Welcome to our Our Clayton Homes Nightmare.
Buying a new home should be a wonderful, exciting experience! Not so if you buy from Clayton Homes. Especially the one in Ashland Virginia. That's what this site will be devoted to, our experience buying a new 2006 Avondale Doublewide mobile home from Clayton Homes in Ashland Virginia. This is part blog, part journal, part story, but all factual and happened and is still happening.
At the end of June after waiting and saving and doing without for 15 years, cashing in everything of value that we had, selling our classic car, and a year and half of research we decided on a floor plan from Clayton homes. They are supposed to be the best when it comes to manufactured housing. We went to the Clayton Homes dealership in Ashland Virginia. Fredericksburg Clayton Homes would have been much closer for us but for some unknown reason we could not get the floor plan we wanted there, which I think the company should change as they most likely have lost business with that asinine policy. People should be able to get any floor plan that Clayton has at any Clayton homes dealer.
Our sales representative was Joy Ramos. The manager was Bob Lucas. We started out our process by going to every Clayton Homes dealership within reasonable driving distance of our home. We talked to several sales representatives at each location, finding out what floor plans they could and could not get and the prices of the homes. You would be surprised at how the price of the same exact home changes from dealer to dealer. Sometimes by as much as $10,000.00. After getting in touch with the home office of Clayton we had to settle for the Ashland dealership as they were the only ones who sold the floor plan we wanted.
We started dealing with Ms. Ramos and soon found out that she had almost no knowledge of any of the floor plans at all. We would ask questions and she would give two or three different answers. She had no clue what options were available for the floor plan we wanted. For instance, we were under the impression, and were never told otherwise, that the whole house was OSB wrapped, not so! And we were not offered that option at all. Nor were we told of the option for skylights in the kitchen, smaller bathroom and master bath. Nor were we offered the option of a second sliding glass door in the family room. We had wanted three gables on our home and were told that was fine, then a day later Ms. Ramos called us and told us that wasn't possible.in short this woman had no clue what she was selling, doing or saying.
Another for instance, we had two different sales agreements, each with different prices, she kept changing the price, she couldn't figure out what the total cost was. We were about to just give up when she finally came up with a sales agreement that was right and stuck to it. We put our 10% down, as per Claytons 10-80-10 plan, and started to get ready for the move.
Now throughout the buying process we were told repeatedly by Ms. Ramos that is would take 2 weeks, 2 1/2 weeks at the most to get the house out there and setup. We contracted separately with Sean Redmond who works with Clayton homes to break down and pull our old home to the dump. We were told and told and told, day after day after day that they would be out and get that done, they would be there bright and early the next morning, they would be there for sure on Friday, so it went on and on like this and finally after 4 weeks, July 30th old home was pulled out. So that was a long 2 weeks wasn't it? One of Mr. Redmond's great excuses was there had been so much rain. There had been no rain all through July.in fact it was one of the driest Julys since the 1800's as stated by the National Weather Service.
The following week, early August, no one came out to grade the land or start the footers. Mr. Redmond had an awful lot of trucks breaking down and family emergencies during the weeks that followed. The third week of August someone finally came out to start the footers. The footers where finally done and poured by the end of August. We had a hold up because Mr. Redmond got smart with one of our inspectors in King George Co. And that caused all kinds of trouble. Then on August 30th our new home was finally brought out to our land,
8 weeks after signing the closing papers with Ms. Ramos. Now the fun really starts. On August 30th Ms. Ramos was right on the spot to collect the 80 % and then didn't bother to stay around as the house was moved up our very steep driveway, that we had told them and told them and told them that they needed to make special preparations and really come out and look at how they were going to get that house up the driveway. Mr. Redmond the owner of the setup company was not there, nor anyone from Clayton to make sure that our home was safely got up the driveway. Just a few of Mr. Redmond's employees and one man who was supposed to be a expert at difficult moves like this with a little remote control machine with tracks that looked like a mini bulldozer without the front blade on it.
