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First, we want to thank our customers for the honest review. We are very sorry for the confusion and that Clayton and Norma feel taken to the cleaners. Our office assistant mistakenly sent the invoice for the job out not knowing that it isn't finished yet. That's definitely our mistake. Here's the history of the job as it stands right now:

The original estimate was only for the skylight replacement. Adam did inform the customers that changing out their style of skylight could interfere with the established interior drywall in the skylight well, and he recommended a very good drywall company in case that problem arose. The additional $180 came once we discovered what was causing the leak and were approved to make the repair. Normal leak repairs are charged at $400 dollars and up, depending on the complexity of the repair, but because this was added to the skylight repair job, we gave a steep discount, charging pretty much for the labor and materials only and nothing else, no overhead or profit. We're glad our customers were happy with that stage of the work, but are sorry they feel the price was not fair. We feel it was more than fair.

The problem with the skylight: The broken one was an Oldach flat glass unit that appeared to Adam, by its height above the deck and low profile, to be mounted directly to the roof decking rather than to a curb attached to the deck and rising a little bit above it. Until the old skylight was removed, there was no way to know that the unit did, in fact, have a factory-integrated curb. This was discovered when the crew brought out the new skylight and removed the old one. The integrated curb meant the dimensions on the new skylight would not fit the opening correctly, something Adam couldn't have known until that moment came.

So, he called our skylight manufacturer to see if they could integrate a curb onto the new skylight. They said they could and it would cost $150. Adam simply passed that cost along again, rather than adding our usual mark-up for overhead and profit. What Adam didn't know, though, was that integrating a curb to the first new skylight would alter its dimensions relative to the interior drywall. How frustrating for everyone! When this problem came to light, Adam, the crew and another manager discussed the possible remedies, and one suggestion was to see if the customers would like to keep the skylight as is but add the crown molding at the top of the drywall to visually cover the poor fit. With this option, at least there would be no damaged drywall to repair. Otherwise, a new skylight would simply have to be ordered. Adam offered the solutions, but he did not insist on the crown molding idea.

Unfortunately, the skylight manufacturer told us the cost to build an all-new skylight is the cost of the old plus another $151. We don't know if they would have charged that extra $151 if we had simply asked for a whole new skylight with curb the first time around, but we do know they won't sell the new one to us for less. Either way, we now own the first new skylight at our expense. We can't return it, so we're out that entire cost. Fair enough. That is by no means the fault of our customers.

As it stands now, Adam has the new skylight with all the proper measurements and curb on order. Once the new unit is installed, we will revise the invoice appropriately. They are aware that they owe nothing until all the skylight work is done.

And when it's all said and done, we hope they will be happy and not feel like we took them to the cleaners.

Western Roofing Specialists commented on 10/22/2013