Ho Bee

[surecords 0]

I think im the rare unlucky ones who got very bad experience from hobee :-( ...i do not want to talk about my incident just yet...just full with frustration and anger..

Hi weii

If you don't mind, why don't you share with us.

I used Ho Bee for my minor renovation.

PRO:

Hacking: Quick and Fast

Nice Tiling Job!! Tiler beautifully aligned all the decoration of each tile. Next time, I will use Ho Bee for tiling for sure.

Patrick and His Wife are patient. I mean they are willing to redo the job if it does not meet your expectation.

Electrician were pro. I really liked professionalism of young boy who installed my ceiling fan. But expensive??

Plumbing: OK job

CON:

Price was same as ID price. But I used Ho Bee because they have been business for few years with decent paid-up capital.

Painter was nightmare. I won't ask patrick to paint my future house.

Management of Contractor can be improved. Smoking and trashing policy, well communication between Patrick and contractor. Cauz my case, contractor

did some jobs based on their assumption and those works ended up to redo.

Cleaning: I want to know, do ID usually well cleanup the place before they pass you back the key to you? I wanna know. Ho Bee clean up was very poor.

Overall, I do not have comparsion since this was my 1st reno, I feel OK with Ho Bee. I still need to call them back for few minor touch up, and I know Patrick will take care for me.

[htng 1]

I think im the rare unlucky ones who got very bad experience from hobee :-( ...i do not want to talk about my incident just yet...just full with frustration and anger..

if it is convenient, pls share. Reason is bcos some contractor used to be good but due to some reason become no good. Some even close down so I believe we have a chance, we should share and prevent things from happening.

I feel we should share the pro n cons of every contractor so that we can prevent ppl from getting trap.

[weii 0]

Hi guys, still suffering from anger and frustration. Probably will share with your after things are over. Envy all of your to have a smooth and gd experience with them.

Maybe if they are so busy, as they claim or at least this is how they protray to me, im more than willingly not to have them for my hse renovation. Some damages might be unrecoverable...lucky my wife is calm enough to calm me down as well.

[Katie Dong 0]

anyone can give me his contact no?

[htng 1]

anyone can give me his contact no?

seriously speaking, contractors etc are very difficult to deal. Extremely difficult. I never ever met anyone who never have a problem with contractors/ ID unless you are those rich and famous or some solid lawyers. Usually contractors are more vocal as compared to any professionals because they are train this way.

I ever clash so bad with my ex contractor till I nearly ask my friend to issue him a lawyer letter. End of the day, they don't care about lawyer letters bcos worst case, die only lor. Those were the days where I am a young chap. Now I am in my early 30s and probably I have learnt already from my mistakes. I always try to mingle around with the contractors/ workers which I try to speak more hokkien, buy them drinks, don't push them so hard. Then when something happen, I don't raise my voice and threaten them with lawyer letters which works much much better.

Any issue happen, I just tell them nicely saying cannot accept etc and they will gladly do it for me. I won't say Ho Bee are perfect but rather they have some pride in their work. There are definately some miscommunication because there is no black and white drafted, 3D, 2D drawing etc but so far, still acceptable.

One great thing about Patrick is he never asked me for any $. He started even before I make my 1st payment due to time contrainst and after a couple of days, I have to personally call him over to collect the cheque because I feel he already carry out too much work. My wife and I are so "pai seh" that we have to be automatic.

It seems to me that Patrick has disappear since I engage him but my mum who is helping me monitor my proj told me Patrick is at my place every couple of days to have a look at the progress. Haha! Seriously, I am very surprise because he is someone who rarely speak a lot but yet do a lot of things behind.

Just my personal experience and I hope my proj will complete smoothly within the next one week.

[vermilion 0]

Wahahaha! Patrick also haven collect money fr me n I'm running away!!!! Change lock this sat!!!

It's the little things that Patrick doEs that u will be touched lor, my reno started wen I was overseas! My tenant moved out 1 day after I left n Patrick started work immediately. Every thing was in the cabinet! Cookware, utensils, plates, kitchenware n electrical stuff, plus tv, home theatre system, fridge... The house was fully furnished. Patrick removes these things for me n packEd nicely in the storeroom! I only know I want to reno n forgot about removing these stuff, no words fr Patrick n no asking for cedit, he removed them!

