"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," or Extreme Fakeover: Home Perdition?

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," or Extreme Fakeover: Home Perdition?

Al Swilling, Founder, SENAA International

NOTE:
See accompanying photos in the photo gallery titled, "Extreme Fakeover: Home Perdition," on this blog.


On the second day of January, a SENAA International member posted to our discussion group an article from the Navajo Times dated 25 September 2008, titled "Problems Plague 'Extreme Makeover' House," by Cindy Yurth.
(See: http://www.navajotimes.com/news/2008/0908/092508makeover.php for the full article.)

The article is about a Dineh (Navajo) family living at Pinon, Arizona, Georgia Yazzie and her family, who were the recipients of a new house built by the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" TV program that airs on ABC network, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The house was built in May 2007, and the program aired on 28 October 2007.

The article tells of a host of problems with the new house that began to show up even before the program aired, and the non-response of the show's producers and the network, even though the house was under a one-year warranty.

When SENAA International contacted Cindy Yurth, the article's author, to ask about the present status of the house, her response was that the only thing that ABC had done was to send a representative to Georgia Yazzie's house to get her to sign a release form that would release ABC and the show's producers from any responsibility or obligation to honor the warranty. When she refused to sign the release, the ABC representative became abusive, saying that Georgia was ungrateful and talking as if the shoddy workmanship and ABC's failure to honor its own warranty were her fault.

When SENAA asked Georgia Yazzie, in a phone conversation, about the incident, she said that she understood his being upset, because he had come to her house to get her signature on the release form and was upset because he had to go back to the network empty handed.

For several months before the warranty period ended, Georgia tried to contact ABC and Lock & Key Productions, the producers of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition", on several occasions. Each time she phoned Lock & Key Productions, she was told that everyone was out on a new home project, but someone would be in touch with her very soon. No one ever returned her call. The calls to and excuses by the production company went on until the warranty expired. That isn't surprising. That ruse has been used by businesses since there have been warranties. The company will stonewall the customer until the warranty expires, then it will use the expiration date to try to refuse to do anything.

To add insult to injury, one of the contractors who worked on the Yazzie house was told by ABC that he didn't have to redo his shoddy workmanship on the Yazzie house if he would do another home makeover project for free. The contractor accepted, leaving the Yazzie family on its own.

The "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" project was scheduled on at the request of Georgia Yazzie's son, Garrett, who invented a machine that would bring water and electricity to the Yazzie home. He has been living off the reservation with his legal guardian, Kathleen Pierz, where he can get a better education than the reservation schools can provide. He said that he agreed to the "Extreme Makeover" project so his family would have a warm home and he wouldn't have to worry about them. Now he is considering abandoning his educational dreams to move back onto the reservation with his family. He says that, because of the way ABC has treated his family, he is more worried about them now than he was before they got the new house.

On top of the way ABC and Lock & Key Productions are treating the Yazzie family, the utility company, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), is not giving the Yazzie family credit for the surplus electricity that the Yazzie family's photovoltaic solar panels are producing.

Federal law requires that the utility company pay for all generated electricity that goes onto the utility company's grid. For the first few months, the Yazzie family was getting credit, which was applied to the family's winter utility bills, when the solar panels did not produce as much power and the house was pulling power off the grid. As suddenly it started, credit to her utility account stopped. The utility company is no longer giving credit for the Yazzie family's surplus electricity. Consequently, because of the problems with the house and failure to give winter credit that was accumulated during the spring and summer months, the family's winter utility bills are topping $400.00 per month.

It has now been 19 months since the home was built, and the flaws in construction still have not been repaired by ABC or Lock & Key Productions. NTUA is still not giving the Yazzie family credit for the surplus electricity being generated. The Yazzie family is still having to suffer 40-degree room temperatures, and Garrett is still worried about his family and considering putting his education on hold.

SENAA International is asking for public participation to contact the Walt Disney Company, ABC, and Lock & Key Productions and demand that they do right by the Yazzie family by doing the necessary repairs. We also ask that the public contact NTUA and demand that the Yazzie family be given credit for the electricity that the family's solar system is putting onto the grid.

The Yazzie family is aware of SENAA International's efforts to help resolve this issue.

The contact information for Walt Disney Company, ABC, Lock & Key Productions, and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) is provided below.

Your letters will be very much appreciated.

On Saturday evening, 17 January 2009, after sundown Eastern Time, SENAA International will post letter guidelines and documents that enumerate and photos that show the problems that have cropped up in the Yazzie house since it was turned over to the family.

If letters to the three entities do not induce them to repair the Yazzie family's home, then we will do a media blitz, contacting every major news network and as many local TV, radio, and newspaper offices as we can in order to inform the world that in Disneyland (Disney, ABC, and Lock & Key) dreams may come true if you wish upon a star, there is no guarantee that the dream will last or for how long. Apparently some dreams only last about five months before they begin to crumble like dried out sand castles.

Robert A. Iger, CEO
The Walt Disney Company
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-9722

ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551

Note: Send letters to BOTH Lock & Key addresses

Lock & Key Productions
1149 South Gower Street, Suite 10
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Lock & Key Productions
c/o Family Casting
P.O. Box 38670
Los Angeles, CA 90038


Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA)
P.O. Box 170
Fort Defiance, AZ 86504
Phone: 928-729-5721
Web Site: http://www.ntua.com/