DENNIS' SOAP BOX

Dennis' Soap Box

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Ok folks, it's time for another one of my sagas. This time it's about my roof. I had had a leak in the roof back in the Spring. I thought I repaired it, but after the 8 days of straight rain we had at the end of the summer, it leaked again. The rest of the roof is fine, but this one section had gone bad. My wife and I are hoping to add to the house in a few years, so I didn't want to put on a whole new roof just yet. So, I hired this guy to just do the back side of the roof over the TV room. I had gotten three quotes from contractors, but this guy was the only one that would do just one section. The others all wanted to do the whole roof or nothing. I had called another guy to get a quote from him, but he never got back to me and with winter starting up, I wanted to get the roof fixed.

So, after giving the guy I hired a check for half the cost and not hearing from him for two weeks, I called him last Thursday on my way into work to see when he would be starting and to see about having an attic fan put in that section of the roof. To my surprise, he tells me that he has a crew on their way out to my house. I was a little upset because I had asked him to call me first and also because I would have liked to get a copy of his insurance. Anyway, I wanted to get the work done so, we talked about the fan, settled on a price and he tells me the guys should be done by 3:PM or so. When I get home at 4:15, I find no truck but two guys are still working. So, I go around back to see how they're doing. I find one working on the roof and one picking up the yard from the stuff they tore off. I ask how they're making out and after listening to them tell me why it's taken so long I go towards my back door to go inside my house. That's when I noticed the new cover on my patio table (one week old) is all marked up from falling roof shingles and there's a hole in the cover. Then I notice the shed door is open. I turn around to check things out and realize that the guys are using my shovels, my brooms and my trash cans to clean up the yard from their mess. I wouldn't mind them using my tools if they had asked but they didn't ask. So, I phone the owner and explain the situation. He tells me to take $50 off the job...but he doesn't say it very nicely. Ok fine. So, there I am standing in my kitchen when BOOM, BANG, BOOM, BOOM, THUD...the cleaner upper guy falls off my roof, the ladder hits the back of my house, the guy grabs hold of the gutter, tearing it partially off the house and falling on my patio, but first landing on and braking one of my brooms. I rush out...both of my sons are freaking out...and I ask if the guy is ok. He's moaning and groaning and appears pretty banged up...but luckily for he and I, he's not dead. I ask what happened and find out that one of the feet was broken off the ladder so, they're using it upside down, which isn’t a good idea on a concrete patio. Well, the ladder kicked out and that's why he fell. I ask if I should call their boss, John; they say no. I go inside and call the boss. John is evidently in the bathroom or something because his wife answers his cell phone. I explain the situation and the wife tells me that she'll have John call the guys. I said no to that because I want them to finish the roof before it's too dark out and ask to have John call me. Well, in a few minutes John calls one of the guys, who basically down plays the whole scene and says there's no real damage and he can "bend the gutter" back to where it was. I say "NO", whereby he hands me the phone and I get into an argument with John about the issue. He says he won't replace the gutter. I tell him that's what it's going to take to make things better and then I rip into him about sending a crew out without the proper tools and tell him that we're all lucky the guys not dead. After listening to John curse and tell me I'm "Jewing him down" and "nickel and diming him", he takes off $200 for the gutter, $20 for the broom and $50 for the table cover. At this point, I'm so pissed off I'm wishing the guy was at my house so I could hit. I don't like being cursed at..I curse, I just don't direct it at people...I hate antisemitic statements...I'm not jewish, I just don't like things like that...and I'm not a nickel and diming kind of person.

That's when I tell him that when the guy comes back tomorrow to finish, that's when I give him the check for the remainder of the job. I hear "WHAT!?!?!?" on the phone. That's when I explain that the guy hadn't finished and if it weren't for the fact that I let him borrow my spot light and an extension cord so he could see what he's doing, he wouldn't have gotten as much as he had done. I then tell him that I have to be at a meeting at 10 in the morning and can only stay at my house until 9. The roof guy says he'll be there, done and gone well before 9.

Cut to the next day. I wait until 9 and no guy. I leave and as I'm pulling out of the driveway, I call John and get his voice mail. I leave him a message stating that I'm leaving and am hopeful the job will be completed by the time I get home and if the job is done correctly, I'll send him a check...that last part probably made the top of his head blow off. Off I go to my meeting. It's not until my way back at around 2:PM that I get a call from John, who is apologizing and states he has fired the two guys that botched my job and he will be sending two of his best guys out Saturday morning (the next day).

Sometime around noon, the new guys finish up my house and the job is done. I got a call from John around 3:PM apologizing again and asking me if the job was finished off ok. I didn't want to get into the fact the I still had a lot of cleaning up to do and just said yes. Miracle of miracles, he didn't ask me to think about his company "John's All State Roofing and Construction" for any future work...I wonder why.

Remember the name. So, how's that for a story? I just hope the roof holds up over the winter.

DH

¶ 12:35 PM