Home Zone Inc

Aug-2016

I do not commonly write reviews, particularly for construction companies. But I have to praise the home zone, Ali A[redacted] the owner, and his multifaceted crew that works with him. I have nothing but praise and was quite in amazement over the professional nature of the company and all of the employees, not to mention the courteous respect given to me as a homeowner, and finally the punctuality and rate at which the project was completed.

In summary, I bought my 1907 home in downtown [redacted] 13 years ago. While it did have chimney water damage, it was supposedly cleared up before I bought it. But, for years I had my roof patched, and re-patched, but it became a problem and it actually ruined the ceiling in two bedrooms and a closet. Mr. Ali, manager and owner of Home Zone, came to talk to me personally about the problem, he viewed the internal house personally and eventually sent a crew to the roof to inspect the roof section and chimney. He was suspicious of the construction of the small flat spot on the roof and suggested that we replace the whole thing so that it never leaks again. Then he suggested we replace the ceiling in a bedroom and repair the other bedroom and closet.

I have [redacted] insurance, they came out and gave me a bid, and Ali very skillfully followed that bid as much as possible. It turned out to be more of a problem than anyone anticipated, all old wood and metal in the roof that had been there for decades was removed and everything that was damaged was replaced with new construction. The bedrooms and closet were redone, with specialists in sheet rocking and painting brought in to finish their part of the job. Overall, Ali kept a job conservative to attempt to stay under bid of the insurance company while demanding complete replacement of any damaged areas. Ali said to me at the beginning, I fix it the first time. I never want to come back to fix something I worked on. I fix it right the first time. I know for a fact Mr. A[redacted], the owner lost money on the roof construction because of the complicated deconstruction and construction that was required to fix the problem permanently. but he did what he said, he fixed it.

The outside construction workers were polite and amazingly rapid in their destruction of old damaged roof materials with eventual replacement of new materials. The inside workers were managed by two supervisors that kicked [redacted]. They were amazing, they tore up my whole upstairs in order to complete their job, yet you hardly knew they were there. They were absolutely outstanding and without a doubt, everyone that entered my house was polite, respectful, and at least attempted to keep from adding to the disarray and disruption of construction. I cannot brag more more about the quality and friendly dispostion of every worker that stepped into my house.

And finally, Mr. Ali is a consummate gentleman, extremely knowledgeable. he is from Iran, but lived and married in the US now for decades. He was extremely protective of me, my property's and my privacy. If I was not in the house, he allowed no one in. I now have a new respect for how a home remodeling project should be done. Ali is a master of his trade.

On top of all this, he came to me afterwards and reviewed the list of insurance allowances for this job and he pointed out that while [redacted] insurance company did a good job (and I should write a good review for [redacted] insurance next) they underbid the price of re-insulating the attic and refinishing the inside of a closet. A few of these little things actually added up to a substantial sum. With his advice, I wrote your insurance, and get this (this never happens to me), I got a check for that exact sum within a month!

Overall, my experience with home zone was like no other construction company I've ever dealt with. I've since moved out of Pennsylvania and I really wish I had Ali, and Ali construction workers nearby because I would never use another contractor again if I didn't have to. Home zone is all I need. As it turns out I have not sold my house yet, but probably will the next year, and I feel I will need some garage repairs before I do sell the house, so you can bet Home Zone will be on it.

[redacted]

I was contacted may 4th and offered huge discount off "services". I scheduled to have roof quote completed on may 13th. They called me shortly before appointment to advise that they were over-booked and would be late. I waited and they never arrived. I called the next day and was told salesman would call shortly. No call. I called following two days and left messages-was assured salesman would call. No call as of 5/23/15.

Something very suspect about this outfit. They won't return calls before the sale! I can only imagine what happens after. ?????

