Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/04/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  2022 - Central roofing repaired 2/3 of our roof in Halifax. He wrote and signed a 10 year workmanship guarantee for the sections of the roof he would be working on. I have attached it to the complaint. .
  
  2023-Throughout the following year multiple leaks surfaced. We contacted ***** ***** from Central roofing to fix the leaks, as they were coming from sections of the roof he had re-done. He agreed.
  
  The same process continues two more times, by summer 2023 we still had a leak and ***** is no longer replying to our messages or phonecalls.
  
  I am not sure we trust him to do the work properly a third time, however I will withdraw the complaint if we are able to come to any sort of agreement

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/04/2024

  Good
  day.  I feel that you are going about this
  very inappropriately.  This is published
  for the public to see and you are misleading the truth.  You should get your facts straight before you
  publicly try to embarrass me and make me look like a bad person.   This does not make me happy as I have worked
  very hard for 25 years to build a reliable, 
  honest reputation.   As well, 
  you are disputing the full cost of the job over 1 leak that you think is
  my fault.
  I have no
  choice but to defend myself by clearly stating the facts :
  -before we
  started any work there were some leaks noted.
  -job was
  completed in April ,  2022
  -approx 2-3
  months after completion **** asked me to come back to address a leak around a
  brick chimney where we had completed roofing installation.  I came back and completed some additional
  work around the chimney but overall I was satisfied with the work we
  completed.  The existing lead was in good
  condition and It didn’t seem possible for it to leak at the base of the brick
  chimney.  **** did call me again because
  it continued to leak.  Knowing that brick
  chimneys are sometimes difficult I suggested that the leak may be coming from
  the chimney itself.  I did want to go
  back but felt that I did everything right so I didn’t think there was anything
  else I could do at my expense.
  -You are
  suggesting that throughout the following year multiple leaks surfaced.  I feel that this is the first time I am being
  made aware of this ?  I have no
  emails,  don’t recall any phone
  conversations or any kind of exchanges re: several leaks ?  I know I spoke to **** about the chimney leak.  Other than that I am completely surprised
  about “several leaks”. 
  -you are
  suggesting that by summer of 2023 you still had a leak ?  Previously you had mentioned  “several leaks”?  Two years after we completed the work several
  leaks is now one leak ?  These several
  leaks somehow managed to stop on their own and it is now one leak ?  You are misleading the public with your inaccuracies.  
  A
  workmanship warranty means that we will take responsibility for work not
  completed satisfactorily.  It doesn’t
  mean that we are responsible for leaks outside of the scope of work.  I recall being told that the chimney had a
  notorious leak before we completed any work. 
  This somewhat confirmed to me that the leak could very well have been
  outside our scope of work.
  This is the
  oldest building in Halifax and was a very challenging job as it is right on
  ****** ****** in downtown Halifax.  There
  were other leaks and issues that we resolved as I feel that the project was an
  overall success.  With all the high winds
  in this region you have never lost a shingle from the work we completed.  We treated you fairly and fulfilled our
  obligation by completing the work in a good workmanlike manner.
  As I feel
  that the work at the chimney is properly done I would be willing to come back
  for a small fee to redo the base of the chimney.  I would need this fee paid in advance as I struggled to collect payment from you on original work.   We will make a good effort to go above and
  beyond the typical installation procedures. 
  If at this point it is still leaking we will assume no further
  responsibility.
  Regards,
  ***** *****
  Central Roofing Services Ltd

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/04/2024

  
  
  
  Hello *****,
  Thank you for the quick reply.
  
  I can appreciate the sentiment around the
  complaint. The complaint does not become public until it has been closed. As I
  said I am happy to withdraw it if we can come to an agreement. Apologies I am
  not disputing the entire job in fact I personally have been happy with my dryer
  vent and the work you did on the south side of the building. I am disputing the
  guarantee and the work on the northern section of the roof.
  
