the flexible floor plans. From the start I was particularly drawn to one particular design, the McLaren, which suited my needs, and it se...Read more
emed particularly good value for its size. I also went for the `As Displayed’ option, which was worth the extra cost in terms of the ‘wow factor’ of the end result, and what you see in the display home is what you get. The sales consultant who I dealt with at the display home at Aldinga was in tune with my needs, and was able to modify and further increase the size of the floor plan to better suit my block, which affected the final build cost only slightly. He was also amazingly patient with my many requests for other small changes. The subsequent selections process was handled very efficiently, and I was very happy with the suppliers and the wide range of options available. The new house was built at the rear of a large block in the inner north eastern suburbs; this was a `hammerhead’ sub-division, and prior to as well as during the build, I was living in and renovating the old Art Deco house at the front of the block. While the subdivision and renovation project was something that I organized and supervised myself, close co-ordination was necessary with Dechellis while they built the new house, and their help and advice during this process was invaluable. There were many challenges, including difficult access to the rear of the block during much of the build, and the planning and installation of new sewer, gas & water services for both houses. The construction manager and the building supervisor worked with me with considerable professionalism and flexibility so that the entire project flowed well and was completed in 5 months, despite a very wet winter. Living right next to the build was a pretty full-on experience, but it did give me the opportunity to keep a close eye on things and I enjoyed chatting with the tradesmen from time to time. Maintaining close contact with everything was helpful I think, and I found it hard to fault the quality of the work at all stages. When the brickies came on site, the supervisor arranged for them to talk to me about different options for the mortar joints. They showed me examples and I ended up changing from the originally selected flush joints to much neater looking rolled joints, which I am very happy with. By handover in late June 2014, everything had been completed to my satisfaction, and three months after that my list of things to be fixed at the Scheduled Maintenance visit was very short indeed. I’ve now been in the new house for over 3 months and I continue to be very happy with the excellent design and the quality of the build. It’s also a particularly comfortable house to live in, and very energy efficient - helped by the northerly aspect combined with LED lighting and good insulation. It is hard to fault the whole process – perhaps my only regret is that I didn’t up-grade the shower screens during the selection process, as the standard framed ones supplied are a bit light-weight, but still attractive and very adequate nevertheless. In summary, I would highly recommend Dechellis Homes. Building with them was an exciting and satisfying experience. I was careful to maintain very close and regular communication with them during the whole process, helped by living so close to the site, but I’ve ended up with a great and well built house that is set to stand the test of time.Similar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
INQ001Metropolitan Adelaide, SA
- 11 reviews
Recommend an independant inspector, check each Building stage very carefully
The sales consultant we had was very helpful, provided us suggestions with layout and gave us a reasonable idea about costs along the way. We found Dechellis Homes very flexible with our floor plan. We were not locked into a project home plan, they were happy to tailor to our request. We experienced no high pressure to sign up when we got our final quote. Even after signing up the sales consultant was helpful.
I would recommend getting their specifications before you commit yourself though so you can actually see what you are really getting ...Read more
by visiting the various suppliers, in most cases it will be different to what is in their display home which is usually with higher specifications. Ask the builder for their supplier listing. I visited each supplier to find out exactly what you are to getting with those standard specifications and find out how much it will cost you when you upgrade to something else you prefer, tally up the upgrade costs you have accumulated along the way. This will give you a more realistic idea how much on top of the quoted price you were given. All those upgrades can rake up to potentially $10s of thousands of $$$s, it did in my case surprisingly. A little here and there all increases you total building cost bottom line. Our building process was done on time in about 7 months from slab to completion. However, I would like to emphasis unless you are familiar with all of the building codes, please do not hesitate to appoint an ###independent qualified building inspector### get them to go over before your plans etc., before you sign up with the builder and also seek a legal opinion on the contract. Also, make it know to the builder in advance you will be having a building inspector checking each stage of the building process. Have him sign off each stage of the build before the builder commences the next stage if you can put that on the contract. Again, I cannot under emphasise the value in having a qualified building inspector go over your plans. Make sure you do not just go for the cheapest building inspector too, it pays to look around for a reputable building inspector. During our building process our inspector was very