Review: I would like to file a complaint against this company to report the poor service they provided and notify others of our frustrating experience. We signed a contract with the company on 3/19/14 for a partial roof replacement. The contract stated approximate services date should begin 4/15/14 and end 4/22/14. We did not receive any follow up after signing the contract so when we did not hear from the company we called them on 4/16/14 to check the status. Workers were sent to our house on 4/19/14 and they left on 4/20/14 stating their work was completed.On 4/28/14 I noticed the roof was leaking around the area that was worked on. Original worker returned to our house and worked on area again that had been leaking. On 5/27/14 I noticed again that the roof was leaking. The manager stated that oringal worker was no longer with the company and a new worker named would be sent. New worker came to the house on an evening that we were not home and we didnt even know he had been there till we followed up with the manager. Again we were assured that the roof was fixed and we should have no further trouble. On 6/8/14 the roof again was leaking. Very upset we called the worker and the manager to advise of this. We were told that this worker again was no longer with the company. We were told that another worker would come by to look at the roof. This worker stated that the original workers did not put flashing around the chimney and used old materials. We have not had any further trouble since the last worker spent a full day repairing what had not been done originally. This was a very frustrating experience. When all was said and done the manager never even called to apologize or make sure the problem was resolved. This company had horrible customer service and poor quality workers. I would not recommend them to anyone. Workers also didnt have a company car and therefore serveral times the workers were have car trouble and would be late.Desired Settlement: I feel that we should be refunded some of the money we paid due to the poor quality of work & amount of time it took to resolve this matter. My husband & I had to make numerouse calls to this company.I am afraid that although it has not leaked since 6/8/14 it's just a matter of time due to the amount of holes they had to hammer into our existing wood as the company did not replace the old wood on the roof. I would prefer all the money back so we could hire another company to redo it altogether.

Business

Response:

On or about March 13th -16th 2014 [redacted]'s approached our booth at the Home Show an wanted an estimate on a roof the appointment was set for March 19,2014 at 12:00pm,since the salesman was busy I went to the appointment myself, I looked over the situation I measured and quoted them a price. Mr. & Mrs. [redacted] stated they had a problem with leaking around the roof and chimney. By looking at the roof I did explain to Mr. & Mrs. [redacted] that they should replace the whole roof however due to their money situation they stated they only wanted the back part done since this was the area that they had a lot of problems with . Between April 8th & 10th we contacted them to set up a time weather permitting to start the job (please note that this year we had a very hard winter in the months of March, April and part of May). [redacted]'s contacted us back on April 16, 2014 and we told them we needed a place off the street to put the dumpster. The following day April 17, 2014 the dumpster was delivered. We sent Mr. [redacted] to do the job, Mr. [redacted] did the job on April 19th & 20th. On April 21,1 went and checked the job to make sure there was no debris left and an also to make sure Mr. & Mrs. [redacted] was happy with work that was performed. On April 28th Mr. [redacted] stated that there was a leak around the chimney.

I talked To Mr. [redacted] myself l scheduled a time with him and sent Mr. [redacted] back there as a precaution Mr. [redacted] reworked around the chimney Mr. [redacted] took a water hose up on the roof while Mr. [redacted] stood in the attic Mr. [redacted] turned the hose on full blast and let it run for an hour to make sure there was no more leaks Mr. [redacted] stated there was no leak. I called Mr. [redacted] twice and asked him if there was any leaks since we had a lot of rain in May Mr. [redacted] stated there was no leak.

At the end of May Beginning of June Mr. [redacted] called and said there was a little leak again. At this time Mr. [redacted] was on Vacation (Mr. [redacted] is still with the company) I sent a different worker we tried to set up and appointment with Mr. [redacted] however since we were not able to get a hold of him and since it was a leak I sent a repair person and he fixed the roof and resealed around the chimney again. After this I

July

stopped by Mr. [redacted]'s I met with him between 5 and 6 pm and asked him in person if ever thing was ok I told him the chimney was old but if they had any problems to call. The next day I called Mrs. [redacted] because the day before I did not see her to to talk to her I asked her if there was any damage done to the ceiling because of the leak I would send someone to fix it she stated no I told her if she has any problems to call us. Mr. [redacted] called again and stated the roof was leaking. I understand this could be very frustrating for them as well for me .This time I hired and outside person with many years of experience I told him to do whatever is necessary to solve the problem. He called me and told me the reason for the leak was part of the roof close to the chimney which belongs to the front of the house which was not part of the contract this small area was creating the problem I told him to go ahead and fix it with no charge to the customer. Ever since the problem happened Mr. [redacted] was contacted by the company on a 6 or 7 occasions to assure him we are following up on any problem, every time he called someone talked to him immediately

I believe we go out of our way to make sure our customers are satisfied. On the issue of a car problem the last gentleman we sent there had to change a fuse in his truck he called Mr. [redacted] and informed him he was running late but he will be there and he was there with a half hour delay. On June 14 & 15 after a couple of rainy days we contacted the [redacted]'s on their house number which is [redacted] however we were unable to reach anybody.

It really is a shock and surprise to me that the [redacted]'s will complain because of the following reasons

1- Every time they called they were able to speak with someone with exception of one occasion and I returned there phone call within 45 minutes

2- We sent someone to correct the problem

3- FinalIy the problem was fixed even though it was not part of the area that we were hired to do.

