Mac is phenomena! ten years ago when I bought my house in Travis County he did my roof before installing solar panels. he was friendly, professional and reasonable and I've NEVER had any issues with my roof since. I was recently bully, albeit in a very friendly manor, into some attic insulation and ventilation from Power Home Remodeling that I said I couldn't afford before they even did the inspection. Said no to their offer at least 7 times and they proceeded to tell me if I didn't move forward the structural integrity of my house would become compromised. to which point I broke down and cried and said I'd have to sell my house because I simply couldn't afford anything currently. The 2 salesman sat in my home for over 2 hours comforting me and giving me hugs and proceeded to scare me with higher costs involving structural engineers if I let this problem get any worse. I caved. I know I'm a sucker. I trust people too easily and expect people not to screw over other people especially when vulnerable and I know better and I still get suckered. That is not to say I feel responsible for this but I will hold a degree of accoubtability. a week later, before the insulation, my long time friend, housemate and tenant fell ill and is in the hospital and if she leaves the hospital at all, she will be living with her daughter moving forward. I called Power to try to cancel the job explaining the situation ann not only did they not cancel the job, they sent the same salesman, friendly, concerned offering condolences about my friend and being "understanding" of the added financial strain in additon to emotion strain of kissing my friend and tenant; try to lower my interest rate by 0.3% and extend the length of the long by another 36 months to lower the monthly payments. I'm a sucker but I know math and that would actually cost me more money. latter talking to his superiors, the best they could offer me was 20% charge of the cost of the job to cut their losses for the supplies already ordered. I didn't agree and he then asked me to tell his employer, Power Home Remodleing, that he came out but that I had somewhere else I had to be and left and he would tell them the same thing, so as not to keep me from my loved ones any longer. In other words, to confirm that I was the problem and being unreasonable in trying to find a resolution. Mac reassured me this whole time that what they were telling me about the structural integrity of my home was not and would not ever be compromised by day to day weather and that it would in fact take heat temperatures "higher than the average house fire" to make the framework brittle enough to collapse. Mac also told me he knew of many other people Power had scared into overpriced and unnecessary work and knew which company I was talking about before I even provided their name!
I will also take a moment to take some more accountability for myself, the salesman did say to me they would understand if I wanted to shop around, but of course guaranteed I wouldn't find anything lower and if I agreed now, they could lower the price even more. The only reason I contacted Mac at all was because of my friend and tenants health situation led me to discuss my concerns for her health to another trusted (and mutual) friend that has done several updates and remodeling projects for me on my home and he said I didn't need what they were selling me. So at that point, I went to the best source I could think of, Mac, the guy that did my roof 10years ago.
I told the salesman, as directed by Mac, that if they didn't let me out of the deal I would report them to the BBB and go to a local news station. I did that, they didn't even blink. I contacted a lawyer today, who is also appalled and is sending Power Home Remodeling a letter requesting they let me out of the deal and she is not charging me. I will be reporting them to the BBB and Yelp reviews, and who knows. Maybe I will go to the news....
Furthermore, Mac and Diamond Home roofing is going to come to my house to inspect the attic to ensure all is well. Bottom line, Power Home Remodeling are nothing but bullies. Very polite and friendly bullies, which in my mind, are even worse.
Thank you Mac!
For clarification, no work on this project had been started yet, and the cost is under $8K with interest and the 20% to cancel was just over $1400. Which may not sound like that much, certainly is Pennie's to Power, but may as well be $100K for me right now. I wanted to clear up that no work had been done at my house for this project yet. Also, an interesting note, the photos they showed me of the sap being sucked out of the wood and the cracks and splits in my rafters of "my attic" they showed me in my kitchen are NOT included in the photos on the app they had me download to my phone for this job. The only photos are of the attic access, the door to the room housing the attic access, and a street view of my home. That's it. No, I have not been in my attic. read more
