Franks Roofing And Siding ripoff take money and run doesn't finish jobs Tabernacle New Jersey

On August 12, 2004 Frank Grater came to my home . I had received his number from the telephone book. When he came out I told him that I wanted a new roof, new siding, and new windows in the front of my house. Frank went around the house and came in told me that I had two layers of shingles on my home; as such they had to be removed and a new layer placed on top. I told Frank that since that was the case and the shingles had to be removed, in order to keep the price down; I would take the shingles off myself and dispose of them myself. When taking them off, I discovered that there was in fact only one layer of shingles on my roof, not two like Frank had said. When I questioned him about this later, he said that he must have made a mistake.



Frank presented me with three contracts one for doing the roof, the second for doing the siding and the third for replacing all the windows in the house. When I told him that I only wanted the windows in the front he said that either didn't realize it or forgot, but wanted me to sign it anyway. I didn't feel comfortable signing the contract for more than I wanted to get done and told him so.

Frank told me not to worry about it; he will take care of it. He then asked for the entire roof to be paid for up front as well as a deposit for the siding. As such I gave him a check in the amount of $3,000.00 on that day. He then asked me to make the check payable to him so he could go up and cash it immediately, which I did.



After two weeks or so Frank called me and told me that he would be out sometime that week to start working. He told me that he would be doing the roof first so it the new siding doesn't get damaged and that I should start removing the roof. He sent his men out to work on the roof and with the exception of leaving the work area a mess after he they left, I have no complaint about the job that they did.



After the roof was done, on September 27, 2004 Frank came out and told me that he needed another $4,000 to keep doing the job. Once again he told me that the check be made payable to him. At that time I gave him a check in the amount of $4,000.00.

Frank had called me on the telephone and told me that he would be out to start wrapping the house and told me to start taking the siding off. He told me that he realized that since I didn't have scaffolding I wouldn't be able to take the high parts off and to do the best that I could. I took the siding off the house leaving it exposed.



I continued to call Frank many times during that time period as rain was forecasted. Two days into the rain, Frank finally came out and wrapped the house. A few days after that Frank and his men came out to put the siding up on the house. While putting up the siding, Frank had cut my telephone line by accident. He attempted to put it back together, however I continued to have static on the line. I told him about it and he said that he would take care of it, however he never did.

Frank came back out on October 19, 2004 when most of the siding was done. I use this term because although all of the siding was up on my house, there were things that were not completed. Frank's men had removed light fixtures off my house and were given new ones to put up (after the siding was in place), however that wasn't completed. The area around my shed (which is attached to the house) door was not wrapped as promised as well as the area around my front windows was not was not finished. In addition to this, there was a large pile of trash that was left on the side of the house.

Frank told me that in order to continue to do the job he would require another $1,247.00. He told me that it would cover the cost of the siding as well as be a deposit on the front windows. When I told him that I was hesitant in paying him for the siding because he hadn't finished it yet. He told me that the reason that he the siding wasn't finished was because he had to leave that space around them in order to install my new windows and that once he installed them, the areas would be capped off and he would have his men clean up the trash.

He told me that I had to pay him or he wouldn't be able to send his men out to complete the job. So I paid him with a check that he had me make out directly to him and that when his workers came to finish the job, they would drop off my contract for the windows at that time.

A week or so had passed and I had called him to find out the status of my windows. At that time, I had a settlement date that was scheduled for November 26, 2004. He told me that the windows had come in, however they were the wrong size and he had to send them back. I also reminded him about the problem with my telephone and he told me that he would take care of it.

As more time went bye, I left several messages for Frank that went unanswered. I finally had no other choice but to contact Verizon to repair the damaged telephone line. The repairman that came out said that after the wires were cut, they were put back together crossed and that they were placed behind the new siding that Frank had installed.

I called Frank to ask him if he wanted to come back out and remove the siding to fix the wires or if I should get the repairman to fix it. I got his answering machine and left a message. A few minutes later Frank called me back (I know this because it appeared on my caller ID) however when I picked up the phone he hung up on me. I tried to call him back, however his phone went right into voice mail. I had to authorize the repairman to fix the telephone line in order to continue to have usable telephone service. Instead of removing any of the siding, I was told that it was more cost effective to run a new line bypassing the part that Frank had spliced. I received that invoice from Verizon for $138.50

After making several more calls to Frank, I had no other choice but to send a letter to him. On November 10, 2004 I mailed a letter to him at the address listed on his contract. I sent that letter both regular and certified mail; however I never heard back from him neither offering an explanation nor refuting what I had said in it.

Around that time, the settlement date on my house got pushed back to December 17, 2004 and not having heard from Frank, I had no other choice but to contract someone else to finish the work that he started. On November 22, 2004 I had to get another contractor to come in and finish the repairs that were left unfinished by Frank's Roofing for a cost of $500.00. In addition, I had to pay Creekside Glass and Mirror company $712.53 for new windows, which Frank had already taken a deposit.

In addition to all of these facts, Frank had agreed to obtain the necessary permits that were required to do the work that was performed (since which I found out that it is the contractor's legal responsibility to do anyway); however to this day I have yet to see anything that shows a permit has been issued. Fear of receiving a heavy fine has prevented me from contacting the township to see if one indeed was issued.

From the beginning when I met with Frank he was extremely friendly and helpful. When he came to my house the first time to bid on the job, he even helped my son and I pull down a part of a deck we were removing. He even had his workers, as a courtesy hang a couple closet doors in my house because it was raining heavily outside. He told me it was easier for him to have them do inside work and then go back and finish the outside work when the rain stopped than to have to send them home and pay them to come back another day as well as let his daughter play with my 10 year old daughter while they put siding on my house.

So the times that he demanded money from me in order to continue work did not alarm me because I felt that I had formed a friendship with him and never thought that he would do this to me.

I saw on December 4, 2004 while he was doing work on another house. I had to stop and ask him what happened. I was standing in the street while he was on top of a house and I asked him what happened to finishing my house. His answer was It just didn't happen. At that point I got angry and told him that I couldn't believe that he had the nerve to do that knowing my house had to be sold. He told that he would get around to finishing the job.

When I told him that it was already done because I couldn't continue to wait for him he asked me what's the big deal then and told me to quit my Fking crying. I told him that I had contacted consumer affairs and had planed to file a complaint he told me that there is nothing that anyone can do to him and to do whatever I had to do. At that point I left.

Beware of this con man. He will win your trust over and take your money. RUN don't walk away from this guy. Right now I have a lawsuit against him as well as a complaint with consumer affairs! ALWAYS check with consumer affairs before you hire a contractor.

Alan
Browns Mills, New Jersey
U.S.A.