Observations On Champion Genesis Quality and Design ( or lack thereof )
This entry was posted on 4/5/2007 10:31 AM and is filed under uncategorized.
We thought that the Champion Genesis website and literature would be honest representations of the Champion Genesis modular product. OH, were we wrong!
We committed to Champion Genesis only to discover that very little of what we read and were told was true. Champion Genesis bears responsibility for knowingly allowing its factories to build defective homes and for ignoring the customer's request for repairs. With great interest, I read an article on modular homes in the March issue of Builder Magazine. The author quoted Champion Genesis Homes Vice President of Sales and Marketing Kevin Flaherty, who stated, "If the design is inferior, that's a lightning rod [for problems and sales]." Clearly, Mr. Flaherty is unaware of the lightning rod located in some of his own factories. Clearly, Mr. Flaherty does not realize that faulty assembly, inferior product, poor or no quality control and lack of customer support cause real and pressing problems for his customer/builder and will eventually cost Champion Genesis a significant loss in sales. If Champion Genesis wants to entice homebuyers, one would think that quality would be high on their list and at least as important as design.
In
an article for HGTV Pro, Richard Wall points out that while speaking at the IBS
2007, Mr. Flaherty stated that “if (he) could rename the business he’s in, he
would call it the off-site construction industry.Modular?He’d rather not use the word.”Mr.
Wall states that Mr. Flaherty and others are “determined to change builders’
perceptions of the often-stigmatized building method.”
Keeping Mr. Flaherty’s words in mind,
consider our experience.Prior to the
tour by Champion Genesis Management, there were two Champion Genesis Service
Technicians who inspected our modular home.After inspecting the structure, they both proclaimed, “It’s a piece of sh*t!”When I asked them, “How is it that this house
is such a piece of sh*t when the
house we toured at the NAHB Show looked so good?” they informed me that a crew
of 20-plus men had worked around-the-clock for a week to make the NAHB house
look presentable.They commented that it
was obvious I had not visited the factory; otherwise I would have realized that
“the workers on the line did not speak English and were not capable of reading building
plans written in English.”They said that these same workers
“cannot tell the difference between a mobile home, a manufactured home and a
modular home when it’s on the line.”I
asked these two Service Technicians if they would be making the repairs on our
house.They said, “No, we’re not
licensed contractors in California.We
can only fix small things.”So, who can
blame Mr. Flaherty for not wanting to use the word “modular” in describing his
business?Based on the modular
structures delivered to Southern California, it is easy to see why
his business is described as an “often-stigmatized building method.”Based on the comments made by his own Service
Technicians, perhaps Mr. Flaherty should rename his business, “sh*t-built homes by Champion Genesis.”
4/7/2007 8:56 AM
A wrote:
I was a champion dealer until I sold my first home, the home was a Genesis. It was delivered with champion mobile sliding doors and a champion front door. Aside from numerous other defects, the sections of the home did not match up due to the fact one section was longer than the other. My customer was told by the manager from Genesis, "What do you think you purchased, this in not a real home, it is a modular..."
Other dealers of this company are intimated by the factory and forced to solve factory problems or be placed on the black list.
After selling my first Genesis home, I cannot in good conscience sell another. Any dealer that sells more than one Genesis home, in my opinion is knowingly ripping off home buyers.
My company is presently defending a law suit because Genesis will not honor their warranties. Reply to this
4/10/2007 6:58 AM
Tom Lux wrote:
I am interested in a New Image home. What is your opinion of that line? Is champion listed with the BBB? thans for any info. T.L. Reply to this
I
have never dealt with New Image Homes.What I do know is that one of Champion’s favorite ways of capturing
market share is to buy up the existing competition.Apparently, Champion purchased Castle Housing
in Knox in 2005, renamed it New Image Homes and dedicated it to modular home
production.
That
said, before I would purchase any Champion product, I would visit the plant
responsible for building the modular home you are interested in buying.I would verify first hand that only modular
homes are being built on the production line and how many days are required to
complete your particular model.If in fact the plant only builds modular homes, make sure that Champion
is using the name brand products that are so frequently mentioned in the
brochures and not substituting lesser quality products during the building
phase.
Ask
the representative you are dealing with for referrals.Get phone numbers and addresses, take the
time to talk with the previous buyers and don’t hesitate to ask specific
questions about their experience with New Image Homes. Ask when they purchased their home, before or after the purchase by Champion. Be sure and ask what happens when there is a
problem, who responds and how quickly they respond?
More
than likely, since it has only been a couple of years since the Champion take
over, the previous building process has not changed much and the squeeze to
maximize the bottom line has not affected quality, but you never know unless you ask.
Champion
is such a massive enterprise that most likely, somewhere under the Champion
banner, there is someone in the BBB.
Hope
this helps.Just remember you can never
do too much research or ask too many questions when it comes to dealing with
Champion and their vast empire.Keep in
mind that all of the entities, at least 33 manufacturing plants, are controlled
by Champion Enterprises and it’s the bottom line that counts.