  I wrote the complaint on behalf of our
  condo board. I have photographs of the two spots on the north-western section
  of the roof that you came back to re-do at least 3 times in November, April and
  May 2022. There may have been other re-visits, this is just going based on our
  text message history. Both of these are now leaking again. You are right we
  have not discussed this third spot, as it was noticed around October 2023. I feel if we are
  still experiencing leaks from the original two places (chimney and center
  section of northern roof) that we raised with you after two re-visits, we
  should be within our rights to question the guarantee you wrote us.
  
  I
  am not aware of any leaks on that section of the roof before your crew did
  their work- including the chimney. We called
  you to fix a leak on the south side of the roof (my dormer).
  We opted to have you do the front and
  back sections on the northern part of the building as a preventative measure. The
  attached original quote you provided confirms this.
  
  We as a ***** **** are not willing to pay
  any further funds to Central Roofing for this job. I will peruse this complaint
  with BBB until the original scope of the work is properly completed. We seem to
  agree on what the scope is. I do not understand your point about the chimney as
  it is part of the section that we chose to have re-done as a preventative measure and is within the scope of the project.
  If it was leaking before or was a challenging job, I can sympathize with that
  but it does not change what we are asking
  
  I cannot accept your response as you are
  proposing this be at our expense. Since the original Job, we have been asking you
  to make good on the guarantee you provided- for a section of the roof that had
  no leaks before you were there and has been progressively worsening since.
  
  Even to someone like myself with no
  experience in roofing, it is clear that at least one member of your crew did
  not quite know what they were doing. It is also clear from the pictures (ill
  attach) that the work you did when coming back to fix it was fraught with cost
  saving and corner cutting measures. Examples would include the spacing of shingles being too far apart to
  make a seal, lack of woven / overlapping flashing around dormers and chimney & re-application of old lead
  around chimney. We are willing to entertain one final job where all
  three leaks are addressed (center pitch, chimney, dormer flashing) at your
  expense. We will have the work inspected by a third party company at our expense and we will no longer peruse any workmanship guarantees by you or your
  company. Alternatively, we would be willing to except reimbursement for 25% of
  the cost of the job as it is roughly 25% of the work that has not held up per
  the guarantee.
  
  It is not my intention to damage you or
  your business’s reputation if you are willing to be proactive and stand by your
  guarantee. I would be willing replace the complaint with a good review if we
  can get a repair that lasts through a shoulder season.
  
  ********
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 30/04/2024

  Good day.  I have been talking with Mr ******* ****** .  We have made progress through positive communication and are working to rectify the situation.   *****.  Central Roofing 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/12/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Complete roof replacement from Oct 20 to Nov 05, 2022. Invoice #3036.
  The delivery truck left a rut in our new driveway.
  Lots of disagreement witnessed between the owner and his foreman.
  The owner ordered a wrong size skylight and falsely blamed it on my specifications.
  It had been agreed the skylight should be a vinyl one but without communicating, a wooden one was installed. Interior trim work was not completed.
  I asked for a short written statement saying that the skylight was installed according to the instructions,.
  I asked for having the gutter guard straightened out and photos from the top of the roof.
  The whole job took 17 days. Roofers kept ripping off shingles that had been poorly installed.
  Nov 8: The owner collected the cheque ($19,314.25). He appeared worked up, stating everything was ‘too much for him’. I explained that I previously had several instances of water damage and that’s why I was looking into details. The owner signaled agreement to all the requests outlined above but never completed them.
  Nov 12: A rainstorm caused water damage in my office, almost ruining all my certificates. The ceiling has a hole appr. 5 sqft in size. The foreman stated the work around the chimney was done by someone who had already been fired.
  Nov 13: The owner completed some work but didn’t offer any apologies. His workers had failed to fill gaps in the mortar, allowing rain to get in. He said he had tasked the foreman with this. He offered to fix the damage but I declared I was going to have his insurance assess the damage. He agreed to call his insurance. This was witnessed by my wife.
  Nov 25: New water damage was spotted in another closet. I emailed the owner, wondering if he called his insurance.
  Nov 29: I emailed again, indicating that my patience was wearing thin.
  Nov 30: Defiant response from the owner, indicating my requests were ‘over the top’. Owner said he didn’t have any intention to inform his insurance. He referred me to his lawyer.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 19/12/2022

