Terrorized By Clayton Homes Dealership

What is the name of your state? Virginia
I'm not sure exactly where this post should go so I'll try here. Please move it if it is not in the correct place.
My family and I purchased a home from Clayton Homes in Ashland Virginia in June of 2005. We have had terrible trouble with them, including wrecking our home. They allowed the front half of our home to roll back down our steep driveway across a state road and into a creek. We have been screamed at my the manager, lied to by the sales people and were left homeless for over 11 weeks with our disabled son and two birds. I posted our story on www.ripoffreports.com and I have now received a threatening letter from a law firm telling me to retract my statements, that they are false. I can back up everything I say from original notes, pictures, and video tape as well as several witnesses.
I think the best way for someone to find out the whole story would be to go to my post on ripoffreports.com and read it. This is the link to my report. I will warn you it is long but every word it true. I have a personal website also with pictures of the damage but I will not give that address for fear of being harassed further by Clayton Homes.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff172150.htm

I need to know first of all if they really can stop me from telling the truth about what has happened to us and second if I can stop any further threats. Our disabled son is getting very upset because we are upset and since he is prone to seizure we are really afraid this will bring on a grand mal. We paid cash for our home to Clayton, we have our own private financing so they don't have us over a barrel there.
I hope there is an attorney somewhere who is not afraid of Clayton Homes and will at least answer my questions. Any one with any advice to give will be appreciated.
Thanks much!

Unfortunately many of the pros around here, and the rest of us just won't ,do not have time for long posts. So try and condense the version with ONLY relevant info and post it here.

Have you complained to all the state agencies in your area? What have you done instead of just posting your problem to eleviate it? Do you have an Atty?

Thank you for your reply. I will try to do as you so nicely ask.

1.Purchase of double-wide mobile home to be put on our land in June of 2005 after two different sales agreements that the sales person couldn't make up her mind which was the right one. Options for the home never offered.

2.Promised and assured over and over and over again that the house would be setup and ready in 2-2 1/2 weeks from the date of purchase.

3.Contracted separately with the setup crew that works for Clayton to breakdown and move our old home to the dump, move a tree for us that we wanted to save, find and put aside our water line and well pump line. Paid $2000.00 cash for these services of which the only ones actually done were the moving of the home and the tree. We broke the house down ourselves and instead of finding our water and well lines they buried them.

4.On July 30th 2005 our old home was finally moved out after many many phone calls to the setup crew and Clayton Homes.

5.On August 30th our new home arrived. We have a very steep driveway and had asked and asked and told and told the setup crew to come out and look, one of them did and said it would be no problem.

6.On August 30th during the move of the front half of our home up our very steep driveway,about halfway up the driveway, the machine, which was not in good repair, had one of it's tracks slip off. This necessitated removing the house from the hookup on the machine while they fixed the track. Instead of tying off our home firmly to the many many trees we have and putting huge chocks under the back wheels they put 1x1s under each back wheel, that's all.

7.After the repair of the machine they tried to hook it back up to the hitch of the front half of our home and it was not aligned right, it bumped the hitch of the house and the whole thing rolled back down my driveway, across a state road, completely blocking it, and into a creek and hit an embankment.

8.Right after the house was wrecked I was on the phone to Clayton and told our sales person that our home had just been wrecked. She said she was on it, not to worry. I called an hour later to find out what was going on and she had left for the day. I told the manager what had happened and he told me not to get excited about it and sort of laughed.

9.From August 30th to the first part of October there was very little work done, I sat every single day in my car in my driveway waiting for my home to be fixed, taking notes and video.

10.We called the district manager and told him what was going on twice. The first time we got some action and people came out to do work and get things going. Then that all stopped. The second time after we called the district manager I got a call from the manager of Clayton telling me in a very loud voice that the next time I called his boss, and right about then I stopped him and told him that I didn't allow my children to speak to me that way and I wasn't going to allow him.

11. Sales person came out to the house to "take pictures" and tried to get us to sign papers and give her more money. We refused until all repairs were completed on our home.

12. We were told to call the manager that day and when we did he first screamed and I do mean screamed at me and then my husband, that unless he got his money he was going to stop all work on our home.

13. Now, it may not seem like it but this is a very brief summary of what has happened us.
As I said I have put this story on the ripoff site and have now received a letter from a law firm telling me that I am making false and defamatory statements and that they demand that I retract and withdraw them.
In answer to your other question about contacting state agencies, if I knew what to do I wouldn't be asking for help, if I knew the laws and if I need an attorney for this I wouldn't be asking for help.
Thank you for your time.

greyeagle said:

What is the name of your state? Virginia
I'm not sure exactly where this post should go so I'll try here. Please move it if it is not in the correct place.
My family and I purchased a home from Clayton Homes in Ashland Virginia in June of 2005. We have had terrible trouble with them, including wrecking our home. They allowed the front half of our home to roll back down our steep driveway across a state road and into a creek. We have been screamed at my the manager, lied to by the sales people and were left homeless for over 11 weeks with our disabled son and two birds. I posted our story on www.ripoffreports.com and I have now received a threatening letter from a law firm telling me to retract my statements, that they are false. I can back up everything I say from original notes, pictures, and video tape as well as several witnesses.
I think the best way for someone to find out the whole story would be to go to my post on ripoffreports.com and read it. This is the link to my report. I will warn you it is long but every word it true. I have a personal website also with pictures of the damage but I will not give that address for fear of being harassed further by Clayton Homes.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff172150.htm

I need to know first of all if they really can stop me from telling the truth about what has happened to us and second if I can stop any further threats. Our disabled son is getting very upset because we are upset and since he is prone to seizure we are really afraid this will bring on a grand mal. We paid cash for our home to Clayton, we have our own private financing so they don't have us over a barrel there.
I hope there is an attorney somewhere who is not afraid of Clayton Homes and will at least answer my questions. Any one with any advice to give will be appreciated.
Thanks much!

