We are a publishing magazine and our aim is supporting SME’s to #BeSeen all over the World Wide Web, helping them creating awareness and getting more business.
We wanted to set up a representative office in Batam for our research about traditions, cultural events, attractions & happenings in Indonesian cities, hire people by having a short travel time to the main company in Singapore. At first appearance the advertising of Ruko Orchard Park Blok K No 1 was seductive, so we rented an office unit there. But sadly, the reality is quite bad.
This is a first-hand testimony, all photos/videos are done by ourselves – we feel the need to let business owners know why they should not think about investing into a business there, especially if you live overseas without any option of personal viewing of the units.
The Agent
The landlord’s agent is useless, he does not have any idea how to get things done. Even we complained the same day when we viewed the unit and he promised all repairs will be done before the handover on the 27th of January, as stated in the contract. Until mid-May he failed to do his job, the damages were getting worse, he stopped replying to messages and gave excuses that he is sick before he disappeared.
The Landlord
Complaints to the landlord are senseless, he simply does not care about the tenant nor the problems, even he is responsible, according to the signed contract. He is aware of the uselessness of his agent but not willing to fulfil the contract to provide the unit in a proper condition.
The estate’s mother company in Jakarta ignores all complains.
– Trying to call them results into hanging up the phone.
– Emailing them is no option as their email comes back as a mailer-daemon.
– Inquiries via their contact form on their website go unanswered.
– Messages to their social media are completely ignored.
The estate management does not take complaints serious and is absolutely incompetent.
The people of the management do not react to complaints, we started to complain about damages in January, but until May there were no changes and the water damages increased by now daily. Just shouting at the General Manager of the estate company in public made them react and start to take care of damages. But their attempts so far were useless, uncoordinated and it does not look like anyone has got a plan or is literally looking at a plan.
If you want to buy as an investment, don’t! If you want to rent a unit, don’t!
The buildings are in a bad condition and the estate management up to the highest level is completely incompetent. It seems they hire the cheapest constructors who worked with the cheapest materials and the works are not done properly. This was resulting in problems we now have to face.
After every rain, water finds its way from the third floor to the ground floor, damaging everything on the way. The estate management also ignored requests to store our furnitures in a dry and safe place.
Drainpipes are not connected to the government’s sewerage and end up in your walls or in your outside area, if you are lucky. Besides not being in good structural order, it is bad for the environment, it is damaging the building, your health and at the end of the day your business.
Workers do not follow any logic plan nor any plan at all, they just open up holes in your apartment, desperately trying to find out what is causing the damage.
Chinks in almost all windows are that big that you can look through them. That means it might easily double the electricity costs of your air conditions.
(Shot of a closed window)
In its entirety, the area is filthy, but not because of crowds, contrary! There are no visitors other than youngsters shooting photos for their Instagram.
It is their workers to dirty the place with the leftover of building materials or simply their lunch containers, attracting ants, cockroaches and other insects. More and more insects are making their way into the building.
(Video taken just one month after we cleaned up the entire place around our office ourselves)
Incompetent execution of works – Cracks in the walls are getting “repaired” by simply painting over them.
Even the covered areas outside are affected by rain damage, we had to force the workers to contact the management to send over an electrician to disconnecting the electricity to avoid facing a dangerous situation.
This is a first-hand report, photos & videos are done by us over the past 3 months.
Due to lack of interest of the estate management and their mother company, it is our duty to warn about this conditions to prevent other small companies getting into troubles and loosing their money.
To see hundreds of photos/videos about the damages and screenshots about conversations with the incompetent management, we will publish a link to google drive.
