Lodha Builders- where dreams are shattered.

LODHA Group is a well known Builder in Mumbai and is expanding it’s business around the country. Lodha made news recently for purchasing a 22.5 acre plot of land in Wadala suburb of Mumbai for Rs 4053 crore. I wish to enumerate the reasons for my disenchantment and disillusionment with Lodha's services in the following paragraphs:-

1. I booked my flat Oceania E/104 in Mar 10 in LODHA CASA RIO, Dombivili, Mumbai, and completed all the payment including a loan of full payment of Rs 25 Lakh by Oct 11.

2. The Sale Agent in the initial days was prompt with his services and promised me the moon as far as quality and build quality, and project timelines are concerned thus luring me into paying the sum of Rs 27000/- as booking amount.

3. I was asked to pay Rs 2.5 Lakh in 21 days and another 2.5 lakh in following 21 days. Also since I couldn't muster this kind of money quickly enough, I was charged 18% interest by Lodha on due sum of money which finally totalled to over Rs 60000/-.

4. Now I didn't mind paying all this interest as I was promised prompt delivery of the flat but as it turned out later, there have been no clarity as far as possession dates are concerned.

5. In process of buying this flat, I got transferred out to another city and had to suffer due to lack of communication. The same was not factored in taking a lenient view of my late payments and I was made to pay this despite my assurances to Mr Naren Bosmia- A head honcho at Lodha.

6.The initial system of feedback and helpline established by Lodha (022-676826782) never worked when tried by me on STD. It put the caller on a perpetual hold and left him in a lurch thus dissuading me from calling them.

7. It was much later that an online forum for feedback and queries was established. I had already been charged for late payments by this time. Even in this forum, key questions were never answered. It was tabular form that one had to fill and there were no options to lodge complain.

8. Lodha came up with concept of Relationship Manager lately. I was assigned one Ms Tripta Bedi for some time. She never responded to my queries and chose to eschew them. Later, Ms Swetanita Chakraborty, the current manager was assigned to me. Even she hasn't fared much better.

9. There were several things that weren't delivered by Lodha as promised when the final blue print of the Flat arrived. Centralized AC as promised initially was conveniently changed to Split AC. There are more points that I haven't bothered to enumerate here.

10. Back in 2010, I was asked to hurry up with my booking as the flat prices were apparantly being hiked the very next week. I was told that my flat would cost be 34.20 Lakh for an area of 746 odd sq feet (total).

11. Today , I received a mail from Allchecksdeal.com, selling a flat of same size in Lodha Casa Rio for Rs 30.44 Lakh, which is Rs 4 lakh less than what I bought it almost 2 yrs back. This is ridiculous stuff by Lodha.

12. I haven't been offered any better offer or increase in flat size or facilities despite a drop in Property prices. Nor has Lodha bothered to communicate to me the current state of affairs.

13. When I paid a visit to Mumbai in Feb 12, I was denied a site visit as purportedly, it wasn't safe for me. This is in consonance of the total lack of transparency that Lodha has shown post receiving full payment from me.

14. The Flat's possession date is open ended and I haven't been indicated any timeline so far.

15. The customer referral program that I availed using Ms Shweta (Casa Rio,Arctica A-506) should have meant a gift for her as well. Despite filing for in the clubcasa website in Nov 2011 and Jan 2012, no action has been taken so far by Lodha to ensure that she gets her gift (Mobile Phone/Camera)

16. Lodha has taken my requests as empty words or hot air and chosen to overlook the power of written word. The top brass probably is content reaping the interest of the money we have deposited here(Rs 30 Lakh in my case)

17. This is my sincere advise to all investors in Mumbai to exercise multiple levels of caution and not be lured by the foreign locales that LODHA showcases in the Ad campaigns. Lodha has purchased huge tracts of Land in Wadala and has renamed that area 'New CUffe Parade' in its marketing campaign. Anyone who has been to Mumbai will tell you the real state of the dusty Wadala which seems a dust pan.

18. Lodha by trying to sell it as a wonderful location near 'Eastern Freeway?' (Freeway- term used in USA for elevated roads) is cheating the people of this country.

19. I have suffered at Hands of Lodha and I wouldn't like you to meet the same fate. Do your bit in spreading this message around.

Regards.
Amit