Buyer and employee beware! During the Hurricane's of 2008 in South Louisiana, there were a lot of 'storm chasing' roofers who were fighting to do roofs in South Louisiana. The people here wanted to support their local companies first. There was one major operation that was smart enough to BUY into a local name. The local roofer is Darrel Duplantis of Duplantis Roofing. Darrel is a good man and a hard working roofer. Unfortunately, it seems that the money was right and he allowed a large company to pay him to use his name and information to guise themselves as Duplantis Roofing, although nothing could be further from the truth. This company is Champion Roofing out of Bowling Green, KY. As a salesman in the construction field, I wanted to earn an extra income selling roofing repair. Like the local residents, I wanted to work for a local person and not a gypsy. I called a number in the paper for Duplantis Roofing. The contact was a man by the name of Mike Williams. At first Mike seemed legit. He introduced us to the Project Manager, Ryan Haghn (sp?). We all had to sign non-compete agreements and larger documents before beginning to sell for Duplantis Roofing. After a month, I was the number 3 salesman. This is when it all went downhill. Here are the events that unfolded... Here is the GAME! 1.90% of my customers constantly called my phone to complain about roofers not being from the U.S. (CHAMPION USES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS) 2.90% of my customers constantly called about leaking roofs after repair 3. Mike and Ryan were blaming poor customer payments on us salespersons (claiming that is was our responsibility to make our customers pay). This was a red flag as any construction P.M. Knows that a lien is put on a home if a homeowner does not hold to their contracted draw schedule. 4. Ryan was the absolutely worst P.M. I have ever witnessed, messing up roof orders, loosing down payment checks, and not properly scheduling roofs. He has a 'Napoleon Complex' (Little Man, BIG EGO). 5. When I had had enough of the customers' complaints, I gave them their Project Manager's phone number, to which Ryan (the Project Manager) warned us that we are to never give our his contact information 'even if the customer has a gun to your head' (quoted from a text by Ryan to me). 6. After selling several roofs, Mike called me and made sure I would get an advance due to roofing work being behind and he wanted to make sure his salesman got an income. Although several thousand dollars were owed to me, he sent me 1000.7. Mike called a second week to send another advance of 1500. This was a total of 2500. What was really owed was 5000. Here's the game. They get you selling and send you a little bit of money. Then you stay on and sell some more. You never really get what you should have made. There is always some excuse, such as: a. You didn't measure the roof right and we need more money b. The customer didn't pay us enough and we need more money c. The customer didn't pay at all (usually due to poor roof work) and we need more money. D. The job came up short on supplies and we need more money. 8. After my first month, I should have made almost $9000. I was paid only $2500 and got nothing but excuses. The number 1 and 2 salesman were now gone. They too got the run around (and they were owed $20,000). I know this because as Mike 'threw them under the bus' I called them in their home state to get their version only to find out that Mike was now 'throwing me under the bus' to other salesman. 9. Mike Williams plays the good guy while Ryan Haghn will play the bad guy. They are both gypsies waiting to USE YOUR GOOD SERVICES. Employee and buyer beware. Although I don't think they will ever come back down to South Louisiana; they'll stay up north and chase hail storm damage, just be aware of these names and who you're really buying roofs from and who you're really working for. My advice is to call local roofers from the Yellowpages (not the local paper want ads). You may also want to call Home builders and Commercial builders to find proper roofers (or any subs for that matter).
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