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Review content:
The Roofing Police:
We called the Roofing Police when we discovered a small leak in my mother’s roof that was doing damage to the ceiling in an upstairs bedroom.
My was father a longstanding member of the PBA and Police Officer before his death. The Roofing Police advertise themselves as PBA members as well.
The owner John came out and inspected the roof and chimney, only to discover a worse problem in the chimney; a disintegrated aluminum liner installed improperly years ago.
To their credit, they resolved a dangerous and neglected situation that our oil burner guy missed.
I was quoted prices for the various repairs and work began right away.
During the installation process of the new chimney liner, it was discovered that our fireplace in the living room was built long before current building codes and blocked the opening to the basement oil burner. The owner called me to say that it was going to cost an additional thousand dollars to complete the job originally priced at $2200. I was somewhat confused about the explanation of the extra charge, thinking the fireplace flu, not the oil burner flu, was part of the new fee. Being a day before Thanksgiving and having no heat in the home and my 84 year old sick mother, ironically stricken with an outbreak of shingles, sitting in the cold, I had little room to argue the price and suddenly had that “hijacked’ feeling in my gut.
Had I not been under such duress, I would have never agreed to his fees.
His crew was able to remove bricks inside the fireplace with a hammer and chisel, taking about 2 additional hours. The thousand dollar surcharge was outrageous.
I think the owner John uses any unseen problem as an excuse to up the price.
One of the roof estimates I was told would include tearing off the old shingles, checking the plywood sheathing underneath, and then put a new roof on. Instead, they simply went over the existing roof with new shingles, a much easier job then I was billed for.
When the job was completed, I paid the original price contracted. Less than an hour later I get a very irate call from John who proceeded to give me a thorough tongue lashing for not including the extra $1000 fee. It was an unfortunate display of arrogance and disrespect to me, the customer, for not including the additional fee. . I thought that considering the time expended to solve the problem that the cost was a bit exorbitant. He refused to negotiate and demanded full payment. Reluctantly, I paid him. I felt conned.
One of the workers said he needed more parts than were billed for and I had to buy an extra chimney cap and a clean out door at the base of the chimney. He needed $215 in reimbursement, in cash!
My final costs were over $8,200 dollars for about 2 and half days work.
It was an unfortunate ending all around and ruined the relationship.
Overall, the jobs got done but I was over billed on several counts.
I also had somehow misplaced my copy of the original work order, left in plain view on my mothers desk, and asked for a replacement copy for my records. I have not gotten any response even after my mother called him to e-mail me the receipt. I guess we are not getting the copy now for spite.
My next step is to place a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as well.
Despite the satisfactory outcome of the job done, I would not recommend them to anyone I know because of the indignant, bullying and unethical behavior by the owner and the use of a classic bait and switch tactic to up the price in the middle of a weather/time sensitive job.
Don't trust these guys to be straight with you.
PS One of the workers used a bathroom during the operations and I have not been able to unclog it yet!
R. Layton
Long Branch, NJ
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