My granite was scratched, he sent his workers to resolved but can't, so he is changing for me now!

Hobee has busy schedule, of course there's a reason. My friend can't stop praising him! He did not even go to see his reno, patrick overlooked everything n did a fantastic job!

I did glass doors for my 1st house n now for my this house, 1st one done by Id, the quality is different! Of course I'm very pleased w patrick's! N i have a lot of things to hang, pix frames, paintings, curtain tracks etc... W such busy schedule, his wotkers still help me tofinih up... Every reno is problematic one... So relax... TAke it easy mate...

Edited July 1, 2010 by vermilion

[htng 1]

Wahahaha! Patrick also haven collect money fr me n I'm running away!!!! Change lock this sat!!!

It's the little things that Patrick doEs that u will be touched lor, my reno started wen I was overseas! My tenant moved out 1 day after I left n Patrick started work immediately. Every thing was in the cabinet! Cookware, utensils, plates, kitchenware n electrical stuff, plus tv, home theatre system, fridge... The house was fully furnished. Patrick removes these things for me n packEd nicely in the storeroom! I only know I want to reno n forgot about removing these stuff, no words fr Patrick n no asking for cedit, he removed them!

My granite was scratched, he sent his workers to resolved but can't, so he is changing for me now!

Hobee has busy schedule, of course there's a reason. My friend can't stop praising him! He did not even go to see his reno, patrick overlooked everything n did a fantastic job!

I did glass doors for my 1st house n now for my this house, 1st one done by Id, the quality is different! Of course I'm very pleased w patrick's! N i have a lot of things to hang, pix frames, paintings, curtain tracks etc... W such busy schedule, his wotkers still help me tofinih up... Every reno is problematic one... So relax... TAke it easy mate...

this is my reno blog for those who are interested to engage Ho bee

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30723

[Honeygal 1]

Hi weii

If you don't mind, why don't you share with us.

I used Ho Bee for my minor renovation.

PRO:

Hacking: Quick and Fast

Nice Tiling Job!! Tiler beautifully aligned all the decoration of each tile. Next time, I will use Ho Bee for tiling for sure.

Patrick and His Wife are patient. I mean they are willing to redo the job if it does not meet your expectation.

Electrician were pro. I really liked professionalism of young boy who installed my ceiling fan. But expensive??

Plumbing: OK job

CON:

Price was same as ID price. But I used Ho Bee because they have been business for few years with decent paid-up capital.

Painter was nightmare. I won't ask patrick to paint my future house.

Management of Contractor can be improved. Smoking and trashing policy, well communication between Patrick and contractor. Cauz my case, contractor

did some jobs based on their assumption and those works ended up to redo.

Cleaning: I want to know, do ID usually well cleanup the place before they pass you back the key to you? I wanna know. Ho Bee clean up was very poor.

Overall, I do not have comparsion since this was my 1st reno, I feel OK with Ho Bee. I still need to call them back for few minor touch up, and I know Patrick will take care for me.

agree with all your points!!!! particularly clean up and management of contractors.

i nearly died when they installed the wrong solid surface for me. but in the interest of time, i did not demand a change. now living with the permanent eye-sore.

another mistake they made: they proceeded to varnish all my doors, although i went through personally with them that i do NOT want to varnish doors. spent $500 for nothing since the varnished doors look the same as before.

moral of the story, must put everything in email. no verbal communications. i could not even get any discount.

[htng 1]

agree with all your points!!!! particularly clean up and management of contractors.

i nearly died when they installed the wrong solid surface for me. but in the interest of time, i did not demand a change. now living with the permanent eye-sore.

another mistake they made: they proceeded to varnish all my doors, although i went through personally with them that i do NOT want to varnish doors. spent $500 for nothing since the varnished doors look the same as before.

moral of the story, must put everything in email. no verbal communications. i could not even get any discount.

What is the issue of solid surface? Did the carpenter write the wrong color? They pass me a box of samples to choose and to my surprise, the one I selected is different from the samples they have on hand. Wow! The copy they loan to us is a bit old liao. Lucky my tank itchy open up their version to check. If they make wrongly, ask them to change.

