My Calbridge Experience

What Really Happened When We Bought a Calbridge Built House

In my over 65 years I have experienced exceptional customer service that has completely amazed me. Customer care, to me, is a vital component of any purchase where I put out substantial amounts of money. So when my wife and I started looking for a new house, commitment to customer service was a vital factor in choosing our builder. While shopping for a home builder I was impressed by this statement from Calbridge’s website, calbridgehomes.com:

"We are a company built on a foundation of quality and trust. Founded 42 years ago by the Ferraro family, our commitment to craft, quality and building lasting relationships continues to be at the forefront of what we do. We lead every day with a passion for crafting beautiful and unforgettable family homes and are proud to be a generational homebuilder. Our homeowners are what drive our business and providing an exceptional experience is our duty to them. Whether it’s our staff, partners, trades, or customers, we align ourselves with those who share a common goal – to always do the right thing."

The customer care experience Calbridge provided to me was, and still is, definitely exceptional … but not in a way that would encourage me to recommend Calbridge Homes to anybody in the market for a new home. As for always doing the right thing ... well, you decide after browsing this website. As you're reading through this website you will notice that I keep bringing up the above Calbridge statement with emphasis on the part that promises Calbridge homeowners, "providing an exceptional service is our duty to them ... to always do the right thing." Several times I've asked Calbridge's Construction and Customer Care Manager to reconcile his own actions to this motto but so far he has declined to do so. Does anybody from Calbridge visiting this website care to make a comment and address this motto with regards to the experiences I have endured?

Everything I have written in here is absolutely true. I would not have any qualms swearing to this in any court of law. That being said, I cannot "prove" what was said to me verbally since I did not record any conversations. Fortunately most of the communication between me and Calbridge was done through e-mails and I have provided many exact quotes copied from e-mails I sent and e-mails I received (complete with spelling mistakes!)

The website is divided into three major groups: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. On "The Good" page I discuss why I chose Calbridge to build our home. Obviously they had something going for them when my wife and I chose to have them build our house. "The Bad" page outlines some of the poor customer service we received but Calbridge did not resort to lying to us. "The Ugly" shows how far Calbridge will go to not provide proper customer service. They lied to us and if there's one thing that bothers me to no end, it's when a company cannot stand on the truth but have to resort to lies.

I do not use anybody's full names on this website - I don't want anybody hassling these people in their personal lives - but their initials and their positions (or job titles) in Calbridge are fair game .

This is my first foray into website design and planning and this is a work in progress. I can't figure out how to get some things (like the Search box) to work. I've already learned a lot but I still have a long way to go! Please be patient with me and keep checking back in. I still have a lot to add!

Why This Website Exists

I started MyCalbridgeExperience with the goal of showing potential new home buyers exactly what they can expect from the Customer Care department of Calbridge Homes. In a way, this website was inspired by the Construction and Customer Care Manager at Calbridge. While he was justifying the siding blowing off our house he tried to place a large part the blame on me and my wife saying that the onus was on us to have done more research before buying the house and, had we had done so, he said, we would have realized that we were moving into a windy area. I thought, "What a great idea! More research!" So this website was conceived to help anyone research what kind of customer service a recent Calbridge customer received.

So for those of you researching potential home builders, this is for you.