I would like to ask your help calling attention to a local roofing company that is violating the consumer's trust.
As you know, from late February on, Oklahoma city has seen its share of hail storms. Most of the time, any damage to your home is covered by your insurance company, and the homeowner is eventually indemnified for any losses. During the last week of February of this year, my husband and I experienced a roof leak in the home that we had bought less than one year prior. The roof is only two or three years old, and we were upset that our first home had damage, but grateful we had a good policy through Traveler's to cover it.
We called our insurance company, who sent a representative very quickly. They said many homes in the area had sustained damage, and they were happy to look it over. The gentleman that came from the insurance company climbed up on our roof, inspecting it thoroughly - as had the home inspector during our house inspection less than one year before. He came back down to inform us that our home owners claim had been denied for the roof, because, well honestly, there wasn't any hail damage (we received a small stipend for our fence, which had lost some panels.) We were lucky for that, however the news thereafter was grim. Evidently the roofer that had put on a new roof about two years prior installed a dead valley, that did not have the proper ice and water shield to prevent leaks. They did add silicone into the cracks, which he mentioned isn't very usual, but not something that warrants an insurance claim. My husband and I were left to resolve the issue on our own, with our own money.
We contacted four different roofers for a quote.US Housecraft being one of them. They all provided quotes for the repair in the same price range. With a slight variance in price and warranty, we asked US Housecraft to proceed with the repair, and offered our payment of $500 to start the process. We were informed that because they had bigger full roof replacement jobs to do first, that it would be about a week to ten days before they could do it. As the outlook for weather at that time was good, we agreed to that timeframe.
After about three weeks, we thought they had forgotten about us, so we called Kelley back, and left messages for him asking him why they haven't shown up. After two more weeks and two more messages, they finally returned our call. They apologized and promised they would send someone out there, when they could. The timeframe again, was seven to ten days. Ten days later? You guessed it, no one called, no one came by.
During that time, many other roofing companies send their field sales representatives through our neighborhoods, door to door, to offer free inspections and quotes for repairs. Many of them were offering to do the job. They all climbed up on the roof, hoping to be the company that found damage, so we could make a full roof replacement claim. They all (four in total) claimed there was no hail damage, and that the leak was due to a faulty installation of ice and water shield. We declined their offers to fix the roof, because we already had a company that agreed to do it, US Housecraft. We liked their 5 year warranty, something that seemed better than what the others were offering at the time. However, we were also getting tired of waiting.
It was now late March, and it was back to raining again. We had started a painting project in our son's bedroom at the beginning of February (the room with the leak) and we were anxious to give him the room makeover he wanted. However, the painter we consulted with told us to wait until the roof was fixed before trying to paint, to avoid unnecessary repairs later.
Four to five weeks later, my husband and I were outside with our kids in the front yard, when, yet ANOTHER roofing salesman came by, to offer their services. Turns out, it was none other than you guessed it.US Housecrafts! This salesman did not know that we had been begging them to follow through with the job we hired them six weeks ago to do, but we told them about the roofing company that wouldn't show up, and said that we'd pay anyone to fix it now. He offered to get the owner out to take a look at the roof for us, since we'd had such a hard time with other roofers. Two days later, the owner shows up. They walked the roof, just as the others had, and declared, NO damage. They did admit that the roof had been done incorrectly, but had some very surprising news! THEY were the company that had originally installed the roof on our home, two and a half years ago.in FACT, the 5 year warranty that we had heard about, covered the leaky roof we had now, and they were going to fix it at NO charge! My husband and I were elated. Though the ceiling was still repairable, it had sustained damage that we were worried were adding up into the thousands very quickly. At least we were not going to have to pay the $500 to fix the roof, and could put that money towards new drywall, and insulation to repair the water damage we were sustaining. Though we DID wonder why they did not mention the warranty back in February, when they wrote us a quote to fix our roof. We asked the owner how long before repair. He said oh! Don't worry I will call someone to fix it RIGHT NOW! This is our fault and we are going to take full responsibility!
Horray! Right? Wrong.
Noting the date of today's email, we are another six weeks later. With calls from Kelley and his son, US Housecrafts is STILL saying they'll be out in 7 days or so, never showing up. They have even called the week before memorial day, and the first weekend of May to apologize for the damage inside our house, and take full responsibility to get that fixed. Once again, though it would be a few days before they could get out there. He asked how much damage there was, and I told them that it was getting worse and worse each time it rains. Additionally, because our roof has been leaking for three months, we have mold growing in our attic, insulation and drywall, over the room my son sleeps in. Not surprisingly, they didn't show up. We finally called and told the company to have the owner call us back for a repair within 1 day or we were going to be forced to call an attorney. He did call back, but only to tell us that any leaks we have now were probably due to the rainstorm we had had that weekend, and he wasn't going to pay for the drywall and ceiling anymore, our insurance was. He declared that we weren't going to threaten them, and that this will go on long enough that we'll be out of warranty before it gets done anyway. He continues being very ugly to my husband on the phone, leaving us with "we'll get to it, when we get a chance."
Ourconcerns are these.
We hired U S Housecrafts to do a job that we were willing to pay for. Why didn't he tell us in the first place it was under warranty?
Why haven't they bothered to show up? I know that a $500 repair isn't much in the current rush of business for the roofing market, but it is still both their duty to honor their warranty, and what they had promised to do.
HOW do we get these guys to fix our roof, ceiling and drywall?
The insurance claim caused my rates to go up 20%, so I'm already paying a premium for an item that should have easily been covered by US housecrafts - had they told me from the beginning. The roof could have been fixed during the dry spell we had early this spring and we would have had no damage to our roof, ceiling, drywall, paint or insulation.
Please help us expose this company for thir shoddy customer service, and inability to stand behind their work! Maybe that will get them to fix our house!
I look forward to hearing your thoughts
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