Newspaper reporter's letters

Letters from fired <i>Vancouver Sun</i> real estate reporter to condo developer

Below are the letters from Wyng Chow, a real estate reporter with the Vancouver Sun, sent in relation to a condo he bought.

Chow was fired by the Vancouver Sun and a court upheld his dismissal. For more information about the case, click on the related article link at the bottom of this article.



Letter 1: To Blair Hagkull, manager of customer service at Concord Pacific Group Inc. Aug. 31, 1997

Dear Blair:

It has now been a little more than a month since Christine and I moved into our new townhouse at Crestmark I. We have still not heard back from you regarding our complaints about the two-bedroom unit.

Please give me a call at your very earliest convenience so we can discuss this understanding matter in fuller detail. You can reach me either at home at ....

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Wyng S. Chow



Letter 2: To Blair Hagkull. Nov. 21, 1997

Dear Blair:

Almost three months have gone by since I first wrote to you on Aug. 31. You have still failed to address our grievances relating to our townhome unit at Crestmark I.

Do I need to remind you that Concord Pacific, the developer of this project, changed the floor plan on unit 117 totally without our knowledge or consent? Said changes were not of a minor nature, which the developer is allowed to do.

In carrying out these changes without first consulting with, or even notifying us, Concord switched the locations of the kitchen and bathroom on the ground floor. Furthermore, the utility room that we envisioned using as a den was eliminated entirely and replaced by a pantry.

Now, why the hell would Christine and I (your classic "empty-nesters") need a pantry for just the two of us??!!! It's not as if we couldn't buy fresh food on a regular basis and need to stock up. Besides, we dine out a lot.

If we had known at the time of pre-sale way back in January 1995 that we would end up without the utility room, we would have purchased the next-door townhome (unit 118) instead - even if it was more expensive and one unit farther from the seawall - because it was a two-bedroom and den.

Also, as you well know, our unit 117 was so poorly designed that we couldn't get our queen-size mattress to the master bedroom upstairs because of the inadequate ceiling height of the staircase. You had to call Concord's warranty people over to hacksaw the balcony railing outside the second bedroom so the movers could get the mattress through, remember???

We are not happy campers. This is not the unit we purchased from the floor plans at your presentation centre now close to three years ago, and are awaiting your remedy.

While it is true that we could have chosen not to complete, we felt we had no alternative at the time of our final inspection, as we had committed to renting out our previous principal residence in Kitsilano and the new tenants had signed a lease.

I anxiously await your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Wyng S. Chow



Letter 3: To Blair Hagkull. May 15, 1998

Blair:

This is getting ludicrous!!! My wife and I are certainly not amused. It has been a frustrating 10 months trying to get some satisfaction from you.

Despite your repeated assurances that something can be worked out to compensate us for the inferior unit that we purchased, you do nothing except dodge and weave. You remind me of Muhammad Ali doing the "rope-a-dope" against George Forman!!

Christine gets increasingly upset each time she invites her girlfriends over for mah-jongg nights. Because Concord nuked what would have been our den, she's forced to play in the living room. That means sitting up and dismantling the table and chairs every time it's her turn to play hostess.

Of course, that means I can't watch our big-screen television in the living room because of the noise. So I either have to retreat upstairs and fiddle around with my computer in the dinky-sized second bedroom/home office, or go out somewhere and spend money.

And talk about "unobstructed water views" -- I still can't see anything out my upstairs windows except Monk McQueen's. From the outside patio downstairs, you can't even see that! Certainly nothing to brag about to friends (or potential Concord purchasers!!!).

With all the crap we have had to put up with -- you know chapter and verse since I've been braying at you every chance I get -- I definitely feel we OVERPAID for our unit!! I don't know how we get away unscathed financially, since I doubt there will be many takers for an architectural nightmare.

I am fed up with your promises that you seem to have no power in delivering. This time I am copying this letter to your boss, Henry Man, so maybe he can light a fire under your ass. He's certainly got the clout to come up with a remedy, or he can go and bend Terry's ear.

You know how to reach me, either at home, at The Sun, or on my cell phone.

Wyng S. Chow



Letter 4: To Henry Man, executive vice-president of Concord Pacific Group. Oct. 23, 1998

Dear Henry:

I am growing tired of waiting to get some satisfaction from your underling, Blair Hagkull. He seems as useless as tits on a bull. All talk and no action for almost a year-and-a-half. I guess he must be the ideal PR man [or maybe "mouthpiece" is a more fit description!!!] for your illustrious company.