The machine was apparently not in very good repair as its tracks kept coming off and they had to stop and put it back on every couple of minutes. The first half of our home, the back of the house was got up by the skin of its teeth. When the front half was delivered they were all tired and just wanted to leave so they really didn't care much how they did things. As a result they got the second half of our home, the front of the house, half way up the driveway and LOST IT. The tracks had slipped off of the machine again and instead of tying off the house to one of the many many trees we have, and putting huge chocks behind the wheels of the house they did nothing but put some 1x1s under the back wheels. As they were trying to get the hitch back on the machine it wasn't lined up right and hit the hitch and because there were no safety precautions taken the front half of my brand new $90,000.00 home rolled back down my driveway, across a road and into a creek on the other side and hit an embankment!
We were right there when this happened. We can only be thankful that no one was going by on the road and that none of us were behind that house when they lost it. It would surely have killed someone. As you can imagine we were just in shock. There sat the home that we had given up everything for, wrecked in the middle of the road.
I was on my cell phone immediately to Ms. Ramos and informed her that my home had just been wrecked. She said she would follow up on this at once and get a hold of Mr. Redmond and not to worry, she would take care of everything.
I expected to get a call back in a reasonable amount of time but when an hour went by I called Clayton Ashland and was told by the manager Mr. Lucas that Ms. Ramos had left for the day. I promptly said is that right, I suppose she didn't tell you that our new home has just been wrecked? He said no she hadn't and then told me don't get excited about it".
We could not believe the gall and nerve of this man to say something like that to customers who had just purchased a home from his dealership. He said he would see what was going on. He did call back and said that Mr. Redmond would be out there in about 30 minutes to see what was going on and that was that. Of course 2 hours went by and Mr. Redmond never did show up. Meanwhile our home was still blocking the entire road. After almost 3 hours they finally moved the home back across the road so that traffic could get through. We were never once asked if we would accept the home or what we wanted to do. They simply moved it on up the driveway and backed it around in place and started putting it together.in fact one of the idiots who had a hand in this, his name was Lewis, had the nerve to ask us to go up to the nearest store and get him some water. We just stood there and looked at him.
In the mean time I had gotten all of this on tape, all but the actual rolling down the hill. I had turned off my camera to save the battery at the split second that it started rolling and was just in shock after that, but I have plenty of if across the road and in the creek and in the embankment.in fact I have plenty of tape and still pictures of the whole Nightmare!
Now, for the next two weeks nothing was done about fixing the damage. The home was however blocked and put together and tied down. We were told and told and told by Ms. Ramos, Mr. Redmond and Mr. Lucas that it would all be fixed and everything would be good as new. But nothing was happening. So on Sept. 12th I called a young man Jeff Bealer at Claytons Home Office that I had been in contact with about a $1000.00 off coupon on the purchase of a home. This by the way took a month to get, after repeated calls about it. I explained to Mr. Bealer what had happened and that we were getting absolutely nothing done and we had been homeless, living with friends and family since July 30th and we needed to know what our next step would be to get some kind of action.
I will say that he did seem very concerned and genuinely helpful. He said the next thing to do would be to call the regional manager Mr. Bill Holmes and gave me his number. He said if I got nothing from that the next step would be the VP Mr. Joe Belcher. I called Mr. Holmes and left a detailed message, at least as long as the message time would allow and then sat back and waited. That same day in the afternoon Mr. Lucas called and said he had gotten a call from Mr. Holmes and he would have us in our home by the end of that week and that he and Ms. Ramos and Mr. Redmond would be out at 9am. They were all here about on time and Mr. Lucas ended up saying that Mr. Redmond would be out Friday to fix the outside damage, floor joists, flooring and replace outrigger and frame. Now what happened to "I'll have you in your home by the end of the week?" if Mr. Redmond wasn't coming out till Friday?
