Questions I Asked Roofing Companies to See If They Really Are Legit and Professional

Have you ever changed your name in the past or do you have multiple names for your business?

A lot of roofing businesses who have accumulated a ton of bad reputation or have given away a ton of warranties will change their names in order to avoid future problems. Because when a business changes their name, they pretty much get rid of all past reputation and warranty obligations. Think about it. Imagine a company has a million bad reviews or complaints but then changes their name, what will happen? They no longer have all those bad reviews. And imagine if a company hands out a warranty that last 10 years under a certain business name but then they change their business name, so they no longer exist. That warranty will no longer be valid, and you can’t make their new business name live up to it. Yeah… that sucks.

How many years of experience do you have with the same company name?

This question goes hand in hand with the question above. If a business has been around only for a short time and claim to do expert work, they have probably changed their business name to cover up past bad reputation or are just another new sales company playing the “pro roofers” game. Many companies change their business name because they want to erase bad reputation from the past and/or void all warranties they gave out with their past business name. Now there can be new businesses out there who are trying to make it as a legit roofing business, but you gotta make sure they really are because there are a lot of shady businesses out there.

Does your company have its own contractors, or do you hire subcontractors from some other place?

There are a lot of “pro roofing businesses” out there that are nothing more than pro salespeople who will sell you on a roofing project and then hire someone else to do it for them. Think about that for a moment. They are not roofers and have probably never been on a roof, but they still sell you on a roofing job. I know because I once went into training and did this sales job for a few weeks and then I was like “What the f***, this is bulls**t”! What basically happens is that you go to sales training for a few weeks where they teach you everything on how to sell a roof. After you’re done with training, you visit homes and give them a 45+ minute pitch on why your company is the best. And then you are expected to close them on as high as possible on a roofing project, so you get commission and make profit for their company. If the project is sold, you get your comission and then the company itself subcontracts another company to do it for them. Most likely the cheapest company they can find so they can make as much profit as possible. Imagine that? Please don’t fall for these salespeople. Instead hire some genuine contractors who really need the work and will not screw you over.

Do you have real reviews/testimonies? Can I call or drive by these places and ask them about your work?

Every roofing contractor, especially if they been in the game of screwing people over for a while, will have good testimonies/reviews in their website, social media platforms, or other places like yelp. That’s because a lot of the time these reviews/testimonies are fake, written by their own employees, or they pay for them on places like craigslist. Yes, you can literally buy reviews on craigslist. All you gotta do is pay like $5 for someone to come put a 5-star review on your account. Will you trust these reviews? Hell no! That’s why you have to make them prove their reviews/testimonies are real. You do that by actually calling the people who posted the tstimony/review and asking if the company actually did good work. Or even better, pass by their home and talk to them to see if they actually did great work. I know this may sound a little extra, but taking these precautions will certainly make you avoid shady roofing contractors.