Today, February 3, an outfit by the name of Garage Door Services came to my home to repair a broken spring. I found this outfit in the yellow pages in San Jose, CA. The ad is spread over two complete pages and has multiple names - "Garage Door America, " "Precision Doors, " "Precision Door Services, Inc., " "California Overhead Garage Door Service, " and "Master Craftsman Garage Door Repair." There are also multiple numbers, just like the report on file under "Garage Door Complaints." The number I initially called was (408) 445-9568. The other numbers are 408.369.1266; 408.969.0933; 408.451.9651; 408.792.1982; 408.244.4231 - there are more all on the same two pages and all "nationally known, locally owned, Division of Precision Doors."
When I called the number, I asked what the charges were. I was told $55 an hour. I then asked what a spring would cost. I was told it would be per inch. When an unmarked truck arrived, after a person named "Jon" looked at the moving parts, he said he advised replacing not only the springs but the arms as well. I agreed they needed to be replaced and asked him how much those pieces would cost. He again stated that it would be $55 per hour and never really answered my question about the parts. I wasn't too concerned because a friend recently had this type of hardware replaced at a total cost of $300.
After about an hour, I asked him how much the job came to and he went to his truck to figure it out. I was horried to see a total of $859.60. I expressed my concern and told him I never expected a repair job to be that expensive and told him I was floored by the price of the hardware. He itemized 2 "heavy duty high cycle springs" for a charge of $4 per inch (56 inches) at $224.00. He also itemized 2 "heavy duty one-piece arms" for a total of $489.00. There was an entry of $10.00 - no charge for lubrication. He also charged $32.00 for 2 sets of safety clip hardware. The service charge was $55.00. I have a 10 year warranty on "all new hardware." There are no manufacturer stickers on the arms to identify what they are and the grade of metal.
My bill came to $859.60 and I knew I was being TOTALLY ripped off. Rather than argue with this person, I gave him a credit card, which turned out to be really stupid on my part because I planned to stop the pending charges and was told that I could not do that legally.
I called the number on the invoice (408) 451-8840 and asked the person who answered who her boss was. She said Rhonda. I then asked her who the owner of "Garage Door Services" was. She said Ron and then put me on hold and said she wasn't allowed to give me that information. I said fine, but please give this message to Ron on Monday. Tell him to call me at work (408) 277-4454, (which happens to be the City of San Jose Attorney's Office). Also, tell him that if he doesn't refund at least half of my money for parts I will be doing a search with the Secretary of State - which I did by the way and turned up nothing as far a name to serve papers on if I need to go that route. Also tell him I will be filing a report with the Better Business Bureau (which I have already done) and I will be contacting Action Line of the San Jose Mercury News (which I also have already done). I'm not sure how fast or if these two complaints will pan out, so I was delighted to find your site along with the exact names of this rip off business in the Arizona area.
I also called two other local garage door stores and they have heard of the scams this company has been pulling and when I read my invoice to them they were horrified and appalled that I had been ripped off so badly. Both of the people I spoke to told me they would and could have done that particular job, even on a Saturday, for $300 or less.
I certainly don't have $500 to waste and even if this large outfit can be stopped in their tracks from betraying and robbing other people I'll pay my dues for that. From what I could tell today, whoever is in charge of this outfit is shielded under layers of answering services, unmarked trucks, hidden corporate names and bogus store fronts. I feel so stupid and violated. I should have written a check so I could have put a stop pay on it. I pleaded with my credit card company to not pay these jerks but they said it was "pending" and that I would have to take it up with Merchant Resolutions on Monday.
Thank you for any help and time you can devote to this terrible scam.
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