News & Notes Archive - November 2007
How a single mother of three endured humiliating treatment at a sales center, fought for her dignity, restored her credit rating and achieved the American dream–and had the last laugh
Regular readers of News & Notes may find this item a bit longer than usual, but it’s a riveting story that is not only inspirational and informative, but shows the price that even reputable manufacturers pay when a dealership’s sales staff mistreats (and in this instance, badly misjudges) a potential homebuyer.
Following the story are my comments and Palm Harbor Homes’ response to the incident.
Below is a series of emails from August of last year to late last month. At the request of the homebuyer, Larissa Hersom, I’ve removed the names of those who behaved poorly. She also purchased both Grissim guides (“I studied them before I made my purchase, and they were a big part of my success.” –Thanks, Larissa!)
Note: The first email was generated after Ms. Hersom visited the Palm Harbor web site and indicated an interest in learning more about PH homes:
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
From: _______, General Manager Palm Harbor Homes sales center, Denton, TX
To: Larissa Hersom
Subject: Thank you
Hi! My name is_______ and I am the General Manager at the Denton, TX, Palm Harbor Homes sales center. I want to personally "THANK YOU" for taking time to visit our company web site and inquire about our homes.
Palm Harbor takes great pride in building and providing the best homes available on the market today. When you visit our Model Home Center you will see the tremendous value we offer our customers. As the old saying goes, "seeing is believing".
Our internet sales consultant will be contacting you in the near future to provide you with all of the information you have requested, and to assist you with your selection of floor plans that will suit your lifestyle.
Be sure to bring this letter with you when you visit our Model Home Center and we'll be glad to redeem it for a complimentary gas coupon as a token of our appreciation for your time investment.
Thanks again for your interest. I look forward to working with you to make your upcoming housing change a smooth and pleasurable experience.
Please drive safely.
Sincerely,
____________,
Friday, August 25, 2006
From: Larissa Hersom
Subject: RE: Thank you! (but no thanks)
Dear __________,
Let me offer a bit of feedback on the experience I had visiting your establishment.
First, some background on who I am – I'm a single mom who went through a bad divorce and financial devastation in 2000. I have been raising three kids on my own with no child support (deadbeat dad) and yet have been putting myself through school and improving my situation slowly but methodically. I currently have an excellent job with Radio Shack working in the tech department of their world headquarters. Recently, my widowed mother moved in with me and we decided that we would buy a new home together to share expenses.
When I first put feelers out to your office and others regarding the purchase of a new mobile home, I was not yet in a position to purchase one, I admit. I was looking for the information I need to get myself ready for a purchase in about 18 months.
Your communication started off nicely with the included email and a phone call from one of your representatives. I explained over the phone that my credit has been ignored for years (too busy keeping food on the table) and that it was probably horrible. I explained we (my mother and I) wanted to look at model homes to see what was available and discuss financially what we would need to do to qualify for a mortgage.
The representative (I don't recall his name) downplayed my credit concerns and was more than eager to meet with us to discuss the possibility of getting into a home right away, not waiting a year or so to raise a substantial down payment. I was skeptical of course. I knew how bad my credit was, but I enjoyed his enthusiasm and apparent willingness to help us understand how the purchase of a mobile home works, etc.
All that positive energy was eliminated in one visit to your office.
First, when we arrived, the person we had an appointment with could not even be bothered to show up to the appointment. So another gentleman (I believe his office is directly across from yours?) sat down with us. I started to go into what it was that we were looking for, but he wanted to pull a credit report immediately before discussing anything. Ok, fine, I was willing because I know he could tell us what needed to be fixed to get into the home.
However, as soon as he saw the report, his demeanor changed immediately to "I can't help you, you can't get a house, get out of my office you are wasting my time." My mother's meek request that we be able to at least look at a couple of model homes before we left (that is what she was looking forward to the most, like sitting in a new car at a dealership, that feeling of "this is what I can look forward to, this is what my goal is") was met with a cold stare and a refusal that he didn’t have the time.
I was floored. I tried to ask questions – What can we improve? How much of a down payment do we need? What was the most likely price range of the size and type of home we’re looking for? – all were met with quick curt answers with no explanation. It was clear he wanted us out of his office, we were not worth his time.
I had printed out the below email you had sent me and brought it to the office with me. I was curious about the following:
Be sure to bring this letter with you when you visit our Model Home Center and we'll be glad to redeem it for a complimentary gas coupon as a token of our appreciation for your time investment.
I took the letter out of my purse and inquired about the gas coupon (hey, we were being treated like dirt. I would at least get the coupon out of this) and the guy was incredulous. He obviously knew nothing of this offer, and walked over into what I assume was your office. He came back with ten dollars in small bills and even quarters and gave it to me for "gas money."
I said “No, the letter said...” but he cut me off and said “I didn't read the letter.” I was in a total state of shock. I have never been more at a loss for words in my life. I was being treated like a panhandler, handed money so I would leave him alone. I didn't know what to do. I was embarrassed in front of my mother. I didn't want to cause a scene for her sake so I took the money and vowed never to return to your establishment again.
