WWYD - Shady things happened with workers while roofing

[Snowflakey]

She could mention to the owner that she wanted to talk with him in person before filing a police report. It would be interesting to see what he says and does then.

DD isn't going to file a police report. She is going to talk to the owner of the company to express what happened.

Many here, not you Kennywood, are blowing this WAY out of context. Just as my DD should have known not to let them in to use her bathroom, maybe I should have known not to post this post....ugh

 

[TCRAIG]

I don’t think police need to get involved for a bag of apples…and I agree with Easyas123 that it may be that the owner subbed out the job and these aren’t their regular full time workers…

 

[Snowflakey]

I'll give my 2 cents as a female working in the construction (albeit not residential) industry. I'm a plain speaker, so please don't mistake my verbiage for scolding, rather it's just a unemotional opinion as I see the situation as you have told it.



Respectfully, your use of "we" is possibly a small part of the issue. There should be no "we". Your daughter and her husband are grown adults who own a house and got their roof fixed. They should handle it. No one is going to respect a fully grown married couple having Mommy & Daddy go to bat for them. And no young couple will learn how to manage their own lives if someone else does it for them. Yes, parents can be a storehouse of invaluable knowledge and experiences, but all this "we" stuff is not necessary. Honestly...consider that the fact that they called for 12 days leaving many messages is likely a small part of the issue. One or two messages should be sufficient. THEY HAVE HIS $$$, if he wants it he will return their call. They have him by the short & curlies here and no amount of complaining will get the Owner to call them back to come to a face to face meeting and genuinely apologize. Him or Her wanting their money will. They might think he did, but in fact what he did was tell them (or worse, you & your husband if you are there ) what you want to hear, get his check and leave. If she can't open the door for the FEDEX guy cause some used her bathroom w/o closing the door and or because they swiped some of her apples and she didn't call them on it there and then, well I'd say her issue isn't really someone using her bathroom w/o closing the door or someone swiping her apples. Look - I'm a Mother and my young adult son just bought his first home. Did we help, did we offer our opinion, yes we did. We hand held when asked, but we also stepped back and let go of their hands so they could do it themselves - let them go thru the process and learn, including having contractors come out to do a few things.

Yeah, that's a new one to me. We have folks come onto our farm for a few days each year to do some crop specific work and we always get a port a potty for them.

Most of us would, but OP's daughter should consider the cold fact that the owner of the Company may not have any employees, he could very well sub out each job. You never know. Obviously it's not always the case, but it is always possible. Plus - many of our employees have vehicles with different state tags on them. It's not my job to police what state they have their vehicle tagged in, and I don't think to much about it. It's not a entirely out of the norm situation.

She's going to have to let it go. It's minor in the grand scheme of life, and probably minor in the grand scheme of major home improvements. Going forward, if she didn't do so when having her roof replaced she should have asked for a current copy of the Contractors Insurance indicating work comp in her state, and gone out to see if the roofers were tied off. She should have asked the guys who they worked for/proof they worked for the roofer if she wondered who they were. If she was uncomfortable she could have told them to stop and called the roofer right then and there.

This is a excellent opportunity for your daughter to learn how to express herself and her needs to someone she contracted with and paid to do work for her, and a good lesson in what to do in the future prior to getting to this point in a situation.

I respectfully don't believe "We" are a part of this issue. Up until later this week when the owner comes to meet them, my DD and her husband has handled all of this on their own. My DD is young, early 20's, just bought her first home and is new to handling things like this. As her parent, I am more than happy to help her with advice in anyway I can. As I mentioned, my DH has worked construction for years so he is able to help with the work that needs to be done. In fact, we had this company return the next day to fixed things they did wrong. Without us bringing this up, my DD would have never known.

Leaving one or two messages was not sufficient. The receptionist even coached my daughter telling her to call every day until she hears from the owner.

DD did ask about insurance and if the workers were covered so that it wouldn't fall on her homeowners policy if something happened. She never, ever thought to have to ask the workers for proof they worked for the roofing company. This even surprised my DH who has done this work for a long, long time.

You say this is an excellent opportunity for my DD to learn how to express herself and her needs - this is exactly what she was doing, has been doing and will do later this week....

 

[RoseGold]

So your husband went to sit all day with your grown adult child because she was scared someone might ask to use her bathroom or deliver some mail? Sounds like the apples aren't the problem.

 

[HeatherC]

I’m not sure what kind of responses you want. People have responded telling you they understand and feel like they shouldn’t have behaved the way they did. Your responses to them seem to be quite argumentative.

The bottom line is they have a new roof. Like I said the first time, they can mention it to the owner. Other than that, I can’t see what you expect to be done. If your daughter was uncomfortable, she should have stopped the work and called the owner before allowing them to continue working and then come back the second day.