helpful in resolving some of the building issues we had along the way, as I will briefly outline below some of these. Slab - Inspector noticed the concrete ledgers were not removed, if left unchecked this would create potential salt damp issues a few years later. The builder took a long time to do some remedial work on this and it was only partially removed it took a lot of prompting along the way. He also noted it was not earthed and the builder had to some remedial work but took ages to address these. Brickwork – I was very disappointed with the quality of the brickwork the tradesmen were hopeless and my inspector mentioned it was substandard work. The builder eventual did some remedial work by pulling down a couple of external walls and rebuilding them but still using the same unskilled tradesmen if you can call them that. I now have a lovely warped wall in my entrance of about 10-15mm from one end of the base to the other to greet us each day. This only became apparent when the tiles were laid my building inspector failed to find this defect. This was the most disappointing part of the building project, it was nothing like the standard of their display home and others they have built. I should have got some credit back for this very poor work as I paid a lot of money to this builder. I mentioned this to the sales consultant and he mentioned he has notified the owner but nothing came of that. The building inspector was very helpful, but I felt he was not proactive enough to address this at the early stage of construction. I should have looked harder for a more thorough and proactive building inspector. There is much more to say about this poor workmanship. I really felt they took on a bad batch of tradesmen to rush through my place at my expense. They should have got them to construct their display home.Similar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
cadavilynHappy Valley
- 2 reviews
- 8 likes
Get at least ONE Building Inspector
In a nutshell - I would strongly recommend that anyone contemplating building with Dechellis needs to hire themselves a GOOD Building Inspector BEFORE the building process begins - and arrange regular inspections once the build process begins to ensure all work is compliant with current building regulations before they pay for any stage. Also beware of the "Substantially Completed" wording in each Stage invoice!
One example: After the first day of bricklaying I was horrified to see the the lack of mortar between the back of the bricks. I t...Read more
ook some picture and emailed to Dechellis and then hired a good Building Inspector who advised that in addition to a Brickwork Inspection - I urgently needed a report on the already paid for Wall & Roof Framing work. Subsequently 4 weeks later (and 3 more inspections after the initial Wall & Roof Framing inspection) - I finally achieved sign off that the Wall & Roof Framing workmanship was compliant with the Onkaparinga Council approved plans. I hate to think what serious defects would have been covered over had I not hired a Licenced Building Inspector when I did. I still have copies of all Building Inspections, photos of the initial bricklaying workmanship and correspondence to and from the Builder to back up my expressed concerns. In the end I have a nice house I had to fight Dechellis right through the build process to get quality workmanshipSimilar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
karmaFreeling
Disappointed
Built with Dechellis in the second half of 2011. Neither my wife or myself have really been happy with the quality of the build having had relatively substantial amounts of defects since handover. Reporting defects is usually brought down to us proving that it was a defect in the build which has so far cost us about $1000 over 2 building inspections which isn't really fair as the builder is also a subject matter expert.
The selection process is good with lots of choice.
Build quality is bad, brickwork not meeting Australian standards, framework...Read more
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fresadelaide
spacious home, good build Excellent extras Exquiste Audio and Visual pty ltd and Commercial AIR
I really enjoyed selections process with all the suppliers not the in house lady. All the suppliers were easy to deal with. We got a great deal with Commerical Air for the Air con and even threw in few extras also the Security guys Exquiste Audio and Visual was excellent yes they installed us a full secutiry system package and home theatre i can even turn on my alarm from my phone. The general build was good we were happy with the overall quality. the only thing we didnt like was getting anything fixed proved to be a nightmare and the selection...Read more
s lady was aweful i totally agree with another comment made about the dont hire family bit she really needs to go! love the appliances, style of home dont like dechellis as a company to deal with very unprofessionalSimilar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
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Janey_BAU
Buyer beware
This was supposed to be a dream house for my young family and has turned into a house of horrors.
The initial consultations with Dechellis and their suppliers was a really good experience. We were lulled by this into a false sense of security.
The construction process seemed to go smoothly, but when we got to handover oh my god the defect list was enormousness, which wasn't really a problem if the faults were fixed, we then got to practical completion and most of the faults were still there. My wife and I believing in the good nature of the b...Read more
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savagefamily9999Adelaide
Living in our dream home - couldn't be happier!!
