Roofer Tried to Scam and Intimidate My 84 Year Old Neighbor

[masraum]

Originally Posted by hcoles

A buddy is getting quotes $~50k for 3,000 sq.ft. house plain composite. Near San Jose CA.

Holy sheiße! Diamond impregnated, fireproof, and insulated with gold?

Maybe installed by a bunch of 20 year old kids that they they should be making $150k/yr?

Wow!

[gregpark]

Jeff, you might train a camera on her roof to documentany further trespassing. The guy probably wants his material back and it's on her roof

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by gregpark

Wow, that guy has some nerve. If he tried to pull that crap in CA he could be out of business pronto. One call to the state contractors license board and his license is suspended or revoked (which he would richly deserve)

He may not be licensed.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by LWJ

So here is what I know. I insure lots of contractors. Many sketchy roofers are completely uninsured and will not have a bond. Here is what I would do:

1) File against a bond if they have one.
2) File a claim agains Washington L&I for an unethical construction practice (no idea if they enforce this, but it is possible)
3) Check to see if they have workers comp/general liability/license to perform roofing. File complaint with L&I for unlicensed contractor if they do not. Need to be specific on each line.
4) If the guys on the roof were not roped in, and odds are they were not, file an OSHA claim.

I sort of am winging it here on some items (#2 and 3) but I think that L&I would be very interested to know these things.

I would also post on social media with the organization's name stating objectively and factually what happend as a warning.

Good job Higgins!

In Washington, the state handles workplace safety for the feds. The acronym is DOSH.

All those things work better if you can find the perp. When you cannot, it's Whack-A-Mole. But yeah, L&I would definitely be interested. They hate those guys.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by gregpark

Jeff, you might train a camera on her roof to documentany further trespassing. The guy probably wants his material back and it's on her roof

If new materials are on the roof then yeah, but I doubt it. I also doubt whether the perp told the woman the name of his business. But...the cop might have asked that question. Hmmm....

[Superman]

Folks think L&I has police powers and they don't. These are likely civil infractions. The penalty is a slap on the hands. About the profit of one job.

[gregpark]

Originally Posted by Superman

If new materials are on the roof then yeah, but I doubt it.

In his second post Higgins said they left a couple pallets of new material on her roof

[gregpark]

Originally Posted by flipper35

He may not be licensed.

I don't know how it is in WA but CA takes it seriously. The state license board (CSLB) takes legal action against non licensed contractors (and good luck getting a contractors license after you've been caught).
After earthquake/fire/flood disasters these unlicensed guys always pop up and the CSLB is on it. They have agents driving around checking on jobs. I've had to produce my license upon demand and also prove that my employees were payrolled. Even in non disaster times the CSLB is always setting up sting operations to bag unlicensed fly by nighters

[herr_oberst]

In spite of a "No Soliciting" sign displayed at my front door, a nice young man just came by to "apologize in advance for the noise that the roofers from his company will be making in the next few days down the street". Without a word from my lips he launched into a very long sales pitch on the things his company would be able to do for my house while they're in the neighborhood. I'll bet it was a solid 90 seconds before he came up for air long enough to give me a chance to say "not interested" without interrupting his extremely long, extremely rehearsed pitch. I'm usually not that polite, I usually just point to the sign, but I remembered this thread and got curious.

JFC. Effing wankers. It just feels so scammy to solicit this sort of business this way, door to door roof replacement - and we do siding too!

[Baz]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

In spite of a "No Soliciting" sign displayed at my front door, a nice young man just came by to "apologize in advance for the noise that the roofers from his company will be making in the next few days down the street". Without a word from my lips he launched into a very long sales pitch on the things his company would be able to do for my house while they're in the neighborhood. I'll bet it was a solid 90 seconds before he came up for air long enough to give me a chance to say "not interested" without interrupting his extremely long, extremely rehearsed pitch. I'm usually not that polite, I usually just point to the sign, but I remembered this thread and got curious.

JFC. Effing wankers. It just feels so scammy to solicit this sort of business this way, door to door roof replacement - and we do siding too!

100%.

