catastrophe_part.two

[the catastrophe continues...]

/*/ i forgot to mention in my previous post - and it probably goes without mentioning, but just in case, ima do it anyway - that as soon as all this roof business started things with the house selling got put on hold until we were able to determine what was going to happen and when that might be. through a series [i think 4 or 5 now...] extensions on the "inspection period" in the original contract we have been able to legally extend the deadline of the contract with the buyer, pending the outcome of this mess. to this day we are still in constant contact with the realtor and through him the buyer's realtor and the buyer and we have been ensured that she is still very much interested [possibly now more so, pending the anticipated improvements] and that she's just sitting back and waiting for things to get resolved on our end.... /*/

[agent 3]

so when i left off yesterday we had just said goodbye to jane [who was fairly worthless in this entire process so we werent exactly disappointed to see her go... bye jane.] ryan was also not from ohio. at first we were lead to believe that he would be from the local region and we wouldnt have to deal with another mobile agent from here on out - we were mis-lead. ryan was indeed another mobile rep. 3 or 4 days after we said goodbye to jane i got a phone-call from ryan. ryan wasnt irate or fuming, but its sufficient to say that when ryan called, he was extremely concerned.

apparently there had been another series of huge storms that blew through cincy and had yet again blown the tarp to hell [although apparently it was still on the roof and visible through the skylight on the 3rd floor - billowing and blowing around as it may have been....] and when ryan made his appearance on the scene and began to walk through the house he discovered that the tarp was doing absolutely nothing and that it was in fact actively raining in my house. his exact words were "water is pouring into the house" actually... at this point the new damage report was as follows:

ceiling down in every room on the 3rd floor, all but 2 rooms on the second floor, all but one room on the first floor. the carpet was saturated and puddling on the 3rd floor, 2nd floor, and the first floor was puddling in every room but the front room at this point. additionally, paint and drywall were wet, running, drippings, etc. all over the house. so... this is a bit worse, eh?

however, he did confirm that he could see the tarp through the skylight as i mentioned before and that this did confirm for him that we had made attempts to temporarily seal the house, but given the storms blowing through and the amount of rain they were getting, there was no kind of temporary repairs that would have sealed the roof from water infiltration and that we would continue to be covered under the original claim. [whew...]

at this point he advised me to immediately get my roofer back out to the house to re-tarp and seal the house and to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that the tarp was secured to the roof and would prevent any water getting into the house as best as possible - in fact he recommended that we find a tarp large enough to cover the entire flat roof and then roll over the edge onto the mansard roof approximately 6inches to 1ft so that it could be secured directly to the mansard roof [think of a lid on a jar]. in addition to getting the roofer back out to the house, he advised immediately getting in contact with an emergency water extraction company to come in and get the house dried out as soon as possible. with that, he said his goodbye and let me know he would give me a few days to get the roof sealed and the drying process started and hed be back in touch in 3 or 4 days.

obviously my first call was to the contractor. he didnt answer.... my second call was to our local insurance agent to get a recommendation on a local water extraction company that could get in there right away. he gave me a list of options [because legally they cant support one company over another of course] and i just called the first one on the list - rainbow international. well thankfully, the people at rainbow were extremely friendly, understanding, sympathetic, and eager to help me in any way that they could. we discussed the situation briefly and they got the paperwork going, within 10 or 15 minutes they faxed me the contract to go in and begin the extraction process which i immediately signed and faxed back to them. a few minutes later i got a phone call from the project lead for my case who had already been informed on the status of the house and was really just calling to quell any fears or worries i might have, to introduce himself [greg. we like greg.] and to see if there was any other way that they could help me out. i told him about the roof/roofer situation and gave him the contact info for the roofer and let him know that i hoped to have the roof sealed immediately so that i could get them in there to get started asap. obviously this sounded good to him so we hung up with me feeling much better about the whole situation although peeved to hell that the roofer hadnt called me back yet.... [anyone else seeing the pattern here?]

finally a few hours later, after several previous attempts that day, i was able to get the roofer on the phone and apprise him of the situation. the first thing he said when i was finished was that i already owed him money for the first time [and apparently 2 times following that after the wind had blown the thing up...] that he'd had to go and tarp the roof and he wanted to get paid for that as soon as possible. however, given the circumstances, he understood that the payment wasnt my fault [really, considering id seen no bill for it? how generous of you...] and that hed get over there as soon as he could [heres another one...] to get it tarped the way i wanted. at this point he also made sure to explain to me the cost that would be associated with a tarp that size and how hard it would be to find, etc, etc, etc... [whatever dude, i dont care! ill pay the 200 bucks for the tarp just stop the damn waterfall coming into my house!]

