Dear Mr. Pulte: Pulte Home Builders, Everyone we have talked to in our neighborhood is dissatisfied with your company.
Bill Pulte
Pulte Corporation
33 Bloomfield Hills Parkway, Suite 200
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48304-2946
Dear Mr. Pulte:
Based on your brochures and web site information, you appear
to be very interested in customer satisfaction. This is very admirable of a company the size of Pulte to try to keep the customer happy. That is why I feel I must inform that the completion of our house with Pulte was a very poor experience and we are not alone. Everyone we have talked to in
our neighborhood is dissatisfied with your company.
Our subdivision, The Reserve at Raintree Forest in southeast
Nashville, was originally developed by Radnor Homes prior to being bought by your company six months ago. We have been told by many people that Pulte is a great builder and really big into
customer satisfaction. That may be true in some areas, but in Nashville, nothing could be further from the truth.
Radnor was a very friendly company that wanted to work with
the customer. On the contrary, Pulte appears to be an emotionless house factory bent on conquering the Nashville market instead of producing a quality home for the customer.
The only things making our experience bearable were the few
people (mostly former Radnor employees) that went out of their way to help us. We would ever have closed on time if not for
their help. Yet nearly all of these individuals have now been
fired or became so unhappy that they left Pulte on their own. Apparently being nice and helping the customer is not allowed here in Nashville.
Since Pulte has taken over, the quality of building and
materials has dropped significantly, and your local developers have completely torn apart our landscape. Our neighborhood formerly consisted of beautifully forested, rolling hills. And because you are either unable or unwilling to build a house
on a foundation, these hills and trees have been utterly
destroyed. I understand that progress and development often necessitate the reduction of our green areas. However, cutting trees in the way of a new road or building footprint and completely leveling an entire subdivision are two different
matters.
Your brochures refer to our subdivision as "large wooded lots
that back-up to a wooded common area." As you can see from the photo below, this information can now only be described as false advertising. There are no wooded common areas; there
are NO TREES AT ALL!
From the above information and the new, smaller, and un-interesting houses you have started in our neighborhood, one can only conclude that Pulte has no business building in this area. You do not appear to be capable of making larger, more complex houses, especially in hilly or forested areas. If you absolutely must build on a concrete slab, fine; there are lots of places to do that around here.
Our neighborhood and Pulte are a terrible match. We would really appreciate it if you could begin building larger, more interesting, foundation houses in Raintree or sell the remaining lots to a more qualified builder that is willing to conform to the area instead of conforming the area to the building plan.
Despite our personal experiences, I still believe Pulte to be
a decent company, but that you need to concentrate on a smaller house in flat neighborhoods and, most importantly, bring that personal touch back to the Nashville area before you have turned off everyone in Middle Tennessee from the Pulte name.
I understand that your "formula for success" is: build the
best house for the money, in the right location and work to delight the customer throughout the entire home-buying experience.
If you truly believe this, then you must do something to
improve your building practices here in Nashville. Let me assure you that this market will not continue to accept 300k box houses with front garages and no options. I know that you are president of a Fortune 500 company and cannot personally keep strict tabs on all Pulte operations, however I feel you should be aware of these irresponsible practices in our area. I feel that you would be dis-heartened to see the way the Nashville office is trashing your mission statement.
Sincerely,
Mike Ayers
Cc: Colette Meehan, Brentwood Planning & Codes Director
Bob Adgent, Director, Williamson County Department of
Community Development builder"