But.....there's also a part of me that appreciates that there are those out there who are hustling to get work. Now if the company he represents are scammers.....that's a whole other discussion!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

In spite of a "No Soliciting" sign displayed at my front door, a nice young man just came by to "apologize in advance for the noise that the roofers from his company will be making in the next few days down the street". Without a word from my lips he launched into a very long sales pitch on the things his company would be able to do for my house while they're in the neighborhood. I'll bet it was a solid 90 seconds before he came up for air long enough to give me a chance to say "not interested" without interrupting his extremely long, extremely rehearsed pitch. I'm usually not that polite, I usually just point to the sign, but I remembered this thread and got curious.

JFC. Effing wankers. It just feels so scammy to solicit this sort of business this way, door to door roof replacement - and we do siding too!

on a vaguely related note...

The other day when i got home from work, it was sprinkling so I left the gate open. I little bit later, I was in the garage working on the mower when I head a horn honk. A pickup was in the drive, so I started walking towards it. A man, and what I assume was his son got out and started walking towards me. He asked if we owned the field next door. He was wondering if he could collect the hay (he lives about a mile down the road and thought it would be convenient). THe folks that we bought our property kept that property. I told him that they had someone else (a closer neighbor) that takes the hay from the field. I told him to have a good one, and he thanked me for not shooting him.

You need to move to the country. That'll solve the soliciting issue.

[A930Rocket]

If they loaded up two pallets worth of shingles in two spots, somebody needs to spread the load along the ridge ASAP. That’s a lot of weight and bad things can happen.

There was a pelican here in Charleston, that was getting a new roof and they placed the shingles in one spot. The weight pushed out the rafters and the exterior walls. Ouch!

[rwest]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

In spite of a "No Soliciting" sign displayed at my front door, a nice young man just came by to "apologize in advance for the noise that the roofers from his company will be making in the next few days down the street". Without a word from my lips he launched into a very long sales pitch on the things his company would be able to do for my house while they're in the neighborhood. I'll bet it was a solid 90 seconds before he came up for air long enough to give me a chance to say "not interested" without interrupting his extremely long, extremely rehearsed pitch. I'm usually not that polite, I usually just point to the sign, but I remembered this thread and got curious.

JFC. Effing wankers. It just feels so scammy to solicit this sort of business this way, door to door roof replacement - and we do siding too!

It baffles me that anyone would hire someone who just showed up at their house cold. I would want to do my own research and then call for quotes.

The one that really floors me is the people going door to door selling security systems; or rather free systems when you sign up for the monitoring service. Yeah, person who I have never met, please come in and check out my entire house and then have the code to turn off the system!

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by rwest

It baffles me that anyone would hire someone who just showed up at their house cold. I would want to do my own research and then call for quotes.

The one that really floors me is the people going door to door selling security systems; or rather free systems when you sign up for the monitoring service. Yeah, person who I have never met, please come in and check out my entire house and then have the code to turn off the system!

You'd be surprised. I only run preset appointments, but I have occasionally gone to the wrong address and made a huge sale. Those are such a thrill, I don't even care about the money. My biggest customer is a door knock of a wrong address because I couldn't read their phone number. I've written countless life insurance policies for that family and they've been on the books for years. I've had people, total strangers I met on a door knock, hand me 10 of their guns to check out, give me their SS#s, banking info and on and on. I'm one of the honest ones, but you'd be amazed.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rwest

It baffles me that anyone would hire someone who just showed up at their house cold. I would want to do my own research and then call for quotes.

The one that really floors me is the people going door to door selling security systems; or rather free systems when you sign up for the monitoring service. Yeah, person who I have never met, please come in and check out my entire house and then have the code to turn off the system!

Yep, no door to door crap...

[rwest]

Originally Posted by masraum

Yep, no door to door crap...

Except encyclopedias and vacuum cleaners!

[herr_oberst]

And "Grit" newspaper subscriptions.

[Alan A]

I wonder if the roof was accidentally covered in grease - would that count as a booby trap?

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

And "Grit" newspaper subscriptions.

I hawked Grit as a kid, in between my regular morning and afternoon paper routes.

_

[70SATMan]

Originally Posted by masraum

Yep, no door to door crap...