Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  06/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We paid a deposit to have a home built and never received the plans and there were lulls in contact up to nearly three months from the time that we made first contact. They finally contacted me three months from our first contact. We decided to seek the services of another builder. The website appears clean and professional, but this was not the most professional of settings. Communication was good until we paid the deposit, and choppy thereafter. These are nice people, but I do not recommend this business.

  Business response

  06/18/2024

  Our first contact with Mr ***** was via email on January 18, 2023 and the first meeting occurred on February 7, 2023. As with every initial meeting with potential clients, we discussed our process in regard to designing a plan and pricing a home to be built on their property. Part of that discussion included our requirement of a 50% plan deposit in order to design a plan with the desired changes and create elevation views, floor plan and electrical plan so that we could send it out for accurate pricing. The balance of the plan fee would be rolled into the contract price of the home. If for any reason, the ****** decided not to work with Walther Custom Homes to build their new home, then they had the option to pay the balance of the total plan fee in order to receive a full set of engineered plans.

  Based on the plan the ****** chose to start from, the area under roof was equal to 4,287 sf, so the plan deposit was $2,143.50. We received the deposit on February 8th.  At that time, there were three plans ahead of the ***** plans and that was communicated to Mr & Mrs *****. Unfortunately, two team members also had serious medical issues during that time period, which did delay the plan drawing process a little bit.

  On March 29th, we emailed the ****** to let them know we were back on track and would be starting on their initial layouts, which were then sent to the ****** on April 4th. There were some back and forth email communications regarding plan adjustments that went on for quite some time due to one or the other of the ****** being out of the country. On June 19th, the ****** were sent an email with a set of plans that were ready to price so the pricing meeting was scheduled for June 27th.
  On July 24th, a voicemail was left and an email was also sent to the ****** to let them know we had a final price for their home to be built, per their specifications, and asked to schedule a meeting to go over the project. On the afternoon of July 31st, we received an email from Mrs ***** stating that she had been out of the country and requested that we “email the price quote”.  

  Due to the nature of our business and the work involved in putting together an all-in price for a custom home built on owner’s property, we do not provide a price sheet to potential clients. We always make the commitment and take the necessary time to review, in detail, all of the specifications and plans in person with each of our clients. This meeting is the most important part of our process and ensures that, to the best of our ability, the price we provide is the final price, with every effort to avoid unexpected expenses after we are under contract.

  Since they were both in town, we asked if they were able to meet to go over everything. They agreed and we scheduled to meet at our office at 1pm on August 4th. The ****** rescheduled to August 9th, and then, on August 8th, 2023, we received the following email from Mr *****:

  “Due to circumstances beyond my control, we are not going to be able to make the appointment tomorrow.  I will be unavailable for the next month and would like to halt action indefinitely until my schedule softens.   Due to our non-availability, you can feel free to send any figures regarding the build if they are available.  We would like to analyze the numbers prior to sitting down to meet.  I am probably not going to be able to meet at this juncture until Mid-September.  Thank you in advance for understanding and feel free to call me should you have any queries”
  
  Although the timeline and communication between both parties was not as streamlined as it could have been and not typical of our normal process, I believe we all did the best we could to surmount the challenges we encountered. However, there was never a 3-month period between communications. We remain disappointed that we were never able to present our bid to build for the ******, but we never heard from them again after August 9th, despite two unreturned phone calls after that last email.

  At no point did we ever receive a request for the engineered plans. This public complaint, filed almost 10 months after our last communication is the first indication of any concerns regarding our interactions last year. If a request had been made, we absolutely would have provided the plans to Mr & Mrs *****. After the requested plan adjustments, the total area under roof grew to 4,364 sf on the plan that the ****** approved for pricing. So the balance due for a full set of engineered plans for Mr & Mrs ***** would have been $2,220.50.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