Precision Overhead Garage Door Service ripoff They quote estimate fee of $55, then once at the home, create problems and oversell many parts unnecessarily. Concord, Clayton, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Martinez, Pleasant Hill, Alamo, Danville California

This company has come and gone over the last several years in the Contra Costa area. Everything that has been posted under the name Precision Door Service over the years relates to the same national company.

Being that I am involved in the garage door industry, I and many others are very much aware of Precision's unethical practices. And while they are deceptive, misleading and overcharge customers, they are actually not breaking the law, but are radically breaking the law of ethics.

The case that I was directly involved with was a customer who called upon me about 2 years ago. That customer (a husband and wife) had a broken garage door spring on their two-car sized non insulated steel sectional garage door. Their home had both a two-car and one-car door, and both doors were approx. 5 years old.

When Precision showed up, they informed the wife that the spring was broken, and that they would start repairing at the $4-$7 PER INCH rate (far overpriced!), and would also inspect the rest of the garage door parts.

Because the wife and husband both interacted with Precision's "service technician", the technician was able to deceptively achieve authorization to replace nearly every part on BOTH the garage doors (even though the single door didn't have one single problem).

On the sign off sheet, there was a stamped notification stating 'I agree to waive my 3-day rights to recend this purchase' or something to that effect, basically making the customer totally liable for accepting charges (no matter how much they ended up turning out to be).

The customer contacted our company after the work was done, and after having provided a credit card number to get things going. Once the total was given to the wife, she had no choice but to pay, being that she had inadvertently signed the document before realizing giving up her rights.

The company charged her just about $1,450.00 for a repair that should have cost approx. $250.00 total.

The reason it should have only been $250.00 was that the only real problem was a broken spring. Our company would have changed the two springs out on the two-car sized door (because when one breaks, the other is usually not far from breaking as well, since they cycle at the exact same rate).

The customer faxed me a copy of Precision's invoice and I nearly fell out of my chair - the springs sounded cheap (misleadingly, Precision states $2-$7 per inch, but never tells the consumer that the springs average over 36 INCHES long), and then they charged outlandish prices for hardware components that never were needed.

I provided the customer with a bid to replace every part that they did, but at realistic pricing - not the total rip off, overpriced numbers that Precision had. In the end, the credit card company reimbursed the customer approx. $1,000 for fair pricing. It took me about an hour of my time, and I received nothing for it, but the gratification of helping an honest customer and exposing a dishonest company such as Precision Garage Door Services.

And everything that has been stated in the previous files that I've read on this site is true - except Precision's rebuttal. Deception, sneaky practices and misleading ways of earning money may not be illegal to the letter of the law, but their immoral and unethical practices bring a bad name to our trade, and I will fight and stand up for those who fight these types of companies. Do NOT do business with Precision Garage Door Services, no matter if their advertisements say "A name you can trust" or "Limited Lifetime Warranty" or any other things that sound nice.

Jerry
Bay Area, California
U.S.A.