A couple years ago we had a guy call in with a roof repair. The roof was on its last legs, but still had some life left. We did the repair with professionalism, promptness and told him to start thinking about having to replace the entire roof.
He knew he was going to have to replace it sooner rather than later.
A year or two goes by, and he calls back, looking for an estimate for a new roof. He talked about how great we were, how much he liked us, how professional we were.
He went with someone else. They were cheaper. You can see where I am going with this, right?
A year rolls by.
He calls us again, looking for a repair on his roof. I happen to be the one who answered the phone so I asked why he needed a repair to his brand new roof? He said it was leaking, shingles were falling off.
I asked why he was calling me, not the other roofer who had just put on the roof last summer—it should be under warranty.
He said he didn’t trust him, and that the guy wasn’t returning his phone calls anyways. He said he knew he could count on us.
I refused to do the repair, and I’ll tell you why.
- I take our responsibilities seriously. The other roofer needed to step up to the plate and take care of his customer, or he should not be in this business.
- I have learned that “The last person who touches it, owns it.” I didn’t want to own a roof that was already failing in less than a year. The customer was already calling me for repairs, and it wasn’t even my roof!
- Sometimes, you get what you pay for. Everyone needs to learn that lesson, and it’s usually an expensive one.
- We charge a fair price-not the most expensive, not the cheapest. Part of that price covers the cost of liability insurance and the cost of any warranty issues for a situation like the above. It also covers the price of continuous training for the crews and certifications so we can offer a 50 year non pro-rated labor and material warranty by the shingle manufacturer—this is to insure that even if something were to happen to me or my company, the roof would be covered for 50 years.
- Our motto is “We guarantee everything but the weather” and we take that seriously. We don’t however, guarantee anyone else’s weather.
