Complaint Review: Aspen ContractingInc. - Lees's Summit Internet Missouri

I am the wife of employee. You state that your employees must undergo extensive training however you don't pay min wage for training per labor laws and your way around the law and not paying them hourly rate for training is by telling them training is not required. So which is it what you said here that it is required (if so your breaking the law by not paying and promise a "bonus" if they stay 90 days to help make up for them not being paid) or is training not required and you lied here and continue to lie to customers. And the extensive training you speak of takes new hires to a roof for a day to show them what to look for on a roof. If you call one day of looking at actual roof extensive training again you are not being honest. Most of the week of training is teaching new hires how to knock on doors and try to sell jobs for you it is not spent teaching employees that have had zero roof experience about roofs and damage. You should stop lying to your customers and the people you hire. If you truly wanted a great employee you would put time and money in to training then to be able to do the best for the customer and be the best they can at what they are doing. You only care about knock and sell. These people you hire know nothing about roofs after a week of training that is mostly how to sell a job and nothing about learning roofs you can't honestly tell your customers these "project consultants" have extensive training. Your not willing to invest any money to see that they are properly trained. I'm glad the dept of labor has opened an investigation in to your co as it sounds like it is long past due. This co is definitely more concerned with putting money in the select groups in the office pockets and not its customers or "door knockers" as project consultants these fresh employees are not! Dishonest to customers and employees. Be very cautious about this co.

the ironclad warranty is not worth the paper it was wrighten on.

i had a new roof put on my home 6 months ago and have a leak i have called the warranty # * ***-***-**** that i was given and no one has called back i just get the run around yet my roof that is only 6 months old is still leaking .if you work for aspen then you should let then no they need to do the right thing like they say they do .your office manager kathleen has said she would get someone out right away to fix the roof three weeks later no one has fixed the roof now the ceiling inside my home needs to be fixed to. so what aspen needs to do is keep there word and fix problems that your costomers have thats doing the right thing.

if you want to do the right thing have kathleen your office manager call me back im the one that has called everyday from fridley mn i would be happy to speek to you or any one from your office that can help.

Patrick Nussbeck is a liar and a thief.

To that "gentleman" that suggested that contracting to do work for the full value of an insurance claim is called FRAUD! not good business.  Considering that insurance claims are a business of 'The Honor System' to bill for items of work and materials not provided violates this very core principle.

The modus operandi of this company is to send an inept, unqualified "Senior General Manager In Training", yup, you read that right "Senior General Manager In Training", to establish a location with local talent with no intention of paying commissions nor retaining high level professionals, they prefer to bring in their 'insiders' to reap the full amount of the claim from the homeowner.

I am an experienced roofing salesman/project manager of 8+ years and have handled numerous residential and commercial projects. Although I do not know the details of your project, I can say this. In most cases the best insurance contractors are the ones who do the work based on the adjusters report rather than using a bid process. If you read your contract you will probably find that you are required by the contract to provide to the contractor all information provided to you by the insurance company. This allows the contractor to monitor the adjustment to make sure that YOU are being treated fairly by the insurance company. It's interesting to note that most homeowners will trust the insurance company more than the contractor when it should be the other way around. The insurance companies are getting away with denial of payment for billions of dollars in damages every year. A  contractor/project manager who understands the claim process will get you a better settlement and is able to provide more quality to your project because of his knowledge. A bid process removes the contractor's incentive to help the property owner retreive all that is owed to him or her by the insurance company and in the end saves money for the INSURANCE COMPANY not the property owner. Without seeing the paperwork the contractor cannot compare the pricing to determine if you are being treated fairly by the insurance company. There are plenty of "legitimate" roofing contractors who work off of the unsurance scope. Personally, I don't ever do bids because it's a waste of time. The contractor and the insurance company both have access to pricing guidelines which are used to create the insurance scope anyway. Sounds to me like you just want to get a cheap job done and pocket some of the money. 

First and foremost we are Aspen contracting inc. Not Aspen roofing.  We are a very reputable and upstanding locally operated company in all 48 states that we work in. We are A+ rated with BBB. We do around 10,000 projects a year.  All of customers receive a lifetime iran clad labor and materials warranty.  We take this very seriously and we stand behind it. That's how we are able to maintain that A+ rating.  Pretty amazing accomplishment in my opinion considering we are in an industry that gets complained about more than anything else,  according to the small business administration.  

I will say that when it comes to working on an insurance claim and be tricky business.Sometimes we have to supplement insurance companies for thing's missed. It sounds to me that in this case a supplement was made and approved by the insurance companie but the explanation of those funds was never explained to you.  We do our very best to hire quality individuals and we put them through extensive training to assure they are able to represent Aspen contracting Inc's credibility and integrity.  However as a general mmanager I can tell you that you give a rep all the information and make sure they understand but you have no control over what they do. But fortunately for all of customers and future customer's we are constantly training and fine tuning everyone of our employees.  We want them to be able explain how the insurance process works and be able to insure that in most cases Aspen contracting is their best option. 

