Out of Warranty Issues

From time to time we get a caller where we replaced their roof several years back. When its been longer than the 5 year warranty we give i have a dilema about whether or not to fix the problem without charging as it is out of warranty. Some people understand what out of warranty means. Others could care less. You put on the roof then you should fix it is all they can think about. And on the one hand i feel they have a valid point but on the other hand every thing else in life i have ever purchased that came with a warranty. When that warranty expires then thats it! Forget about a freebie! lol I don't think putting on a roof should mean free maintenance for life but my inner conscious says fix it anyways. lol I fixed a leak on a roof today for free that we installed some 7 years ago. It was an elderly lady who said she could not afford to pay for a repair and she felt we should fix it. So i broke down and went out there. When i arrived the first thing i noticed was her 2008 Cadillac sitting under the carport! lol The leak was around the bottom right corner of a wooden gable vent which i fixed at no charge. Then when i got back to the office at the end of the day i had another one that was 8 1/2 yrs. old. I gritted my teeth together so hard i think i chipped one of them. lol They don't "feel" they should have to pay to get it fixed either. What to do! What to do! :woohoo:>>>

before the days of consumer affairs oversight, and the home improvement industry scandals...one of our after market "brainstorms" was to offer an additional year of extended warranty to the job for each qualified referral that they gave. When things got slow....we mailed out a "double up your warranty extension" offer....two years more for each referral. We used to give a $100.00 gift certificate from a local Supermarket chain, for any lead in which we got the work.....we didn't get too many of those, but the added year idea from one guy that used to walk the beach every morning probably got him warranteed until 2116. I always take the service calls..... and more often than not, there a great chance that we now offer installations on something that they're interested in. I write them off as lead generation costs....as was said above...>>>

Call backs r a major issue for any real roofing company that has more than 2 employees. Thats just the way it is. We use our own judgement if the problems yours or if you cuased it fix it. If it's not, a minimum charge is reasonable. You know a good person right off the bat, you can tell a no win situation right off the bat.>>>

Got a call to fix a warranted roof. Checked the records and found that bill was not paid in full by the builder. On the advice of my attorney, returned to the job site and found that burglars attempted to cut thru the bur and metal deck. Repaired same. and was not even paid, nor invited to bid on the the renewal.>>>

I got a call from a customer who's roof I did two years ago. 55 Sq. of standing seam. The wife called me to tell me the roof was leaking. She wasn't happy. I told her I would be there in 10 minutes because I was working a few blocks away. As I was turning the corner on to here street, she called me back and said that the roof wasn't leaking. She forgot that she watered the plant and the water on the floor had drained out of the potted plants on the porch. She happy again.>>>

Straight Line - Well Put.

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Yes well, how much does it cost you to find a new customer? Discover that by dividing your 2008 marketing dollars (commissions, advertsing, signage, etc.) by the number of customers you won last year.

Now, if your COST to do the warranty repair is $3 - 500 and you get a new customer via referral, ..............

The trick is to win the referral. Then the warranty repair costs you little or nothing.>>>

Hi,

I give a 5 year written workmanship warranty.

I will go fix anything that is my fault for free. About 5 years ago, I had a callback on a job I did 14 years before. Went and fixed it. When I did not charge him, he said do the house next door. He had moved next door. He owned both.

The 5 year warranty is for people that will go the legal route if it is not our fault.>>>

Another issue that comes out as a small side issue is the question of when is a warranty voided. We let them know that the so called work warranty is automatically voided by any and every one who follows us on the roof in question who does any work on the roof for say plumbing, electrical hvac work, etc. who does damage to the shingles by either their workmanship or walking on the roof. Also on repairs, it is explicitly stated that we do not guarantee or warranty roof repair work-especially in cases where the original roofer refuses to come out and service his work and warranty that he has given. We assume substitution (acceptance) of his workmanship warranty.>>>

Some very good replys folks. I have found that some people understand the warranty is up and don't mind paying while others would prefer to fight it until hell freezes over! lol I used to sell extended warrantys. I had an issue come up where a customers gutters overflowing caused some rot of the facia and soffitt. She wanted me to pay to have that fixed and i refused because i was tired of being mr. goodguy all the time and footing the bill for things that were not my fault and simply decided to take a stand this time. Well the lady took my to BBB binding arbitration and got some shoddy shade tree contractor who wasn't even a friggin roofer to testify claiming the roof was faulty which it was not in any way. After this guy made me look bad by his lies i decided i better claim as a second defense the fact that the lady had an opportunity to purchase an extended warranty and declined to do so. The friggin idiot arbitrator for the BBB ( they get local business professionals etc. to volunteer to do this stuff with no pay ) ruled in her favor in spite of the fact that her crappy gutters caused the problem PLUS even if it didn't her roof was 2 1/2 years out of warranty. :woohoo: I had another case that was almost exactly the same thing and this lady by passed the BBB and took me to court. The judge ruled in my favor citing that this lady's "expert witness" (a.k.a. a salesman of a local competitor roofing company who was trying to get the facia, soffitt and gutter repair job from her at my expense of course ) when i cross examined him ( yes i played lawyer for a day ) lol and asked him if he saw anything wrong with the roof he said NO! lol And she had to pay the court cost! lol Keep in mind that i've been in the roofing business for 24 years and only had 3 cases that were arbitrated or went to court. Once every 8 years at our volume is pretty decent i think. The other case went to BBB arbitration also and came out as a tie! The issue was over a vent that the lady had on the roof. She told me before we did her roof that she wanted to take out a vent and have a power fan put in which i did. 6 months afterwards she decided thats not what she had told me and wanted me to pay for some weird specialty vent ( supposedly to replace the one we threw away ) that cost like 500 bucks. I was like no friggin way. The arbitrator ruled that she pays for the vent and we do the work. Which i gladly did vs. 500 bucks that i was not at fault for. lol>>>

