How Roofing Companies Scam You

HOW ROOFING COMPANIES SCAM YOU FEATURED IMAGE

After my initial experience with getting scammed, I happened to have some across-the-fence chat with our next-door neighbor Susan. She had noticed that I had two roofers doing repairs on our roof and made an off-hand comment I didn’t expect to hear at all. She just blurted out “Oh- did those Storm Chasers’ hoodwink ya?”

Well- honestly at that point I was kind of confused and told her what happened and she didn’t seem at all surprised with what happened and started to tell me even more. Since we’re new to this neighborhood we’ve only had our home for 3 years now. Our next-door neighbor has been living in her home for more than 30 years.

She told me all sorts of things that I’ve decided to add to my personal roofing experience blog. The first issue she brought up was her Storm Chaser story. It was during the rainy season (which is the worst in July out here in Arizona), and that’s when she started getting hit with pamphlets in her mailbox every day.

She just looked at these and didn’t think much about it. But every day there was another new offer from several roofing companies offering emergency service. She said that this is how they get in your head. Getting all those flyers is kinda like brainwashing since they know you’re going to be thinking about the rain and what would happen- if…

Sneak Boy Scout tricks

man repairing roof

Then- that’s when it happened. She was out front doing some trimming on her hedges and a very nice guy driving by slowed down to get her attention. He was just driving by and happened to notice there was something that looked a bit off about her roof. And to her surprise, he had seen these signs before, since he was also a professional roofer.

He said that with all the rain they’re getting, he was sure that she probably wouldn’t see any signs inside her home or water stains on the ceiling. But he was sure it would get worse if it wasn’t fixed right away. Then he started to say that he had just finished a job up the road, and had some leftover supplies. Susan then said- I should have trusted my gut until I glanced over to look at the spot on the roof this guy was talking about.

Used-car salesmen pressure

man sitting on car with loud speaker

It was just a dark spot up on the second-floor dormer along the top edge. She wasn’t sure if it was really damage or just a soggy leaf bunched up against the asphalt shingles. But this guy was persistent in telling her that it might get worse by the next storm, but for a couple hundred, he could fix it right away since the previous job had already paid for the supplies. He said it was just a patch-up repair that she was paying for -so she didn’t need a receipt.

She could see that he didn’t have any company name on his car but there was a ladder and tools in the back of the truck he drove, and it did look like he had leftover supplies. Susan asked him why he didn’t have and company name on his truck and he said- oh, I was finished with the job and the sign is magnetic, so I put it in the backseat. Then he said he always does this and showed her the sign which was in the back seat.

It had all the company info and license number, so this seemed legit. Then he said that this is his own vehicle and not a company truck, so he takes the sign off when he finishes for the day. At that point, everything seemed fine and he was even grabbing his ladder. Oh what the heck she said, and let him make the repair. It didn’t take long at all and she paid him cash on the spot.

Mystery damages

contractor replacing damaged shingle

He then showed her a portion of shingle that did look pretty damaged, but she wasn’t sure. He assured her it would only have gotten worse and she’s lucky he got it in time. After that, he had to leave since he said he needed to get home to the wife and kids and drove off. She looked at the part where he said her roof needed repair and it looked fine, but then- the next day it rained pretty hard and that’s when she immediately saw there was water leaking.

No big surprise that it was in the bedroom where the dormer window was and made a big mess all down the wall. Who knows how much damage there was now? Then she called the roof repair company since she remembered the sign he showed her. She was furious when she talked to them and told them how one of their guys made a repair that got even worse.

She told them what happened, mentioning how one of their repair guys finished a job right up on her street and came just in time to fix her roof using leftover materials. That’s when she was even more shocked to find out they didn’t have any employees working in her area on that day. But then she mentioned the company’s magnetic sign and they then told her something that made her turn white.

The Storm Chasers

professional guy doing roofing work

They said that one of their company trucks did report having a sign missing and just thought it was some kid’s prank. But it sounds like she got scammed by someone posing as one of their contractors. Then she found out that their employees never offer services using leftover materials or take cash without giving a receipt. The roofing company genuinely sounded concerned that she was cheated and offered to fix her roof with a discount price.

