first of all, we were desperate to get out of my mom & dads house. we had a rough time with vanderbilt mortgage co in the past... we live from paycheck to paycheck...4 kids - 1 bread winner...

A sales associate(clayton homes) who we informed about our cituation, seemed to be helpful. She had found a mobile home that was about to be repossessed. An older couple had bought for their son & he left town with a woman, to live together, so they were letting the the house go back... we thought we were going to assume payments because that how it was explained to us, and we started asking the previous owners what the monthly payments were & how long was left to pay. The lady said that she would ask her husband that night & let us know the next day... the next day we went to take another look at the house with our kids... when we asked the lady again about the monthly payment & how long was left before pay off, she didnt want to have that discussuion... by the time we got home, the clayton home sales associate called & told us that she had talked to the lady (previous owner)& was told that we were coming out to look at the house again, with our kids this time, and the sales lady asked how our kids liked the house...after all the short talk, i asked if she could tell us how much the monthly & how long we would have to pay before payoff so we could decide if we wanted to make this deal. She said, dont know off of the top of my head, but we could do paper work on it the next day if we decided we wanted to do it, and at that point she would have all the information we needed to decide if it was a go deal or not... we agreed to (approx) $315.00 a month for around 9 years... we took the deal & were pretty happy to be getting a place of our own again. through this time of discussions, she told us that we had to be approved by a lender, and we told her our credit was crap & we did not want to ask for a co-signor and that if vanderbilt was the lender that they were going to use, that we would preffer to use another if they had one... she said they had a few different lenders to choose from... well, vanderbilt was the one that approved us ... she assured us that they were a good lender to have despite our troubled past...we were convinced that we were just wrong about vanderbilt or simply had a "bad" account handler and we agreed to this deal ... The sales lady, proceeded to tell us how this was refinanced and thats how the (9 yrs -$315.00 a month plus down payment) lender drew up the papers... we expressed our concern about the fact that we thought it was an assumption of payments for the remainder of the original term that the previous owners had agreed to. the previous owners had thought so too...until the day before we took our kids out to see the house and the previous owners all of a sudden had no idea what the monthly was or how long was left before payoff. the sales lady had told us that the owners had said we were coming out to look with the kiddos and we had asked about payments & payoff... i believe at that point, clayton homes told them to say nothing to us about payments - payoff - or anything to that nature... we were told that their would be a down payment, which we assumed, but wasnt sure how much yet... they told us that $2000.00 would be needed for down payment and that it included delivery & set up and that was the only way because clayton homes or vanderbilt ( not sure which one) would not allow the home to be brought back to clayton homes sales lot, it had to be moved from the previous owners property to ours...we agreed...( of course we signed the damn contract and with a little bit of slick salesmanship & whatever vanderbilt does besides harrassing customers and selling the little old mobile home twice over ) ...and i felt somewhat happy due to our family getting back on our feet & having a place of our own, even though we knew it was too small for our family, it was a start... the sales lady expressed over & over how we could make payments for a couple years & trade in for a bigger house, no sweat...we thought this deal was getting better & better. we were sold & we were happy to think that clayton homes was the kind of company that cared about the families that were going to live in the homes they sold... well, a couple years went by, we were looking pretty good on our end, only a few late payments around christmas, which we communicated with vanderbilt and told them that we would be making a payment a few days late & they were okay with it as long as we money grammed or western unioned the payment at the time we agreed ... we called vanderbilt in a timely manner on these few occasions that we were between paydays & holidays & everything seemed great...we went back to clayton homes to see our kind, caring sales lady, to discuss a trade in & bigger home as we had talked about during the signing of the contract, only to find out that she no longer worked at this location ... we were introduced to a new sales man who informed us after a couple hours of showing us these nice big, lovely homes, that vanderbilt would not approve us at this time...we were disappointed, but we were okay .. we thought, maybe one more year, we could get an extra bedroom... maybe two ... no big deal right now...we will survive...i didnt even think of what was about to come... first of all, i started having medical issues and we were having a harder time making it through the year and having all of our payments in on time... the account agents, were changing by the month, the attitudes were getting really crappy and our normal agent from vanderbilt, who we had a good relationship with ( he seemed to understand & knew that we were doing the best we could & complying with everything that was expected from us by vanderbilt...)