Truly horrendous business practices

[Donna]

My mother lives in Dania (Ft. Lauderdale) and needs to replace her home damaged in Wilma last October. She went with a local MH dealership and purchased one in January and it has been nothing but a nightmare since then - from her initial salesman never returning phone calls or keeping appointments, to his taking off in March never to be heard from again (without ordering her house, BTW) to the second salesman acting as if he were doing us a favor if he called us back and told us what was going on...he didn't show up for appointments and never returned phone calls either. Calls to the owner of the dealership showed why the salemen were able to get away with this heinous treatment, as he made many promises and never kept a one either.

The only reason I think my mom's house will ever get built is because I called the manufacturer and they have been nothing but professional, friendly, and very compassionate about the whole situation. They tell me that this one salesman did this to about 12 other families. I can't imagine the stress levels of people having their homes destroyed and then giving a lot of money to a dealership to be ignored and dismissed like this. My mother has no recourse but to keep with this company as they have a 50% deposit from her and she has no other money to go elsewhere. I have received updates from the kind man at the manufacturer on my mother's house, but to date, we have not received any from the dealership.

I have a question. I do not live in Florida and don't want to cause trouble, but will have to do something about this situation if this dealership keeps giving my mother a runaround, and if and when the house comes in they do business in the same bad way and leave her hanging as to when it will ever be put together. Any ideas on who I would need to report this dealership to so other unsuspecting buyers don't get put through the same kind of torture my poor mother is?

As I said, I don't want to cause trouble, but this has gone on for almost 4 months now and it's been brutal on my mother. I would appreciate any advice I can get.

Please don't ask who the dealership is right now - I don't want them to get wind of this message and then stall my mom's house even more - but I will tell you that the manufacturer of the home is DESTINY HOMES in Georgia - and they are WONDERFUL and VERY PROFESSIONAL there.

Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[David Oxhandler]

They made a poor decision selecting the dealer. Don't amplify that problem, correct it now. It is time for you and your folks to start dishing out the trouble instead of continuing to just take it. Demand a full refund.. if necessary get a good lawyer.

Do not continue to do business with this dealer. If this is the way they are valuing your business now imagine the nightmare you will live through once the home is delivered. Can you trust that this dealer will install the home correctly and in a reasonable amount of time... then consider the problems you will suffer when the home requires warranty work.

The dealer obviously has no respect or concern for his customers, If you don't get away from him now your problems will probably only get much worse. The dealer should be working for you. Fire the dealer as fast as you can and find one that is reputable and will appreciate your business.

[rmurray]

Florida has many laws to protect the consumer...The large deposit is a good commitment on your mom's part...but the state recognizes that things happen and she has the right to move on...
the dealers right to keep deposit money on canceled business is restricted by law to only a few dollars...As I remember right it is only $100 plus direct expenses they have incurred.. such as delivery set up maybe a few dollars for interest IF the home is now built and in stock...The local District Office of Department of Hwy Safety and Motor Vehicles can brief you or her on the current rules...

Florida has great info online and organized well..There are even links on this page to other agencies that help the consumer...

http://www.myflorida.com/dbpr/lsc/mobil ... orms.shtml

Also the Department of Hwy Safety and Motor Vehicles who issues licenses has a good web site here..

http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/mobilehome/

If she wants to deal eye to eye with the government official. She would have to contact the local Division Office in her area....

You can find the address and phone number here..

http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/offices/broward.html

Scroll to the bottom of the list...

I agree with David 100%...Fire this dealer NOW...You could go to another Destiny dealer...The original dealer will cancel the order and the other can pick up on it....BUT..from all you have said I would be very concerned that the specs are what you mom expects...She should have a complete order confirmation by now if not and she changes dealers he and you mom should review every detail of the order....

Since prices may well have gone up in this time....She should get legal advice about that...

Good Luck...

[Donna]

Not that easy to pull out of this deal. Number one reason is that my mother doesn't want to delay anything even further. I figure once the house gets there, they're waiting for their second 50%, if we don't get service, we don't pay them and I'll contract with somebody else to put it together. I just need the house in, and I've heard good things about the inherent built-in quality of Destiny homes so I hope I won't have too many service calls afterwards.

Do you know if anybody else has complained about this problem recently? I'd really like to get the info on these other 12 families - maybe we can be heard if we raise our voice in unison.

[Rich]

I suggest that you have a conversation with one of the owners of Destiny and explain your situation. They need to know how poorly you have been treated by one of their dealers and step in on your behalf. As you said, they have been very professional in all of their interactions with you. They need to know what is going on and straighten the mess out. Destiny doesn't want to get tangled up in something like this and can threaten to pull their line of homes among other things. They have a lot of leverage with the dealer and you don't.

As part of this process and prior to this phone call, you need to put everything down in writing, carefully laid out in a simple outline format, backed up by documentation and be prepared to fax it to them.

[Dan Freeman]

Donna -

Your wishing and hoping that you can turn a bad deal around. Your totally disregarding the advice you posted here to get. Your playing in a game that you have no experience in, against pros. The dealer is the factory's customer. Your a one night stand for both of them. Better get some serious legal advice propr to proceeding in any direction