DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
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chase
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
kara, on thing you dont mention. is where this home was located. the omni is a clayton model . my inlaws used to sell clayton and the homes i mentioned above with the heat pump problems were in fact 1998 and 1999 models we had our clayton singlewides shipped in from the tennesee plant near moristown tennesee. the omni i think was built in either nc or waycross, ga. one thing to mention do you recall how far aprt the blocks were on the clayton home you had. clayton has metal outriggers every 5 feet on their frames and with proper blocking the frame is ok. i see this problem with floors as you describe quite often , you seem to notice it where there is linoleum it is where the seems of the flooring come together, there will be one long seam it tends to happen because the joints in the fooring are not staggered some times , it is not really a mojor problem and like i said cant tell it under carpet, i have built stick built also and this occurs. what makes it so evident is the very thin grade of linoleum most manufacturers use versus stick built. it is like anything else a thick coat of paint covers imperfections better than thin. i bet with ceramic tile or a good grade linoleum or square tile you would never known this. in all honestly the seam problem was not a major defect and could have been easily corrected, and the heat pump problem was one which stumped us for a while till one day when checking a customer complaint we let it run with door open and then after 3d trip a light poped on in my head. i turned around went back to home and as you would open and shut door very slowly you could tell the diffence, i then called the manufacturer, bryant , and was told of minumum clearANCE ON FRONT OF UNIT. they sent rep and only way there were ever convinced of problem turned out to be simple, with rep under home i held unit door open and water drained from condensation line and very second door was closed water quit dripping and in few minutes was in duct work. . this was at the white pine, tennessee plant. it turned out to be a minor problem but more than likely all you ever had was someone who doesnt really have a clue on working on homes or solving problems and admitting there is a problem and by the way i almost bet you paid well over 30,000 dollars for this sinle wide and it was financed thru vanderbilt mortagage and to narrow it down home costs let me guess within 1000 dollars 36,500????
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Kara
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
Mr Murray,
Our home was definitely a Clayton Omni, purchased in Vicksburg, MS. I got the papers out to check.
We were NEVER late on a single payment in the 2 years we spent in the home. However, when the AC unit quit that second time along with all the other problems we were having, someone (with Clayton) advised us that Vanderbilt Mortgage (which owned the mortgage) was a Clayton-owned company. They told us to try talking to Vanderbilt about it and to even try threatening to withold payment. We knew this would get us nowhere, but we did try.
Anyway, long story short, we are not just a couple of deadbeats. The spot where we had the home was located was rented. It was sold to new owners right about the time the AC quit. The new owners did not want to rent the land anymore as they planned on building a house there. We had land of our own, but it was not house-site ready. The new land owners told us to take a month or so and get it ready. It was during his month that we really went toe-to-toe with Clayton over all the problems. I can't tell you how nerve-wracking it was to work all day, at 7 mos. pregnant with a difficult pregnancy, and then have to come home EVERY day and spend hours on the phone arguing with this person and leaving messages with that, over our house problems.
So, we were living in a home with no AC (keep in mind that I was pregnant and we had a 2-yr-old already and temps were in the 90's...and we lived like this for 3 weeks), a floor that appeared to be sinking, moldy walls, and NO hope that any of our concerns would ever be addressed. And we were looking at several thousand dollars to move the home, not to mention that we were told by more than one person at Clayton that should we move the home, we would certainly never get anyone to fix it b/c it would have voided their responsibility by moving it.
After contacting several attornies here, none were anxious to take a case dealing with a manufactured home. We were advised to contact HUD and we looked into that. However, given our time constraints to get the home moved off the land we could not stay on, we felt that was not an option. We knew how much time that could end up taking and we were not about to pay to move it only to have to live in it the way it was. So, we filed bankruptcy on the home (AND THE HOME ONLY!!). Was it the best thing to do?? Of course not. We now have that BR on our record forever. But we did what we felt we had to when we were up against a wall. If we had had more time, maybe we could have gone another route. (Had the mortgage been held by a lender other than a Clayton-owned one, we would not have left them stuck with the cruddy trailer. Clayton/Vanderbilt cared not for our problems, so we cared not for their losses.)
And that is our whole Clayton story. People can make excuses for Clayton, tell us how wrong we were, whatever, but it will NEVER make it right in our minds. We went with a Clayton home because they were supposed to be so customer-service oriented, or so we were led to believe. Instead all we got was a nightmare from beginning to end. Like I said before, these things I have mentioned were just the worst of our Clayton problems, there were so many other less major things I could gripe about (paperwork issues, set-up issues, etc., etc.).
