Customer ReviewsforHonest Abe Log Homes, Inc.

The abbreviated version of events is simply this. Honest Abe's and it's sales rep has cost us thousands of dollars and there seems to be no end in site of their continued delays and excuses. We understand the building world now is atypical to say the least, but professionals and competent business owners make adjustments to keep the promises they have made. We are essentially twice the cost and down by 1/3 of our square footage due to the price of lumber and materials (not Abe's fault) but we've held up to our end of be deal to keep moving and made those adjustments to offset the current state of he economy. So far we are the only ones making sacrifices and Abe's exhibits little concern or regard for these facts. Furthermore, After it was discovered that Abe's rep took our payment in January and never bothered to place an order for material/logs we had to reach out to the rep, the rep coordinator and eventually the president of the company to even have our grievance heard. In the end we were told sorry, your logs weren't ordered and despite your being out thousands of dollars due to the increases that have occurred in material prices, added fees for loan refinancing/extensions, loss of agreements/contracts with your subs that will have to be renegotiated at higher prices, building permit extension fees, living expenses in temporary housing etc etc, Abe's will not make any efforts to get to your logs until August. We were however encouraged by the company president to check in on July 1 to see if anyone dropped out of the process or other circumstances could push the delivery date forward. To their credit, we were again assured that their package price would remain the same. So while trying to maintain a relationship with our subs and keeping the project moving we provided them the August delivery date given to us by the president of the company. Luckily we did Atleast receive shipping of subfloor after having-it-out over he fact that fraud had occurred, we had been lied to, and no good faith existed up to that point. We were able to install the subfloor that is now sitting under tarps that we adjust daily in hopes of not letting the weather destroy our investment (we were under the impression this would occur for a few weeks and were willing to deal with the inconvenience for the price of keeping the project moving and contractors on board. Now upon check-in we have been told the delivery date has been pushed back until September with only an 80% confidence rate (per Abe's) that this new date might actually occur. Of course this puts delivery dead in the middle of our rainy season, IF this new date even occurs. No mind that we are again having to beg our contractors to stay on board , renegotiate contracts, add yet another month of expenses, we are still unable to purchase materials for finishing the home as prices continue to climb, and we have not even begun the hassle of the actual package build process. We are supposed to be in the easy stages of this project and so far it has been nothing short of a nightmare . In the beginning we walked away from another company because they were upfront about their inability to guarantee package pricing and admitted to having supply chain issues. We lost our deposit in doing so. We did so because Abe's made guarantees/ claims that led us away from our preferred company and our deposit, but we have clearly been misinformed if not lied to. At 6 months into the "easy part" of the process, we are truly regretting our decision to walk away from the other company. A well managed company would honor the date payments were made to their representative and adjust the order in which they are fulfilling purchases. At the very least we should be in the production line starting the day we paid and entered the agreement, certainly not continually pushed further out. At this point in the process, the only good faith remedy would be a guarantee of the last promised delivery date (August) , or a significant reduction in package price. We have a long way to go in this process and we have absolutely no faith that Abe's will provide the home that was promised.

It's never the goal of Honest Abe to have a homeowner unhappy. The future of our company and the personal livelihood of our team relies on goodwill from the customers we serve. That said, there's always opportunities where we can do better.

In this instance, the customer bought their home package from ***************** (****), an independent dealership who purchases and resells home packages from Honest Abe on behalf of his customers. Representatives of **** are not employees or agents of Honest Abe, a point specifically addressed in a Sales Agreement the ********** signed with **** on Feb. 11, 2021. Our obligation is to supply **** with a package per their order. Independent dealerships are responsible for managing the process, as well as being aware of applicable time frames with the design, orders, and manufacturing process.

The demand for our home packages rapidly increased well beyond the rate at which we're able to produce and maintain typical lead times. Throughout this, we've been upfront with customers on time frames, providing estimates on production and shipping to the best of our ability.

There is always room to improve our communication, but at no time has Honest Abe's staff purposely mislead, lied or engaged in fraudulent practices with the **********. It is common for our staff to talk about typical or historical lead times relating to our process with customers and independent dealers, but we do not make guarantees to that effect.

