This is my first review and I never thought that I would start with a complaining one. I totally agree with the review by abs_smile.
Sterling has no sense of customer satisfaction - their MD tells you that you are not his premium customer. He even shouts at you and threatens to "go unreasonable" and flaunts his contacts with "not so nice" people.
Their quality of construction is poor - I have leakage in my flat, cracks in the walls. They refuse to address the cracks. Provide some patchwork for seepage which resurfaces quickly.
They delay the project beyond limits - still counting. They refuse to pay compensation because the delay was caused by "strike."
And they do not follow the by-laws - parking size is much smaller than the standard. They tell that they are giving the biggest size parking in the whole of Bangalore.(Trust me, even the roadside builders provide wider parking.)
When selling they compare themselves with the best. When delivering they compare themselves with the worst. I would still not call them "the worst" but the way they have handled there last two projects, I am sure they will be in the top 10 of the worst builders' list.
[UPDATE]
After a few months of pursuing, Sterling has done a few things which have made me change my opinion about them. Some unfinished work has been completed(in my apartment and in the complex as well). There is less chaos in so many things although the parking issue is still not sorted out.
But the biggest point is this: even after the completion of the period when Sterling was legally responsible for fixing defects, they repaired one leakage in my ceiling. This was caused by a broken pipe in the apartment above mine and was very very difficult to catch.
My neighbour had some exotic tiles, so we could not break his floor either. Finally, Sterling managed to get those tiles from somewhere(at their expense!) and the whole thing was fixed.
And the best part is that never during this period did Sterling say that they were not liable to fix the problem(which they were not), I mean not even a hint of it.
Moreover, I was kept completely out of loop and they managed every single thing from talking to my neighbour to procuring the tiles.
I am really happy about this aspect. This makes me improve their rating, though I would have expected much better response about other issues.
[UPDATE]
After a long wait, all the outstanding issues were finally addressed by Sterling.(They eventually provided me a right-sized parking as well.)
I have come to realize that they are not so bad afterall. The delays are very common in Bangalore and compared to our neighbouring SJR Brooklyn Sterling's performance was extraordinary.
What mattered most was the attitude after delivery. They did not deflect the responsibility or tried to hide behind legalities. The complex has turned out to be one of the better investments - though not much appreciation owing to the slowdown:-(
If I buy another property, it will be probably again Sterling. But this time, I will be more watchful.
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.