We weren't offered a business card, but my mother took one from his desk. I threw it away in disgust, so I apologize if I don't know the name of this representative either.
But you know what the kicker is?
I'm getting my computer science degree. My mother is a degreed nurse. My total household income in the next year is going to jump from $30k to almost $90k. I already own my current mobile home outright, and have $6k in savings. By the time we are ready in 18 short months, I will have improved my credit (getting erroneous things off the report – I already have good credit from a car payment and student loan) and have probably $20k for a down payment. Bummer some other establishment is going to get that sale.
If anyone asks where is a good place to buy a mobile home, I'm going to specifically steer them clear from Palm Harbor.
Larissa Hersom
Friday, October 26, 2007
From: Larissa Hersom
Subject: Thank you on my BEAUTIFUL new home!
To: __________, Manager, Palm Harbor Homes, Denton, TX
To: ______ and the rest of the Palm Harbor gang!
Remember me? I'm the one you treated like white trash crap last year! That's OK if you don't remember. I've included last year's email in this one to remind you of how I was treated by Palm Harbor Denton. :) I just wanted to thank you for turning me away from Palm Harbor Homes, because Clayton Homes was GLAD to have me as a customer! And boy, was I a customer! Just like I tried to say at our meeting last year, but was ignored, I managed to clean up my credit and yes, my income did triple! So, silly you - you missed out on a $75,000, 5 bedroom, 3 full bath double wide sale!
I qualified with only 5% down! But you wouldn't see past the credit report you insisted on pulling BEFORE even showing me ONE floor plan! I've included a picture of our beautiful new home.
Oh, and Laura Williams at LUV Homes in Ft. Worth would like to thank you for sending a customer her way, too! Luv Homes was happy to show me every floor plan and answer every question I had before even looking at my credit, and then, what a pleasant surprise to find out I had indeed managed to clean it up to a decent score. You may want to give them a call and ask for pointers on proper customer service, and how not to treat people only as good as their credit score, you know - just in case they manage to clean it up and can buy a home.
Anyway, thanks again .... Boy, my house is so HUGE and pretty, I can't wait to fill it up with new furniture. Imagine me, the girl with the 498 credit score - one year later buying the biggest and most expensive BRAND NEW off-the-factory-floor house!
Love and kisses,
Larissa Hersom
Comment: I forwarded the above email exchange to Palm Harbor corporate, in Dallas, TX, requesting their response. To give you an idea just how important they considered the matter, my query received immediate attention at the vice presidential level, and the response came within hours, not days, form PH’s VP Maury Kennedy.
My request for a response included one specific question:
Does PH still countenance and/or require visitors to its sales centers to provide credit scores before allowing them to look at lot models?
Kennedy’s answer:
“We absolutely do not teach, encourage or support this type of sales approach under any circumstances. As you and I have discussed previously, we video shop each of our own locations with a hidden camera a couple of times every year and we evaluate the shopping experience from the customer’s eyes based on 23 different things we consider important for the customer to experience. I can assure you that “pulling credit” is not something we include as part of the customer’s buying experience and if we ever see anything that is outside of what we train, we immediately have a corrective counseling meeting between the salesperson, his/her Regional VP, myself, our trainer and Joe Kesterson.
We have evaluated over 400 full video shops so far in the last two years and I went back in to review the comments and there are none where we told the video shopper they were “not allowed to see any houses until we pull your credit” and we certainly have never pulled the credit of any hired video shoppers so it’s not part of the prescribed sales process and never will be.
I’m not denying that it happened to Ms Hersom, by any means and I regret that anyone feels as negatively towards our company as she does. I completely understand how she feels and I would feel the same way if it happened to me, but I can assure you we do not teach or condone the practice of requiring credit scores before viewing houses.
And we will definitely share this incident with the Retail division
While it will certainly be of little to no consolation to Ms. Hersom at this point because we understand how this type of experience can have lasting impression, the General Manager who worked at our location #6 in Denton, TX at the time of her visit is no longer there. His replacement, Jamie Ichinose is the new General Manager and Jamie is the epitome of Customer Satisfaction as prescribed by our company philosophy.”
Comment: If the intense effort that Palm Harbor has invested in recent years to improve the customer visiting/buying experience is any indication, you can bet that Larissa Hersom’s story will very soon be known by every sales person at every PH dealership in the country. The story will serve as a great teaching opportunity.
I know of no other manufacturer that goes so far as to send teams of phantom shoppers around to its sales centers to secretly videotape customer-sales staff interactions to ensure compliance with its prescribed sales process.
True, PH has had an early history of aggressive off-putting high-pressure sales tactics that earned them deserved criticism, but in this decade it has made great gains to remedy that criticism. This is a large, publicly held company that wants to get it right.
As for the star turn by the sales associate at LUV Homes in Ft. Worth, TX, kudos to Clayton Homes, Inc. I suspect LUV Homes’ sales rep Laura Williams will be getting a personal “waytago!” note from Clayton CEO Kevin Clayton.
Note: For details on how Larissa Hersom repaired her credit rating, please see her story in October 2007 News & Notes. That, too, is a great story.