We chose the Wild Orchid by Dechellis after over 2 years of looking at display homes, and researching builders. The design was perfect for our needs - although the display home as displayed was out of our budget range, the sales consultant was excellent and worked very hard to help us modify, and we are extremely happy with the end result. Our research on Dechellis as a builder, was very positive, which was important for us as first time builders. From the beginning, Dechellis was approachable and understanding and if an issue arose (as they wi...Read more
ll no matter who you build with I imagine!!) it was dealt with in a timely fashion and to our satisfaction. Our site supervisor was brilliant, he made himself available to us at every stage of the build and was extremely knowledgeable and co-operative. He truly had our best interests in mind as he understood that customer satisfaction was paramount to Dechellis' reputation, something that we felt the bigger building companies had forgotten. Our experience with Dechellis was extremely positive and we completely love our new home. Build time (7 months), design and approachability of site supervisor None. Pleasantly surprised at the smoothness of the process. Thank you!Similar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
YGEvansAU
poor workmanship and Communication
Dechellis built our home which is called the Woodside Living Area: 278.88m2 Garage Area: 57.26m2 Total m2: 352.50m2 Home Width: 25.29m Home Depth: 20.69m. It is our retirement home and it has taken our life saving to build it. Our kitchen was design and installed by Sampina joinery at Newton and I have never met such unprofessional company they design our kitchen with a useless cupboard with a small door that you could not put a handle onto it because if you did you could not open the cutlery draw so they turn the door a around and now it dose ...Read more
not close properly because of the dishwasher, at the end of the breakfast bar the was a square cavity the size of a cupboard but you could not get into it was a square box when we contacted Dechellis about the problem they told us we are not building a Jag kitchen and we had to pay Dechellis $150.00 to put a door and a shelf under the breakfast bar and they let us off the $200.00 admin fee because of a miss communication with Sampina Joinery, in June 2011 we I sent off all the appliances specifications information to Sampina Joinery and on 8th December 2011 after handover our appliances went in our stove was ment to sit on a plinth well that did not happen Sampina Joinery change there mind, our dishwasher dose not fit cavity properly and the workmanship is very poor and when I contact Dechellis site supervisor it fell on deaf ears. Things started happening one thing after a another the Site supervisor was sacked, they had to pull down a hole brick walls and rebuild it, the 2 bay windows out the front of the house where two rows of brick short and the 2 small roof had to come off and it sat like that for 6 weeks the insulation went from pink to white, the tile at the end of the bath did not line up the same at each end and had to be replaced, our new site supervisor kept justifying bad workmanship and dose not want to know I asked him to get back to us and we haven’t hear a word. We are still waiting on engineering reports because we called in an independent Building Diagnostic Inspection and he went over the house and found thing that we would never have seen or thought to look for We have never had a receipt for any payment we made, it was debit into there account. They do build a good show home to suck you in and to win awards but you never get the quality unless you buy a show home. The big rooms You have no rights or say and they will not compromise when you building with this company1 comment
I wrote poor workmanship and Communication in 2012 and it has been changed and edited by PRODUCT REVIEW because it was pressured by DECHELLIS HOMES to do so.......
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Teza36Metropolitan Adelaide, SA
- 2 reviews
Not of to a good start
Haven't signed contracts yet been given run around for past 10 months and still waiting for final contract price, it's like they are doing us a favor by building for us. Very poor service and Communication from sales man seems we are always chasing him. We told him from day one we are renting and costing money and we need to start building asap but here we are 10 months later, i agree With the previous comments of dechellis being up themselves we are on the verge of going with another builder which means we loose $2000.
Great display homes
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catarinaAU
Fantastic specification and service and best price
the sales consultant down south was brilliant,I made heaps of changes to the standard plan.Some meetings he made them on the spot, facinating to see your dream on autocad before your eyes appearing as your speaking to him.It was a bit like watching a kid play with rubiks cube.