As for your door, if you didn't tell them to varnish and you didn't ask them to quote before hand, don't pay lah. Not your fault right?

As for cleaning, they did clean for me and I intend to ask them to clean again when everything is done n all minor stuff are rectified.

Edited July 3, 2010 by htng

[surecords 0]

agree with all your points!!!! particularly clean up and management of contractors.

i nearly died when they installed the wrong solid surface for me. but in the interest of time, i did not demand a change. now living with the permanent eye-sore.

another mistake they made: they proceeded to varnish all my doors, although i went through personally with them that i do NOT want to varnish doors. spent $500 for nothing since the varnished doors look the same as before.

moral of the story, must put everything in email. no verbal communications. i could not even get any discount.

nn, You should tell Patrick to deduct the cost for varnishing. If he say cannot refund money, then ask him for other extra works using that $500 credit.

Latter option, I dont think he can deny if you really mention not to varnish doors.

I think there are much worse contractor out there. Odds for choosing right one will be hard as winning a TOTO, haha.

Do you know the duration of Warranty from Ho Bee? I saw thread someone got 5 years warranty!! Can this be true?

[surecords 0]

nn, You should tell Patrick to deduct the cost for varnishing. If he say cannot refund money, then ask him for other extra works using that $500 credit.

Latter option, I dont think he can deny if you really mention not to varnish doors.

I think there are much worse contractor out there. Odds for choosing right one will be hard as winning a TOTO, haha.

Do you know the duration of Warranty from Ho Bee? I saw thread someone got 5 years warranty!! Can this be true?

Let me make one more comment, I would rather pay money on time for each phase than He and his contractor do their works wrongly.

Yes, he is easy going with payment schedule but that won't help the quality of work. Qulaity is very subjective but least, 1. Don't damage the

original furnishings. 2. Communicate well with contractor so don't waste time for re-doing works. 3. Least clean up the place to original condition.

I believe the above 1,2,3 is minimum requirement of good quality work. Think about it if this is your car,

1. After pass your car for glooming and polishing, car being returned scrathced and dented.

2. You asked repair shop boss to fix dents but not sratches, but their worker fixed all and you are being charged for both.

3. After completion of repair, your car being returned muddy, oily condition, and without vacume cleaning.

Its very funny that if car being treated like this, I get pist and demand them for thier responsibility, but when home,

I feel like I need to give in and let it go, haha. even house is x times more valuable asset than car!! Very Strange.

May be for home, it is not easy to tryout several renovation compnay. (I die $$ if I try even 2 more for my house for whole works)

So we do not have sense of quality standard in this line.

[htng 1]

Let me make one more comment, I would rather pay money on time for each phase than He and his contractor do their works wrongly.

Yes, he is easy going with payment schedule but that won't help the quality of work. Qulaity is very subjective but least, 1. Don't damage the

original furnishings. 2. Communicate well with contractor so don't waste time for re-doing works. 3. Least clean up the place to original condition.

I believe the above 1,2,3 is minimum requirement of good quality work. Think about it if this is your car,

1. After pass your car for glooming and polishing, car being returned scrathced and dented.

2. You asked repair shop boss to fix dents but not sratches, but their worker fixed all and you are being charged for both.

3. After completion of repair, your car being returned muddy, oily condition, and without vacume cleaning.

Its very funny that if car being treated like this, I get pist and demand them for thier responsibility, but when home,

I feel like I need to give in and let it go, haha. even house is x times more valuable asset than car!! Very Strange.

May be for home, it is not easy to tryout several renovation compnay. (I die $$ if I try even 2 more for my house for whole works)

So we do not have sense of quality standard in this line.

Well, it is like this...I feel it is extremely difficult to meet a good contractor.. What I can say is I met up with contractors many time worst..I think it is time someone like Radac/ HDB flex their muscle but sad to say, I dont think possible

[worldangel 0]

nn, You should tell Patrick to deduct the cost for varnishing. If he say cannot refund money, then ask him for other extra works using that $500 credit.

Latter option, I dont think he can deny if you really mention not to varnish doors.