Here's the thing about warranties that gets aggravating:

Most new construction contracts with builders (their contracts, not mine) state there is a one or two year warranty. This is used to entice even cheaper bids due to the "good news" of a short liability,even though nobody knows better than a builder that this is purely misleading. Think that's the end of it? :laugh:

The contractors license board will act against you for four years on complaints of any kind.

There is a "patent defect" law that makes all work subject to a minimum of four years warranty.

There is a "latent defect" law that makes you lawyer fodder for at least ten years.

Liaryers are expert at twisting all circumstances to bring the issue into the longer "latent defect" laws, and make big money in class action lawsuits by doing so.

For all practical purposes, your warranty is for ten years regardless of anything written to the contrary. >>>

I had an issue with a homeowners association a few years back. The long and short of it was they had a leak in a parapet wall 11yrs after install. I came out and repaired it. I was giving out 12yr warranties back in the day so it wasn't out of the ordinary to repair up to the last day. 11 yrs 11months and 20+ days we had a severe storm. It leaked again I was out of town and the shop was closed for the holidays. They went ahead and had another company replace the roof and backed charged me. Whoa, That was a stinker. It ended up I had to pay a fine. Needles to say the 12yr warranties had stopped by then. I will go out and do a small repair for an elderly person for free even if I didn't do the roof. I guess that is what happens when it isn't every penny every squeeze to stay alive.>>>

If we're "in the area" we'll swing by and take a look. Normally if there is a problem or issue it's because they added gutters, siding, skylights or some other BS thing. We don't charge for the first call but after that it's $75 for the gas to get there and it's printed right in their warranty so they can't say they didn't know about it.

JET>>>

I have found that when you have done a new roof, that if there is any likelihood that it will leak-such a leak will generally occur within the first eighteen months of having been installed. Here in Oregon, by law, you must warranty unconditionally, your labor for one year. Like I just wrote-common sense & the law concur almost perfectly on this issue.

But we have had issues that arise that can be fixed with either little material cost and very little labor so I do not charge for those leak issues that occur within the first five years of having been installed. Anything that falls out of the seven to ten year range might be charged out depending upon circumstances and any item outside of the ten to fifteen year range is definitely charged for unless it can be pinned on the manufacturers' warranty against material defect. And that is how we run on this particular issue.>>>

It's slowed down now, but I still get an occasional "warranty" service call regarding broken tile on roofs up to 12 years old ( hardly ever an interior leak involved). The last one was on a five year old job. Part of the homeowner's confusion is that the tile itself is touted as a 50 year roof and they assume that means labor too. Another aspect is of course that they'd rather not pay for the repair. I must have a couple hundred pics of satellite dishes, added patios, Christmas lights, etc. which were the cause of roof traffic and broken tile, yet many will deny that anyone has been on the roof. If I think they are going to be difficult about paying I won't respond.>>>

I am wondering, when you give a warranty, is it in writing or verbal? If in writing, is it specified to be a "workmanship warranty" or do you just type warranty?

If you are offering an all encompassing warranty, you are covering every possible problem, even material failure that the manufacturer may not cover. If you are offering a workmanship warranty then you are liable for problems stemming only from the workmanship of the project.

We have had many calls in the past few weeks about shingle blow off due to high sustained winds. While the homeowners insurance will cover anything above the deductible, most of the time it is only a handful of shingles that have come off and the cost to repair is below the deductible. Of course once you tell the homeowner that, many of them have insisted that this should be covered under their workmanship warranty.

Sometimes you just have to be firm and say NO. We have worked 3 crews for nearly 2 weeks just fixing wind damage. If we had just "gone and fixed it", we would be footing the bill for payroll. Not a good thing!

You can't be shy about letting the customer know that their warranty has either expired or is not valid for the problem at hand. If they are elderly and just can't afford it, offer a Senior Discount or Payment Plan. If you start out to charge them $150. for the repair - discount it to $120 (20% off) and offer them a payment plan of $20.00 a month. Sure, it will take you 6 months to be paid in full but at least you will be paid.

If you really want to give your time and services away - CALL ME - I can put you to work for free!>>>