ComplaintsforSwordsmen Roofing and Construction, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  10/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  September 28, 2022 Hurricane **** hit Charlotte County, ** hard with a lot of damage in the area. Over the next couple days many signs started going up, offering free tarping of roofs by many companies and individuals.A few days after that my wife was contacted by Swordsman Roofing (there branch in Central ******* - main office in *****). My wife grew up with some of the office staff. My wife and I had never heard of Swordsman Roofing, but they wanted to talk to me. I am a Pastor of a Church in this area and know a lot of people. ********* told me that they wanted to help me out and the community with tarping roofs. I told them there are a lot of signs of people doing free trapping. ********* insisted they wanted to help me and other people I know. I said oh, so you want to show goodwill toward people and then hopefully pick up some business. They responded that yes, they just wanted to help. I told them that we did not have insurance on my moms house, another house, and the church. We only had insurance on the house we were living in. They said that was not a problem that they only wanted to help. Over the next couple of weeks they kept asking me for more names of people they could help and I gave them many names. Even after that I gave them more names when they had people on the ground here.If they had done their job, they would have made millions of dollars in roofing jobs that I recommended them. However, they did not do their job of getting estimates to people so they could turn it into their insurance or pay cash for the jobs. Swordsman blew it and I got a lot of backlash for recommending this corrupt company that claims to be a ****************** which they are not. Examples, one person who had no insurance, but has money went with my recommendation to use Swordsman Roofing. She had cash and ready to go immediately. ********* ignored her for almost a month and I reminded them multiply times that she has cash and ready to go. After being ignored she finally called three other companies and they came out immediately and gave her estimates. After that ********* decided to come and give her an estimate. The Swordsman estimate was $10,000 more than the highest estimate she had got and said no to them. If Swordsman had given her an estimate right away, she would have gone with their overpriced estimate and not checked anyone else, because of my recommendation. What is disgusting is that ********* tried to charge her for the free tarping they did. They could have had the roof job.There multiply people (who I recommended) who talked with ********* and kept being told that they would get an estimate in a few days and a month to six weeks later they still did not get an estimate from Swordsman and so they went with other companies that gave them estimates to turn over to their insurance company.My personal experience with Swordsman was not good either. Not only did Swordsman wrong most of the people I recommended them to, but they did me wrong and cost me a lot of money (money that they owe me and still have not paid). First is the church I pastor. I asked repeatedly for several months to get an estimate for the church, so we could send it to our district to get help for replacing the roof. Finally, we called a couple roofers and got quotes in days to send to the *************** to replace our roof. Swordsman blew it again, because they could have had the job, but refused to give the church an estimate for replacing the roof.Second, my moms roof needed to be replaced and I kept calling for an estimate for it and another house, so I could get a FEMA loan to replace the roofs. ********* refused to give me an estimate, even though I continued to ask over and over again for the estimates.My moms house was not tarped very well by Swordsman and when we got our first rain, it destroyed the drywall ceiling in many areas of the house. I called Swordsman and they went over and re-tarped the roof and when it rained again, it was worst rain in the house than the first time, they tarped it. I called Swordsman roofing a third time and they said no problem, we will go over and fix it. They showed up at my moms house, but never got on the roof. They lied to me and said they were on the roof a third time. I then got some tarps that they were handing out for free and a neighbor went on my moms roof and tarped it. It rained and no water got in. So someone who is not a roofer knows better than Swordsman roofing to dry in a house with traps. There was no damage to the drywall ceiling in my moms house until Swordman roofing did tarping on it. Thank God for a neighbor who went up and finally did what they could not do.We have a store that Swordsman roofing promised several times that they would go out and trap and give an estimate on fixing. After multiply times of not showing up, I talked face to face and they promised they would go out and tarp it immediately (rain was coming in a couple days) and then get me an estimate. The rain came a couple days later and destroyed parts of the ceiling and many things in the store, because they never tarped it. I called them back and they said it was not worth it to go trap it and they would have the estimate to me quickly. They were too lazy to do what they said they were going to do and cost me a lot of money. After the rain and destruction that Swordsman Roofing caused, another roofing company came by the store and tarped the roof section for free. I called multiply times over the next weeks and no estimate. Finally, the business next to my store hired a roofer to repair the roof line between our two buildings. The Swordsman finally got me an estimate to little to late, again they dropped the ball and caused a lot of damage.I could go on and on about different ways Swordsman roofing hurt me personally, costing me money, what they did to the church, and the way they hurt many people in the community that I recommended them too. But there is not enough time or paper to write it all.Swordsman owner has threatened me repeatedly, that I need to pay for the free service they offered for trapping roofs. They have been nasty and if anyone is going to pay, Swordsman needs to pay me for all the damage they have done to my moms house and my store.Stay away from Swordsman Roofing!

  Customer response

  10/09/2023

  I want the owner to stop contacting me and threatening me.

  no further contact by the business

  

  Business response

  10/11/2023

  Pastor,
  
  
  I will respond to your complaint, addressing your concerns in the order in which you delivered them.  
  
