TRATON HOMES: Ridiculous Warranty Issue Plagues Traton Homes Customer

When a customer buys a half-million-dollar house, he hopes that there will be no issues to sour his experience. Unfortunately for Jay Hutchison, his half-million-dollar purchase experience from Traton Homes was not as perfect as he hoped.

A recent email message from Mr. Hutchison highlights some shoddy workmanship relating to his purchase, which he repeatedly calls his "house" rather than his "home." While Mr. Hutchison's letter is not all negative, he emphasizes that the warranty issue "negatively altered [his] perception of the whole experience." In specifying his issue, Mr. Hutchison wrote:

The fact that we paid Traton nearly a half million dollars for our house, and got no warranty on the $11,000+ deck, and specifically the $1000 stairs, when everything else in the house is warrantied, is ridiculous. I was very offended at being made to swallow that bitter pill as the paying customer . . . .

Continuing to voice his dissatisfaction, Mr. Hutchison wrote:

A lot [of] the decking was installed upside down, (which I noticed the first time I walked onto it), the screen porch was designed to have silver screens screwed straight onto very barky and twisted 4x4's, the railings were poorly attached with only 2.5" nails, and the railings and stairs weren't reinforced enough to be "sturdy." But alas, no warranty or recourse.

Going so far as to say that the resulting house "goes against the spirit of workmanship and confidence that Traton promotes[,]" and that this was "was far below the quality that Traton strives for, or holds itself to[,]" Mr. Hutchison recounts how he was forced to take matters into his own hands, pry out the upside-down-installed deck boards, and spend several days installing 4x4 posts and 2x4 supports.

Despite his efforts, it still appears that the whole lower flight is wobbly, thereby requiring "more deck work." As of the date of his email message, he had already put over a full work-week into the decking and railings.

In his penultimate note of exasperation, Mr. Hutchison notes that he is "not sure how this is acceptable that these issues are my problem[.]"

Others that have experienced first-hand how Traton Homes treats its customers have noted that Mr. Hutchison's experience resonates with them, insofar as the quality that Traton Homes touts is jarringly at odds with what the Marietta-based company delivered. A quick glimpse of the negative press that Traton Homes received in the past shows that Mr. Hutchison is not the only one with complaints.

Given that the economy does not look favorably on home builders, these types of issues should be rare occurrences, rather than commonplace experiences.

Reporting for Traton News,

Ingrid Ingram