I not only saw plenty of clients of "Uncle Howard, " aka Howard Horton, get taken advantage of, ripped off, not provided what they were promised WHEN they said they would get it, but I also saw people who worked for him as well as people who invested money with him get ripped off and taken advantage of as well. If you have been taken advantage of by Howard Horton, check with your local lumber yards in the Lacey and Yelm areas as I have heard there is a class action suit against him.
Where do I start? I guess I will start with the customers.
I have seen many customers get promises of barn completion dates, accessory delivery dates etc., and then watched Howard take that particular customer's payments to start a different customer's barn project. The reason your barn will never be finished on time is Howard's extremely poor business practices do not match his engineering intelligence, and that his morality, integrity, reliability and honesty fall even further down the chart if that is even possible. He will push you to do a "barn raising." DO NOT DO THIS!!! IF you do choose this option, Howard is only liable to provide you with a foreman to lead you, your family and friends for three days, or whatever your contract states, to build THE SHELL of your barn, not the entire thing.in addition, Howard is not liable should someone get injured on the job, the homeowner is!!! Research this very issue of workers getting injured on your job!!!.., it could cost you everything!
As far as what I have seen in regards to people investing in or agreeing to build Howard's Barns and purchase his accessories, Howard will make all kinds of promises and never keep them. I saw him offer to pay half of the advertising that certain people selling his packages paid for, and saw him never give them a dime. I saw accessory packages not get to the clients job site until months after they were suppose to be there, and in one MAJOR case, they never got their at all even though they had been paid for in full. And don't try to call Howard if he owes you money or accessories that you have already paid for, because you will be lucky to get ahold of him if he owes you anything. The only way I saw it accomplished was calling from different phone numbers that he wouldn't recognize. Even then all you will get are empty promises, song and dance, and a bunch of lies.in the end he will end up showing what I believe to be his bi-polar side, and it will be your fault according to him, not his. Though his story about his business in Alaska differs from what I believe actually happened there..., his story is he built better more cost efficient housing than anyone else could, he then sold out to a big company with said company being liable to pay the taxes according to Howard, but somehow big company managed to leave poor Howard to pay the taxes, and Howard moved to Washington state to build again. I think he pulled the same crap in Alaska that he is pulling here in Washington and they ran his old lying "donkey" out of their state. There is so much more to tell, if you have questions I will be only too happy to answer. You may email me at [email protected] and I will respond. It is fair to say that the only times Howard will be there and on time is if he is coming to take money from you.
As far as his employees go, I have seen firsthand how his employees do not get paid on time due to know fault of their own, but due to Hoards complete lack of common sense relating to his business. What it all boils down to is that it does not matter if you are a customer, business partner or employee, Howard always comes first and if that means you get shorted, then that is perfectly fine with him. I guess his possible bipolar condition allows him to be okay with it, and at the same time make it YOUR fault. Anyway, I have seen employees not get paid on time, (I am talking about weeks late here), and then all of a sudden it becomes impossible to get ahold of "Uncle Howard." When you do finally get ahold of him by using an unrecognizable phone number, he might tell you something like, "The accountant has the checks. Talk with him." However when you do this, he says Howard is handing the checks out. So then again, Howard becomes unreachable. You finally do get ahold of him and he says his wife has the checks and will be at the farm to give them to you At your wits end, you might drive out to Howard's farm in Rochester to get your check which you should have got two weeks prior, and at knocking on the door for several minutes you realize no one is home. An employee there approaches you and with a knowing smile says, "Howard must owe you money, " to which you reply, "Yeah he does, where is his wife? She is suppose to give me my check!" Emloyee replies, "She went to Olympia to Costco..." Funny thing is Howard knew that is where I was coming from to get my check.
Think twice before getting involved with Howard Horton in any way, shape, or form, unless you are a counselor specializing in bipolar, or other personality disorders.
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