  This guy is going on and on about anything and everything that happened on the job unnecessarily.  He mentions the driveway.  The delivery truck left no mark.  He talks about the skylight.  I made an error and ordered the wrong size skylight.  I got the proper one and we installed it.  No issues.  He refers to the gutter.  We did not damage it.  He wanted us to fix this for free.  Normally we are happy to do whatever we can for people but not in this case.  The only issues are the ones he is making up in his head.  I have had enough of this guy.  I told him to talk to my lawyer because he has been driving me crazy.  In 25 years I have never ran into a person like this.  He has had issues with every trade that he has ever dealt with.  He told me this.

  The job has been completed. The warranty has been registered with the shingle manufacturer.  We do this for the homeowner as part of our service.
  I am quite happy with the outcome.    It is a quality installation completed in good conscience with very good quality materials. We used tarps to protect the property and patio etc.  Kind of strange that he has nothing good to say.  Most people think we are nice and pleasant and very easy to do business with. Good cleanup,  thorough etc.

  The ONLY issue is related to the chimney.  My foreman overlooked installing some mortar in a brick joint.  This is a repair that we completed for free as we did not cause this mortar joint to fail.    It caused a minor leak for a few hrs on a Saturday evening. I said to homeowner the following day that when I visited the house that we would put in a commercial dehumidifier to encourage it to dry faster and more thoroughly and that we could easily complete the minor repairs. drywall ,  insulation. The carpet wasn't wet,  there was really very little damage and because there was no vapour barrier in the ceiling the issue was really isolated to a very small area in closet right beside brick chimney.    Homeowner wanted me to call my insurance.  I told him this is not an insurance matter.    He said he would rather wait for the insurance which I suggested could take up to 2-3 weeks for them to arrive just to assess it.  This took place shortly after hurricane Fiona so insurance companies were overwhelmed at the time.  He said no problem he would rather wait for insurance.   So it baffles me that he was willing to wait for insurance and allow the issue to be unattended for possibly 4 weeks or more.  He knew there was no real issue or he would have accepted our offer.    We were willing to take action immediately. After all this I again suggested that we would be happy to do the repairs anytime it was convenient for him.

  No thank you.  No appreciation for the effort.  Claims the job took 3 weeks. Complaining about the cost even though we were the lowest price quote they received.  Part of which was HST .  And yes I do submit and pay this quarterly.  Constantly seeking to find issues and making issues where they do not or do not have to exist.  No Thank you !!

  Customer Answer

  Date: 22/12/2022

   I am rejecting this response because:
  
  
  Unfortunately, this business owner turns out to be very unprofessional. 

  RE driveway: 
  There is clearly a mark in the
  driveway which is evident from the pictures I submitted. There might even be a
  crack. The foreman stated the delivery truck had never been on the right side
  of the driveway but I could prove him wrong using a photo my wife took. I’m still
  awaiting assessment by the paving company as they’ve been very busy lately. Unfortunately
  this business owner turns out to be very unprofessional.
  
  RE skylight:  
  When the wrong size of the skylight became
  apparent, the business owner got defensive and stated I had given him wrong
  dimensions which is false. It was a careless mistake on his end. Furthermore, it
  had been agreed that the skylight should be made from vinyl because our
  previous skylight from the same company was wooden and the frame always got
  soaked during the cold season, causing mold. This had been clearly communicated
  between me and the business owner. The roofers installed a wooden one because this
  was what the owner provided. I called the Velux company and my concerns cold be
  mitigated which I immediately communicated to the business owner. However,
  communication on his end was always falling short. The foreman stated he’d be doing
  the interior trims and we stayed home on at least two consecutive days in order
  to let him in but he didn’t show up. We even turned down another company who
  wanted do do work on the shower in that bathroom because we were expecting the
  foreman. No communication until we learned that the owner didn’t want the
  foreman to finish the interior trims. The philosophy of the company states ‘To
  educate our customers’ – none of this happened. With cold weather arriving and
  the area underneath the skylight left unfinished, we again ran into significant
  condensation and moisture problems. Knowing that handymen are hard to get these
  days he should have given us a heads up early about him not doing interior
  trims so we could have made arrangements.

