It's every company's nightmare: An unhappy customer blabs to a TV news reporter, who in turn airs an unflattering report.
For Walter Industries subsidiary Dream Homes, the nightmare came true this month in central Texas. But a company spokesman says the reporter unfairly portrayed a single bad case as a wider home building problem.
This much is uncontested: Dream Homes, which built 235 of Walter's 4,164 new homes last year, agreed to build a home for customer Delores Lovato. Before long, Lovato and her husband quickly spotted problems with the construction.
Several inspectors the couple hired at their own expense agreed. So did an inspector hired by KCEN-TV, the NBC affiliate in Temple, Texas. Among his findings: Anchors meant to attach the house to the foundation were improperly installed. In a storm with an uplift, the inspector said, the house could lift off the ground.
"These aren't the only folks that are complaining," reporter John Craven added on-air. "We've talked to numerous home buyers complaining about the same thing: shoddy building materials, shoddy workmanship, and little, if any, response to complaints."
Company spokesman Kyle Parks acknowledged the problem with the Lovato home, blaming it on a bad contractor and poor management. But he called the situation an "isolated incident" and said reporter Craven misrepresented 10 other complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau.
Nevertheless, the Tampa company took several steps to fix things, including firing the foundation subcontractor and building supervisor and improving communications between its sales and construction staff.
Parks said Dream Homes also offered to redo parts of Lovato's house, but she "decided to go do business with somebody else."
Lovato declined to talk. "I have reached an agreement with Dream Homes," she said in an e-mail, "and have agreed not to comment."
