My kudos to State Farm. They don't buy every roof but when they do, they buy it right. They need about seven hits per square but Allstate needs eleven. Eleven! Since when! Since I've been in the business, six, seven, eight, but never eleven.
Allstate said that they wouldn't replace the sewer vents or the flashing on skylights or chimneys. First, these are leak prone areas, part of the roof system, they are full of holes, they get beat up and dented in the tearing out of the shingles, the supply house does not provide the parts for free, my roofers want to be paid for doing the work, and the NRCA guidelines as well as GAF and all the other roofing manufacturers say they should be replaced if they are not in "like new" condition.
We take it in the pocket book, or as my father likes to say:we pass it one to the consumer through reduced profits. I hate that. We already have to carry insurance, go to roofing school to get our credits, and keep a good local reputation. Plus the manufacturer sneeks around behind us and surveys our customers and then has the gall to place those ratings on our listing at their site.
Somehow a few insurance companies feel that their clients aren't due as good a roof as other insured are. And why does the program they all use, Xactamate, have provisions for these things. Plus Allstate wants to use Home Depot as a price gauge, which is something we are not willing to do. Their Timberline shingles are not the same ones we use. Neither are their sewer flashings, nails, felt, valley metal and starter shingles.
Now after you get squeezed by your insurance company, along comes a roofer saying he'll save your deductible and might even toss in a better shingle and some money back. Well, I've been around the sun almost 54 times and I haven't seen the inside of a pokey since I was 18, when I failed to pay a parking ticket. My girlfriend had to drive my big 460 F-250 pick up with a broken power steering unit to her parents house to get the bail money. My tickets get paid now. That was 1980.
Seriously, if you don't replace the metal edge, don't bill the insurance for it. Nor anything else fraudulent. Two wrongs don"t make a right.
Remember that if someone will steal, they will steal from you too. Would you want that false billing carpetbagger finding your wallet. You may not know where the line is but you know when you've crossed it.
Bargaining for a better job, getting referral fees, and better warranties are all fair game but false invoices to an insurance company can translate into wire fraud, mail fraud, or just plain old fraud, the kind your bootlegging carpetbagging slave owning fifth cousin five times removed used to do.
Do you know why they call it the pokey?
Allstate said that they wouldn't replace the sewer vents or the flashing on skylights or chimneys. First, these are leak prone areas, part of the roof system, they are full of holes, they get beat up and dented in the tearing out of the shingles, the supply house does not provide the parts for free, my roofers want to be paid for doing the work, and the NRCA guidelines as well as GAF and all the other roofing manufacturers say they should be replaced if they are not in "like new" condition.
We take it in the pocket book, or as my father likes to say:we pass it one to the consumer through reduced profits. I hate that. We already have to carry insurance, go to roofing school to get our credits, and keep a good local reputation. Plus the manufacturer sneeks around behind us and surveys our customers and then has the gall to place those ratings on our listing at their site.
Somehow a few insurance companies feel that their clients aren't due as good a roof as other insured are. And why does the program they all use, Xactamate, have provisions for these things. Plus Allstate wants to use Home Depot as a price gauge, which is something we are not willing to do. Their Timberline shingles are not the same ones we use. Neither are their sewer flashings, nails, felt, valley metal and starter shingles.
Now after you get squeezed by your insurance company, along comes a roofer saying he'll save your deductible and might even toss in a better shingle and some money back. Well, I've been around the sun almost 54 times and I haven't seen the inside of a pokey since I was 18, when I failed to pay a parking ticket. My girlfriend had to drive my big 460 F-250 pick up with a broken power steering unit to her parents house to get the bail money. My tickets get paid now. That was 1980.
Seriously, if you don't replace the metal edge, don't bill the insurance for it. Nor anything else fraudulent. Two wrongs don"t make a right.
Remember that if someone will steal, they will steal from you too. Would you want that false billing carpetbagger finding your wallet. You may not know where the line is but you know when you've crossed it.
Bargaining for a better job, getting referral fees, and better warranties are all fair game but false invoices to an insurance company can translate into wire fraud, mail fraud, or just plain old fraud, the kind your bootlegging carpetbagging slave owning fifth cousin five times removed used to do.
Do you know why they call it the pokey?
Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
1 comment:
Insurance companies aren't cheap. They are just replacing one crappy roof with another crappy roof. Besides, they don't care because they make their money no matter what.
And most roofers don't care, or they are too stupid to know better. Otherwise, the improperly installed roof would be the exception instead of the rule.
GAF promotes its master elite program by claiming less than 3% of roofing contractors qualify. The irony is that much less than 3% of the residential market is willing to pay what it takes to support a master elite roofer.
Are you going to continue to promote the gimmicky "lifetime shingle" and incur the cost necessary to be a master elite roofer and not get paid for it?
The only thing that is going to change things is for roofers to care and get paid for it. Unfortunately, few care.
Ed Senter
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