So do I think we are perfect?  Absolutely not.  We're humans and we naturally make mistakes. It's how we recover and what have become. I honestly can't tell if whoever your talking about was an incident with our company or not. I'm sorry on the behalf of company if in fact it was.  I can tell you that overall we understand the process and do not tolerate any of our employees misleading or misrepresenting our company. I've worked for this company for 7 years. Before I worked for this company I was an extremely satisfied customer. In my opinion they are the best company in the country. Not only on the consumer side but on the employer side as well.  Family operated and they take care of us employees  just as well as they expect us to take care of their customers.  

Because of the success the company has had I have been very fortunate to start my own family with 2 daughter's and one on the way.  The lifestyle is hard sometimes because I don't see them much during storm season. But it's a sacrifice that myself and the rest of our employees make #1 for our families #2 the consumer and #3 the success of the company.  So anytime these negative blog's and comments are broadcasted I take it as a personal hit to my family.  I wanted to make it very clear who we are, what we're about and what we represent.  If anyone has any questions, comments or concerns feel free to contact me. Give us a call. Give us a shot to explain why we are different and why we should be your contractor of choice. Thanks

Done Wrong & Larry,

This above homeowers experience seems to be a combination of things. They were uneducated on the process as well as not being informed enough on the front side by the Aspen rep. As an adjuster you know the terms of RCV, ACV, depreciation, and insurance fraud.

INSURANCE PROCESS:

$10,000 = RCV

- $3,000 = DEPRECIATION

$ 7,000 = ACV

- $1,000 = DEDUCTIBLE

$ 6,000 = NET CLAIM

The insurance company states that this project should cost $10,000 to do. They will contribute a total of $9,000 with the homeowner responsible for their $1,000 deductible BUT they only send out $6,000 1st to get the work started. Once the work is completed, the invoice is sent in to the insurance company to get depreciation released. It is illegal for a homeowner to "profit" from a property insurance claim. If the rep had given the price for $7,000 and said that is what they could do it for, then they should have sent that into the Insurance company and stated that. What a lot of homeowners don't understand is that if the insurance company's scope says the project should cost $10,000 and the insured finds someone to do it for $7,000...the homeowner doesn't get to keep the difference. In the scenario above, with a $7,000 invoice being sent...the insurance company would then send out $0. ZERO more dollars. They already sent out $6,000...and the homeowner is responsible for their deductible. 

This whole process is at times a mystery to homeowners who think they have hit the lottery at time. I correlate it with an auto accident. You call your insurance, take your car to the body shop, write them a check for the deductible, and the shop and your insurance figure the rest out. Over even better...relate it to a dr. visit. When you're sick and go see the docter...you are responsible for your co-pay/deductible...the rest is between the dr. and your insurance company.

With some insurance companies NOT depreciating the claims, it just creates a bidding war with shotty work, lessor quality materials, and even worse the work not getting done at all.

And as for your run-in with Aspen with Superstorm Sandy...I am still here helping with Sandy. The agreement you saw is not our estimate. We use Xactimate on EVERY claim that we handle. I don't know the specifics of who that homeowner was dealing with or the job so I can't speculate on the situation. We have NO problem sending in our Xactimate pricing before hand. In fact...I encourage my reps to do so and include pictures and descriptions. We have gotten to the point where some adjusters don't even feel the need to come out to the property...they will agree with the scope based upon out Collateral Damage Checklist, Pictures, ScopeAssist, AeriLogic, and Xactimate.

We always have our homeowners pay their deductible. We do normally upgrade them to a Lifetime shingle at no charge...but never send any false or fraudulent invoices in.

I try to educate and ENLIGHTEN... :-)

Do not hesitate to get a hold of me if you have any question, concerns, run-ins, or just need assistance.

Thank you much.

Michael Giannola

General Manager - 877-608-0751

Perhaps this homeowners experience is based on one bad apple? If you want to take a shot at me as an adjuster that is fine. Please note that I only spoke to the original poster and HIS experience. If you have a few "strong armers" running around giving Aspen a bad name perhaps you should direct your anger at those people? Frankly, whether a policyholder receives a $10 payment or a $10,000,000 payment form their insurance carrier the adjuster is going home with the same paycheck regardless. So who in this equation stands to gain if the price of the job is inflated? Certainly not the adjuster, sir. Perhaps the contractor will make some promises to the homeowner? "Hey I can get you an upgraded roof". "I can throw some extras on there to cover your deductible". I've heard contractors promise these things and plenty more.

My apologies for not realizing that I had listed myself as "The Owner Of The Company", for which I am NOT..... but I have been an associate of the Owner since before Aspen.

