Meneses Roofing

I called Meneses Roofing to get an estimate for installing a porch roof. The job was unusual in that it involved the installation of aluminum shingles, an uncommon product in this area. I called Meneses Roofing because the Yellow Pages ad said "All jobs owner performed". This was important because I wanted to be able to talk to the person actually doing the job in order to make sure that he understood the installation procedure. I called Mesenses Roofing on 8/25, a Tuesday. He said that he could come see the job on the following Friday. On Thursday afternoon he called, rather distraught, because he was unable to come see the job that afternoon as he had promised. This was my first clue that Mr. Meneses had a hard time in understanding English well and that he was somewhat disorganized. To his relief we agreed that he would come to see the job on Friday, the day on which we had originally agreed. On Friday, an employee of Mr. Meneses called to ask where I was, since I was not at the address where they went to see the job. It turned out that Mr. Meneses had gotten my address wrong. When Mr. Meneses and his two employees arrived, I explained what I wanted done and showed them how to install the shingles. They all said it would be no problem to do the job and Mr. Meneses said he would be back that afternoon or the next morning with the estimate. The following Tuesday, four days later, I still had not heard back from Mr. Meneses. I called him and asked if he wanted the job or not. He said "yes" and handed the phone to an employee. The employee said he might have the job estimate with him in the truck and he would call me back when he found it. He called back a few minutes later and said the cost of the job would be $850. I said that I wanted to proceed and asked when he could do the job. The answer was Friday and that the job would take two days. On Friday, Mr. Meneses did not show up. I called him and got an answering machine, on which I left a message saying that I needed to get the work started immediately since I had removed the porch gutters. If there is a rain without the porch gutters, the basement floods. Mr. Meneses called back about 90 minutes later. My wife answered the phone. He told her that it was his birthday and so he wasn't working! My wife stressed the fact that he said that he would be starting that day and that the work needed to be completed before the next rain. Mr. Meneses said he would come over with his helpers and get started. When they arrived a few minutes later, the helpers started preparing for the job. Mr. Meneses took me aside and said he was sorry but he had figured the estimate wrong. He had figured it on the basis of 30# underlayment and not on the basis of the more expensive membrane which I had specifically told him had to be used. (The porch roof is shallow pitch and the shingles are not guaranteed by the manufacturer if tar paper is used rather than a roofing membrane.) Mr. Meneses wanted not the $850 we had agreed upon but rather $1250. I knew the prices of both the tar paper and the Ice and Water Guard underlayment, so I knew that $400 was the total price of the Ice Guard and not the difference in cost between the tar paper and Ice Guard. I gave Mr. Meneses the benefit of the doubt--that is, that he was honestly confused, couldn't remember the cost of the materials, and had carelessly underbid. Therefore, I offered him an additional $200, making a total for the job of $1050. Mr. Meneses was perfectly happy with this amount. Mr. Meneses left at this point. His two employees tore off the roof that day. The next day one employee showed up and worked all day. The second employee worked for a few hours and left. I never saw him again. The other employee, Ronnie Unberhagen, then showed up the next day, Sunday, worked all day, and also showed up on Monday (Labor Day) and worked all day. He finished the job Tuesday morning. While I did have to spend several hours with Mr. Meneses's employees to instruct them how to lay up the shingles, Ronnie caught on quickly and did a fine job on the roof. Please note: Mr. Meneses, while his ad said "all jobs owner performed", did none of the work. In fact, it turned out that he was out of town the entire weekend and so did not even supervise the job. Ronnie laid up the entire roof by himself. After I showed him how to do it, which he understood immediately, I supervised his work for awhile just to be sure that every thing was going well. I then left him to the job. It is only because he was conscientious about his work that the roof got done and got done properly. As I said above, Mr. Meneses was never there. After Ronnie had finished the job Mr. Meneses came by to "inspect". He also took down my name, address, and phone number as if it were all new information. A few days later he came by with the bill. It was for $1350. This was $1050 for labor and $300 for the Ice Guard. He did say that his accountant had gotten the bill wrong and that I should just give him the $1050. This I proceeded to do.