Click to expand...

**A: I am not afraid of them. First read this website then tell me what you plan to do. http://www.hadd.com

I'm very sorry about your troubles...I have a few of my own:

http://scammedinmaine.blogspot.com

But first of all, I would not be too worried about their threats. This is just too easy to prove, and I've read that people with lousy reputations have less luck with libel suits. But of course - I'm NOT a lawyer, and for your sake, I hope that you have not been "Good Old Boyed" as well!

But a half a modular home in the middle of the street must speak volumes. There must be some kind of police and/or DPW record of that, as well.

I just hired an online activist to get involved:

http://consumerxchange.org/OPEN.htm?referrer=G------U

He charged $43 on my credit card, and then proceeded to talk on the phone for quite a long time. He's an ex-lawyer, and was very helpful - told me some things I didn't know. He will send 2 threatening letters to the perps, then post my story on his site, and do all he can to protect me from litiigation.

If I win more than $10K back, he gets $1000 of it. Sounds fair to me.

The phone consultation alone was worth the $43. But of course, there's no guarantee....

In your case, you probably have a much better case for a lawyer. In my case, I've only been "Good-Old-Boyed" and it's my word against theirs.

Good luck...

Ps

But of course, I'm NOT a lwyer! For your sake, I hope that you have not been "Good Old Boyed" as well.

Still, it seems as though a half of a home in the middle of the street would speak for itself. And there must be police, and/or DPW records about it. (UNless your area is even worse than mine.... )

Lost in Maine, thank you so much for your kind words and I sincerely hope you fine a resolution to your problem! What a horrible thing to have happen, I will most surely keep you in my thoughts!!

WOW HomeGuru I never have heard of this site, I've done alot of searches but I've never come across this one. The information there is just staggering. It will take me all night to go through it. Won't be much of a problem, I haven't slept since Friday when I got that threatening letter. I'll post back after I've seen what information I can gather.
Thank you both so much!!

greyeagle said:

Lost in Maine, thank you so much for your kind words and I sincerely hope you fine a resolution to your problem! What a horrible thing to have happen, I will most surely keep you in my thoughts!!

WOW HomeGuru I never have heard of this site, I've done alot of searches but I've never come across this one. The information there is just staggering. It will take me all night to go through it. Won't be much of a problem, I haven't slept since Friday when I got that threatening letter. I'll post back after I've seen what information I can gather.
Thank you both so much!!

Click to expand...

**A: It may take you a week or 2 to go through the site and all the links.

He's an ex-lawyer, and was very helpful

Wonder if there is a legitimate reason he is not still practicing?

You're right HomeGuru, it will take me a while to go through it all but since we have a manufactured home I'm not sure if the stick built home laws and rules apply to us. I did send my story to HADD and I did send an email to the Virginia dept. of housing and community development. I got a call yesterday morning from them and we talked for a good 45 minutes. This gentleman seemed very concerned and wants us to file a formal complaint which we are going to do barring me being in a jail cell for my post on that web site, which I have read and reread and for the life of me I don't see what they are talking about, I simply told what happened to my family. I'm wondering since we seem to be being singled out,and this is now the third time that this manager has gotten rough with me, he only screamed at my husband once but me he really thinks he can talk to any way he wants to,and this threatening letter from the law firm was addressed to me and only me, I don't see any of the other 40 odd people being threatened but then again I haven't read all of them, if that in itself is cause for maybe a class action suit of some kind. I have no idea about law beyond my rights of free speech as an American and my right to feel safe in my own home, so I'm really lost here. I don't even know what kind of lawyer I would get should I go looking for one. I'll continue my research and let you know how it's going. Any constructive ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Have you threatened to call the BBB? Have you threatened to call the Attorney General?

Do you have a local news station that has a "Watchdog" type report like ours does?

yote said:

Have you threatened to call the BBB? Have you threatened to call the Attorney General?

Do you have a local news station that has a "Watchdog" type report like ours does?

Click to expand...

And what will the BBB do? Write them a nasty letter?

BelizeBreeze said:

And what will the BBB do? Write them a nasty letter?

Click to expand...

well the corporate hq is a member of the bbb and most member companies don't like to be reported...

when Dish Network screwed me over... I reported them and got my $$$ back... but of course that was for $100 not $90000

OP check with your state- there should be a manufactured housing agency within the state. No some laws that apply to stick homes do not apply for manufactured housing.

Hello All, just wanted to update. I had talked to the Manufactured Housing Dept. here in Va and they were quite interested and said they would send me the forms to file a complaint but so far I haven't gotten them, I'm even preparing a DVD of some of the footage from the video tapes. I called our local paper too and asked if they would be interested in a story on how Clayton Homes treats it's customers and they said even with the evidence I have that they won't have anything to do with it unless some legal action were to take place. They were actually quite rude about it but it was a no for sure. I haven't heard any more from Clayton but on ripoff reports there is a notice from the site itself and from what I can gather from it, it looks like Clayton tried to threaten the website about taking my post down and they said no. Any way that's where I am now. I'm still going through the HADD site and the laws are so different for the different houses. Thanks weenor for letting me know that the laws really aren't the same! The help had been much appreciated, thanks to all.