Lead times are measured from the point a customer and/or dealer finalizes their floor plans and proper paperwork and deposits have been made. Once this occurs, a home can now be scheduled for Honest Abe to manufacture. In January of 2021, our typical manufacturing lead time for customers with finalized plans was 8-10 weeks. In the weeks and months since, that lead time has increased due to unprecedented demand. Honest Abe received signed Plan Approval on May 18th, in which the *********** home package was immediately placed on our manufacturing schedule to start production in early to mid-August, with delivery in late August to early September.

After several direct communications in May, we provided a written statement to the ********** on May 19 stating in part, "We do have you on our production schedule and anticipate delivering this package to you toward the end of August or the beginning of September." As of the date of this reply, the anticipated delivery date is September 1, so we are still on schedule to deliver the package to ***************** and the ********** in accordance to our written statement in May. The ********* were also offered a full refund of funds received by Honest Abe on more than one occasion during these interactions in May, yet chose to move forward.

It is also important to note that Honest Abe maintains a sizable, rolling inventory of logs and timbers. While supply chains have been stressed over the past several months, we have added to this inventory, and continue to hold enough logs and timbers to sustain manufacturing for several months without the purchase of additional logs. Keeping enough logs in inventory to manufacture up to 80 or more homes is standard practice for our company.

Against our advisement and at the request of the **********, Honest Abe arranged to have subfloor components delivered early. Great effort was made to explain the time span between the subfloor delivery and log package delivery, and the care that might be necessary. They asked for this to be done early so we complied.

As the ********** noted in their comments, the construction industry has experienced unprecedented market conditions. In hindsight, there are certainly things Honest Abe could have done better in preparing for and adapting to these conditions. That said, we have and will continue to work in a fair and ethical manner to provide customers with quality home packages.

We signed/paid in January. Abe's rep continually made arbitrary and unapproved changes to the plans as a stalling tactic unknown to us at the time. He apparently made an error in calculating the cost of the package and employed ***** game tactics to attempt to recover his shortages. Even at that you acknowledge that a check was received Atleast by February as we signed what we believed were the approved plans that had been submitted for log production. **** sells Honest Abe's homes. He's the local dealer for Honest Abe's. As evident in researchable lawsuits against Abe's, Abe's attempts to remove themselves from liability by claiming they only sell packages to independent dealers "like local car dealers selling ******." But the courts have ruled that it is not that simple. Abe's is responsible for their product and how the product is sold as well as who they allow to sell that product. **** messed up, lied to us, employed sick tactics to make plan changes all while assuring us that the log package was being processed and any changes he made were in no way affecting our production progress. Yes **** messed up, but he messed up on Abe's behalf and the absolute least that should have been done to correct this should have been to place us in line in the order payment was made.

Stating that a refund was offered is not accurate or if it was offered, it was never offered to me. Perhaps Abe's spoke to **** about this??

Abe's can't even acknowledge the fact that we have been wronged in this endeavor and the only lip service they provide is to blame their rep as solely responsible. He may very well be the kink in the works and as part of our compromise to continue the process, we removed him from the build and were asked to direct any future concerns with the company and not with their rep. But even if **** is the sole cause for any and all of our concerns, he is still Abe's representative, selling Abe's products, bearing the name "honest Abe's log homes by ****." If I make a widget and let my next door neighbor sell it , in the end if it breaks, I'm responsible.

We're not asking for a miracle or anything unreasonable. We need a confirmed delivery date, a promise that we will not be jumped over in the production line again, some sort of acknowledgement that we've clearly been done wrong and Atleast to be treated as the other customers who seem to continuously take priority over our build.
I have children that I am trying to raise and and a family I need to get into a home . I'm over a barrel, we can't start over in this process despite the delays, you have our money, you have the power to control your process. All I can do is beg you to help us get into the home that you promised, and stop putting others ahead of us in the schedule . Despite the thousands of dollars Abe's has cost us, we're stuck at this point. We can't afford to start over. Our only recourse is to thoroughly document every step that occurs from here on out and only hope that we can start relaying positives to prospective customers., because up to this point we're at a loss and can't recall many positives to pass along.