In the mean time our block and tie down had failed inspection and had to be fixed.
Later that day, Sept 13th workmen from Applied Appliance in Richmond started arriving. The first was the Air conditioning crew but they really couldn't do anything but the wiring to the panel box as we had no electric yet to test the unit so they did that. The next was the electrician and he did a fine job of mounting the panel box and running the disconnect, looked very nice. We had another inspection scheduled for the block and tie down that day but of course it wasn't done so the inspector went ahead and passed our electric while he was there so that was taken care of.
Bob Lucas did call about noon to see if anyone had gotten out there. Said he was back in the office and ordering a new outrigger just in case the damaged one would not do. Said the plumber might make it out today but not sure.
Mr. Holmes called and asked what was going on, and how things were going, and if I had heard from Mr. Lucas. He said he had called after hearing my message to ask Mr. Lucas if he knew why we were being treated this way and did he know what was going on out here. That is why there was all the flurry about coming out here to see the damage inside and out and try to get something started. Mr. Holmes gave me his number and told me to call him if I had any more trouble out of Ashland.
Sept. 14th Mr. Lucas called to ask if I would call in a reinspect for the block and tie down for Friday. Mr. Redmond and crew would have it done by then.
The plumbers came that day at about 2pm and did an ok job, Mr. Lucas had called to ask if they were there and told me to call him if they were not there by noon. I did so and he said he was on it and called me back to say there were on there way but had stopped to help a customer who was being flooded. He had also spoken to the block layers about the block wall surrounding the house and they should be able to get started on Monday.
I called Mr. Lucas again that day to complain about Mr. Redmond incompetent crew, they had strapped the septic piping to the house with the tie down straps. Mr. Lucas said to tell the plumbers to cut it loose, the straps would be replaced. Plumber got a lot laid out but didn't realize we had no power yet so they would have to bring generator out to finish job.
Plumber and others said that strapping that pipe to the house like that was insane. If a storm had hit that pipe would have crushed and that whole end of the house would have been loose. Just another example of the fine work Clayton Homes does now isn't it. The plumbers had an awful time finding our water line and well pump wire. That was part of the work that we had contracted with Mr. Redmond to do, find our water line and well pump wire and since they were already digging right on it, we knew about where it was, if they would just roll it up to the front of the house, it was right there, it was not like it was ten feet from where they were going to dig the footers and we paid him to do that. Of course he didn't. What they did was cut the whole thing and just leave it buried so now we couldn't find it at all.
On Sept 16th, Friday three of Mr. Redmond's crew arrived at 10:30am, they fixed some of the block work and fixed two of the three straps that had been cut then at 1pm they left saying they were going to get the metal for the top trim of the house that had not been put on and was not delivered with the house.
I called Mr. Lucas and told him what was going on and he was not happy about it. He said that Mr. Redmond was on his way in and I would hear from him by the end of the day. I never heard from him that day. Nothing else was done, no one came out.
On Sept 19th the block men showed up right on time but couldn't do anything as house had not passed inspection and it couldn't be closed in. They were as upset as I was, they were all ready to start and had to pack up and leave. I called Mr. Lucas at 9:10 am and he couldn't get Mr. Redmond either he said, he said he would call me. I called Mr. Lucas again at 11:05 am and he said that he and Mr. Redmond would both be out about 1pm. He asked if any of Mr. Redmond's crew was here and I told him no one had been here. About 11:40 am Lewis and another of the crew showed up and said they had been told to put the metal on the roof top and fix strap. At 12:03pm Mr. Lucas called and said he was still in Ashland and that the sheetrock he had ordered to fix the back room that was damaged was still there too. Mr. Redmond had not shown up to pick him up. At 1:40pm Lewis and other crewman left, had not fixed strap, had not started on any of the damage inside or out. Drilled one anchor for front of house but other one was not right and had not added the two straps. No call from Mr. Lucas and no show.
