First of all, let me say that if you are someone who is thinking about purchasing a mobile home... Make sure you know what you're getting into. If you can any way afford a real house in a decent area, and sacrifice square footage, you'll be glad you did. The mobile home industry preys on the poor, the uneducated, and the gullible. This is a warning to be a smart consumer and know who you're dealing with. We never knew anyone who ever had to do this, so please learn from us and ask around, and shop around as much as you can before you decide. Also, I will not defame anyone's name, but I hope "you people" over there at Oakwood and Giles see this and think about giving integrity a try.
Admittedly, we didn't research Oakwood Homes very well, or Giles Industries, but to be fair, there isn't much information on either of them. We were in a hurry to get out of my wife's parents' house, but little did we know, going through Oakwood took a ridiculously long time. We decided to put the home next to my grandmother's house because I am her only surviving relative who will help her. We also couldn't even afford an apartment in a safe area, so a mobile was a reluctant but practical solution.
If I had to give Oakwood Homes a grade, I would give them a 40%. That's 40% things they did well. Half the time they lied, fibbed, and fudged details on everything from time frames to repairs. We were promised an 8% APR and that turned into 11% at closing.
We were told it would take 2-3 months from the date of placing our "order" to set-up on the property. It took almost 9 months before we were given the keys. We later saw on the paperwork that the order wasn't put in with the manufacturer, Giles Industries, for about 4 months after we signed the papers for the home. That was never disclosed to us, discussed, nor were we ever given a reason. Our first payment was due before we even had a final walkthrough, during which we were given a whole lot of lip service, and no real customer service. The General Manager suspiciously didn't "work there anymore" when the complaints started rolling in.
There were a number of problems on the final walk-through papers that needed fixing. Only about 5% of what was listed was ever fixed, and it took an incredible amount of effort just to get that done. We pretty much gave up for lack of time and energy-surely their goal. We even had two pipes burst, and half of our house lose power, which were promptly fixed, but of course the blame was put on other absent parties.
The quality of home that Giles Industries put out is really embarrassing. We were told by our sales person that Giles were the "lower-end" of mobile homes, which I guess was her way of saying "crappy". There are so many anomalies with this home I can't possibly list them all. Here are a few: crooked mirrors (glued to the wall so no fixing unless we're prepared to gut the bathroom), crooked outlets, outlets that say they are GFCI protected but clearly are not, dry wall that is uneven, glued to the studs, and so thin that it moves when you push on it, seams are coming off, screws sticking out of the moudling around the showers, moulding that is falling off the wall around the bathtub because it was fastened with finishing nails, cabinets that are some kind of thick cardboard with a fake wood covering, decks that are rotting and falling apart only about 18 months later, the floor boards under the extremely cheap carpeting are popping up already, a window set in the frame crooked that will only shut half way, etc...
We even saw a lawyer about it, but apparently our problems were small potatoes compared with other unfortunate people, some of whom had half their house hanging at an angle or all smashed up in delivery (by other companies). No refunds, of course.
Now we owe on it way, way more than it's worth and we'll easily sink 10k into t just to get it to look like a normal home. I'm not sure we could've avoided buying a mobile home, but I wish we had paid 10-15k more for a more quality home. Good luck.
Acwilliams75
reidville, South Carolina
U.S.A.
0 comments