Complaint Review: Champion Homes Idaho - Internet

We bought a Champion home after living in a motor home for 3 years and were happy with it until the water-heater burned a hole in the side and started a fire on the laundry room floor. The linoleum in the utility room was burned by a fire caused by the water heater, which was documented as being converted to propane. This was installed at the manufacturing plant However; the natural gas jet was left in the main burner.  This constituted an extremely dangerous situation. Both My wife and I called multiple times about the water heater because it would not stay lit no matter what we did.  Fortunately, the night the water heater and linoleum caught fire, My wife was still awake and was able to put the fire out before it escalated and became a major fire destroying the house and possibly injuring members of our family.  As you may well understand, this is an extremely touchy subject for us considering that we called Champion homes and received nothing in the way of customer service.  His responses were always to put the blame on someone else.
 
We were told to contact our propane company, to contact the seller of the house, anything but Champion homes.  Champions h*o hum attitude towards this screw up caught me off guard and I thought they would step up and take care of the problem but that was not the case. This is just one of the many problems we have had with our home other problems include
 
The marrying seam between the 2 halves of the house was not sealed and leveled.  When the wind blows hard the kitchen floor actually lifts our oak dining room table 2-3 off the floor.

The cabinets throughout the house (bathrooms, kitchen and utility room) have issues of the finish coming off and splits in the wood. The issues are with both the doors and the actual cabinet faces.  I have talked with 3 different shops and the repair amounts fall into the $3,100.00 to $5,200.00 range.  None of the shops would give me a solid estimate due to the hours required for sanding and refinishing as being very labor intensive and all 3 stated that it might be cheaper to buy new cabinets.

Drywall tape issues.  I understand the requirements for completing this house with the mud and tape.  The amount of drywall work required to bring this house back to a cosmetically acceptable level would mean stripping almost every seam (both walls and ceiling).  It was not done correctly as you can see by the pictures we sent to you in an email attachment.  The longer we occupy the house, the more the failures of the taping job of the interior become apparent.  As you could imagine, re-taping the seams after the texture has been applied, especially with the amount of repairs required for the interior, becomes extremely labor intensive and messy.

Paint issues (walls and ceilings).  The paint is mismatched and patchy.  This house set empty for a year with no heat and I am sure that the 5 gallon buckets of paint that were left froze during the winter months.  This would explain the color patchiness and discoloration issues on the final touch-ups performed on the house before the sale was finalized

Grout for the counter tops.  Grouting has not been completed in several areas throughout the house.

Water damage due to the hot and cold water lines for the master bathtub.  The pipes were not tightened and the tub leaked into the living room damaging our entertainment center and a bookcase.

We made an offer to let them buy their way way out of the repairs and the person I talked to at Champion told me that it sounded like a good plan and to send him a list of repairs and costs and we did this although the email address didn't work and the fax got lost.I think you can guess whats happening. 

Our warranty is about to expire and I think that Its just a stalling tactic Due to the fact that I Just found out that they are under chapter 11.  I've read their company response letter and as far as I'm concerned it sounds like the same garbage that AIG, GM, and alot of the other big companys spewed after the Housing/Banking crash. ( Lots of nice words and no substance.)

If there is a lawyer willing to take the case please respond and lets talk The water-heater issue Just bothers me and I hope that nobody's been hurt due to their negligence.

I guess I should close by saying If you buy Champion Don't expect much in Service, Warranty, or Quality