PRICE VS. COST

PRICE VS. COST

Let me share a story with you that we recently experienced with a customer to help explain the difference….

Shortly after Hurricane Irma hit South Florida in September 2017, we assisted a former client with the scope of work and pricing as their contractor with their existing insurance claim. We signed a contingency agreement stating that we would represent them as their roofing contractor, and we would perform the roof replacement if insurance agreed to our scope of work and price. If insurance ultimately denied the claim, this agreement was null and void leaving the customer with no risk. There were no costs to the customer for us to consult with the insurance company and the back and forth we had to do to explain the full scope of work and agree to fair pricing. The customer’s only out of pocket costs was the wind deductible. After much back and forth with the insurance company, we were finally successful in getting the roof replacement agreed upon. Once the first insurance check was received, we sat down to sign the final agreed upon price, all permit paperwork, HOA forms required and agreed upon a schedule to start the roof replacement.

We assisted the client and went together to the HOA to submit. A week had passed, and we hadn’t heard anything from them or a confirmation from the HOA. We continued to reach out for about a week and that’s when we decided something wasn’t right. We finally decided to reach out to the HOA to see if they had any information for us. They notified us that the homeowner had come back a few days after we came in to submit the paperwork and changed all the documentation to a different Roofing Company. Clearly this was very frustrating considering all the work we had performed in getting the scope of work approved (a 5-month process) and we now had a signed agreement and we had already submitted the permit and HOA documents. After multiple attempts to get in touch with the client, we decided to let it go. About 2 months later, we received a frantic call from the client explaining that he made a mistake and hired a company who gave him a much lower price. This “cheaper” company came out to his home, tore off the old roof and did not dry it in and was not to be seen again. Shortly after they opened his roof and disappeared, it rained for 3 days straight and now had leaked throughout the entire home which insurance would not cover because they said it was the fault of the contractor and that the contractors insurance is liable for that. I bet you can guess by now where this situation is going? You guessed it, the cheaper contractor was unable to be located ever again. They took a 50% deposit and did about 10% work the first day and high tailed it out of town. The customer was so focused on the PRICE they didn’t consider what it could COST them. Ultimately the customer went with another company who they said… gave them a much lower price and it ended up costing them 4 times more than originally because of all the additional damages from water. The next time a Price seems to good to be true think about what it could really cost you.

-David Korecky- Roof Consultant

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