  RE gutter:
  Nobody ever stated that Central Roofing
  caused the damage. I told the business owner that this probably had been caused
  by a different roofing company that replaced shingles in years past. I only made
  a request and on several occasions the business owner promised he was going to
  have somebody fix it. This would have taken several minutes. He could have said
  no. Instead he said yes and didn’t end up doing it.

  
  Quotation form the business owner's statement: 'The only issues are the ones he is making up in his
  head.  I have had enough of this
  guy.  I told him to talk to my lawyer
  because he has been driving me crazy.  In
  25 years I have never ran into a person like this.'

  
  The business owner’s disrespectful
  remarks speak for themselves. During a conversation we had he even had the nerve
  to tell me I should be sleeping at 11:30PM instead of writing him emails. On
  our first encounter since the job started I noted he was burned out and not enjoying
  his job. I signaled my understanding, knowing what hardship many business owner
  were going through. This occurred after I spotted the rut and a possible crack in
  my driveway. I told him it wasn’t my intention to blame his company but would
  instead ask him to reach out to the company that had delivered the shingles. They
  should have used a plank for under that heavy truck. Even that seemed to much
  for him. Of course, it’s not his new driveway. It’s somebody else's which makes
  it convenient to downplay.

  
  RE Quotation: 'He has had issues with every trade that he has ever dealt
  with.  He told me this.'

  
  I had a lot of decent work done by
  companies but I gave him four examples of bad experiences I made to make him
  understand why I was having concerns. A bathroom company installed a shower with a dysfunctional pivot door that didn’t close properly and kept leaking. The issue is currently getting resolved based on a BBB complaint. We were left with a damaged car engine and I worked to get the engine replaced. This was a Canadian class action on ******* / ***. A leaky windshield in a ********* my wife owns left us with engine breakdown and interior mold. A car glass company confirmed this was a manufacturing fault. This is currently going through arbitration. During a countertop installation a plumber noted that there were old copper pipes in the kitchen wall; however, this was not addressed by suggesting these old pipes should be changed. Not too long after that we had severe water damage in the kitchen from exactly these old pipes. We suffered through six weeks of having incredibly noisy industrial dehumidifiers in the kitchen to get the moisture out. This was an insurance case.

  
  I used these examples to explain
  how I was burned from previous water damage and I repeatedly asked for his
  understanding while referring to the wooden skylight and my concerns around
  water leakage. It turned out the business owner didn’t know, or care, much
  about skylights. I learned that in case of a warranty claim the skylight
  company will always try to challenge the mode of installation; therefore I
  politely asked for a brief note confirming that the skylight was installed
  properly by someone experienced in the field and according to the instructions.
  I wanted to be safe in case I ran into new moisture problems with the skylight.
  The owner promised to provide this. He signaled that he was fine with my reasoning.
  He collected the cheque, and we shook hands. This was before the water damage
  happened from around the chimney. He did not fulfil his promises.

  
  RE 'The job has been completed' etc.:
  The job was initially delayed,
  first because of hurricane Fiona and then because the business owner chose to start
  other jobs first. Although he had said it would be better to start the job in
  September rather than October because the shingles would settle down better
  with warmer temperatures, he only started on October 20 and the work dragged
  out until Nov 05. He admitted they had to remove lots of shingles because they were
  not properly installed by his workers which cost him an extra $400. In fact, he
  seemed very frustrated with this but this is not the customer’s fault.

  RE cleanup: 
  
  All that I can say is that after almost every cleanup we found two handfuls of nails on our deck and in the area
  surrounding the house.

