Complaint Review: Lon Smith Roofing

   Lon Smith Roofing, Garland, TX (Headquartered in Ft, Worth TX) is a very smooth operating company at fraud and fraudulent sales practices. We claimed our damaged roof with our insurance company in March 2012. The adjuster came out and did his inspection. He filed his paperwork to the corporate office with our homeowners insurance. They called me and told me they were going to replace our roof and began to explain how the process would work.   

   I was asked to get several competitive bids by my insurance adjuster. I did and finally put in a request on Lon Smith Roofing's web page to have an estimate done. Ryan Walling of Lon Smith called me and asked when he could come out. I had had several other estimates done by this time. What caught my attention about Lon Smith Roofing is their very convincing commercials on the Television and talk radio station.

   Ryan Walling was very convincing to me they would go far above and beyond the "average" roofer, making them sound like the best thing since sliced bread. I should have known better, usually I stay as far away from these type of contractors, as this is my second home and I've had many major projects done ever the years. I expected excellence above and beyond, I got "average" service at best. Doing an honest job and fixing things you break, is expected, not what was delivered here.

   His estimate came right in about where the others had, so I figured we would use them. I signed an agreement, pending our insurance settlement to use Lon Smith Roofing to replace our roof. Ryan Walling was very smooth and convincing, but now I know he lacks experience. I also believe all Lon Smith Roofing sales people are trained to screw the customer.

   On the original estimate, was roughly $15,560.00 for our roof, I received a settlement letter form my insurance adjuster several days later, it was right in that same ballpark. However, Ryan told me we did NOT need metal flashing in the valley's of our roof, that this could be repaired with a "properly cut shingle". After thinking about it, I saw this as them making extra money from us as in the settlement letter from my insurance, they were getting paid to replace the metal flashing in the roof valley's. Also, my roof turbines are 14" Lomanco Lifetime warranted Turbines, he had written up the estimate for 12" Turbines.

   When I told Ryan about these items, he said they would use Ice/Water barrier in the roof valley's and change the work order, also make a change to 14" turbines. Nothing was ever written down on the work order change about a change in the price, not was it ever told to me or my wife this would be more expensive. Again, they were already getting paid by the Insurance for these items.

   We opted to "upgrade" to a better Class IV Impact Resistant type of shingle, it was written up on the work order as an upgrade, amount typed in, then the next line, the amount was removed and noted as a "promotional free upgrade". I still have the work orders showing this.

   The came out on April 27-19 2012 to do our roof, about 10 Hispanic men who do speak English showed up in trucks. They drank beer out in my front yard. Lon Smith Roofing Commercials claim the hire "ONLY" Lon Smith employees. This is a false claim, they brought in a crew just as any other roofer would do. Within the first five minutes of work, they had damaged my gutters by throwing the shingles off of the roof edge. This was never repaired. One of their crew damaged a fashia board when tearing off the edging. Weeks later, somebody came over and simply nailed a piece of vinyl siding over the fashia board, I had to pay $45.00 for the paint out of my pocket for something they damaged. He severely damaged a small section of my gutters, left his trash in my yard, nothing has been done.

   As per the work order and my insurance claim, they were to replace the chimney flashing, all my furnace exhaust vent pipes and caps, all the drain vent pipes on the roof. The only thing they replaced was the furnace vent caps, not the entire pipes. They replaced NONE of the flashing, and NON of my drain vent pipes, they simply spray pained the old ones. They falsified documents., or they lied, I am not sure how to take that. I stayed at home because of this type of fear I had the work would be shoddy, I was right. They also damaged my outside AC unit (which are only two years od and we are still paying for) by sliding shingles off of the roof side and letting them "slide" across the top of the units, scratching and denting the outer steel cases of the units, nobody has even addressed this.

   I made several attempts to contact Joann Headland at the corporate office in Ft, Worth to discuss why (after my roof was done) I received an invoice for $17,043.72, and this was not what was agreed upon. In fact, I never got a signed agreement form anybody at Lon Smith Roofing. At no time did she ever return any of my phone calls, I called at least six time during a two month time period, nothing form the corporate office.

   When I received this final invoice, and I called Ryan Walling and he told me we did agree on this amount and I needed to look at my paperwork. I found the copy, I did sign it, but not knowingly, as stated earlier, nothing was ever annotated on the sales invoice about a price increase, nor ever verbally told to me or my wife about any price(s) increase. The very bottom line (in very small print) is where the total changed.

   Many may want to reply I am not thorough, but I assure 99 percent of the time, I am extremely thorough when screening contractors. This company needs to be on every warning list for the old bait and switch behind the customers back type of sales. They got their money from us, so I know they do not care, they are far to large to care about the customer.

   As a note, they were absolutely useless in helping me during the insurance claim process as well, even though they are "partnered" with twenty something" insurance companies nation wide?

   Here is the kicker, when I received the final invoice for the $17,043.72, they sent a final invoice to my insurance adjuster for $15,965.00 or close to that amount. Do not use Lon Smith Roofing, please pass this on!