[4 days later - approximately 4:45pm eastern time]

i'd actually gotten so busy with work and greg from rainbow had done such a great job of calming my fears that i'd almost managed to forget about all of this shit. well, almost. and certainly not once i got the phone call and saw the number [or lack of number, for some reason any time these mobile reps called it was always from a blocked number, so at least that way i knew who it was. no one else ever calls me from a blocked number...] my heart sank and i knew i had to deal with this mess again.

this time.... yeah, ryan was irate and fuming. just guess what was happening...

thats right. the roof hadnt been tarped yet, and the water extraction team had yet to begin. he was beyond pissed and STRONGLY advised me to find a roofer that would get that roof sealed up asap.

obviously i called my contractor as soon as he hung up [and yes, i was PISSED]. the contractor answered the phone amid a coughing sneezing attack and let me know that he had the flu, and had been in bed the entire day and that there was really nothing he could do for me right then. hed looked for a tarp big enough to cover the roof that week but he was going to have to go to a special roof supplier to find something that large and he wouldnt be able to do anything till monday at the earliest and even then he didnt know if he was going to have the cash on hand to front me the cost of the material and labor to get the roof sealed the way i wanted.

at this point id had enough. however, i calmly asked him if it would be alright if we severed our agreement on the roof and i would find someone else who could get it done [and wouldnt worry about the upfront cost, apparently that was a big deal.... in fact, ill take a brief moment here to discuss that very aspect of all this.]

/*/ up-front payment vs. payment upon completion or some other mixture of the two...

in my working with this contractor before he had always asked for a rather large portion of the total cost up-front in order to buy materials and supplies for the job and then final payment would come on completion. well in my mind, this does make sense. after thinking it over it made sense to not have expected someone to buy potentially thousands of dollars worth of material out of their own pocket to begin a job not knowing if the client was suddenly going to bail on them or be unable to pay or whatever else. it was a kind of insurance in my mind, so i understood, and i happily paid what he needed without question - in the past.

however, when mentioning this to ryan [soon after our initial conversation , i think later that day actually] the warning bells went off in his mind that that was definitely not how this type of business was done and that i seriously needed to consider finding another contractor...

so at this point i have learned that in the contracting business [and we're talking about residential construction and repair work here so this may not be all-encompassing. im still learning all the ins and outs of the larger commercial contracting and how they go about things] it is in fact the standard of any reputable and serious contractor to have capital on hand and set aside for the sole purpose of procurement. if a contractor ever asks to be paid up front for any part of their services, walk away. just. walk. away.

this basically means one of two things. 1. they are possibly trying to swindle you and get as much money out of you as possible before either not finishing the work, disappearing, or doing a really shitty job. 2. if they are actually trying to do a good job, this is a warning sign that they are a very small company and they potentially dont possess all the experience or knowledge necessary to do a good job for you. you are much better off to walk away and find another contractor - even if it means you arent using someone youve worked with before, or is a friend of the family, or that the process of getting your work done may be extended.

and just a side note to that, always, always, always get at least 3 estimates on any work you are going to have done if at all possible. /*/

anyway, he agreed between coughing and sneezing fits that that was fine by him and assured me he was still up for the interior work [well of course he is now that the entire interior of the house has been destroyed. shit, hes seeing dollar signs....]

anyway, i hung up with him and called the only other roofer i knew in cincinnati. they are a huge company, lots of billboards, and id had them out to give me an estimate on the roof a couple of times in the past. they answered the phone and seemed genuinely sympathetic to my situation, but explained that it was now 5:30 on a friday there and that all their people had gone home for the weekend and that there was really nothing they could do for me till monday morning, but that first thing monday morning they would have it taken care of - i could count on it.

and so.... we wait for the weekend to see what happens on monday morning i guess....

meanwhile. more storms blow through over the weekend. greg calls me saturday to see whats going on and i fill him in on the roof situation. he confirms things with his suspicions that in his conversations [ i think there were 2 or 3 of them] with the contractor that week that he was going to be extremely difficult to work with on this. i assured him that the new company had guaranteed to get the work done monday morning and that there was no way they could be that large of a company and not make good on their promises and that he should be able to get in the house and get his extraction team started late monday morning. he was happy to hear it and again tried to reassure me that everything was going to turn out alright and that he'd get the house dried out for me and that he'd be there monday ready to go.

and so... we're at another stopping place. i have to finish getting ready for and go to work, so ill try and post another part of this on my lunch break later today. happy thursday!