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| - Wife and I found Richmond homes at Laveen Villiage and fell in love with a floor plan. The person running the division was nice and courteous. We told him what we were looking for and he said Richmond could do all of the things we wanted (3rd car garage, large yard and such). Showed us the floor plan right on their digital panel which we took photos of!
Wife and I signed up on our anniversary / valentines day as a gift to eachother. All was set and we were just waiting on approval from the city (odd as I thought these things had to be pre-planned). Out of the blue, I get an EMAIL from the division stating the city did not approve the plans, we could go to Paseo Point and to come pick up our earnest money check. NOT EVEN A PHONE CALL - NOT EVEN A MEETING TO GO THROUGH THINGS OR PLAN FOR THE NEXT STEP - NO PROFESSIONAL HAND OFF TO THE OTHER COMMUNITY... Just an email! I did not write the most pleasant email in exchange but it WAS professional and to the point. Richmond NEVER responded.
After the dust cleared and we calmed our frustrations, we took a drive to Paseo Point. It was a lovely area and we were happy to make the transfer to this community. Our Realtor had contacted Richmond Corporate and told them what we had experienced so it was in hope, Richmond would do the right thing for us for all the distress, having a longer drive time, poor customer service, stress and distress caused. I told the lady at Paseo Point these things when I arrived and we would be back in contact once we heard more from our Realtor and Richmond Corporate. We were told:
"We heard about what you guys went through at Laveen Villiage and we are very sorry. They should have NEVER offered the home at the other location and the options we were offered were clearly never approved for that location"
The next day, we were to go in and sign new paperwork again at Paseo Point per Richmond corporate and the paperwork would be sent in to Richmond for review to see what they could do for us. This was yet another used car salesman tactic as they wanted us to spend the time and do all the work again and THEN they would see if they would do anything for us. We arrived before our Realtor (A big no-no / our fault) And the first thing the lady said to us was
"We wanted to be prepared for you guys when you arrived, so I talked to our Sales Manager and we will not be offering you any discounts"
This was her opening statement? I asked, what do you mean? I thought this all had to go to Richmond Corporate? She stated:
"No idea who you talked to, but it was discussed and we cannot do anything for you, our prices are set".
I came back with... Corporate asked us to come in with our Realtor and fill out all the paperwork again and we would submit it to see what they would do? We came all the way down here to re-sign and see what happens?
She responded: "no, I do not think we will be filling out any paperwork today". In shock, I looked at my wife and said that stories here were NOT matching and we need to leave and let our Realtor handle this as it was beyond upsetting.
We called our Realtor in a panic and rightfully got a thump in the head for showing up early without her. She literally battled for two hours while we waited. When the dust settled again, Richmond could only come up with a smaller lot, apples to apples on the build but wanted $6K more which put the home out of our budget due to how it was being paid for. This made us totally sick as consumers and beyond upset with how piss-poor Richmond American Homes handles customer service issues like this. They COULD have earned our business and make things right even if they had to eat their mistakes a bit! But apparently, there is always someone else willing to buy, so it is no big deal to push a customer out the door if they make a huge mistake.
THANKFULLY we went back to another builder that did not have everything we wanted (The larger garage and larger yard) but they did offer more square footage for a better price and the interiors are very well done - impressed. They were #2 on our list but MAN has the experience been totally different. Professional, transparent with prices... overall, as smooth as silk with NO issues at all. First class customer service.
Things to watch out for with Richmond / our experience:
- They do not like to give out price sheets and they are NOT transparent with pricing. They like to do napkin pricing (prices written down by hand with no reference to what it means). Virtually a cheap used car lot tactic
- They will not quote or show figures until you are signing
- Customer service is good at the beginning, but once they have you or something comes up, you may as well be a piece of toilet paper as they will not help you at all or even offer guidance or direction
- Sales staff / management of staff (training issues) is poor on how to handle situations professionally
- They simply do not have all their ducks in a row to make things a smooth experience
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