Well, Susan was very happy to hear this and the discounted price did sound very attractive. So they arranged for a contractor to come and take a look to get a better idea of the damage she described. This time a very official truck arrived and the repairman wore a nametag on their company shirt complete with the company name. And they looked at the damage inside and out but this time the repair guy had bad news.

He said whatever the previous scammer did was more damaging because of where the dormer window leak was located and they could do their best to patch the area but it wouldn’t match with the rest of the shingles since they were older. Then they told her they could replace the entire roof with new shingles. They gave an estimate which was obviously too much for her to afford which then the contractor told her that it wasn’t a problem.

Tempting starting bids

toy home and house insurance documents on table

Then he went on to tell her that because they’re able to do the work and they can do this through her homeowner’s insurance. But this was long before the insurance policies had changed so the replacement did fall under storm repair and wouldn’t cost her anything. So that sounded great to Susan, so she got an immediate quote on that day. All Susan needed to do is contact her insurance company to request a storm damage claim using her Replacement Cost Value (RCV) portion of her insurance.

They sent out an adjuster right away which took one look at her roof damage and gave the go-ahead since it looked like storm damage, and it was the height of the rainy season. They cut Susan a check based on the estimate the roofing contractor supplied. Later, she deposited this check and the roofing company changed her roof in record time.

They gave her the final invoice which was much cheaper than she expected which was a plus for Susan since she thought this was a good thing and signed a check for the roofing company. This only made things worse when she went to the insurance office to drop off the roofing invoice.

Her insurance company immediately spotted the difference between what the roofing company charged and what was given to her as a payout. It wasn’t more than a week since the roof work was finished and the amount she kept was only a few hundred. But the fact that it appeared she was pocketing the amount was a serious offense and she could have been charged with fraud.

Susan showed her account and the money was still listed in her checking account. She didn’t want to be convicted and was in tears while she talked to her insurance company office manager. She was very lucky they saw she was being honest and didn’t charge her with fraud. And she returned the left-over money the same day by writing a check right away. After that she said, she’s always been careful with her insurance ever since.

Another clue in the mailbox

mailbox in front of house

It wasn’t until she finished her story that I realized that I was getting roofing ads in my mailbox too. I also noticed on that same day, a pick-up truck driving around putting these ads in each box down our street. It wasn’t from any roofing company that had any signs on the side either and it got me thinking that something was off about this. They just looked like some guy n regular clothes.

What if this was part of a larger scam that purposely made roof damage on homes where the roof didn’t even need repair at all? I told Susan this and she said they do this every year in certain neighborhoods. These sneaky tricks usually target older folks trying to get you to replace your roof.  They rarely get caught, but after my run-in with roof repair guys, I’ve learned my lesson. Now we’ll look to do simple repairs ourselves and when things seem more serious, we’ll be on the lookout for said Storm Chasers.

When I shared this with Susan, she agreed that it sounded pretty fishy and wouldn’t doubt that this is part of their scam. They even changed the way homeowner insurance pays out storm damage claims so there’s less risk to the owners being charged with fraud! But I sure hope this story will help other people out there learn about what happened to my neighbor. You never know what kinds of tricks you might expect these days.

Best and Worst Kitchen Gadgets

BEST AND WORST KITCHEN GADGETS featured image

Your kitchen might have appliances that are very helpful in preparing meals at any time of the day. You might also have some literally useless and very unsuspecting items. If there could ever be a best of the best and worst of the worst mash-up of kitchen accessories and gadgets guide, this is it. We’ll also give you a bit of info and bonus tips on what makes these items useful or not so great.

5 best kitchen accessories

Food steamer

best Food steamer

Food steamers have been gaining traction now for the last couple of years. They’re considered the new slow cooker and are great for making entire meals. What’s interesting is that it uses steam to cook your food to perfection. This 2-tier design allows you to separate your favorite foods on two separate shelves. It’s also set-up so you can steam items on a timer. It also gives you quick tips on how long specific items right next to the timer switch.