I just want to add, finally, that I think the manufactured home industry needs such an overhaul. Most of the people who are buying these homes are doing so because of income constraints, they need more home for less money. Yet, there are so few avenues open when buyers have problems. These buyers are the least likely to have the funds/resources/time to fight when there are problems. And noone seems to care. Not to mention the unscrupulous practices that so many home dealers use. In shopping for a new double-wide over the past few months, we have certainly seen and heard just about everything. There seems to be little too many dealers won't say or do, legal or not. This whole industry needs some serious watching. It seems as though they have been let go to do just what they want for too long. And this is not just my opinion. I have known dozens and dozens of manufactured home owners, and very, very few of them have NO complaints about either the dealer or home itself. I can't say the same for all those people I know who have stick-built houses, rarely do they have complaints and when they do, they always seem to reach resolutions. Manufactured home owners deserve the same satisfactions.
Our home was definitely a Clayton Omni, purchased in Vicksburg, MS. I got the papers out to check.
We were NEVER late on a single payment in the 2 years we spent in the home. However, when the AC unit quit that second time along with all the other problems we were having, someone (with Clayton) advised us that Vanderbilt Mortgage (which owned the mortgage) was a Clayton-owned company. They told us to try talking to Vanderbilt about it and to even try threatening to withold payment. We knew this would get us nowhere, but we did try.
Anyway, long story short, we are not just a couple of deadbeats. The spot where we had the home was located was rented. It was sold to new owners right about the time the AC quit. The new owners did not want to rent the land anymore as they planned on building a house there. We had land of our own, but it was not house-site ready. The new land owners told us to take a month or so and get it ready. It was during his month that we really went toe-to-toe with Clayton over all the problems. I can't tell you how nerve-wracking it was to work all day, at 7 mos. pregnant with a difficult pregnancy, and then have to come home EVERY day and spend hours on the phone arguing with this person and leaving messages with that, over our house problems.
So, we were living in a home with no AC (keep in mind that I was pregnant and we had a 2-yr-old already and temps were in the 90's...and we lived like this for 3 weeks), a floor that appeared to be sinking, moldy walls, and NO hope that any of our concerns would ever be addressed. And we were looking at several thousand dollars to move the home, not to mention that we were told by more than one person at Clayton that should we move the home, we would certainly never get anyone to fix it b/c it would have voided their responsibility by moving it.
After contacting several attornies here, none were anxious to take a case dealing with a manufactured home. We were advised to contact HUD and we looked into that. However, given our time constraints to get the home moved off the land we could not stay on, we felt that was not an option. We knew how much time that could end up taking and we were not about to pay to move it only to have to live in it the way it was. So, we filed bankruptcy on the home (AND THE HOME ONLY!!). Was it the best thing to do?? Of course not. We now have that BR on our record forever. But we did what we felt we had to when we were up against a wall. If we had had more time, maybe we could have gone another route. (Had the mortgage been held by a lender other than a Clayton-owned one, we would not have left them stuck with the cruddy trailer. Clayton/Vanderbilt cared not for our problems, so we cared not for their losses.)
And that is our whole Clayton story. People can make excuses for Clayton, tell us how wrong we were, whatever, but it will NEVER make it right in our minds. We went with a Clayton home because they were supposed to be so customer-service oriented, or so we were led to believe. Instead all we got was a nightmare from beginning to end. Like I said before, these things I have mentioned were just the worst of our Clayton problems, there were so many other less major things I could gripe about (paperwork issues, set-up issues, etc., etc.).
I just want to add, finally, that I think the manufactured home industry needs such an overhaul. Most of the people who are buying these homes are doing so because of income constraints, they need more home for less money. Yet, there are so few avenues open when buyers have problems. These buyers are the least likely to have the funds/resources/time to fight when there are problems. And noone seems to care. Not to mention the unscrupulous practices that so many home dealers use. In shopping for a new double-wide over the past few months, we have certainly seen and heard just about everything. There seems to be little too many dealers won't say or do, legal or not. This whole industry needs some serious watching. It seems as though they have been let go to do just what they want for too long. And this is not just my opinion. I have known dozens and dozens of manufactured home owners, and very, very few of them have NO complaints about either the dealer or home itself. I can't say the same for all those people I know who have stick-built houses, rarely do they have complaints and when they do, they always seem to reach resolutions. Manufactured home owners deserve the same satisfactions.
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Kara
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
Chase,
Our home was purchased in Vicksburg, MS and located about 80 miles south of there.
Your explanations make a lot of sense. Too bad you weren't around when we were having our problems!!
