CINCINNNATI — If you're having problems with your garage door, you'd likely call a repair company to get it fixed as soon as possible.
But act too quickly and agree to a low-priced estimate, and you could end up the victim of a garage door ripoff. That's what happened to one Cincinnati-area family just months after we spoke with a Clermont County woman who fell for the same scheme.
Jamie Oneill told us she was scammed last fall, when a spring snapped on her garage door.
"I got on my phone and did a search for garage door services near me," Oneill said.
She called the first company she found. The person gave a $400 estimate for one spring and a $500 estimate for a pair. The price sounded reasonable.
But she says the worker, who arrived in an unmarked van, slapped on additional fees for extra parts.
Her total bill came to $1,258, far above the original estimate.
Worse, she said, "he gets the work done, and the garage door still doesn't work."
WATCH: Two homeowners show how they were ripped off by fly-by-night companies
Six months after our first report, we've heard from a second local homeowner who said she just had the same thing happen to her after Googling for Cincinnati-Dayton area garage door companies.
Kristin Baris said she called the first option that came up.
"We called them on a Monday afternoon, and they came out very quickly," Baris said.
She says a man stopped by, quoted her a reasonable price and then promptly took a $1,600 deposit toward a new door.
But she says he never returned, and the "company" stopped taking her calls.
"The fact is, he never called back," she said. "And then Thursday we tried again, and nobody called back."
She is now disputing the charge through her bank.
Scammers sound like legitimate local companies
Bradford Rodgers is a manager at PDQ Doors of Milford, a top-rated door installer.
He said shady garage door repair companies have become a major problem, with some pretending to be with his company. He said they show up at existing customers' homes, claiming it is time for an annual checkup, but they are not really from PDQ.
"Sometimes those competitors aren't necessarily legitimate competitors," Rodgers said. "They are illegal operations pretending to be a garage door company, and they are really not."
Rodgers says a repair person should have an ID and arrive in a marked truck. An unmarked white van or pickup is a red flag.
If you need garage door help, the Better Business Bureau has this advice:
- Don't simply call the first company that pops up in a search
- Make sure you are dealing with a local business with a local address
- Check for reviews and ratings at www.bbb.org and Yelp
- Before work begins, have a written estimate, never just a verbal one
Both Oneill and Baris said they wish they had done that.
So check your garage repair company carefully, so you don't waste your money.
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