M & S Roofing & Contracting Inc.

I personally went to the *** residence back in May to go up onto roof to evaluate and measure for the roof estimateThese estimates are freeAs the owner, it’s my time and I do not have to carry workmen’s compensation insurance on myself and there is really no cost to the companyI also
left a book on shingle samples for the GAF roofing products that we installNo one was home that dayWe provided the estimate along with references of local roofs that we had doneWe were told our references were all greatMy wife Eileen, and *** *** communicated several times by phone and E-mailsOne question was about additional gutter work and pricingWhich I got back to her husband with that infoThe other question was all about color selections(See attached E-mails) *** asked if we could put a few shingles on their roof of the particular colors they were interested in to have them have a better perspective of what those colors would look likeI had sent my foreman out to pick up full shingles at the supply house and put them on the lower front garage roof along the gutter edgeWe did this because we had a verbal agreement to do the roofThey were not sure of colors(See attached E-mails) Once I put a man and truck on the road and to access the roof for sample displayment these actions cost the company money for time, fuel and insurance costsThese costs are just factored in when we do the roof which we had a verbal commitment to doWhen they contacted us that they went with another contractor we had explained that there was a fee for the shingle displayment on her roof for color selectionThis is not part of our free estimatesThere are a lot of gray areas and untruthfulness in the letter from *** which would be challenging to prove with the verbal communicationsThe E-mails may help to fortify some of this situationAs for the $fee, I would rather have the *** donate that to one of our local food banks.Thank You, Marty

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 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
In my business we travel to customer sites and provide detailed presentations that require many hours of preparation. We actively engage in business conversations with our customers and closing business deal can take months to complete. We often make multiple customer visits to make single sale. If a customer asks us for more information or details – we provide exactly that. We partner with our customer to find the best solution for them. And never in my entire business life have I ever sent bill to customer for these services. Once we sell our product to our customer then we bill them for the product!!! I believe if we lose a sales opportunity we did something wrong not the customer!
[redacted]

Review: Recently we contacted several roofing companies to get estimates on installing a new roof on our house. All of these companies we asked to see roofing samples. All of the companies including M & S gave us a written estimate of the cost of installing the roof and roofing materials. We were told that there was no charge for the estimates. M & S called several times after the estimate to see what we were doing. We told them that we had made no decision about who we were going with because we had not made a decision on the roofing company. The offered just like the other roofers we contacted to give us addresses of houses to look at with some of the roofing colors we liked. We never signed anything or committed to them verbally that we were going to use them as roofers. They called and e-mailed us several times saying they could install a roof on given day. Our response was always we were still deciding. We received another phone call from them and they said that they could send someone out to put a few color shingles on our roof to see which color we liked better. My question to them was "You do that?" Nothing was ever mentioned about a charge for this courtesy. We even told them not even to nail them on the roof. After getting all the prices from other roofers we decided not to go with M & S because their quote was higher even after my husband asked if they could come up with a better price. As a courtesy I called them and told them that we had decided to go with another roofing contractor. We were then told that we would have to pay for one of their workers who drove to our house to place 3 shingle samples on our rain gutters on the lower side of our garage. When M & S volunteered to place a few shingles on the house we were never told that there would be a charge and again we had never signed any agreement with them or verbally said that they were definetly going to have our business. Our respose was always we were still deciding. We then received a bill for $100 for 3 shingle samples that were only placed on our lower rain gutter and nothing was even nailed in. I called M & S and questioned the bill. They said they thought we were going with them for installing the roof. I told them that we had never said we were going with them and hadn't made a decision. They immediately told us that we had to pay for someone who drove to our house and installed the shingles on our roof. For the record there was no installing just placement of three shingles on lower roof. We were also told that they could have charged us for the original estimate. I told them that no other roofing company said that there was a charge for an estimate. Also, the other roofing companies that we were interested in all gave us roofing samples. Even when I called the other roofing companies to see about giving them back their samples, we were told to just keep the shingles. Many of the samples were actually large sample GAF boards with different roofing colors. When I called the other roofing companies to tell them that we had decided on another roofer they all thanked us for giving them the opportunity to give us an estimate and told us to keep them in mind for any future type of business. We feel we was misled by M & S roofing because upfront we were never told about any charges and feel that they are unfairly billing us because we did not go with their roofing company. Where are they giving us any good customer service.? Besides getting a $100 dollar bill from them we are also getting phone calls. We told M & S Roofing after they told us on the phone that they were going to bill us after installing the three samples that we thought the charge was unethical and that we would not pay for this charge because we were never told upfront about this. We are now glad that we decided not to go with M & S Roofing and would not recommend them because of their poor customer service and unfairly billing us for something did not do.Desired Settlement: We would like M & S to cancel the $100 charge we are unfairly being billed for since we were never given any prior information on any charges and we never signed a contract committing them to install roofing shingles on our roof.

Business

Response:

I personally went to the [redacted] residence back in May to go up onto roof to evaluate and measure for the roof estimate. These estimates are free. As the owner, it’s my time and I do not have to carry workmen’s compensation insurance on myself and there is really no cost to the company. I also left a book on shingle samples for the GAF roofing products that we install. No one was home that day. We provided the estimate along with references of local roofs that we had done. We were told our references were all great. My wife Eileen, and [redacted] communicated several times by phone and E-mails. One question was about additional gutter work and pricing. Which I got back to her husband with that info. The other question was all about color selections. (See attached E-mails) [redacted]. [redacted] asked if we could put a few shingles on their roof of the particular colors they were interested in to have them have a better perspective of what those colors would look like. I had sent my foreman out to pick up full shingles at the supply house and put them on the lower front garage roof along the gutter edge. We did this because we had a verbal agreement to do the roof. They were not sure of colors. (See attached E-mails) Once I put a man and truck on the road and to access the roof for sample displayment these actions cost the company money for time, fuel and insurance costs. These costs are just factored in when we do the roof which we had a verbal commitment to do. When they contacted us that they went with another contractor we had explained that there was a fee for the shingle displayment on her roof for color selection. This is not part of our free estimates. There are a lot of gray areas and untruthfulness in the letter from [redacted]. [redacted] which would be challenging to prove with the verbal communications. The E-mails may help to fortify some of this situation. As for the $100.00 fee, I would rather have the [redacted] donate that to one of our local food banks.Thank You, Marty.

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

In my business we travel to customer sites and provide detailed presentations that require many hours of preparation. We actively engage in business conversations with our customers and closing business deal can take months to complete. We often make multiple customer visits to make single sale. If a customer asks us for more information or details – we provide exactly that. We partner with our customer to find the best solution for them. And never in my entire business life have I ever sent bill to customer for these services. Once we sell our product to our customer then we bill them for the product!!! I believe if we lose a sales opportunity we did something wrong not the customer!