The standard specification is fantastic, no games.I shopped hard and was
shocked to learn from some other builders I approached that things like flyscreens on sliding doors were extra,different color window frames were extra and different style panel lift doors were ex...Read more
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mikemma1AU
- 10 reviews
- 9 likes
Good
After switching from rossdale homes, we were so happy with dechellis because altho initially seeming more $, they actually are the same as the other builders except they dont tell you the real price upfront. Unfortunately for us, we had a new supervisor who used untested tradies-tiler, painters so we had to get a few things fixed so hopefully they have found sound tradies now who they will use in the future cos you get what you pay for. When we built they were still quite small, i hope they stay this way & not chase the $ signing too many ppl u...Read more
p cos thats where the quality will slip. If you decide to build with them: Do not use who they recommend to do all your extra wiring/home entertainment stuff. This guy was horrible $ we were left with cords out of walls & a very expensive system that is shonky. If you want to get extra stuff done, pls shop around, avoid this guy if you can: u have been warned! We have a beautiful home that ppl say is stunning, we recommend building with them & they are just as expensive as rossdale & the rest end up. (with any builder always over budget by at least $50k) Quality builder, lovely house with above standard fixtures & fittings, 3 month check they came back for & fixed lots of little things. cheap tradiesSimilar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
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NotAHappyCustomerAU
- 10 reviews
Absolutely atrocious - wouldn't wish them on my worse enemy
Started off being extremely nice, helpful, couldn't do enough for us. Had display homes at least as good as the upmarket builders. But once we signed up with them it all went downhill. Promises made to us were not honored. We constantly got told "oh don't worry, this is part of our standard procedures, no need to put this in writing". Big mistake.
Workmanship you get is absolutely nothing like their display homes.
Lots of hidden costs - even where we asked 'is this included' and were told YES. Then we got a variation for thousands.
Site ...Read more
supervisor was clueless - I had to visit the site each day to pick up mistakes. Eventually he got sick of me finding problems and refused to answer his phone. Dechellis's response - that it was OUR fault for not ringing the office. Never mind that everytime we did, we got told 'speak to your supervisor'. Whenever we found problems, it was a constant battle to get the fixed. Wrong location of power points, lights and even wrong mortar color - they tried to talk us out of fixing it, and said 'you don't know what you want, so we've changed it because this looks better'. They will change stuff between your selections and your actual contract, then when you query it they'll say 'sorry, you signed off on this'.Similar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
K.robboAU
Up themselves!
We approached Dechellis with our own design and was told by the sales lady that is was similar to the Frome...its not, I told her that I preferred my own design and she said that she would do it as a redesigned Frome, the quote came in as a modified Frome/custom design at 271m2 costing 10,216 over the frome base price which was fine as we were adding a further 17.08m2, however underneath was a further cost of 10,223 for additional 17.08m2 and a redesign fee of 2715.00, correct me if I'm wrong surely the custom designed area was for the plan I ...Read more
gave so I don't understand why we were being charge twice. Also we brought our own design...why was the redesign fee so high, I appreciate that plans need to be done but we had own! Upon questioning the sales lady she told me that's the way it had been sent back from the design team so that was that...even though she said it looked confusing, that's the way it was, she couldn't even be bothered to have the quote in front of her when she called me. I called the sales manager to seek an explanation to see why an area adjustment needs to be done for a custom design..he was arrogant and said that's the way it was, never even looked at the quote or design. We decided to walk away from Dechellis which is a shame as they were the builder we really wanted to build with....unfortunately they are a bit up themselves and are living on there previous reputation. Wish we'd had the opportunity to experience the other same great service the other reviewers had. getting answers from the sales peopleSimilar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
OK
my brother also built with them at exactly the same time but with a different site supervisor. he had zero problems and flew through ahead of schedule. from signature to keys was 2nd march 2007 to july 2008 for me. so from my experience the builder itself is ok.. seems like a decentish product for the money, a few headaches with remedial problems by a couple of cheap subcontractors.
good joinery. good value compared to similar builders in rossdale. happy to customise one of their plans for not much more money.
Site manager a bit "green", but wo...Read more
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wildorchidAU
- 5 reviews
- 3 likes
overall great experience
our house started 3 months ago, and handover due in around 6 weeks. been super fast, and great quality. there were a few hiccups at quoting stage and pre start, but what builder doesnt, but it was nothing too major. we did have a complaint and they were generous $$$ in resolving it. since build start, which was one whole month earlier than planned, everything has been smooth sailing, not a problem
beautiful houses, nice finishing touches, value for money, lots of inclusions
have to be on the ball and on top of everythin, but this is the case with any builder
2 comments
Couldn't figure out if i could edit my review.
