A woman waited months for a refund after home repairs left her with a leaky ceiling.
Yvonne Williams is renovating her home in Washington, D.C., and the first job was repairing her roof and siding. She paid a major retailer $5,021.01 to do the work but was unaware the retailer hired a third-party contractor to actually do the job.
The job the contractor did was shoddy, Williams said.
“The gutter was extremely slanted,” she said.
Also, “The siding, while it looks good, there's something wrong with it, and they were like no, no, no,” she said.
She noticed water leaking into her ceiling.
“So I hired a home inspector to come look,” she said.
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The certified inspector confirmed what Williams suspected, finding "poor coverage," "roof surface poorly protected" and "cracking."
The inspector recommended hiring a reliable contractor to provide the proper application.
“I then contacted the company to say what I found out from the home inspector, and when they did call me back, they said, ‘Well, we need to send our own representative,’” Williams said.
They did and determined the work wasn't done correctly and offered Williams a full refund in August.
But months went by without a refund.
“Never heard back, so I called again, and I'm like, you sent your people, I need to know what's going on. I need my money back,” she said.
Not long after NBC4 Responds contacted the company, Williams received a release and settlement agreement. By signing it she agreed not to name the company and got her full refund.
If you hire a large retailer to perform renovations, ask if they use third-party contractors, and if they do, find out who it is, check their reviews and make sure they're licensed.