  
  RE chimney:
  There was no previous leak on the
  chimney. If there was anything to fix outside of what the roofing company had
  caused or was overseeing, it would have been appropriate to suggest I get a
  masonry company to fix this. I am interested to be on top of things to avoid
  unnecessary damage. I heard nothing from the business owner. How can he say he
  repaired the chimney for free? He showed me his own photos demonstrating not
  one but several mortar joints that were completely unfilled. His company is
  responsible for the blank mortar joints and the consecutive water damage. That
  damage is complex. I knew he was getting unnerved and he wanted to get rid of
  me quick. This was when I identified his conflict of interest. On a Sunday when
  he came to repair the chimney, while initially reluctant, he finally agreed to
  get his insurance involved. But he was lying. Almost two weeks later, nothing
  had happened because he was stubborn. His lie and failure to get his insurance
  informed caused a significant lag in the repair of the water damage. And if I weren’t
  being present at the time the water started dripping from the ceiling, this
  would have damaged all my professional certificates that were stored on a shelf
  just underneath the ceiling.

  
  Quotation from business: 'It caused a minor leak for a few hrs on a Saturday evening.
  I said to homeowner the following day that when I visited the house that we
  would put in a commercial dehumidifier to encourage it to dry faster and more
  thoroughly and that we could easily complete the minor repairs. drywall ,  insulation. The carpet wasn't wet,  there was really very little damage and
  because there was no vapour barrier in the ceiling the issue was really
  isolated to a very small area in closet right beside brick chimney.'

  
  The business owner is apparently
  trying to downplay the damage, because he’s not the one suffering from it. There
  is water damage in two difficult to access closets. For the skylight, his
  communication suggested he didn’t feel confident about doing the interior trims.
  Doing drywall work is not within the core competence of his business. And I was
  not interested in having someone fix the issues who was getting frustrated with
  their own workers and had an intention to quickly leave this job behind them.

  
  Quotation: 'Homeowner wanted me to call my insurance.  I told him this is not an insurance
  matter.'

  
  It’s not on the business owner to
  decide that on behalf of his customer. I left an avenue open for somebody
  independent to assess and not put in an insurance claim if it turned out to be less
  complicated. But he chose to remain stubborn after he collected the pay cheque.

   

  Quotation: 'He said he would rather wait for the insurance which I
  suggested could take up to 2-3 weeks for them to arrive just to assess it.  This took place shortly after hurricane Fiona
  so insurance companies were overwhelmed at the time.  He said no problem he would rather wait for
  insurance. So it baffles me that he was willing to wait for insurance and allow
  the issue to be unattended for possibly 4 weeks or more.  He knew there was no real issue or he would
  have accepted our offer. We were willing to take action immediately. After all
  this I again suggested that we would be happy to do the repairs anytime it was
  convenient for him.'

  
  It doesn’t matter that it baffles
  him. It’s not his house. Of course he wanted to patch this up and get rid of me
  quickly. I was being an uncomfortable customer for him because I uncovered his
  own weaknesses. Almost six weeks have now passed with the issue unfixed because
  of the business owner’s stubbornness.

  Quotation: 'No thank you.  No
  appreciation for the effort.  Claims the
  job took 3 weeks.'

  
  I claimed the job took 17 days
  which we know for a fact. My neighbor was perplexed at how often they came back
  to correct issues. I paid the workers almost $300 in tips. I tried to positively
  interact with them whenever I was around. The foreman, too, was easy to deal
  with and repeatedly said the tips were ‘going a long way’. But he also seemed
  to be very much at odds with the business owner. On several occasions I got the
  impression that their relationship was frayed and about to end soon. For
  example, I heard him say ‘I hate this guy’. That didn’t make me feel
  comfortable as a customer.

  Quotation: 'Complaining about the cost even though we were the lowest
  price quote they received. '

  
  This statement is completely made
  up. I never complained about the cost. The business owner instead said he could
  understand that his customers were expecting flawless work for their hard-earned
  money. And he admitted that $20,000 for the job was a lot of money which I
  agreed to.