Trendmaker Homes, Will HolderTrendmaker Homes And The Houston BBB Trendmaker Homes doesn't honor warranty and lies in arbitration with BBB consumer fraud ripoff Houston Texas...
I bought a Tendmaker Home back in November of 1997. Like many homes eventually something will go wrong.in our case, we found out that we had a defective shower pan installed or it was damaged during installation in our Master Bath. Unfortunately, our shower is located on the first floor next to an exterior corner wall of the house so most of the leaking water ran out under the brick over the slab.
About a year and half, we noticed some water damage but thought it was from are baby splashing water out of the tub onto the floor. After the so-called 2 year warranty the damage became so bad that it was obvious there was more to it. We ended up getting mold problems. We were all beggining to get ill from the mold. Of course, the wife was freaking out about toxic mold especially with a baby.
When we contacted Trendmaker Homes they basically told us "too bad, so sad". We were beyond our 2 year warranty on plumbing. They didn't even send anyone over to verify what the problem was. They told us to contact the plumbing compnay that they contract and start with them.
Z & C plumbing came out to investigate and said it was a shower pan leak. They said it must have been damaged by the tile man during installation. Of course, putting blame back on Trendmaker.
We called Teresa Williams back at Trendmaker and explained what Z & C said. Again she said too bad!
The next day, we found out that our neighbor 2 houses down with the exact same Trendmaker floor plan had a shower pan failure 3 years after they bought thier house also. However, in their case, Trendmaker fixed their problem. We called Teresa Williams back and told her of our neighbors story, she put us on hold for a long while and came back to say she couldn't comment on other home owners issues and left it at that. This was very upsetting!
To add insult to injury, we found out that 3 other neighbors with Trendmaker homes had shower pan failures also. We have since learned that many Trendmaker home owners in other subdivisions have had shower pan failures!
We had no choice but, to turn it into our insurance. After a long 2 month ordeal in mold remediation and reconstruction, we finally got back in our house. Consequently, a massive amount of black tar-looking mold was discover under the shower pan and surrounding wood.
Allstate told us that in our case Trendmaker was actually responsible for 10 years based on the state law and were going to go after Trendmaker for cost including my out pocket cost of the deductible and the shower pan cost that was not covered by the policy.
After 6-7 months, Allstate sent us a leter that they were not making any progress with Trendmaker and that we should ourselves pursue for our out of pocket cost of over $2000.
We then filed a complaint with the Houston BBB. Will Holder with Trendmaker Homes responded to the BBB, but stating in a written letter that it was our fault for the leak because we didn't effectively maintain our grout. What a LIE! They didn't even send anyone to our house to check. Plus, we had two plumbers confirm it was a shower pan failure which occurs during construction of the house.
We ended up in arbitration with Will Holder representing Trendmaker Homes and an arbtrator with the Houston BBB. It ended with Will Holder conceding it was the shower pan and that it was caused during construction. He offered to pay for the shower pan but did not offer to pay for the insurance deductible. My wife and I felt that we should leave it up to the BBB arbitrator to decide on whether or not Trendmaker should pay for any of the deductible. We felt we did a good job in presenting the facts, including state law, Will Holders false statements, and his concession that the damage occured during construction which is well within the 2 year warranty anyway.
Now! The biggest of "RIP OFFS" I've ever experienced occurs. We recieved a letter from the BBB arbitrator about a week later on his decision. Not only did he feel that Trendmaker was not responsible, but he cut Will Holder's offer in half!!! It was all I could do to contain my dissappointment.
Of course, we immediately contacted the BBB to protest and appeal the decision. It was obviuos the arbitrator did not go back and listen to the tape or review all the materials I provided him. He also didn't ask if we wanted to accept the offer. If we had a hint of the BBB arbitrator being so subjective, we would have taken the original offer.
After our appeal, Tallie Tootle, Director of the BBB, was even worse. She threaten to hang up and not give us a copy of the taped arbitration so we could make our appeal. It took over 2 months to get a copy of the tape and of course the check from Trendmaker was good for only 60 days.
After our appeal, nothing was done by the BBB. They just sent a vague letter last summer '02 that even contradicts the arbitrators decision and went to state that the decision was final. When checking the BBB files it is filed that our complaint was resolved!!! Ya right! If you're Trendmaker!!!
I will never use the BBB again for any reason. From my experience and from responses of others that have had experience with the Houston BBB, it is obvious that the Houston BBB is in the business to protect businesses, not the consumer. Of course, the BBB is funded by the affiliated businesses, so why would they bite the hand that feeds them!!!
John
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
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