On April 21 I contacted Academy Door & Corp to see if they did repairs to gargage doors. The female that I had spoken to stated that they did. I asked if they gave free estimates and she replied yes. She asked me to describe the the damage, and I did. She then said she could have someone come out on April 23 after 1pm. I said that was fine.
On April 23, the tech called me at 10am asking if he could come over early since he was in the area. I told him that I wouldn't be home till after 1pm. When I arrived, he was parked in the center of my driveway, so I had to park on the street, instead of accessing my other garage door.
Once I put my 3 1/2 year old in the house, I proceeded to talk to the tech. He stated he could brace the door and replace the bracket that was damaged, but eventually I would have to replace the door anyway. So then I asked him about pricing. He asked if I just wanted to replace the panel that was damaged, or the whole door. I asked for just the panel. He told me the panel, which had windows, would be $565 dollars! Shocked I then asked how much a whole door would cost, and he gave me an estimate of $960 dollars, plus labor charge. I was still in shock at the cost, so I told him that I would have to shop around a little more and if worse came to worse, I would by the door somewhere else, but have them put it in.
He called his "boss" and had me speak with him on the phone. He was trying to detail why the cost was so much. I told him that I still thought I should look around more and that I would get back to them if I didn't find anything better. After the tech got in his van, and stayed there on the driveway, until I asked him to move so I could park my vehicle.
On April 26 I received a bill that stated I owed $99.00 to Academy Door & Corp because of "Labor to Tune and Test Entire system". Now mind you all the tech did was give me an estimate! I called them and was transferred to a male, I am assuming the manager or owner, and disputed the bill. He stated I called for a repair and asked them to come out and do it. When I refused the tech wrote on his sheet that I would pay for the service call! Service call?!! I asked for an estimate! The male at the end disputed why I had the tech out there and stated I owed them $99.00. I told him "I ain't paying you sh*!" And even though I gave him a logical reason as to why, he said that he would get his money and put it to collections.
Basically common sense would tell you IF I knew how much it already cost, and had the tech come out for the repair/replacement, then why would I balk at the prices quoted and send him back? And if they stated that I would pay a service call, why didn't the tech ask for it then and there? Why bill me? None of this was mentioned and I didn't sign any documents, so I know I'm fine. I haven't heard from them since.
Incidently I had the door replaced with a competitor for $460 which included the labor. Academy Door and Corp is bad with business ethics and overcharges customers to make a HUGE profit for bad service.
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