Complaint Review: Primestar General Contractors Inc - Houston Texas

Please consider this a warning to everyone.  I am a former contractor for Primestar General Contractors.  I left because I can not work for people who are unethical and rip people off.  I had a lot of trouble getting paid and I am not the only person.  Several roofers in town will not work for Chad Mclin and Primestar due to non payment.  Chad often changes the price of payment after the job is done.  I had to wait in his office until 10:00 PM one night to make sure that I got paid.  Chad is an out of town door to door salesmen from Louisiana with NO CONSTRUCTION EXPERIENCE.  

This is what I witnessed at Primestar.

Chad is the only employee in his corportation.  He incorporated to protect himself.  He claims to be an "insurance claims specialist"  All of his contractors that he hires to do door to door sales also claim to be "insurance claims specialists or insurance adjustors"  They go door to door and pitch roofing services pretending to have relationships with insurance companies.  No one affiliated with Primestar has any training or certification in insurance or adjusting.  

Futher more if Primestar can't get your insurance money they won't help you or build a roof for you.  They will not give you a bid for the roof, they will not work for anything less than a full insurance payout.  If you have an ACV policy or your insurance company requests a patch they'll walk away because Chad won't make enough money.

Primestar has insurance but their sub contractors DO NOT.  Primestar General Constractors does not employ roofers.  If you sign a contract with them they take the job and bid it out to the cheapest person they can find to build roofs.  I had a job where a customer had a $400,000 home.  Chad who has a dispute with his roofer over payment met a roof patcher in the parking lot in his apartment and subbed him to do the work.  The roofer was a patcher and never even built the roof.

No of the door to door salesmen have any roofing experience.  They completely rely on what their rotating roofers say.  While I worked for Primestar I saw 5 roofers quit and refuse to do business with Chad.  If you had a roof build for them that roofer likely no longer works with Primestar

If you made the mistake of hiring primestar ask the sub contractor for proof of insurance.  You need to because Primestar will NOT make repairs.  I've seen several situations where Primestar has been sued for failing to make repairs.  Primestar has been sued twice while being open for less than a year.  ( See Zuniga Vs Primestar in Harris County, and Lim Vs Primestar in fort bend)  

With the Lim case Primestar sent an uninsured sub to the job who created damage.  Primestar refused to report it to their own company because they used a sub without insurnce.  They charged the sub for half of the job and never paid for the repairs.  Chad accused the customer of just wanting a new dining room.  In the Zuniga case Chad found a cheap uninsured roofer.  The roofer failed to remove rotten decking before placing the new roof on.  The customer sued and Chad settled out of court with the condition that Ms. Zuniga removed her negative reviews and never mentioned Primestar again.

On one occasion Primestar engaged in a build without home owner association approval.  The HOA got a cease and desist.  Chad advised the roof crew to ignore the cease and desist and to finish the roof.  He was worried about having to pay for the material of a second build.  The customer got sued by the HOA and lucky for Chad the customer blamed the HOA and not him.

On one occasion I was on site and noticed that the uninsured roofer Chad hired was applying a roof with an incorrect nail pattern.  I was told to leave the job site and to not compain.  An engineer came by and would not ceritify the repair.  The roof had to be rebuilt and Chad made the roofer pay for it.  I've often seen Chad yell at sales contractors for asking for repairs.  He accuses them of wasting company money

Since Primestar has been in business they have had multiple addresses, multiple websites, and multiple phone numbers.  They claim to be lisenced, bonded, and fully insured.  Ask for proof of bond (they don't have any)  Ask for a liscence (they don't have any)  and ask for insurance and the name of the people they subbed your job to.  ( may not even be a company may be home depot labor)

Primestar will also try to upsell you on material they will provide if you don't accept the con of the upsell.  They will try to sell you an extended warranty from Tamko which you get for Free since they paid Tamko for a Tamko Pro membership so they can get huge rebates.  ( thats why they try to force you to take the Tamko shingle, and it has to be woodgate so they get a good rebate)

If you have a Primestar representative come to your door pretending to be an adjustor, or an insurance claims speciality notify the Texas Department of Insurance and the Attorney General.  

If you have a bad experience and try to complain Chad will try to sue you and run up your costs until you stop complaining.  This company has been sued twice and has had multiple bad reviews.  Call the BBB and ask them how many complaints Primestar has had removed!  Chad has gotten the BBB to remove complaints because he says the customers did not pay for service.  The reality is those customers did not finish paying because Chad broke items and refused to fix them.

In the office I constantly heard terms like "John makes too much money." (in an attempt to pay his sales rep less money) or It's Spanish labor they'll take what I give them.  They all walk around with fake ID badges that ID them as insurance claims specialists.  

I'm positing this because this company did the wrong thing to my customers.  I'm tired of seeing him take advantage of people, and I'm a home owner too.  I hate to see what he's doing to people and their homes, all in an attempt to keep money.

Primestars business model is to buy inexpensive material, find cheap labor, upsell material they will include then maximize insurance profits.  Chad gives 35% of the profit to the door to door salesman ( 60% to John and Steve who are managers) and the rest goes in his pockets.

Keep these points in mind

Primestar will send an uninsured sub to build your roof

Primestar will not obtain appropriate permits

Primestar has a long history of not fixing damages

Primestar has been sued twice (once in harris county and once in fort bend) despite being open for less than a year

Primestar has a number of contractors and employees with the claim of not getting paid

Primestar's employees and reps are not insurance claims specialists or adjustors and have had no training 

If you sign with Primestar you have no control over the build.  They will build to insurance specifications if their sub understands the job and will charge you ALL of your insurance money

Chad has illegal contracts which give people penalties for cancelling, he threatens people who do research and try to go with more reputable companies.  He gives roofers in Houston a bad name.