Response from Larry L. Vaught Roofing Inc
You indicate in your post that you were pleased with our Responsiveness, Punctuality, and Professionalism, but did not provide us an A rating for Price, Quality, or Overall. Since we truly care about your opinion of the services we provided you, I will offer the following comments with the hope you will reconsider your opinion of the quality of services received. You requested we perform a service call to assess the potential cause of roof leakage. It is relevant to note that we did not install your roof and have not performed any previous work on your roof (i.e. we have absolutely no accountability for the performance or condition of your roof). The service call we provided you was scheduled and the assessed cause of leakage was performed at no charge (i.e. we assisted you in determining the cause of your roof leak, for free). Once our service person determined what he expected to be the cause of leakage, he provided you an explanation of the work he recommended be completed and offered to perform the work while there for a charge of$200. There was no obligation on your part to have us perform any work and all of the services we had performed to that point were at no charge to you. You decided to accept our offer to perform the work for the quoted amount of $200 and the work was completed as agreed. Since then, numerous rain falls have occurred and you do not indicate there has been any further leakage so I assume the work we performed for you did in fact resolve your leakage. And, I am pleased to learn we were able to resolve your leakage for such a minimal cost. Yet, you indicate that you felt “ripped off” because the work only took 15 minutes to complete. In response, I would respectfully ask you to consider that considerably more time and effort is involved in the completion of your service call than the 15 minutes it took to actually perform the repairs. To follow is an accounting of the actual effort involved in performing the typical service call: • The original service request is received by our office staff, (typically by phone or email). • Then our receptionist contacts the customer to schedule a date and time to perform the service call. • Next the receptionist notifies the service department of all of the pertinent details of the scheduled appointment, including reason for service call, date, time, customer name, address, phone number, etc. • The service department schedules a service representative to meet at the scheduled date and time. • A service representative incurs driving time to and from the job site, as well as some time spent stocking the service vehicle with various materials that may be required to perform the service call. • The service representative performs his tasks at the job site. • Upon return to the office that evening, the service person submits to the accounting department all documentation necessary to account for the time and material spent on the service call, along with a description of the work performed. • The billing department then sets up a customer account for the person in which service was provided. • The amount charged is entered in to the accounts receivable ledger. • An invoice is generated. • An envelope is addressed to the customer, postage applied, and invoice inserted for mailing to the customer. • The materials which have been used to complete the service call are deducted from the respective inventory accounts. • A job cost is performed for each service call to account for income and expenses. As you can see, there is actually a whole lot of work involved in providing service calls, besides the time spent at the job site. We honestly find that we cannot receive a service request, send a service representative to perform the most simple of repairs (i.e. a 15 minute repair), and perform all of the associated billing / accounting, etc. for less than $200. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but after having run a successful business for over 48 years now, we have a very good handle on what it costs to perform the services we provide. I fully understand why you might suspect you paid too much, but a $200 charge will typically barely cover our costs on these little repairs. And, once we account for the 10% discount I have agreed to send you (for our Angie’ List member discount coupon), my costs will likely be more than you were billed. So, please do not think we “ripped you off” as that is simply not the case. I do thank you for your post and appreciate the opportunity to have been of service. And, if the leakage returns , please let me know. Sincerely, Kevin L. Vaught