At 2:14 pm Mr. Redmond showed up without Mr. Lucas. Mr. Redmond saw what had not been done and called Lewis and his crew and made them turn around and come back and fix what they were supposed to in the first place. Mr. Redmond himself started on the damage on the outside of the house. Mr. Redmond left to go and get OSB flooring and lumber to keep working on the house. Vince, one of the trim out people for Clayton called about 4:10pm for directions and got here about 4:30. He had several sheets of drywall for the back room. We started the walk through of which I had already done quite a list; it was five pages long with everything that was wrong with the house, from the damage done by the wreck to simply shoddy workmanship at the Clayton factory. We finished the walk through at 6:30pm.
Mr. Redmond had in the mean time returned and was still working at 6:40pm. Outrigger and back brace has been fixed; my husband and a friend of ours who is a welder by trade did it.
Sept 20th Mr. Lucas called early and said that structural engineer, Mr. Redmond, and block masons would all be here tomorrow.
Block masons came out Sept. 22nd and 23rd and must have come back on a Saturday as most all of mess is cleaned up.
Mr. Redmond was supposed to have come back to replace insulation under house and replace siding on outside and start on damage in back room and back closet either the 24th or early the 26th which it is now. No one here at 8is. If he had come back last Wednesday or Thursday he could have made his job a lot easier. Now insulation and siding is all blocked in under house.
The masons have a man Damon Gray who does all their back filling and grading for them. They arrived at 10am on the 26th. We contracted with them to do some extra work, grading and such for us. They did a very nice job. The masons and Mr. Gray are the only people through this whole nightmare that have done what they said they were going to do when they said they were going to do it!
Ms. Ramos called about 10:30 on the 26th and asked when she could come out for us to sign papers and get her final 10%. We laughed at her. Told her we hadn't seen Mr. Redmond, the house was not fixed or completed and no one was getting any money out of us till it was. It wasn't long before Mr. Lucas was trying to call us and Ms. Ramos was calling us. Isn't that something, they wreck our home, don't fix it, don't even care that we have no where to live, but they want their money. Don called Mr. Lucas and told him that repairs were not complete, nor was the contracted work and that we would not accept the keys or sign anything till all the work was done.
On Sept. 27th at 10:26am Lewis showed up by himself complaining at me that he got all the shit work, that's what he said to me. He shoved all the insulation back up and hammered up the black covering. He said he hadn't been told to about the roof trim. This is the same trim that weeks ago he and the other guy left to go get now, or the inside of the house. He left at 11:30am. At 2:35pm my husband talked to Mr. Lucas and he said that the inside repairs would start Sept. 29th. The inside repairs did not start until Oct. 3rd.
On Oct 3rd Ms. Ramos called us and asked if she could come out and take pictures of our house. We said ok. When she got here she tried to get Don and I to give her the 10% and to sign papers stating that the house was not damaged and everything was just fine. We of course refused. We looked at the papers she was trying to get us to sign and said we would like to take them to a lawyer and have him look at them. She didn't like it.
It was not long before we got a message from one of the work-people there to call Mr. Lucas. I did and the man positively and absolutely yelled at me over the phone that he was going to cease all work and repairs on our home till he got his money. I said hold on a minute and handed the phone to my husband. Mr. Lucas then yelled the same things at him. My husband told Mr. Lucas in a calm voice that we were not going to sign anything that said our home was not damaged, that we had every right to take anything we did sign to a lawyer, that we had not seen any report from an engineer stating the home was safe, and that the contracted work was not completed i.E. Air conditioner. After that conversation and Ms. Ramos had left, which she did quickly.
I called and left a message for Mr. Holmes stating what had just happened. Ms. Ramos had told an out and out blatant lie. She said nothing about paper signing or money and what she told Mr. Lucas we have no idea for him to act like that. She even stood there in front of the trim crew, and told me that the repairs should be finished by tomorrow. The crew looked at her like she was crazy and said there was no way in the world that would happen. So there is another out and out lie.
