Pulte Homes

Pulte Homes

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Overall Rating1.1 out of 5
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About Pulte Homes

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Pulte Homes Reviews

ConsumerAffairs has collected 378 reviews and 118 ratings.

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Customer ServiceStaff

Reviewed Sept. 21, 2023

There are way too many details, from important to cosmetic. So many details combined with a customer care manager that does not understand what customer care means, have created what was supposed to be a celebration, into a constant frustration. It seems that the customer care manager believes, (or maybe it is a Pulte policy), that "customer care" means "take care of the customer" as in "get rid of the customer." For example, our front yard tree is dead, and even though he replaced the trees of the two houses next to ours, he refuses to replace ours, saying that he is "not going to compare circumstances because each is different."

There is nothing to compare, and if circumstances are different, he is not "going to compare." In addition, according to him, our tree is alive, even though any person with minimal knowledge of trees would agree that the tree is dead. He is just getting rid of me. I asked him to level our ugly grass areas (front and back) full of holes, and without grass because the sodding was done very poorly and unprofessionally. He decided to level the areas with clay (red!) instead of topsoil. Now I have uglier red clay areas with barely any grass, not even close to being leveled. Again, he took care of me! I don't understand how personnel dealing with customer care don't understand that the essence of customer service (care) is to provide it with will and pride.

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Customer ServiceInstallation & SetupPunctuality & SpeedStaff

Reviewed Sept. 21, 2023

We are Ed and Donna ** (rhymes with Metal) and 18 months ago, on 3/24/22, we were rushed, against our objections, to a closing on a new-build Pulte home in their Del Webb 55-and-older community in Lakewood Ranch, for which we paid over $720,000. We initially thought of our move as the realization of a life-long dream… finally getting to enjoy retirement in warm weather. Instead it has turned into a nightmare.

The first Field Manager assigned to build our home (and, as he told us, twenty others at the same time) had only been with the company for about a month. We looked at his profile on LinkedIn and saw that he had no previous home construction experience, having spent a great deal of his previous career supervising landscaping crews. He was utterly unprepared for, and overwhelmed by, the requirements Pulte placed upon him. He quit one Monday morning, apparently with no notice, while our house was being built. We are convinced that his lack of construction experience and unrealistic workload contributed mightily to the seemingly innumerable issues we had during the house’s construction.

At closing, the home was filthy and it was nowhere near the level of quality Pulte had promised. Every window in the home was scratched and/or damaged. All six hurricane glass door wall sliders were damaged. Not a single interior door fit properly. Every single piece of cabinetry front in the kitchen, both bathrooms and the laundry room was damaged. The concrete slab was improperly leveled and therefore the LVP throughout our home has dips and rises and makes clicking noises when we walk on it.

Also, Pulte happily sold us a pool/spa but subsequently let us know after closing that we needed to deal directly with the pool subcontractor on the myriad of issues we had. That was a further debacle and, interesting to note, the exact opposite of how they insisted we deal with everything else. They would not let us communicate directly with any of their other suppliers… With the result being additional frustration, unnecessary delays and further disappointment. The list is far longer, but those were the major issues at closing… All of which our second Field Manager promised us at closing would be handled by the Warranty Department.

In the ensuing 18 months we have endured countless visits by Pulte’s subcontractors… and that doesn’t count the innumerable no-shows! We have spent many sleepless nights and gotten up at 5 or 6 in the morning numerous times to prepare for these visits. We have had to make all sorts of accommodations to protect the health and safety of our elderly pet to make sure she wasn’t injured by some careless worker. We have found it maddening that Pulte sends the same employees who messed up the work in the first place to then repair it, more often than not, unsuccessfully and/or with collateral damage. Unbelievably, it took 10 visits, all after closing, to get our dishwasher installed properly!

We have sent hundreds of emails to our warranty reps (we’ve had 3 different ones, so far) with specific, fact-based, complaints and detailed information about what we need done, yet the work is still not complete. We started “climbing the org chart” over a year ago and spoke with and sent detailed emails to a further four levels of Management in the Pulte SW Florida region. All 4 expressed support for our situation and promised quick action. The first person said all the work would be done “within a few weeks.”

The second person said it would be done by Christmas, 2022. The third and fourth persons said they would give us immediate satisfaction. About a month ago, when the work was still not done, we sent, via registered mail, a package of over 60 pages of chronological documentation of our plight, to the Chief Executive Officer of Pulte, Mr. Ryan Marshall. We listed, in great detail, every remaining task and asked Mr. Marshall one simple question, “Are you proud of how your company has treated us?” Mr. Marshall never replied. Rather, he (or one of his underlings, since he probably never even saw or read our material) had a warranty rep from the company’s Southwest Florida region respond. That person sent an email essentially saying “we’re working on it” and, of course, totally ignored our one simple question.