 

[Snowflakey]

So your husband went to sit all day with your grown adult child because she was scared someone might ask to use her bathroom or deliver some mail? Sounds like the apples aren't the problem.

Ha ha ha - no. My DH is doing work on her house.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I seem to recall from other threads on here that if work is completed, the money has to be paid. Holding onto the money for disputable things like bathroom use and apples can be tricky (and I think get your DD in trouble). Not positive about this but wanted to throw it out there. Maybe someone who knows more can weigh in.

 

[fla4fun]

As a woman living alone at the moment, I can understand the OP’s daughter being nervous. I do not allow anyone doing outside work to enter the house. I absolutely hate having any type of inside work done and will put it off as long as possible. Even when it is a company I have done business with previously, I am nervous and feel anxious for days prior to the service call. It’s just the world we live in. It doesn’t matter that most of the workers are honest and wouldn’t think of doing anything criminal. All it takes is that one bad apple (no pun intended) to spoil the experience for everyone else. I am fortunate that there are two gas stations, multiple restaurants, a Walgreens, and a Publix all at the entrance to our neighborhood, so no one has asked to use the bathroom when working at the house.

If it were me, I would be talking to the owner as well, so this doesn’t happen to another customer down the line. If they are subcontractors it’s even more important to let the owner know, since even though they aren’t his direct employees, their actions reflect on his business. I know roofing companies are short handed at a time when they are also very busy, at least here they are, and companies may be resorting to subcontractors more than they normally would. If they are going to do so, they really need to make sure they aren’t going to steal or make the customer feel uncomfortable.

ETA-correcting autocorrect error

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

I would definitely say something to the owner. When we have had workmen at our house, I think they have only used out bathroom 1-2 times and those were workmen that were here for several days so we kind of got to know them a little more than a 1-2 day job. Typically, I find that workers leave for lunch go to the bathroom wherever they decide to eat that day.

So far as the apples, that would piss me off. If they had grabbed a hand full, no big deal, but if they filled a big bag and stripped the trees, I would have an issue. A good friend has an avocado tree in her yard. Every time it has avocados, she has to deal with thieves stealing the ripe avocados. if people took 1-2, it's not a big deal and it doesn't bother her, but she has come home and literally found people on ladders and climbing in her tree to strip the tree of everything. It's the greed and entitlement in people that just makes me crazy.

 

[Christine]

DD isn't going to file a police report. She is going to talk to the owner of the company to express what happened.

Many here, not you Kennywood, are blowing this WAY out of context. Just as my DD should have known not to let them in to use her bathroom, maybe I should have known not to post this post....ugh

Yeah it's hard to know if you should post. I'm always amazed at the lack of story comprehension that goes on or the imaginations that run wild with all sorts of other scenarios that weren't even a part of a post!

 

[Snowflakey]

I’m not sure what kind of responses you want. People have responded telling you they understand and feel like they shouldn’t have behaved the way they did. Your responses to them seem to be quite argumentative.

The bottom line is they have a new roof. Like I said the first time, they can mention it to the owner. Other than that, I can’t see what you expect to be done. If your daughter was uncomfortable, she should have stopped the work and called the owner before allowing them to continue working and then come back the second day.

What responses I was looking for was indicated in my initial post

I seem to recall from other threads on here that if work is completed, the money has to be paid. Holding onto the money for disputable things like bathroom use and apples can be tricky (and I think get your DD in trouble). Not positive about this but wanted to throw it out there. Maybe someone who knows more can weigh in.

They have 6 months to pay, as indicated in their contract.

 

[Snowflakey]

As a woman living alone at the moment, I can understand the OP’s daughter being nervous. I do not allow anyone doing outside work to enter the house. I absolutely hate having any type of inside work done and will put it off as long as possible. Even when it is a company I have done business with previously, I am nervous and feel anxious for days prior to the service call. It’s just the world we live in. It doesn’t matter that most of the workers are honest and wouldn’t think of doing anything criminal. All it takes is that one bad apple (no pun intended) to spoil the experience for everyone else. I am fortunate that there are two gas stations, multiple restaurants, a Walgreens, and a Publix all at the entrance to our neighborhood, so no one has asked to use the bathroom when working at the house.

If it were me, I would be talking to the owner as well, so this doesn’t happen to another customer down the line. If they are subcontractors it’s even more important to let the owner know, since even though they aren’t his direct employees, their actions reflect on his business. I know roofing companies are short handed at a time when they are also very busy, at least here they are, and companies may be resulting to subcontractors more than they normally would. If they are going to do so, they really need to make sure they aren’t going to steal or make the customer feel uncomfortable.

Thank you fla4fun!

