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.>>>

If it was because of my work,I`d fix it,If there was another reason for it,I`d charge them>>>

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.

>>>

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>>>

That's funny!>>>

The job I did today was a result of how I played the warranty game. A couple of years back I get a call from a guy whose roof was about 7 years old. He saw a leak in his master bedroom. I check it out, it's in the middle of the field with no penetrations. I spend over two hours looking, but there's no sign of water ever being under the tile. I bill him a reasonable amount, around $100.

A month later he calls, the spot on the ceiling is back. I dismantle the ridge, climb all over the scissor trusses in his attic, am totally convinced that the roof is not leaking. I didn't bill anything. A week later, he sees the spot again. It hasn't rained since I was last there, so I ignore him.

He calls about a week ago, needing a cleaning. I go meet him and he has two other neighbors lined up for cleanings as well. (and maybe a third) He tells me he owes it to me because after he called about the last leak and I didn't respond, his wife tells him he better move the dresser right under the spot so it doesn't get wet. When he does, he discovered the spot moved too. It was a shadow cast by the lamp on the dresser.>>>

I go back to all callbacks myself to see what the problem is. If the guarantee time has expired I will sometimes fix it for free if it comes down to our workmanship. If it is not because of our workmanship I will charge them accordingly. We have had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks. I have had 5 callbacks in that spell. 3 of them are from repair attempts that still leaked. One is a chimney problem. I will charge her to seal up what I can find. One is a small diverter valley that we put EPDM in. I found a couple of old nail holes and a damaged shingle that I sealed up at no charge. 1 is a leak on a roof we did and something popped open on the chimney counterflashings. I will fix it for free. The last one is a roof we did in 2000. It is out of warranty. I went to look at it on Sunday in the rain. It was leaking at a can vent. I couldn't see anything wrong so I tarped over it and went back on Monday. I pulled out the vent which was fine and I thought that it was an exposed nail at the bottom of the vent and so I caulked it and a couple of shingle butt joints above the vent and thought I had it. Before I could leave the HO came home and wanted me to water test it. So we did and damned if it didn't leak again! So I pulled the vent again and found that the water was getting in at a butt joint 6" to the right of the vent and traveling sideways and getting under the flange. I took a piece of Ice Shield and slid it under the shingle and over the vent flange. That will solve the problem I said. He still had me put the tarp back on because it was going to rain again that night and he was nervous. We are going to water test it again this weekend. So now I will have about 2 1/2 hours into this little problem that I don't plan to charge him for. The upside is that I will be charging him to replace a power vent and fix some raccoon damage. These people have referred me a couple of times and I feel like that it is good PR to just take care of it.>>>

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.>>>