About 3 weeks ago, we even filed a complaint against Pulte with the Better Business Bureau in Atlanta, where Pulte is headquartered. Again, we included a brief history of our terrible experience. Pulte is not an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau and, as such, not required to respond to complaints filed with them. In our case, however, they did respond… with another generic “we’re working on it” reply.

As per the Better Business Bureau protocol, we were given the opportunity to accept or reject that response. We rejected it and, in doing so, provided, once again, a detailed list of the work still to be done on our home. We waited 8 days before receiving Pulte’s reply, which was, paraphrasing now, “your complaint is being forwarded to a Southwest Florida person who will be better placed to respond to you.” Again, we were given the choice of accepting or rejecting the response. We clicked the “reject” box but added that we looked forward to hearing from the local rep.

As of this writing we have not heard back, but we received an email from the Bureau stating that, since we had now rejected two responses from Pulte, they, the Better Business Bureau , considered the complaint closed. Maddening! Their website, believe it or not, actually gives Pulte an A+ rating, apparently because they do respond to complaints. Further, they openly state that they do NOT take customer reviews into consideration when formulating a company’s rating. Clearly they do not, because the average rating of hundreds of reviews on their website, on a scale of 1 to 5, is an abysmal 1.13! Doesn’t sound like an A+ company to us!

Today was the last straw! We were scheduled for yet another visit by American Builders Supply, Pulte’s subcontractor who is responsible for the installation of door wall sliders and windows. It is at least their fourth visit since closing to address our issues. Every single time they’ve previously shown up, their material has been damaged or flawed in some way.

Our warranty rep has witnessed all this and, in fact, personally rejected these damaged pieces. Finally, on their previous visit, they managed to get 4 of the 6 sliders replaced BUT each one of them has cosmetic flaws and 2 of them have functional issues. Today, they were supposed to show up with the remaining 2 sliders, 2 windows for our Cafe (to replace damaged ones they previously installed because the original ones were also damaged), a sash for a window in one of our bedrooms (their third try to show up with an undamaged replacement for the original, damaged sash) and a missing trim piece on the exterior of another window.

We had a “morning” appointment booked for quite some time. They showed up at 11 am and it was quickly determined that a) they did not have the sash, b) they did not have the Cafe windows, c) they did not have the correct combination of door wall sliders, but d) they did have the trim piece. We told the 2 workers that they should install the trim piece, while we called our on-site warranty rep. When he came over, we told him all of the above. He spoke briefly with the 2 guys, who then got in their truck and left… without installing the trim piece! They were here a total of 10-15 minutes, during which time they accomplished absolutely nothing. That would be opposed to the over 3 hours, starting before 6 am this morning, that we spent moving all of our outdoor furniture to the garage and our dining room furniture out of their way, too.

We are at our wits' end with Pulte. We just can’t do this anymore! We have been bitterly disappointed with the build of the home and the subsequent frustrating efforts to get them to fix their mistakes. Even more importantly, we have had to endure all the negative effects on our health of the mental and physical stress this debacle has caused, as well as what we view as Pulte having literally robbed us of two years of our lives. We paid in full for this home 18 months ago and yet we still find ourselves trapped, emotionally and physically, by this situation. It has affected our health, our mental well being and our relationship.

We are posting this review in the hope that readers will know exactly how poorly we were treated. We know we are not alone in this. We have read numerous reviews, from Buyers here in the Sarasota/Bradenton area and from around the country, expressing dissatisfaction with Pulte. Common themes were “we were rushed to closing,” and “once they got our money they stopped caring,” etc. That said, of the hundreds of reviews we have read, only a handful of folks seemed to have had as many issues as we have faced. Unbelievable as it may seem, our horrible experience is all true.

Ed and Donna **

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    Sales & MarketingPriceStaff

    Reviewed Sept. 1, 2023

    Exorbitant HOA fees, extremely bad/no design customization options, no support, no value for money. Will move out as soon as I finish 2 years. Since covid the prices have skyrocketed. Sales Agents are also not very helpful. Even in 2023 they won't be able to explain how the HVAC system works. Poor knowledge.

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    Coverage

    Reviewed Aug. 26, 2023

    From the beginning of building with Pulte, it has been a nightmare. Building started in March 2021 with a move-in date of August 2021, we didn't close until October 2021. The final walk-through was rushed and the on-site building manager never followed through on countless cosmetic issues. These issues ranged from carpet nails puncturing feet, walls uneven, switch plate covers aimlessly tightened, not a single 90-degree angle on corners, entry wall bowed, trim uneven, switches not working, etc. I can live with these issues since it's under a one-year warranty.