 

[Snowflakey]

I would definitely say something to the owner. When we have had workmen at our house, I think they have only used out bathroom 1-2 times and those were workmen that were here for several days so we kind of got to know them a little more than a 1-2 day job. Typically, I find that workers leave for lunch go to the bathroom wherever they decide to eat that day.

So far as the apples, that would piss me off. If they had grabbed a hand full, no big deal, but if they filled a big bag and stripped the trees, I would have an issue. A good friend has an avocado tree in her yard. Every time it has avocados, she has to deal with thieves stealing the ripe avocados. if people took 1-2, it's not a big deal and it doesn't bother her, but she has come home and literally found people on ladders and climbing in her tree to strip the tree of everything. It's the greed and entitlement in people that just makes me crazy.

Exactly and they make some of their money selling these apples/pears/peaches.

 

[Caseheidi]

I would also want to file a report/review with the Better Business Bureau, especially if things don't work out with the owner. The apple picking is totally unacceptable. I have to admit that I am uncomfortable with service people in our house without my husband. This is part of the reason. Oh, and we had our roof done over two weeks a few years ago, and never once did they ask to use our bathroom.

 

[leebee]

In my area, the bathrooms thing is a norm in contracts (it's part of all the standard clauses you get before you even talk work) - you provide access or they bring a port o pot and charge you (I'm shocked it's not the norm elsewhere for jobs that are all day over multiple days). You can't get work done on a house without allowing it, since we don't tend to have places where you can just "run and go."

I've never heard of this before. In the past 4 years we've had roofing done, deck replaced, retaining wall replaced, and oil heat converted to gas and none of these companies had this kind of requirement in the contract.

Can you really get into trouble for not paying for a finished job? We put down 2/3 on our heating conversion, but haven't paid the final 1/3 as there is STILL a leak- it's been there since the day they said they were done. In my book, if the piping still leaks, the job isn't finished and shouldn't be paid for (and also... 2/3 down is ridiculous!)

 

[kdonnel]

I recently had my floors refinished and additional wood installed.

I made sure to tell the workers they were free to use the bathroom. I didn't want them thinking they needed to leave and lose valuable work time. They said they appreciated being explicitly told they could use the bathroom as sometimes they are explicitly told they are not allowed. One or more of them pooped on one or more of my toilets. However they always closed the door.

It is something everyone does.

 

[pigletliz]

I've had my roof redone and stucco put on my house. Both jobs took several days. Never had any employee ask to use the bathroom. If I was home alone, I would never have even considered it. The fact that they used the bathroom with the door open is tacky and bad manners, but he did have her permission to use it...

Your daughter and her husband should tell the owner of the company what transpired, including that taking a huge bag of fruit without permission is theft. I would not call the police about a bag of apples.

Sorry that your daughter is so upset.

 

[mjkacmom]

I must be weird, I’d have no issue having workers use my bathroom, even outside workers. That said, had my roof done last year and they were done in about 5 hours, no owner, but about a dozen guys, no one needing a bathroom, no one really spoke English, they did break my patio table which I told the owner about, but it was cheap and old. The job was about $8000 and I was happy with the price. My house painter was here for 6 weeks by himself (he’s great, took me a year to get him), never asked to use my bathroom but he could’ve. Our SAT tutor must’ve had issues, used my bathroom every visit, 3 kids so was here A LOT over the years. I made sure to clean it before he came.

 

[anniemae]

It is a little strange, but as someone else pointed out, as long as the roof was done correctly and they finished the job, I don't think there is much she can do.

Going to the bathroom without closing the door is odd, especially with a woman in the house, but as long as he didn't make any advances toward her or say/do anything inappropriate, I don't think there is much she can do. She should have called the owner immediately to ask what the procedure is for bathroom usage of the workers. What if both she and her hubby were working all day and nobody was home?

As for the fruit, they should have asked. The fact that they just took it is kind of bold, but I don't think there is much she can do. How much of a fuss does she want to make over some apples and pears? Personally I would not file anything with the police, but I would definitely mention it to the owner and see what he says.

 

[mamamary]

I must be weird, I’d have no issue having workers use my bathroom, even outside workers. That said, had my roof done last year and they were done in about 5 hours, no owner, but about a dozen guys, no one needing a bathroom, no one really spoke English, they did break my patio table which I told the owner about, but it was cheap and old. The job was about $8000 and I was happy with the price. My house painter was here for 6 weeks by himself (he’s great, took me a year to get him), never asked to use my bathroom but he could’ve. Our SAT tutor must’ve had issues, used my bathroom every visit, 3 kids so was here A LOT over the years. I made sure to clean it before he came.

Then I’m weird too because I’ve had work done and had the workers use my bathroom. When I had one of my bathrooms redone the guy was here at least a week. He was fighting cancer and he told me he drinks a ton of water. So yes he used my bathroom a lot. He did close the door each time though.