... when the agents were changing for whatever reason( I believe that the old agent wasnt quite the a--hole that vanderbilt wanted him to be ...) ...vanderbilt just started getting down right rude with us and would call my place of employment if our payment wasnt there on the day they expected(due to slow mail or whatever the case may have been) even though we put the payment in the mail before the due date...with my ongoing blood test & doctor visits and cut back of hours at work, my wife went to work in the evenings so that one of us could be with the kids at all times, as we could not afford a baby sitter... we had no reason to think we were in poor standings with vanderbilt...we had even discussed a goal to pay a little extra each month, since my wife had started working too, so that we could pay off the house a little earlier than expected. by this time, i was offered a job, by my former boss where i was employed at the time (wal-mart distribution center for 5 years and considered to be one of the best, most dedicated maint men in the warehouse), that came with a promotion, $20, 000 a year pay raise plus quarterly bonuses, and promises of great things to come. it was one of the toughest decisions i ever had to make in my life...leaving walmart @ $20.00 an hour, only 7 miles from my home...to a company 35 miles away, unsure of the longevity of the company (warehouse services inc, who ran warehouses for companies such as michelin tire & sealy mattress & johnson & johnson... )but was told that all these great things were coming for me and that i had made the right decision to leave wal-mart & come to work for them... I fell right in to the program...I was praised for my skills & i was treated with great respect & when i talked about the equipment i worked on & the ideas that i had for improving everything from safety to production, the management team listened & valued what i had to say ... it was great for 9 months ...then my life became a struggle that i never thought i would have to go through... i was laid off without warning...along with my boss... no reason could be offered except that the company may be going through difficult times... darn the luck i have...but i was confident in my abilities, i was well trained and i had always improved & seemed to be blessed any time that i left one company for another( at this time i have had only 4 different employers in 20 years) ... now i have been laid off for 2 years & have applied for hundreds of jobs(being on unemployment, they make sure i look for work & i gladly do because i can not live nor do i want to live on unemployment)...I believe that all my training & pretty good pay and now that i'm 40 yrs old, i am not what employers are looking for in this economy... i have struggled to keep my bills paid and i am still making it, barely...2 years, no work. my wife & i who were once best friends & didnt even argue unless it was over who was going to win the superbowl, have been off & on for the past year.(no doubt in my mind that it is the hard times of our nation AND ...this may sound like a bunch of B.S. ...but it is not... the crazy way that vanderbilt is doing us... we were undecided (my wife & I ) who would take the mobile home because of who would be more able to pay for it... the agents we had to deal with from vanderbilt, seemed to be treating us harshly and making us feel it was our own fault for me being laid off and not being able to make our payments every month... my wife had to quit her job because of stress & depression issues, she was ill from it... seriously ill...we have struggled from time to time, but we have never been in this situation in our lives... now i am on food stamps, unemployment ( cant get medical aid, always turned down) and we go to a church that gives us extra food...never in my life had i ever thought i would be on welfare or unemployment !!!my car wont pass inspection and runs just awful, i cant afford liability insurance or gas and i am doing everything i can to keep my kids as unaffected as possible, worry free & as normal as we have ever been so that it dont become to them what it has for my wife & i... vanderbilt will ask that you call in a confirmation code when you have to wire money for late payments... very understandable, in my opinion, but now that i cant afford a phone, i have to come home & go to a relative, neighbor or family members house to use their phone to call in a confirmation number & now when i am late on payments, my relative, friend, family & neighbors who i have used their phones to call vanderbilt, are getting the crazy calls 7 days a week ...morning ...noon...& night...