    Our biggest problem was the home not being grounded, the main gas line punctured outside due to being hit by whoever graded the property, mold infestation in the unfinished basement (the site manager ensured us he had eliminated), water evidence pooling in the basement, a/c unit not level, vent covers nonexistent, plumbing pipe ventilation closed, outside lights not working due to circuit breaker overload, floors noisy, paint from banister stained on carpet, game room windows covered in cement, sump pump filled with mud and concrete, HVAC unit not sealed properly and filter not fitting.

    The list goes on but our main concern in our half-million-dollar home is the water intrusion and mold. We have a toddler who has been in at Children's Hospital for lung issues since moving to our new home, aka disaster. To this day, in August 2023, we still have basement walls leaking and a mold infestation. We have had a third-party inspection for mold and the test results came back positive for all mold fungal types; Alternaria, Chaetomium, Eurotium, Hyphae, Penicillium/Aspergillus.

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    Reviewed Aug. 24, 2023

    We purchased our new home in Northpointe Vistancia about a year ago. As time has gone on, including today, 8/24/2023, I'm still finding all the shoddy work that was done on this house. Things I'm noticing that are just workers simply not taking pride in a job well done. The manager we had promised to check and make sure things were done properly, I'm finding so many things had been missed. Now we were able to get things that we found needed correcting, but today I've found something else that I will have to fix myself. We paid over $500k for this house, now I understand nothing is perfect, BUT had the manager gone over this house with a fine tooth comb, there would have been so many things that should have been noticed that needed fixing, I wouldn't have to give such a poor review!!!

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    Reviewed Aug. 22, 2023

    Do not buy from Pulte. We went through hell trying to get things repaired from the moment we stepped into the finished house. We wound up contacting the Attorney General. Of course Pulte didn't care what we did. They are not even involved with the Better Business Bureau. So much stress from this experience. We still have some things that need attention.

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    Punctuality & SpeedStaff

    Reviewed Aug. 20, 2023

    We took over build from our son. Normally bathroom med cabs are included. He didn't so we tried to add 2 wks before frame delivered. She said too late. Wouldn't even include one. So we have to pay labor & materials. Too lazy to help.

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    Contract & TermsPriceStaff

    Reviewed Aug. 9, 2023

    Buyer beware. What you see is NOT what you get. Sales person told me what were upgraded to the model. When my home was complete, they had used much lower quality and cheaper materials. Builder then says everything…from the type of light switch to the width of the floor planks was an upgrade or builder choice. Builder can choose to downgrade at buyer's expense, but you buyer has to pay for slightest upgrade. The workmanship looked like something a toddler put together with glue. Not at all the quality expected for the price. Not at all the quality compared to similar builders in the same area and at the same price point. But they won’t let you out of your contract no matter how miserable you are.

    It seems they have done this to many folks. I think this is part of their regular income stream…deposits that buyers walk away from. I’m not moving in. Going to try to rent out or resell immediately…a lot of time and money lost. Not at all a first time home buyer. Have a lot to compare this to. They are selling entry level quality at designer premiums. You will be disappointed!!!

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    Customer ServicePunctuality & Speed

    Reviewed Aug. 5, 2023

    A complete mess! This is the worst builder experience I’ve had. Nothing was on time, there is no communication, they don’t take responsibility, you have to fight to have things complete after closing, and everything is an excuse. They are the reason I will never go with a track builder again. Cabinets are not repaired, they don’t know the status, they manipulate to get a good survey review, and customer service does not respond to service requests. Do yourself a favor and stay away!

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    Staff

    Reviewed July 21, 2023

    What an abomination. I warn you stay away. I found so many imperfections in the construction of this new construction home. I hired an Inspector who gave me a 56 page report with over 40 items incorrect. The roof being our biggest controversy. The construction manager took it personally and was very unpleasant and unprofessional. I became very weary about my purchase and within 48 hours before closing and after my loan was approved they then rejected my loan.

    The only thing they did right was give me my money back, which I haven't received yet. But I believe that I was blessed by not having to get into that predicament. Read all the other reviews and stay as far away as possible with this company. They don't care that they are providing poor quality. After so many homes nationwide, why can't they get a good review. If you don't believe all you read, please get an independent non partial home inspector for reviews before you purchase. Good riddance.

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    Pulte Homes Company Information

    Company Name:
    Pulte
    Website:
    www.pulte.com