It also features a water level so you know how much water is left in your reservoir. The advantage is adding herbs to your water to infuse vegetables and food with more flavors.

Microwave

best Microwave

This convenient microwave features all the best functions that you want in a microwave. It’s a 360-degree rotation cooker and has 700 watts that can be varied for cooking settings. It also has a great LED display that tells you which function gets activated. There’s also a nice big button that serves as the start button. It defrosts based on weight and set to specific times, so you can’t go wrong. There are also 0.7 cubic feet so it’s perfect for self-serve meals.

What makes this microwave ideal is that it has a child-proof lock that locks the keypad. This means it won’t work by accident if they play with the buttons.

Slow cooker

best Slow cooker

No matter what you want to call them, slow cookers are the modern-day crockpot. The advantage is that it’s a pressure cooker that will cook your food faster. This is great for soups, chili, meat stew, and even steaming rice. It also allows up to 3 quarts inside the main vessel but you can also buy a 6 quart and 8-quart model additionally. The control setting already features recipe functions for what you’re cooking.

Three pressure settings will also speed-up or slow down the types of food you want to prepare. One advantage is being able to sterilize baby bottles and other selected items.

Induction stove

best Induction stove

Induction cooktops are handy since they heat up quickly and are handy for certain types of meals you cook. It replaces the old-style heating pad that’s a fan favorite to college dorms. This induction stove also has two separate heating elements that are well vented for being an induction cooktop. The advantage with these kinds of kitchen accessories is that you can cook up to 1800 watts and uses touch sensors to control heat settings.

The nice this about this model is that it’s completely child safe and has touch sensor locks so it can’t be turned on by accident. It has automatic settings that determine the boiling point, steaming, frying, and warming settings.

Oven top tandoor

best Oven top tandoor

This tandoor cooking pot is quite an achievement that combines a few key features that help cook your food. You can place this on any gas stove which cooks that unmistakable Tandoori chicken. It’s excellent for pizzas too. The only limitations are what you put into this unique pot. It won’t break like other oven top tandoors since the heat generated can shatter glass tops. This well-constructed stainless steel hold-up quite well as a result.

The diameter allows 13 inches of cooking space with a convenient grill lid. It also comes with a free pair of tongs to move your chicken and food items around.

5 worst kitchen accessories

Electric martini shaker

worst Electric martini shaker

We’re not sure how this odd machine can make a martini better, since some menial tasks are now getting sidelined. But some items do find their way into the kitchen for meaningful reasons. The disadvantage of this machine is that it’s from the UK, so it does need an electrical adapter plug. The vessel contains a 20-ounce mixing cup so it could be used for making milkshakes ideally.

Egg counter storage tray

worst Egg counter storage tray

Here’s a quirky egg tray that comes with an interactive app. You can see which egg is the oldest and how many you have remaining using sensors in this tray. It also alerts you with notifications when you start to run low. You just can’t make this kind of stuff up unless you see it for yourself. Somehow it can also indicate if your eggs are going bad so you never risk cracking open a rotten egg.

iKettle

worst iKettle

Now that everyone is using the smartphone to do everything, here’s a kettle that works via the iKettle app. Now you can set and start your water boiling using an app. The temperature can also be set to keep the water at a select temperature too. It can even work with smart home devices such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. If you need a kettle that boils water using your phone, this kettle is perfect for you.

Taste enhancing fork

worst Taste enhancing fork

As if smell-o-vision could ever be a thing this fork is following closely in those footsteps. This set provides you with 4 forks that can contain flavor-enhancing scents while you eat. The scents can be combined to create a unique eating experience that may change the way you think about food. There are a total of 21 aromas that you can apply a drop onto a white pad that’s inserted into the smell center of each fork.

Electric wine opener

worst Electric wine opener

It used to be that a wine bottle opener was a tough job getting the cork out of the bottle. Now you can have a machine that automatically takes out the cork for you. What makes this kind of kitchen accessories device even more special, is that it comes with its own recharging base so it’s always ready to open any wine bottle. This model even comes with a free foil cutter so the foil cap can be removed with a nice clean cut line.