Complaint Review: Rt. 51 Homes Inc - Marlette Schult mobile homes - Belle Vernon Pennsylvania

Manufactured homes have become the leader in affordable housing for thousands of people across the United States. These products often provide many families with years of satisfaction. The problem, however, is that many of the prospective purchasers of these homes are in a lower income category and often are first time HOMEOWNERS. Home ownership is a RESPONSIBILITY. You didn't just sign a contract on a sporty new car or a spiffy new television set-it's your HOME. It requires maintenance and you can always expect "something" to go wrong. You will find the same to be true with new construction; site built housing. My husband & I just moved in to our new 5200 square foot, 3 story home 6 months ago. We spent over $500,000 for the property and the house. Our FIRST bath was so lovely. We turned on the jets and (THANK GOD!) my husband realized he hadn't locked the door downstairs! As he ran downstairs, cloaked in nothing more than a towel, I heard the sounds of fear lerching from his breath-the lines hadn't been properly connected and we had GALLONS of water leaking COMPLETELY through the ceilings, down the walls, passing DIRECTLY past the electrical outlets. It was a nightmare. The following day, every toilet in the house (5) backed up due to one SINGLE plumbing line being improperly connected. That was a joy! A week later, we were our shopping when our cell phone rang-it was the police department informing us that our alarm had been activated and the ENTIRE neighborhood was bustling around the house in a panic-the alarm was the most UNBELIEVABLE sound we had ever heard in our life. It took 4 hours to dispatch the technician who finally found the problem & was able to disable the screeching howls-turns out the doggie door activated it in the first place. Six months later, we're seeing the typical signs of settling-a crack here, a crack there-a gaping wound across an entire wall. It's life in the big house! This isn't our first rodeo and we know these are common and SMALL sacrifices. We deal with them..we move on...we love our home and eventually we will have worked out all of the scrapes and bruises. I sold manufactured homes for 8 years. It never ceased to amaze me how many times the SAME people would call with minor crap to "report". The were always in a total panic and ALWAYS wanted to create URGENCY for their dilema. Sometimes their problems could easily be handled with a hammer and 5 minutes of commitment from the homeowner themselves. Nah-that was too much to ask. They had this idea in their head that the WARRANTY should cover every minor detail-including cosmetic/aesthetics which it absolutely does NOT. They REFUSED (I swear it was like a curse) to pick up a single manual! As for the heat tape-my GOD how many times did I get THAT phone call. "But Mr. Joe Somebody, you clearly remember the customer set-up list you signed when we did the walk through-I was very specific this was your responsibility to check that the heat tape had been plugged in." It's often done by the utility company in my old neck of the woods, but it never hurts to ask! Of course, by this time, the customer's pipes have already frozen-that's WHY he's calling me! Ugh..it was such a nightmare. As for the trim, well sir-this is AESTHETIC. If you don't like the way the trim is installed, grab yourself a hammer and a pack of 99 cent nails and take the entire hour it would take to bring the trim up to YOUR standards-it's YOUR home. Make it your kingdom by putting a little of yourself into it-and a little elbow grease. The cracks in the ceiling will only get worse over the first year you own your home-live with them, if you're smart-THEN have them fixed. After the first year, you will see that 99% of all settling has occured and you will never have to deal with this common phenomena again. I really don't intend to be offensive-only to enlighten you. I wish you well-I just hope you at least consider following my recommendation. If you bought a Marlette, as the seller stated, then you have (potentially) a very fine home that should bring you & your family many years of happiness and a solace for the memories to come. Try to make the best of what you have. You might be surprised. Good luck.

It is a shame that these people did not leave their name. If someone can't leave their name; it shows they are hiding something. And I think this website should insist on a name before showing this on a website. This could be anybody making up anything about a company.

I know all too well who this customer is without even listing her or his name. In defense I must say that we have done all that we are responsible for in regards to this home. In response to their water lines and heat tape, they did have an emergency in late December. I personally phoned her from home on a Sunday. I told her to have her husband check the heat tape to see if it was plugged in and it was not. Her husband did however plug it in, this will take at least a few hours to thaw out the lines. Their main complaint now is that we never told them to plug in the heat tape. I own a mobile home myself, in fact, it is a Marlette. My husband and I were never told either to plug in our heat tape in the beginning of winter months. This is just something you do automatically when it starts to get cold. When the winter months break, my husband unplugs the heat tape to prevent it from burning up. You cannot leave the heat tape plugged in all summer long. If I were to call each and every customer to remind them about their heat tape I would be busy for at least ten days on the phone. It clearly states in our manual that heat tape is provided on their water lines and that Rt. 51 Homes is not responsible for hook ups of Electrical items or gas or oil hooks. This manual I have and was explained to this customer and her signature is at the end of this booklet which states "the above items of this policy and guidelines booklet have been fully explained to my/our satisfaction. I/we have received a copy of this booklet for future reference." In response to harrassing her aunt who has an unlisted phone number, never happened. This customer had their number changed and I never received this info. I did pull their application and got the nearest relative information from that. I called this person to reach them and she gave me the new number, because I had been trying to reach the customer regarding service repairs they wanted done. We have never been made aware of a carpet problem, in fact we have used the same carpet installer for the past 3 years. If this customer had these many problems, why did I not receive a phone call asking for these repairs to be completed. Marlette's service technician was there on a few occassions and found no major problems. If Marlette was to return for service, we were not made aware of that either. I have sold many manufactured homes made by different manufacturers and I personally have purchased a Marlette home. This home I found to be the best in My opinion. The owner of this company also owns a Marlette home. The problem with todays society is that the consumer cannot take 5 minutes to make a phone call to at least talk to someone at the office but they can take 1 hour to go on the internet and report that same company. We feel we worked very hard to get these people the home they wanted and the financing for them, I guess the harder you try to please someone and bend over backwards for them the more they bad mouth you. This lady in particular left a rude and foul message on our answering machine regarding the heat tape. Of which we could have notified the phone company and pursued further action; but, I phoned her from home that same day apologized for the inconvenience and explained to her kindly to check the heat tape to see if it was plugged in. I never once was rude nor obnoxious to her for inconviencing me on my day off, which happened to be a Sunday! We are a credible company, not Scam artists, and Marlette homes are not garbage. We have many satisfied customers that can testify to this fact. This customer is one in maybe a handful of people who have buyers remorse. I have written and enclosed a copy of this policy manual to the customer. I have highlighted the area about the heat tape. If this manual HAD been read as a reference for which it is intended this customer would never have written this. As far as them having the guts to stand up to this company, doing this shows nothing. We are not ticked off, we have done nothing wrong. Bring it on!!!