Furthermore the [redacted]'s have a 2 yr. Labor Warranty as a part of the contract we will be happy to hear if they have any problems. Please not the Sales person was me ([redacted]) an[redacted] was never involved in this contract I Don't understand why his name was involved.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

This is mr. [redacted], first of all I find it very irritating that we have to go through this process because of the company's workers incompetance. Mr. [redacted] has been making it seem like I was making up the roof leaking around the chimney even in his response back to Revdex.com. There are many lies in Mr.[redacted] response back. I regret hiring this company. I paid mr. [redacted] $3,500 dollars to replace the back half of roof; the chimney being most of problem. To respond to mr [redacted]s claim regarding the chimney being on front side and that being problem: The entire chimney is on back half of the roof (side to be replaced) none of it touches the front side. The chimney is close to top of the roof, but none of it is on the front section of the roof. Mr [redacted] never said the placement of the chimney would be problem.

Initially the main problem was a leaking section next to chimney, about 8inches by 12inches piece of wood that was a missing that was not replaced the first time mr [redacted] was there to fix roof. I called back because of the leak was so bad it did damaged the bedroom ceiling and carpet on floor. As a result I had to take time off work to meet mr. [redacted] about the leak. Mr. [redacted] was late so I had to call him. He told me his car was broke down and he needed a ride, I waited. he showed up about an hour after he was suppose to be there, fine, I showed him the leak and the damage it caused and hole that should have been fixed(which he said he didnt see). I went to work he was suppose to find and fix the leak. After I returned from work mr [redacted] was still working on the roof and was about done. to refute mr. [redacted] line about spraying water hose to chimney for an hour is rediculus, it was about five minutes and yes I was in attic. I have no idea where he was spraying and its not the same as heavy rains.

Mistakes happen I know, didnt like it leaking after it was suppose to be fixed but I called and they came back. Then it rained agaian and leaked again and now im starting to get upset, the company got their money which according to mr [redacted] was very overpriced, but I still didnt have leak free roof. I again called the company back and said its leaking again. They sent a different guy who I also waiting for because he had car trouble(more of my time wasted). he showewd up I showed him the leaking area again. he claimed he had to fix several of mr [redacted] work. According to the second worker and Mr. [redacted] he worked the weekend fixing the leak. now , I was up on roof before second worker came I knew what it looked like before he was there. It LEAKED again, I called the worker, he said he didnt work for company anymore he also said mr [redacted] didnt work for company anymore. I called mr [redacted] very upset, several weeks later and my roof which should have been repaired is still leaking. So mr [redacted] sends someone else, an outside contractor, when he showed up he stood in my backyard and said to me "i bet you I know what the problem is, they didnt flash the chimney the right way."

I went up on the roof with him, before I said I went on the roof before second roofer and now again. the second roofer didnt do anything, everything was same nothing was different at ALL. Now im up with the third roofer and he confirmed during inspecting the roof it was not flashed right at All. He was there the next day to tear off chimney flashing again and REDO around it all over again. I was there for a little while when work was being done, he showed me exactly what the problem was. The other two roofers never touched the flashing, according to him they just tried to caulk around it and didnt even do that right he said, they reused old flashing with tons of holes in it, never replacing it or doing it at ALL. now since the THIRD guy did it the right way it has yet to leak.

Third roofer came in and saw from backyard that the job wasn't right. This job took way longer than it was suppose to, cost me time at work, and damage to the inside of our house. I'm still not sure was else was not done right and that could be a furture problem. Mr [redacted] response from third roofer saying the problem was the chimney placement was never mentioned at all to me. The roofer told me they used old flashing and they didnt do it right, nothing to do with chimney placement. Also, mr [redacted] has not tried nor has anyone else from company tried to make contact to make sure there was no more leaking after third roofer which he states they did try to contact in his response. This is not how a business should work, I paid for a service and I was not getting what I paid for, that is not going above and beyond. This should have been resolved much sooner and with less headache. Fact is work was poor, it leaked several times because the job was done incorrectly. As I said before im not sure what else was done incorrectly that just hasnt been noticed yet. I feel like homezone owes us for the time, damage done from leaks after it was suppose to be fixed, and the uncertaintly I have about our roof and the mistakes their roofers made that I might have to pay for in the future. All I want is compensated for these things, I would much rather be doing somthing else with my time right now than writing about this, I feel like homezone left us no choice.

Regards,