"They're a snazzy outfit, they're on the stock exchange, and they have a beautiful model house," Sotrel says. "But then they do the work and they never quite finish and they're terrible about fixing problems."

Construction problems are something Cynthia and her husband, Ginter, learned about after buying their Toll Brothers home here for just over $500,000, in 1996.

Their problems? A foyer window fixture that fell out and crashed to the floor, shattering. A sinking kitchen counter. Electrical wiring not connected to corresponding light fixtures. Cracking kitchen tiles. A leaky roof. And a Toll Brothers landscaper that cut down trees the company had said would be saved.

In addition, the Sotrels say they selected their lot at the Canton Woods subdivision only after Toll Brothers assured them they would be able to build a swimming pool on the property.

Cynthia Sotrel said she could have forgiven Toll many of its construction errors were it not for the condescending attitude exhibited by company officials when asked to make repairs.

"I can accept a leaky roof, it was a new house, these things happen," Sotrel says, "But I hated being talked down to."

Two examples: When Sotrel complained about her sinking kitchen counter, which was missing a support brace, a Toll representative asked her if she'd been standing on it.

And when Sotrel informed Toll that the foyer window had fallen to the floor and smashed to smithereens, a Toll official asked if anyone in the home had tampered with it.

But by then, Sotrel says, she'd already complained about a visible gap between the window fixture and the surrounding wall, which Toll had agreed to remedy.

"It was all very painful considering the amount of money we were paying," Sotrel says. "I would never recommend having a house built this way. It was pure hell."