Richards Advantage Housing - Donna Richards failure to pay contractors; failure to complete set up of home; poor customer service Rome Georgia

In November, 2008, my wife and I bought a used mobile home from Richards Advantage Housing. This dealership is owned by Donna Richards and has a lot in Rome, GA and another in Centre, AL. We bought our house in Centre. Wayne Goode is the manager of this lot. We financed approx $5,000.00 for grading, septic tank, electrical connection, etc.

We were told that delivery and set up would take a few days and trim-out would take a week or so. After the home was set up, we waited for contractors to show up. Instead, Wayne sends his son to do the work. He only worked a couple of hours at any given time if he came to work at all. He always had to go home and get some tool that he "forgot to bring". He would not come back that day. I ended up doing much of the work myself, and some is still unfinished. Wayne promised to do a lot of work, but did very little. The house was delivered the week of Thanksgiving and we did not move in until late January with the work incomplete.

We were told that it would only take a couple of weeks to get checks sent to the contractors. Our bull dozier guy was paid after two months of waiting. We made numerous calls to Wayne who never could tell us anything. We called Donna Richards numerous times and she lied each time. She would tell us that the check would be mailed and give us a date, but it never happened. In January, 2009, I drove an hour to Rome and picked up the check. She also told us that the checks would have to come from a corporate accounting office and that her company is part of a large corporation. However, her web site says that they are a home owned and operated business.

My electrical and septic tank contractors did their work in mid January and still have not been paid. My mortgage company has sent all of my money to Donna and told me to take it up with her. She still has $3,500.00 of my money and told me that she has not paid these people because I used contractors who were not on her approved contractors list. So far, the only contractor that she does use is Goode Bros Mobile Home Repair. They are owned by none other than Wayne Goode. My guess is that Wayne does a lot of their work at average prices and takes short cuts in order to pocket the money that people have borrowed. This may not be illegal, but it is an unethical conflict of interests.

At any rate, Donna owes me $3,500.00 of my money and refuses to pay. She has been very unprofessional in every aspect of this. She even went as far as to make negative comments about my character and that of my wife because we got angry when talking to her. We would not have this problem if she knew how to run a business.

I have seen other people posting similar complaints on other web sites and have e-mailed back and forth with some of them. I also know that her BBB rating is the lowest grade that they have with many issues unresolved and not responded to. There must be something that can be done to stop this kind of a rip-off.

Turtle
Glencoe, Alabama
U.S.A.