Eric Peterson, Altamont Homes, Systems Built Construction, Took our depsosit and ran. Tens of thousands! Filing bankruptcy for one company and moving to the next Martinez, San Pablo California

Eric Peterson, 

In hinde site Eric Peterson was filing for bankruptcy during the period in question. He jerked me and many others around during this period. No matter what he says, here the simple fact that he didn't have the money to return or complete the job is now stated fact per his filing. If he thinks he's saving face by posting more BS here than I hope this works in showing his future customers to what extent this guy will go to lie. If he wants to prove me wrong and perform work the amount he owes me I would be happy to retract these coments  and be proven wrong. Eric feel free to be a good business man and peform work for the money you were given. I'm happy to negotiate, until then the facts speak louder than my posts here. 

#1 I was "assured" the deposit would be refundable by Mr. Peterson and his sales associate. Before paying the deposit I repeatedly expressed doubts as to the feasibility of the modular project. I was also reassured by the sales associate who visited the site not to worry. If the "modular" home built by Geneis, model #925 ended up being not feasible, the deposit would be refunded.

Anyone who would like to believe Mr. Peterson's comments is welcome to contact Genesis Homes and ask as to the progress of the project. I called them directly when Mr. Peterson's company had not returned my calls and emails for such a long period of time. I was told by Genesis (the home manfucature Eric's company buys their homes from)  "my project was never started". At that point I began to worry that I had been scammed.
 
I invested heavily to have the plans drawn up and at the point I received permits to build and financing, I attempted to contact Altamont homes to complete the tasks we had agreed upon. The number one item of my concern was locking in a price for delivery/crane costs. As other people have posted, either Mr. Peterson did not do his due dilegence in this area, or this is a good way to lure in suckers like myself and the end costs end up being inflated by 10's of thousands of dollars. In this case it simply could not be done at all.

I contacted every Craning company within a 2 hour driving distance of the building site. I was told by each firm that the job was next to impossible and that no other crane firm would say other wise. I also had the utility companies come out to comment on the feasibility of getting a modular home onto the property in any manner, they also thought the project was not possible. I have yet to speak to a firm that has said otherwise, nor has Mr. Peterson provided the name of the firm which he claims says otherwise, nor the costs he was quoted to do so.

Through Genesis I was emailed some stock plans to derrive demesions. Please contact Genesis for the cost on their stock plans, when we visited their company we were told their use is limited but they are free. Then I hired a private engineer and architect out of my own pocket to draw up plans, and did all plan submission w/o any assistance from Altamont. Altamont/Genesis did not invest in any plans or engineer work, and incurred no cost. (contact Genesis directly for more details). "If" Mr. Peterson could have produced the home and built it in the originally agreed upon manner/method, and price and the home could have been built right away. He couldn't.

Mr Peterson's attempt at providing a reasonable solution in his BBB dispute was to sell me a different home, change the costs, building manner, etc. and then have me eat the costs on another year of permit process and fees, construction loan payments, and more. I ran this idea by the county permiting agencies, and his solution would have likely delayed the project by 1-2 years, and would have cost me an additional 50-100k and put the project far out of my budget. 

Eric, you're back in business. If you're an honest guy, I'll give you the chance to build me a 25k structure (or a real nice shed) on my property and I'll make the effort of updating all complaints I've posted with your attempts to make good. Took my wife and I the better part of a decade to save that money to build a home and now we'll never be able to. 

Matt Clark has posted under the names "Joe" from San Jose, "Sucker" from Santa Barbara, and "Eric P Stole from Me."

Altamont Homes completed the vast majority of its contracts to the satisfaction of its clients and without complaints.

Altamont Homes also was a member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in good standing until it filed for bankruptcy. In fact, in 2006 when Altamont Homes was at its peak and had its greatest number of customers, it earned a BBB customer service award for zero complaints that year. Altamont Homes also entered into Better Business Bureau voluntary dispute resolution with Matt (aka "Joe). Both parties had the opportunity to submit copies of documentation including signed agreements as evidence. At the conclusion of this process, the Bureau determined that Altamont Homes had made reasonable offers to resolve the disputes, but that the Mr. Clark had refused the offers.

Needless to say, there are also no D.A. investigations or criminal charges over this matter or any other matter.

Matt Clark is angry because Altamont Homes would not return his non-refundable deposit to him after he decided to cancel. He originally sent Altamont emails stating that the main reason why he wanted to cancel was because he could not get fire, sewer, and other permits which he was responsible for. When we told him we could not return his deposit because the plans had already been engineered and were almost approved, he then lied to us and stated that he had verbally instructed our former salesperson who had been helping him to not proceed with the engineering of the plans. This former salesperson sent us copies of emails in which Mr. Clark was not telling the salesperson to delay the engineering, but was instead asking the salesperson when the engineering and approvals would be completed.

Matt Clark also stated that Altamont would not return his calls and emails. I have documented many responses to him from our company. I only can find one instance before he cancelled where he contacted our main office stating that he was having difficulty reaching his salesperson. We immediately passed this message on to the salesperson who then contacted Mr. Clark. In plain contradiction Mr. Clark's assertions, I also have a copy of an email from Mr. Clark to the salesperson in which Mr. Clark apologized to the salesperson for not keeping in contact with him. I have another email from Mr. Clark in which he stated that he was having difficulty with the financing of the project due to the bottom falling out in the secondary mortgage market.

Mr. Clark kept demanding that I have a telephone conference with him about his demand to cancel. I told him in an email that I would, but that per my attorney we needed to agree that anything substantive would also need to be documented in writing due to Mr. Clark's threats. He would not agree to this, but instead persisted with his threats. To this day, I don't know why he wouldn't agree to document his communication with me.

Mr. Clark also tried to allege that we should return his money because we could not actually deliver the modules to his site. I spent $1000 to send a professional set up and delivery person out to survey his site to reassure Mr. Clark that it could be done. The surveyer took pictures and measurements and determined that the modules could indeed be delivered and assembled. We reiterated to Mr. Clark that we were standing by that assessment and were prepared to move forward with the project.

Despite our showing Mr. Clark that his reasons for why he felt we could not perform (and should therefore return his non-refundable deposit) were false, he kept insisting that we return the deposit anyways. This was even after the Better Business Bureau determined that we were correct in not returning his deposit.