Pulte Homes

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.

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 **

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.

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!!!

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.