I've been involved with Aspen since it's "beginnings".... and prior with the CEO. It's ironic that people would make such assumptions about a company that has provided so much to the communities that it resides in. For an Adjuster to make a complaint is even more ironic, considering that one of the biggest complaints coming from Home Owners is that the Insurance Company didn't give them enough money to have repairs made. So they feel forced to use the "lowest bidder" and end up with inferior work and material. As a company, we are not perfect and have hired people who felt the need to use "strong arm" tactics, but it doesn't take away from the history of the company as a whole. I, for one, won't ask for a signature up front unless a Home Owner is comfortable with what we have to offer. And I encourage people to research us! As for "estimates", the main reason I request that I meet with an Adjuster is to make sure that all damages are addressed and agreed upon; then we will know what a Home Owner has to work with. THEN I will put together an estimate for the H.O. to see what direction they want to go with. There are reasons why we work the way we do, but NONE of them involve fraud! We are a very transparent company and don't deny what we do.... We stepped away from the "old ways" (when a Storm Chaser would "buy" into a local company and then claim that they had always been here) and made it an "honest" industry. In the end, a Home Owner has a right to choose their Contractor, local or not.... but to make assumptions about Aspen is like making assumptions that your Insurance company has your "best interest" in mind..... 

I am an insurance adjuster (20 years experience) and recently came across Aspen Contracting in my area. The claim in question pertains to roof damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. Apparently the homeowner did not realize that they had damage and was solicited by a representative of Aspen who was making rounds in their neighborhood.

This is the first time that I can recall that I've come across Aspen. I spoke with the policyholder and he indicated that he would be sending over a "proposal" from his roofer. I expected to see a typical roof replacement estimate from a local contractor. The policyholder sent over Aspen's "Agreement" which was simply a list of items that might be included in a roof replacement and some of the boxes were checked off, some were not. There was no price for the job and they only stipulated that the policy deductible would be applied to the cost of the job. Again no price was given. This was very unusual (at least in my experience) and it led me to Google Aspen Contracting and thus I wound up seeing them on Ripoff Report.

My take:

Ordinarily a contractor for any claim that I handle will provide a complete estimate of the insurance related repairs that they are proposing. In fact they will typically do so without my input and simply provide the estimate to their customer (the policyholder). The policyholder will then send the estimate over to me for review. Meantime, I will have prepared my own estimate of the damages and will have provided same to the policyholder. Upon review of the contractor's estimate and assuming there are differences (there usually are) I will contact them to try and address those differences amicably. In most cases we will both give a little here and there and come up with an agreed price for the job. As long as the contractor is reasonable and is not looking to make a killing this method works out well.

In those cases where the contractor and I do not agree then I will have a 3rd party contractor go out and estimate the claim to see if I am wrong. If I am wrong I simply acknowledge that and go with the 3rd party contractor's quote or have him speak with the other contractor. The bottom line is to reach a fair agreed price that can be submitted to the carrier.

In Aspen's case, while I would not go so far to accuse them of anything fraudulent and I have no idea as to the quality of their work, it does concern me that they do not price the work independently of the insurance adjuster and that they seem to be using heavy handed tactics such as placing leins and pressuring the policyholder. Honestly, if all of the contractors that I run into would simply take my estimate as gospel my life would be a lot easier! Having said that I still have concerns that there is some type of shell game going on in regard to pricing (based on the original posters recounting of their experience). Regardless of what you are buying; a roof, a new car or a bag of peanuts, if the person doing the selling will not speak plainly and up-front about what it is that they intend to charge, I would be put off big time.

My advice would be to engage a competent local roofer and get another quote for the job. Having a two prices is never a bad idea.

Also, if the homeowner chooses not to share their insurance estimate with the contractor that is their call. I am not aware of any law that says the homeowner must share their insurance settlement quote. In my experience some people do share the insurance estimate with their contractor and others choose not to.

Our complainant is right, but not altogether. We do ask for the insurance papers before we give a quote most of the time. The reason for this is that we do the repair work based on the scope of work that the insurance company adjuster determines needs to be done. Until we know what the insurance company is going to replace or repair, it is difficult to know what to include in our quote. Also, when it comes to insurance related restoration work, the insurance company exclusively determines how much they are going to pay for the work to be done. They use a third party pricing system called Xactimate. Our commitment to the customer is that we will do the work for what the insurance company determines is fair market value for the work. ALL the home owner is responsible for is their deductible. The discussion on fraud is apropos the deductible and using the insurance released money for costs other than the roof, and then reporting that they roof had been done in order to release the balance of the funds held by the insurance company. It would be a misdemeanor for our company to pay the deductible, but it would be a felony for the Home Owner - and we would not compromise Home Owners that way - and we would certainly not be party to insurance fraud - we did not become the biggest in the nation with all the awards and recognitions we have received by cutting corners. As a matter of fact, we do not take a cent from the Home Owner until we have finished the work and they are happy. We provide lifetime, non prorated parts and labor warranties on our roofs and are the only residential roofing company ever to have been awarded a national Better Business Bureau license - and are a Diamond member of the national 3C Network and a platinum preferred partner of Owens Corning. I sincerely apologize to the concerned Home Owner above for the misunderstanding - we did obviously not do a good of explaining our position to him.