The AC unit did exactly what you said, about the water dripping into the duct work. Like I said, we had numerous repairmen look at it, but none were very familiar with heat pump type units. The ones we found who were, would not come look at it b/c it was in a manufacutred home that was still under warranty. The Clayton dealer we dealt with just did not want to get anyone to look at it, they complained b/c of the distance the trailer was from them. They would just tell us to find someone local. I told Clayton what a hard time we were having with that, but they just kept saying that it would take several weeks or longer before they could get anyone to it.
As for the floor, maybe it wasn't a bad problem. All we knew was that in most trailers, the first major problem that comes with age is with the floors. And all we kept thinking was "If we are having this kind of problem in a home barely a year old, HOW bad will it be in 5, 10, 15 years??"
You hit the heart of the matter with all of this...if Clayton had done what they should have as far as getting their own people to address our problems, things probably would have turned out much differently. That was the worst part of it all...THEY DID NOT CARE. Many of the Clayton people we talked to admitted that these were not uncommon problems, but then we would get the runaround about getting them to fix them. They really just kept putting us off until the year warranty was up so they wouldn't have to worry about it.
As for the home cost...the home was actually "on special". The actual cost was around $26,000. Of course by the time we got the rip-off insurance and such, it all totalled around $29,000. And it was financed through Vanderbilt with us putting a nice cash down payment.
Most people did not like the home we chose, but it was perfect to us. We did not choose it because it was on sale, we actually chose it before we even knew that it was. Of the dozens of homes we had seen in our looking, it was, by far, our favorite. The dealer, of course, tried to push a more expensive home, but none appealed to us as much as that one did. That made it all harder. We had found our "dream" home to do us for several years, only to have it seem to fall apart in no time. I guess a lot of people don't understand, but this experience was horrible to us. It was stressful beyond words, not to mention a financial nightmare. Our first home-buying experince was ruined. But, it did serve to make us more wise and helped to toughen us up quite a bit as we used to have a hard time fighting for ourselves. And in our recent double-wide shopping, we were certainly much different customers than we were 4 1/2 years ago!! And should we have problems this time, we won't let it go so easily!
Our home was purchased in Vicksburg, MS and located about 80 miles south of there.
Your explanations make a lot of sense. Too bad you weren't around when we were having our problems!!
The AC unit did exactly what you said, about the water dripping into the duct work. Like I said, we had numerous repairmen look at it, but none were very familiar with heat pump type units. The ones we found who were, would not come look at it b/c it was in a manufacutred home that was still under warranty. The Clayton dealer we dealt with just did not want to get anyone to look at it, they complained b/c of the distance the trailer was from them. They would just tell us to find someone local. I told Clayton what a hard time we were having with that, but they just kept saying that it would take several weeks or longer before they could get anyone to it.
As for the floor, maybe it wasn't a bad problem. All we knew was that in most trailers, the first major problem that comes with age is with the floors. And all we kept thinking was "If we are having this kind of problem in a home barely a year old, HOW bad will it be in 5, 10, 15 years??"
You hit the heart of the matter with all of this...if Clayton had done what they should have as far as getting their own people to address our problems, things probably would have turned out much differently. That was the worst part of it all...THEY DID NOT CARE. Many of the Clayton people we talked to admitted that these were not uncommon problems, but then we would get the runaround about getting them to fix them. They really just kept putting us off until the year warranty was up so they wouldn't have to worry about it.
As for the home cost...the home was actually "on special". The actual cost was around $26,000. Of course by the time we got the rip-off insurance and such, it all totalled around $29,000. And it was financed through Vanderbilt with us putting a nice cash down payment.
Most people did not like the home we chose, but it was perfect to us. We did not choose it because it was on sale, we actually chose it before we even knew that it was. Of the dozens of homes we had seen in our looking, it was, by far, our favorite. The dealer, of course, tried to push a more expensive home, but none appealed to us as much as that one did. That made it all harder. We had found our "dream" home to do us for several years, only to have it seem to fall apart in no time. I guess a lot of people don't understand, but this experience was horrible to us. It was stressful beyond words, not to mention a financial nightmare. Our first home-buying experince was ruined. But, it did serve to make us more wise and helped to toughen us up quite a bit as we used to have a hard time fighting for ourselves. And in our recent double-wide shopping, we were certainly much different customers than we were 4 1/2 years ago!! And should we have problems this time, we won't let it go so easily!
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dave
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
Kara: You address a lot of problems that happen much to often in our industry.Their is much soul searching going on as we speak and many consumer oriented changes are in the wind.It really is unfortunate that you had to experience so many prblems with your home.