I wanted to add, since handover we have had a couple issues. although our house is overall good, there are a few finishing touches that could have been ... Read more
8 months later and we are still waiting for responses from our 3 month maintenance list. they dont reply to emails. this has really dragged on and spoilt the whole experience. we spent 40k on selectio... Read more
ns, so of course our house looks nice with up spec'd kitchen and bathrooms, but it doesnt mean our walls are straight! so over it and definately would not reccommend. bewareSimilar opinion? Write a review on ieatwords.com.au!
Dechellis home, we would do it again tomorrow
We love our new dechellis home from begining to end could'nt be happier. From the start our salesman [name removed] looked after us and turned our dream into a home on paper. We were in our home within seven months and pretty much on time. Our foreman [name removed] also looked after us was on top of any problems we had . We are really happy and would do it all again tomorrow.
We knew what price we were up for. Started on the date and finished on the date promissed.
The selection lady we got was not a joy to work with. Note to the .... dont hire family....
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Questions & Answers
Minoos P.asked
Hi we are planning to build a house soon in SA
Can anyone explain what is the difference between dechellis builders standards items and grande specifications?
Thanks
No answers
Jodie Kasked
We are looking at building with this company, just wondering how long it takes from signing contract to moving in?
3 answers
Brand Manager B.Dechellis Homes
Hi Jodie
Thanks for your question.
Dechellis Homes are a builder that allows our clients to either modify a existing plan or create a custom design to meet their needs. We also provide our clients with a wide range of choices for selections.
Typically we allow approx.. 3-4 months for preliminary/contract works and then approx. 6 months for construction however please note these time frames depend on a number of factors such as location, single/double storey, size, council approvals, finance, site works, Christmas break etc..
If you would like more information on this or if you have a design in mind please contact our head office on 8362 7427 and we can certainly assist you further.
Kind Regards
Dechellis Homes
Judging by all the bad feedback I am very reluctant to build with these guys, their display homes are great but I don't have the time or patience dealing with the aftermath once we move in. it is also disappointing that they have the reputation of being shonky and have very bad workmanship. Disappointed really.
It took us 18 months to get to contract stage, they were slow at just about everthing and always seems to put the delays on someone else other than themselves. So we eventually signed a contract but when it came for the bosses to sign it off they then slugged us an extra $19K on our contract price. So they said pay the extra charge or lose the contract. Basically they held us to ransom to either pay or they wont continue with the build. We decided not to continue with this unethical mob. Decided to go with a much more professional builder, and this so far has been absolutely brilliant dealing with a much more professional builder. Just watch for those discounts and free air conditioners offers, remenber nothing is free, they get there money back from you some how. Be carefull choosing this builder. Good luck
Deb Sasked
Can anyone give me a rough estimate of how much extra they paid to 'upgrade' from the grande specifications and make their selections more 'fancy'? Just after a rough guide of what extra $$ we might be expected to pay if we choose to upgrade a lot of items
4 answers
Brand Manager B.Dechellis Homes
Hi Danii. Thanks for your question. It is a question that would have a different answer for everyone. What you choose to upgrade comes down to your personal taste and the main factor is your budget. It also depends what has already been included in your contract pricing. For example a lot of people will upgrade to stone bench tops from the beginning (unless this was part of a promotion) so it is already included which means you don't have to upgrade at selections. If you are upgrading items like sanitary ware (again depending on what you pick) the upgrade cost may not be large but if you are upgrading to full height tiling to bathrooms, then this would be more due to not only supply costs but labour costs too. To try to give you an indicative guide, you would be looking at $10K+ but how much extra depends on what you select. I hope this is somewhat helpful. Regards, Dechellis Homes
Thanks. Are you able to provide a list of your suppliers?
Our upgrades cost around $25k. The problem being that the suppliers charge at full retail rates for anything you upgrade. For example - I upgraded from a 1 and half sink to a double and that cost me an additional $400. I could have bought the whole double sink for that price on my own - but i had to pay that for an upgrade - ridiculous . Many other examples of this in our place. I doubt that Dechellis are the only ones doing this price gouging across the board.
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Brand Manager B.Dechellis Homes
Dear Trent
Firstly, we apologise for delay in getting back to you due to the Easter break. ... Read more
We are disappointed to read your review and are sorry to hear of your experience. This is the first time our Customer Relations Department has been aware of your concerns as we hadn’t received any correspondence from you prior to this review. We ask if you can please forward your concerns to [email protected] so we are able to look into these matters further for you. Kind regards Customer Relations Department