...my wife & i decided about a year ago, after a year of wanting to hate each other & get a divorce over our unfortunate situation(trying to keep a roof over our family's head) that we are not going to let them get to us any longer ... what we have done, for ourselves, our children & our friends, family & neighbors, is, that we are not going to put up with the rude, harrassing, most of the time crazy, tempers & attitudes of vanderbilt . we will not use a phone that isnt our personal...which until last month, we had no phone at all for a year... and we will deal with the unreasonable, piss poor personalities that call vanderbilt mortgage their place of employment, just as proffesionally as they do their cliental, not at all .!!!...Clayton Homes & Vanderbilt Mortgage deserve each other... they are in the same class, they are a company of deception & the ability not to care what they do to american families that have to live in cheap, throw away, shelters that suggest (especially in my case) lower income, paycheck to paycheck living human beings who have already overpaid, bent over backwards & dealt with one of the lowest form of scum this country has to offer, greedy salesman & money hungry companies that only care about themselves & will lie, cheat and basically steal the food right off of the tables of the american families that do the undesirable jobs everyday to put a roof over their childrens heads & food in their belly's so that the hopes of our children having it a little better than we did have very little chance of being reality...Family is the most important thing in life...what kind of father am i if i cant give them a cheap little house that has been paid for at least once over, to call home... a constable showed up at my house today, while i was trying to fix our one vehicle, to inform me that i have 48 hours to move out because vanderbilt wants my trailer house that i have struggled to keep & take care of so they can make, yet, another sale to another struggling family, who will be in for the treat of harrassing calls, rude, unproffessional, uncaring SOB's who are incapable of knowing what it is like to have to take a royal screwing just because we are poor... I am not trying to get a free house, I know i got a crappy deal ..after the fact that i was lead to believe that it was a good deal. I dont want anyone to feel sorry for me or my family. I just want the world to know that companies like these, are not here to help you or guarantee your satisfaction...they just want your money, no matter what it cost you... (food, health or shelter)... hey, they got theirs...how can someone be so selfish...i know i'm not the smartest guy in the world, thats obvious... i dont even know when i'm getting my entire family the sucker of the year award from clayton homes & vanderbilt mortgage... hell, i bet they can sale this heap at least 2 more times to the next suckers that just want a place to lay their heads & feel like they have something that is important for the well being of their children, even if it is a piece of garbage that you proudly took ownership of with a huge smile on your face feeling like you got your piece of the american dream...i found out the problems that this house was ridden with after about 1 year. clayton homes new then and they never told me: that the drain pan over flowed for the a/c unit & flooded the bathroom giving it rotten floors & mold . the old dinosaur of central airconditioning unit went bad after the first summer. the oven hood in the kitchen leaked water after the first rain ... the refrigerator went out after 1 month. the outside metal siding had holes that werent real noticable, but an inspector could have found... the holes go all the way through the wall to the inside...the water lines in the house were filled with hard water deposites & would barely trickle ... i could go on but, i wont...i deserve what i got for being stupid & not knowing what to do or look for ... i am a poor nieve sucker, so thats what i get ...where in the hell is the honesty & compassion ... i hope my sales lady got her commission check & maybe a plaque to put on her office wall, and i hope all the best for the employees of vanderbilt and their families because those people must be so miserable in life to talk to and treat someone who they know absolutley nothing about like a piece of garbage just because they feel intimidated by their superior or maybe they just want to have the feeling of power & authority that they otherwise wouldnt have if there wasnt a phone & hundreds of miles of phone line between them & the poor peasant they feel the need to talk down to and harass whenever that human being is doing what he or she can to keep that ever so important roof over their childrens heads...those people dont deserve the well built home over their heads, but their children do desrve it... and for vanderbilt mortgage itself, i hope it gets what it deserves for being so greedy that they need to sell an already heap of home, two, three, maybe even four times or more & still profit each time they see that poor, struggling, hard working family of suckers coming. that must come with a butt load of pride, to be able to sale prescription glasses to a blind man... that makes me so damn proud to live in this country . and to think that my son, cousins, nephew, niece, uncles, aunts, friends & neighbors are in the desert fighting for a cause . They are proud to be an american and they understand and are part of the most important thing in life...family... or in vanderbilts case money and questionable business ethics. in clayton homes case, my loved ones are away from their mobile homes & trailer parks dedicated to fighting to the death to keep our country free, so they can lie, cheat & steal from other families who are just to dumb & poor to know better. Man that's what makes a salesman... be proud america, we have some brilliant companies in our midst. it takes a special breed to be a part of clayton homes & vanderbilt mortgage . not everyone has what it takes to screw you over & over again... go ahead & take this heap away from us, and sell it again . but may god bless you anyway...