Palm Harbor Homes - trouble arranging financing for manufactured home - upset with service received

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on October 11, 2002:

From:

RE: Palm Harbor Homes - trouble arranging financing for manufactured home - upset with service received My name is Kim Champagne. In Jan. of 2002 I wanted to purchase a manufactured home from Palm Harbor Homes. The salesman Mark Bando was more than willing to help me and my partner. He told me everything I needed to do as far as cleaning up my credit.

In April I came back in with $1000.00 for the earnest money. Mr Bando told me I should have no problem being approved for a home considering how much I earned. Almost two weeks went by and we didn't hear anything from him. We finally called HIM and he told me that I was approved for $160,000. Well this is where it starts to get interesting. He had me come back in to not only fill out another application but a total of three more credit reports. All because he supposedly lost them.

From there countless weeks of phone calls not being returned. At one point we even intiated two meetings with Mr Bando, in which we asked him if my credit was a problem and that's why this is taking too long. He stated no, that sometimes everyone ends up playing phone tag in order to get things done. I also asked at one point if he faxed the paperwork to the loan officer.

He stated several times he had faxed everything to the loan officer. When I personally contacted the loan officer, why has she never heard of me or my loan paperwork? When Mr Bando was asked about this he stated he thought the loan officer was on vacation for two weeks. Now all the lies and hassles have gone on for six long months. My partner and I went in to get our refund and all Mr. Bando could say was,"I figured you guys were going to pull out". He didn't even ask why.

We even watched him fill out the form for the refund. Needless to say he never turned it in. The general manager didn't admit it, but I guess he didn't have to since he stated he turned the paperwork in himself. I made a complaint to the corporate office which I think might have expedited my refund. Also, I made a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, which helps.

Now the general manager is saying I can't get a copy of my credit report and that they will not give me a letter for me or my credit bureau stating their mistake in running three credit reports. Also, when Mr. Bando was asked by his general manager as to why this had happened, he stated it was because of my credit. If that was the case why didn't he tell me within the first week?

Instead, he had me and my partner believing that we were going to be getting a house for six months. All we keep hearing is excuses and" we can't" or" we won't". Those excuses are not acceptable for consumers who are wronged.