Apparently Ms. Ramos has a difficult time judging between a lie and the truth. Saying she was coming out to take pictures, that our home would be ready in 2 weeks, that she was right on it and not to worry about our home being wrecked, as well as all the various lies about getting the house out here and setup for the last 11 weeks. Ms. Ramos told one lie to many for our liking and we refused to have anything more to do with her.
I called Mr. Holmes on the 4th of Oct. And this time left a detailed message at 7:45am. One of the trim crew brought me a copy of the engineers report. Trim are crew doing the best they can and really trying to do a nice job.
Mr. Holmes called me either the 4th or the next day the 5th and we had a very nice conversation about the whole mess. I told him there was just no reason for this. A manager of one of Clayton Homes dealerships screaming at and threatening a customer. He was very upset about the whole thing and when he realized that we had been going through this for 11 weeks now I think he had about had it with the Ashland crew.
On Oct 5th Mr. Lucas called me and got really rough, he said, loudly, "the next time you feel the need to call my boss" and right about then I let him have it. I told him that I don't allow my children to speak to me the way he did or threaten me and I sure as the devil wasn't going to allow him. Over and above the fact that he needed to remember where his paycheck comes from, THE CUSTOMER! I also told him that we wanted nothing further to do with Ms. Ramos, that she had told one lie to many and all of them needed some lessons in people skills and honesty. I told Mr. Lucas that if we had just been told the truth from the start then we would have been better prepared for being homeless for 11 weeks, with two birds and a disabled son. After that Mr. Lucas and I have been on a better footing.
And I will say that since then he has been very easy about things I needed to have done. My range had to be replaced. It had apparently been broken in transit or it might have just been the shoddy work at the Clayton factory but the door to the range had been dropped and broken at one time, there was glass all over behind it. The gas men got cut, the Clayton crew got cut, and I got glass in my foot. The whole range was dented and scratched and so bent inside that the pan storage door wouldn't even go in.
Mr. Lucas met me at Lowe's and bought me a brand new one and paid to have it delivered. He even told us to just put our washer and dryer that we were buying on the same ticket and have them delivered too. He paid for all of our hook ups that we were going to do ourselves. The electric, water, septic.
He made sure that the air conditioner was put in.
He kept his trim out crew at our home for a week straight and whatever they told him they needed he got. We ended up needing over 25 sheets of drywall to replace all the damage done in the wreck and in transit and possibly at the factory itself. Which I think is outrageous.
I have to say that the work the factory does is very slipshod. The was and still is glue all over every windowsill in my home, on the utility room floor, the kitchen counters.
Mr. Redmond's crew neglected to seal up all the holes in the roof after the transit plastic and wood came off so we had a roof leak in the master bath. There are walls that are bowed and off center by an inch at least. Doorways that a so crooked that you can stand back and see how crooked they are. Curtain rods bent and off the walls, blinds bent. The small bathroom door jam was so shattered that the door wouldn't close, wasn't anything for it to close to, it had to be replaced.
The front tiles on the kitchen counters come off right in your hands or if you happen to lean on them getting something from a lower cabinet they fall off on the floor. All the grouting or sealing gone on the back-splashes. Paint on the tops of walls where they have missed I guess painting the ceilings. Most all of this has been replaced now; thanks to Ashland's trim crew or punch-out crew my husband says they call them. They are Ashland's saving grace in our book. Those two people, Tammy and Vince worked like dogs to fix our home and really cared about how it looked.
This is an on going story and as time permits I will be adding to it. At least I hope I can edit this in the future. Suffice it to say that we are not happy, our home is wrecked, and will always be wrecked not matter how much they fix on it and we tell everyone we know about this and warn them to never ever buy anything from Clayton Homes and since Clayton Homes has bought out Oakwood Homes among others this applies to them too.
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