Complaint Review: Pulte Homes - San Antonio Texas

We chose Pulte Homes because of their impeccable J.D. Powers & Associate Ratings (all of my neighbors and I think there is something fishy there because we know other Pulte customers from other subdivisions and they are not happy campers). Our house had many flaws, and I don't plan to list them all. Truthfully, Pulte did repair some of the things, though it sometimes took some prodding to get them to do so. However, they refuse to sod our yard correctly, saying that we waited too long (we are not at our 11 month yet) to complain about it. They used NO top soil and laid our sod on straight bald rock in the backyard with the sod squares about an inch and a half or two inches apart (the squares should be close to each other).

They refuse to fix the concrete on our porch, which sags and the columns are uneven with the porch edges. Their solution to correct this was to slap some thick plaster around the edges. They refused to fix the concrete at the thresh hold of the garage which is broken and cracked; again, another plaster job.

Our deck has very deep, long cracks and probably won't last two years. We tried to stain it, but the cracks get longer, wider and deeper by the day. Our inspector told us this was because the wood was not dried internally before they used it. We're waiting to see if they actually replace the damaged boards, as they claimed they will (pretty much the whole deck has damaged boards).

Our master bedroom floor has a dip and boards move up and down on it - one board pops in and out. They have been out here two or three times to fix it our floor and it never improves, in fact, I can't tell they have done anything at all!

Our jetta tub motor did not have a grounding wire! We were safe to bathe, but if someone were to work on the motor, they would be electrocuted. They installed our hot water heater improperly - it is functional, but wobbly and could fall on someone. We have an upstairs window with a manufacturer's defect, which they have not fixed, but have given us hope that it might be replaced (we'll see - they refused to repair our neighbor's). Some of our walls are not in plumb - I've nicknamed our half wall between the shower and tub in the master bath the leaning tower of pisa. We have cracks in our master shower tile,which they have known about since about October, but not yet replaced.

Two of our bedrooms have electrical outlets that trip the breakers when tested with standard GFCI testing equipment. The inspector says the breakers are defective and in need of replacement.

Also, we were flat out lied to. We were told (along with all our neighbors) that we would have a community swimming pool, toddler pool and splash pad. These were advertised as three SEPERATE and distinct items. Well, now they have blackened out the toddler pool on their sign out front, built a pool that isn't alot bigger than a personal pool in someone's backyard and to top it all off - they have the splash pad built on the shallow end of the pool!! Their deception has outraged most of us because we paid for this stuff through our HOA (Which, Pulte occupies for the first 2 or 3 years - the homeowners are not even allowed on the HOA board for that amount of time because they want what they want and do NOT want homeowner's interests represented, only their own!)

Overall, our house is "okay" and about what I would have expected out of average rated builders on J.D. Powers & Associates, or even a nobody builder. They have a revolving door on our Pulte contact and it can literally take months to get anything done when you have a problem. The first contact we had when we moved here was at our door just about every day begging for us to give Pulte excellent ratings on our reports!

I honestly will never own another Pulte Home again, new or used. The next home I buy will have been built before 1985 - when people still cared about their job and built superior products and NOT in an HOA.

C.

San Antonio, Texas
U.S.A.

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