Well, Henry, since I've given up trying to deal with Blair, the ball is now in your court. You are well versed in the various complaints that Christine and I have had, ever since we reluctantly agreed to complete our purchase of our strata lot at Crestmark I.

The question is, what do YOU intend to do about it?? Surely we deserve some compensation for the aggravation and grief that we have been through!!

We anxiously await your reply -- not to mention your taking action.

Yours sincerely,

Wyng S. Chow



Letter 5: To Henry Man. April 26, 1998

Dear Henry:

Another agonizing seven months have now elapsed since I last wrote and you still have not come up with a solution to compensate us.

As I discussed with you at Concord's presentation centre the other weekend (it's rare to be able to chase you down, since you're in Toronto and seldom seen here most of the time), I fail to see why you can't agree to my proposal.

Knowing how Christine absolutely hates our townhouse -- the way it's chopped up, it feels way too cramped, not what an average consumer would expect for almost 1,100 square feet -- why don't you just take back our unit?

You could effectively trade us into Aquarius (which Christine likes), or into Columbus (which I prefer). If there turns out to be a price difference, we could then negotiate that.

This seems to be the most viable solution to our impasse. I can't understand why you're being so stubborn about it. I doubt if you would be overstepping your authority. Surely in your capacity as the second-in-command after Terry, you have that latitude to make such a decision that would be in the company's interests in keeping happy customers.

Your insistence that we sell our unit first before we could look at something else on the site is totally unacceptable. You know that condo prices have been dropping like a rock (just read The Vancouver Sun stories written by an "authority" that you're well familiar with!!!).

And with the time it would take to unload a used condo (you'll note that even your new presales haven't exactly been flying out the door this year), there will be nothing left worth buying in the new projects as the choice units will all be gone.

I'm hopeful that common sense, not to mention a sense of decency and good business practice, will prevail and you'll go for my proposal.

Perhaps we could meet at the Imperial or Victoria to hammer this out in person. I can be available any day that you are.

Yours sincerely,

Wyng S. Chow



Letter 6: To Henry Man. Dec. 7, 1999

PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL

Henry:

Not only have I reached the end of my rope, now I'm really pissed off!!! You have killed the good relationship that we had built up over the past four years.

We put our pathetic townhouse on the market as you insisted, even listing it $10,000 below the $359,000 that you recommended. Guess what, I was right all along. It has now been two months, and despite dozens of people looking, we have received NO OFFERS!!! Not even a nibble.

The feedback I'm getting from realtors (and you know that I know all the top ones in Vancouver) is that we are OVERPRICED, even at a lousy $349,000!!! Our listing agent keeps leaning on us for price reductions.

The comparables that purchasers are being shown on Concord resales are terrible. Two-and-dens going for under $300,000 at Crestmark II and Adrian Beltram's unit across the hall selling for $280-something. And his is bigger than ours.

Despite the crappy design of our unit by architects I hear were hired mainly because they were "friends of Stanley Kwok" (yeah, and thanks for nothing for the so-called "penhouse-calibre upgrades" in our kitchen counters, your sales staff kept assuring me that Concord units will always hold their price because they're waterfront. What a load of crap!!!

Well, winter is about to set in and the number of viewers are drying up fast. Nobody gives a shit about waterfront when the weather is cold. It's pathetic that your Prompton agents don't' bring buyers over from the presentation centre to look at our unit. Like what, they only have to walk 100 yards!!! Surely there have to be purchasers who don't want to wait two fucking years before their presold building gets built!!!

With our unit, they could move in right away, and not have to pay GST. Oh, course I won't tell them that they'll have to call your warranty people to hacksaw through the balcony railing so they can get their bed upstairs!!!

How the fuck do you expect existing owners to compete with Concord's new product anyway when you fuckers keep churning them out??? Especially when new strata councils are somehow manipulated into banning the posting of For Sale signs in the neighborhood -- so that we ALL appear to be "happy campers".

This has all been an absolute nightmare for Christine and I. All she ever wanted was a mah-jongg room, but you were not willing to oblige.

We thought we would enjoy living here and wouldn't ever have to move again. You could have prevented this, but you chose not to. You obviously don't care about customer service or consumer satisfaction. This is not what we envisioned back in January 1995 when we were arm-wrestling for our unit, lured by Concord's false promises.

Rest assured that once some sucker comes along and takes our unit off our hands finally -- I shudder to think what price it'll fetch -- we are moving out, and we will be GOING AWAY MAD!!!

I will also be consulting a lawyer to seek legal remedy.

Sincerely,

Wyng S. Chow

To read the full story, login below.

Not a subscriber?

Start your subscription today!