I do have to say that the dealership that I work at has sold hundreds of homes and not one of our customers has experienced even a tiny fraction of the problems you have had with your home.BUT!! we sell a very well constructed home, we sell the customer on the value of the additional cost, and we have an unwavering commitment to service after the sale and the value a satisfied customer brings to the future of our company.
The internet is helping the consumer become a smarter shopper and more and more new legal recourses are opening up to the consumer.Complaints aired out on the internet such as yours are not something that any manufactured home builder wants to see.
I just know in my heart that there are many good manufacturers and dealers out there, and just like us ,they go the extra mile to keep their customers happy.
CHECK THE DEALER AND MANUFACTURER OUT AS WELL AS YOU CAN.NO DEALER OR MANUFACTURER WILL HAVE A PERFECT RECORD BECAUSE WE ARE IMPERFECT PEOPLE SELLING TO IMPERFECT CONSUMERS .HOWEVER WHEN YOUR RESEARCH RECORDS A PATTERN OF PROBLEMS & COMPLAINTS WITH EITHER ARE BOTH THE MANUFACTURER AND DEALER, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.
I do have to say that the dealership that I work at has sold hundreds of homes and not one of our customers has experienced even a tiny fraction of the problems you have had with your home.BUT!! we sell a very well constructed home, we sell the customer on the value of the additional cost, and we have an unwavering commitment to service after the sale and the value a satisfied customer brings to the future of our company.
The internet is helping the consumer become a smarter shopper and more and more new legal recourses are opening up to the consumer.Complaints aired out on the internet such as yours are not something that any manufactured home builder wants to see.
I just know in my heart that there are many good manufacturers and dealers out there, and just like us ,they go the extra mile to keep their customers happy.
CHECK THE DEALER AND MANUFACTURER OUT AS WELL AS YOU CAN.NO DEALER OR MANUFACTURER WILL HAVE A PERFECT RECORD BECAUSE WE ARE IMPERFECT PEOPLE SELLING TO IMPERFECT CONSUMERS .HOWEVER WHEN YOUR RESEARCH RECORDS A PATTERN OF PROBLEMS & COMPLAINTS WITH EITHER ARE BOTH THE MANUFACTURER AND DEALER, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.
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Linda O.
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
Kara,
You and your family have been through a horrendous nightmare with that home! I wish you could have found an attorney to represent you. The emotional damages alone could have bough you a new home!
I used the Better Business Bureau and Net searches on dealers and manufacturers before purchasing my Skyline. The BBB alerted me to problems with local dealers with unresolved complaints, as well as some who didn't even have the courtesy to respond to complaints, so I didn't even consider using them. I did, however, have problems with a dealer who sold his mobile home park, moved and cannot be located. This explains why I didn't get any hits with BBB on him, his business apparently doesn't even exist! Fortunately, the problems with my home are related to installation, not the manufacturer, and are relatively minor.
I wish you luck in the future. You certainly deserve a break after the hell you have been through with your Clayton. Thanks for warning us!
Linda
You and your family have been through a horrendous nightmare with that home! I wish you could have found an attorney to represent you. The emotional damages alone could have bough you a new home!
I used the Better Business Bureau and Net searches on dealers and manufacturers before purchasing my Skyline. The BBB alerted me to problems with local dealers with unresolved complaints, as well as some who didn't even have the courtesy to respond to complaints, so I didn't even consider using them. I did, however, have problems with a dealer who sold his mobile home park, moved and cannot be located. This explains why I didn't get any hits with BBB on him, his business apparently doesn't even exist! Fortunately, the problems with my home are related to installation, not the manufacturer, and are relatively minor.
I wish you luck in the future. You certainly deserve a break after the hell you have been through with your Clayton. Thanks for warning us!
Linda
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Shelly
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
I'm sorry, my grandpa purchased a Cavalier home NOT a Clayton 
Again, I'm sorry about the horrible experience you had... Best of luck!
~Shelly C.
Again, I'm sorry about the horrible experience you had... Best of luck!~Shelly C.
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Christy
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
ALWAYS CHECK WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU! NO MATTER WHAT! IF YOU ARE MAKING A MAJOR PURCHASE BE IT A HOME, CAR, RV, WHATEVER....CHECK WITH THE BBB!
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Christy
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
Another piece of advice for others...if the warranty is for less than 5 years, than get an extended warranty from an outside source.
Re: DON'T BUY A CLAYTON HOME!!
I'm very happy that I came across your post because it gives me a chance to make proper decisions as I search for a company to purchase my own manufactured home. As of today I'm not sure whom I will buy from because all companies has their positive and negative complaints. Please feel free to send me any pointers that you can give me to head off a lot of the problems you've dealt with during your buying process.
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