May 1, 2008
Homeowner, an 84-year-old woman who lives alone, agrees to a $6885 contract to
shore up leaky wall, replace window casings, put in a new electrical box etc,
with Vinyseal of East Meadow. Work goes as planned.
Vinyseal salesman and manager come to homeowner's house. They say
"you have to replace the roof because the leak is coming from there".
They begin pressure tactics, stating, "If you don't do the roof job the
Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) will not
approve the work. LIPA will report you to the town and fine you $1500. And then
you you'll have to go to court and have to pay the fine and have to get the
work done anyway". Then they said that they cannot finish the electrical
work until the roof is fixed.
They all enter the house to discuss the matter. The manager gives a
demonstration of the roof with some kind of venting capability. Homeowner says
that she does not want anything fancy because she already has a fan in the
attic to cool things off. She wants a simpler roof. The salesman begins to
write up a contract during the conversation.
The manager says, "This is the way we do roofing". She says, "I
don't want it". The salesman shows her the $18000 price and the homeowner
is shocked and says it is too much. The salesman says, "Let me see what I
can do". He gets "on the phone". When he returns he says he
could deduct the price from $18000 to $16000. Part of this discount is
that they deduct $1000 if she allows a Vinylseal sign be placed on her fence to
advertise and to write a letter saying that they did a good job and she was
very happy with the work.
Even with the discount she says, "I can't do it". The salesman
responds, "Calm down don't get excited". The
homeowner reiterates "I don't have the money. I had to take a reverse
mortgage on this house". The manager chimes in, "Oh I know a lot
about those things, you can get the money from them (the reverse mortgage), You can call them up". She made a phone call to her
reverse mortgage manager. He says said that they can only
could give her $5000. The homeowner informs the Vinyseal manager and
salesman of this information. The salesman rips up the original contract and
writes out another. He says "you have to sign here like before" and
she signed the contract for the roof job. Her deposit was $4500, $1500 by
check, $3000 on a credit card, with the balance of $11735.
The manager and salesman leave and say that they will start the roof job on the
next day.
The homeowner spends an almost sleepless night worrying
how she will pay for the work, regretting that she signed under pressure. She
realizes that she has to cancel because at the bottom of the original contract (for the original $6000) is a clause that states that
she can cancel within 3 business days. She calls Vinylseal at around
The salesman shows up at
The salesman calls up the office. Instead of saying that she doesn't want the
roof job done, he says 'she doesn't want the fancy roof, with the "air
vent"'.
Meanwhile he takes out a single piece of handwritten yellow legal pad
paper and shows the homeowner. It "states” that "I signed that I
agree to have this done and I know that I cannot cancel this at any time".
The salesman says "And you signed it". She respond,
"I never signed it or even read it". It is a handwritten
document. He says, "Your signature is here", he reads the content of
the paper to her, and then he takes it away. It appears to the homeowner like
it was a carbon copy of her signature.
The homeowner shows the salesman original $6885 contract for the house and
says, "it says here that you can cancel for 3
days". The salesman responds "that is only on that contract (the
original), not on this one (the new roof contract)".
He continues, "They're here already and they're going to do the job. I
know you're all shook up, calm down. I'm not accustomed to working with elderly
people". The homeowner states that he was a bit snappy at that point. He
then leaves with the handwritten yellow paper. Then 12 roofers begin working.
The salesman calls back later and asks, "Did
I leave my pad there?” The homeowner says no. The homeowner remembers that the
manager picked it up and took it Wednesday. (made her
suspicious, maybe it was the same piece of paper).
Friday
The homeowner's daughter calls Vinyseal and tells them to cease and desist all work on the house. She then instructs the
homeowner to call the bank to cancel the $1500 check and to call Discover card
to cancel the $3000 charge charge but it was already in process.
Office Manager from Vinyseal called homeowner. "He says don't worry,
I'll take everything will be taken care of, you'll be happy". She says no
"I'm not I'm miserable".
Homeowner's son calls Vinyseal and talks to the owner Joe Horan. Joe Horan says
that "we'll work it out, there is someone on the way to the house"
The son demands that no one from Vinyseal will step foot on her property. Joe
Horan responds and says he is willing to work out a deal in lieu of any legal
action.
Homeowner reports to her son
that against the son’s demand, the salesman, Joe Livermore, goes to the house.
He sees the homeowner in her yard and asks her how she likes her new roof, and
she replies that she doesn’t want to talk to him and walks away. He leaves.
.