Complaint Review: Clayton Homes

This is what we started out with:

To whom it may concern:


We ordered a 2003 Riverwood mobile home 28x80 from Clayton Homes of Moncks Corner SC. When we was waiting for the factory to deliver our home to the Clayton lot, I got a call from my Salesperson Pricilla Driggers stating that there had been a manufacturing problem on the homes they was building and the factory was stopping production to fix it. She said she was not sure what the problem was or if it was on our home but she would keep me informed. When the home was finally delivered to the lot in Moncks Corner, we was called to do a walk through, when we got to the lot the home had no blocks under it for support. So we where inquiring why there were no blocks and the lot people said that usually they don't block the homes. It took us at least 4 days of fussing with them to get the home blocked, the reason we wanted it block was the window frames in the home was bending, the stripping on the walls was starting to bow, the ceiling was starting to crack and bow, and the floors was starting to buckle. I would drive by the lot at least twice a week and the homes I see are all where blocked. This was the second sign of trouble to us. We did the walk through and noted on the visual inspection form the following: scratches on the master bedroom door, a hole in the utility room door, stress cracks in the ceiling in the den, other cosmetic problems. The first visual inspection was done on May 2, 2003. We didn't do any more inspections until the home came out to the lot. We did another walk through the home with the lot handy man or what ever they called him. At that time I told him about the floors buckling, the cracks in the ceilings, the nail heads coming through the floor in the linoleum, trash under all of the carpets, the sheet rock in a couple places bucking, the shower doors in the master bath with a broken handle, the dish washer had 3 dents in the door,

The mover that brought the house to the lot sight Low Country Mobile Home Movers. When they brought the house out to the lot they had to go over a ditch, they laid old tires down and drove the home over them, one side of the house was in the air about 6 feet higher than the other side. After having the home set up, the county inspector came out and the home was not set up to speck, the set up crew did not leave the speck book so the inspector would not approve the home. In the meanwhile, the Clayton home manager didn't like it because the county inspector would not approve the home so he threatened to have the inspector fired. So the crew had to come back out and do some work to the home. So when the inspector came back out to approve the home it finally passed. We had concerns about the floors and the ceiling bowing due to it not being blocked properly. The county inspector almost got fired from his job due to the lot manager.

We had some people come from the Waycross Georgia plant to do some work, i.e.: lag the house together at the ends, Back door hard to close the rubber at the bottom needs to be replaced, guest bedroom closet door hard to close, master bathroom the electrical outlet won't work, electrical outlet in retreat won't work, 3 electrical outlets in the den won't work, the doors on the vanity in the master bathroom don't close properly, a knick in the sheetrock on the shower wall in the master bathroom, a piece of bad sheetrock in the master bedroom, loose strips of molding by the fire place in the den, in the master bedroom a piece of molding had a bad bow. A piece of counter top stripping coming off, a piece of trash under the counter top by the pantry in kitchen, a piece of bad sheet rock in the den, the caulking in the entire tile areas needs to be touched up, a hole in the master bedroom door, need door stops in master bedroom, window frame on back of trailer has a bad curl, 2 pieces of vinyl needs to be replaced, small pieces of trim needs to be finished on the back end of the home, trash under the carpet, nail heads coming up through the carpet and the linolium, around the fascia buckling, shutter by the front door needs to be replaced, outside outlets don't work, the trim around the fascia buckling. The workers brought new linoleum but they said they were not going to do anything with it because of the problems with the floors, which is another problem.

We have bad humps in the floor all through out the home, but we was told the buckling of the floors was from either a bow in the floor joist to a bow in the out riggers to the long beam of the home being bowed. The nail heads was from either set up, delivery or the way the home was built or from the above.
When the workers came from the Waycross Georgia plant they brought linoleum and did not put it down so now it lays under our car port. The trash under the carpet is from no one cleaning the floor before they put the carpet down. We are also missing light covers which the mobile home handy man was made aware of right from the start and he brought out new ones which was the wrong ones.

We have a major problem with the way they want to handle the problem with the humps in the floor, they want to bring a welder out to the house to heat up the frame, we didn't pay over $64,000.00 to have our home heated up, I work in a steel mill and our metallurgist has told me heating up the frame will only weaken it. To be frank with you we didn't pay this kind of money for a home that came from a dealer who is suppose to be dealer of the year to have to have the frame worked on, we are not going to settle for this type of work

We still are having issues wiht the floors squeaking and lumps in the ceiling where they tried to fix them, the trash or what ever is still under the carpet, my ceil trim comes off, trash under the counter top on the island. etc... We have ask them to just take the house back but of course this is not going to happen. So I guess my next step is to sue them I would like to know how many other people have had to go through this much torcher with them. I mean my husband and I work Monday thru Friday to make ends meet so in order to make a house payment $709.00 we have to work and can't be home with them during the week.

So I feel the pain of all of you.

Rebecca
Bonneau, South Carolina
U.S.A.