I cannot even express our excitement in building a home with Schumacher Homes. The design team and…read morethe manager of the office were amazing. They were so patient with us as we figured out our budget and designs. I know we put them through hell in the design. This is our dream home.
We broke ground during the pandemic. We were very understanding when the following items were missing due to supply chain or done totally wrong. This included a badly poured concrete covered patio, windows missing, broken feature window, poorly constructed tray ceiling, and the worse was when our granite countertop was improperly installed. They worked with us to get new granite; despite being made fun of by the granite installers who failed to follow our template. Thankfully, I saved a copy of the template to prove they did it wrong. The builder never was upset or rude, he just fixed things.
We settled on the house on 10/6/2020. Our customer service was taken over by the "warranty team." This is when our beautiful experience has taken a disastrous turn. The office warranty person is just as polite and kind as the design team, but the man in charge of the warranty has been rude, dismissive, inattentive, and has made misstatements about the condition of our home, i.e., walls. All of my public complaints have been the result of the warranty manager, they are as follows:
1. I have mold in my attic and the crawlspace.
2. The floor around the 10-foot granite countertop is dropping.
I have a home inspection and mold remediation report that details that all the mold growth is due to soaked wood and the mold has grown inside of the insulation. A symptom of moisture-soaked wood.
I'm supplying photos of the entire interior of the house that is/was cracking because the granite countertop was so large and heavy, it required an additional beam underneath to prevent the floor from collapsing in.
When this issue was brought to the attention of the warranty manager, he said, "settling is normal and houses settle inward." The settling continued to get worse. We were afraid we were going to fall through the floor with the countertop. We obtained an estimate from Tar Heel Foundations, and they confirmed that a beam should have been supplied during construction. But was now necessary along with jacking up the house. Or the counter would be destroyed due to the sagging/settling.
We advised the warranty manager that this work needed to be done. He ignored all emails. We waited as long as we could as the house was crumbling, so we had the work done and asked the warranty manager to refund our money and finish the remediation necessary.
The warranty manager refused, voided our warranty and has stated that we damaged our walls. He has never substantiated how and where we damaged our walls. We have not. We have normal wear and tear of a busy family with teens and pets. We do not have any idea what he means about damage on our walls. Maybe he doesn't know the difference between walls, trim, and doors?
Since the day our house was turned over to the warranty team, nothing good has happened. We had to fight to have everything done. What should you know? Well, I'm going to tell the truth:
Pros:
My home is beautiful. The designers are world-class. We still love them. The overall manager was as good as they get. The builder was five stars. I love my Schumacher home and wouldn't change anything with regard to the design team.
Cons: The warranty manager is the worst I've ever dealt with in any customer service experience I've ever suffered. The worst. FIRE HIM.
He has made untrue statements about the condition of my walls as a reason to not do my warranty work. He has never stated what that condition he has a problem with. The only damage in my walls is the result of the foundation causing cracking in the walls. We have not done anything to our walls. Further, he voided the warranty because we saved the house from falling. Something he was given a chance to do for months!
Mr. Warranty Man refused to answer emails. I have dozens of emails saying, "are you there? can you please get back to us?" So, his lack of attentiveness and timely follow-up of our really serious issues caused us to get work done outside of his process. What can a homeowner do in a no-win situation? Let my house crumble? Of course not. I had to stop the worst of the damage. After reviewing the work, it took six weeks for Mr. Warranty Man to void my remaining 10-year builder warranty. He said because I got the problem fixed when he refused to do. And he said the "condition of my walls." A condition that does not exist.
So, what is it Mr. Warranty Man, put it in writing and show photos of our "WALLS" that makes you void my builder warranty? I've got my wall photos, let me see YOUR justification or damage to my walls. Your pants are on fire.
Yes, get a home from them. But document everything.