I think there are much worse contractor out there. Odds for choosing right one will be hard as winning a TOTO, haha.

Do you know the duration of Warranty from Ho Bee? I saw thread someone got 5 years warranty!! Can this be true?

I agree you should ask for the cost of varnishing to be waived since this is not your fault. Once, their plumber made a mistake when they came to check upon the tap in my house (the water flowing from the tap was very small and his plumber kept insisting that the tap was faulty. Turns out that there was a filter built inside the tap which they didn't detect when they were checking. Had to ask someone from Poh Joo to come and check and as a result, had to pay $80 to the plumber from Poh Joo) and I insisted that Ho Bee should bear the cost when I called another plumber to check. Mrs Quek transferred $80 upon finding out about this. The same thing happened to my friend who hired them earlier this year and she got the $80 refunded too.

[vermilion 0]

agree with all your points!!!! particularly clean up and management of contractors.

i nearly died when they installed the wrong solid surface for me. but in the interest of time, i did not demand a change. now living with the permanent eye-sore.

another mistake they made: they proceeded to varnish all my doors, although i went through personally with them that i do NOT want to varnish doors. spent $500 for nothing since the varnished doors look the same as before.

moral of the story, must put everything in email. no verbal communications. i could not even get any discount.

my 2 pieces of kitchen granite top are scratched. hobee is changing le. actually if you are not happy, you should voice out... i did lor, cos i hate to see scratches!!

fr the varnish, also can be solved one ma, tell patrick la.. mayb he can resand it!!!

put everything in email is no good enough... i text patrick or mrs quek for important highlight... and will tell them, DONT FORGET HOH... cos i wll 'tiu' one!!

[vermilion 0]

Let me make one more comment, I would rather pay money on time for each phase than He and his contractor do their works wrongly.

Yes, he is easy going with payment schedule but that won't help the quality of work. Qulaity is very subjective but least, 1. Don't damage the

original furnishings. 2. Communicate well with contractor so don't waste time for re-doing works. 3. Least clean up the place to original condition.

I believe the above 1,2,3 is minimum requirement of good quality work. Think about it if this is your car,

1. After pass your car for glooming and polishing, car being returned scrathced and dented.

2. You asked repair shop boss to fix dents but not sratches, but their worker fixed all and you are being charged for both.

3. After completion of repair, your car being returned muddy, oily condition, and without vacume cleaning.

Its very funny that if car being treated like this, I get pist and demand them for thier responsibility, but when home,

I feel like I need to give in and let it go, haha. even house is x times more valuable asset than car!! Very Strange.

May be for home, it is not easy to tryout several renovation compnay. (I die $$ if I try even 2 more for my house for whole works)

So we do not have sense of quality standard in this line.

agree that contractor should keep up their quality of work. esp the part that workers need to be careful with original furnishings. my parquet, spray tap, rubbish chute etc were damaged (not all by hobee's workers but also gain city aircon installer), so i installed laminate over my parquet and my rubbish chute was changed and no more cute and nice... it is now huge cos got to cover the damage tiles & hole and shinny as a mirror

as for the communication, i guess we human are not perfect, there's bound to be things forgotten, missed out or workers have their reasons for not doing or something else was replaced, so be open for discussion. communication is not just between contractor and you, but also involves workers. so sometimes, if i happened to be in the house and see workers doing work, i will kaypo ask them, this one put here one hoh? this one like this one hoh? if something is not right, straight away i will inform patrick (i'm so free cos i stop my work for 1.5mths to do this reno). actually, to think about it, who likes to redo their work? waste of time and money.

for the cleaning part, i'm allergic to dust and a fussy *****! so i told patrick my maid and i will clean it personally before laminate. we sweep, hepa cyclone vacuum, magic mop, cloth mop, hand mop, dettol mop, we even wash! but you know wat, esp rooms that have hacking, we cleaned like over 10times, it just cant be 100% clean!! my maid kept saying, stil dirty, still dirty. eventually i surrender, we duno where the dust comes from!!! so, i believe its pretty impossible to clean the house to its original condition after reno. so lower you standard a little when come to cleaning... if not, you can try cleaning and u will understand...