  You brought up the many companies with signage offering "free" tarps.  I would certainly not expect you or many consumers to know this, but that is simply a marketing ploy.  The word "free" is used loosely and upon reading the fine print, you would see that what they were really promoting was, with the assumption the potential client has coverage, that their insurance company would be covering the cost of the tarp or temporary repair fees.  Many contractors use this technique, but we find it misleading, so we opt to be up front about how that process works.
  
  
  Because of the catastrophic damage caused by a storm of that magnitude, many from our company rushed to *********** ******, Harbor Freight, and even Amazon to purchase anything we could find to be able to cover people's homes to prevent further damage.  We then secured teams of laborers and paid them to perform these temporary repairs as efficiently as possible so that while each homeowner waited for the insurance company to do their part, damage would be limited inside their homes.  We also provided, at no cost, air humidifiers, air movers, and even some specific equipment you requested for your church.  Our company is not a 501 C3 and we do not receive donations from anyone to cover our expenses.  In a perfect world, yes we would love to be able to give away our services to those in need and still know that our families would be provided for.
  
  
  I do not know who you had a conversation with regarding estimates or "collecting names" from you.  We have no record of these interactions whatsoever.  If I were to speculate, it would be an individual who for some time now, has not worked for our company.  If it were this individual that you had asked for an estimate from OR gave referrals to, the rest of us at Swordsmen have absolutely no knowledge of this and is, in large part, why this individual is no longer working for us.  Had anyone other than this individual been asked for an estimate, you would have received it immediately.  I believe that when you use the word "Swordsman" throughout your review, you are referring to this individual.  What we do have record of is dozens of attempts on our part to communicate with you in a variety of ways without any response from you.
  
  
  As a ****** follower, I personally take exception to your claim that my company "claims to be a ****************** which they are not".  Even as a minister, I do not believe you are qualified to determine the validity of anyone's faith other than your own.
  
  
  As far as our company owing you money for something, I am not aware of any invoices you have sent us for anything.  This concept is rather interesting since we have spent tens of thousands of dollars on temporary repairs for your properties and never received as much as a ***** from you to this point.
  
  
  When any tarps that had blown off, torn, come loose, etc, the person who does still work for the company stated they were made aware and immediately dispatched a crew to put on a new one.  It is worth noting, tarps are a temporary fix and are meant to last for a few weeks only.  Blaming us for damage that occurred as a result of a CAT 5 hurricane, especially knowing that you thought our services were charity, is unfair and unreasonable.
  
  
  You mention the owner "threatening" you repeatedly.  If sending an invoice for work completed is a threat, then I suppose that is your interpretation.  The owner did recently send you an email as ANY business owner would do, asking you to respond to avoid collections.  Instead of doing so, you chose to attempt to disparage our company.
  

  

  Business response

  10/25/2023

  Pastor,
  
  
  I will respond to your complaint, addressing your concerns in the order in which you delivered them.  
  
  You brought up the many companies with signage offering "free" tarps.  I would certainly not expect you or many consumers to know this, but that is simply a marketing ploy.  The word "free" is used loosely and upon reading the fine print, you would see that what they were really promoting was, with the assumption the potential client has coverage, that their insurance company would be covering the cost of the tarp or temporary repair fees.  Many contractors use this technique, but we find it misleading, so we opt to be up front about how that process works.
  
  
  Because of the catastrophic damage caused by a storm of that magnitude, many from our company rushed to *********** ******, Harbor Freight, and even Amazon to purchase anything we could find to be able to cover people's homes to prevent further damage.  We then secured teams of laborers and paid them to perform these temporary repairs as efficiently as possible so that while each homeowner waited for the insurance company to do their part, damage would be limited inside their homes.  We also provided, at no cost, air humidifiers, air movers, and even some specific equipment you requested for your church.  Our company is not a 501 C3 and we do not receive donations from anyone to cover our expenses.  In a perfect world, yes we would love to be able to give away our services to those in need and still know that our families would be provided for.
  
  
  I do not know who you had a conversation with regarding estimates or "collecting names" from you.  We have no record of these interactions whatsoever.  If I were to speculate, it would be an individual who for some time now, has not worked for our company.  If it were this individual that you had asked for an estimate from OR gave referrals to, the rest of us at Swordsmen have absolutely no knowledge of this and is, in large part, why this individual is no longer working for us.  Had anyone other than this individual been asked for an estimate, you would have received it immediately.  I believe that when you use the word "Swordsman" throughout your review, you are referring to this individual.  What we do have record of is dozens of attempts on our part to communicate with you in a variety of ways without any response from you.
  
  
  As a ****** follower, I personally take exception to your claim that my company "claims to be a ****************** which they are not".  Even as a minister, I do not believe you are qualified to determine the validity of anyone's faith other than your own.
  
  
  As far as our company owing you money for something, I am not aware of any invoices you have sent us for anything.  This concept is rather interesting since we have spent tens of thousands of dollars on temporary repairs for your properties and never received as much as a ***** from you to this point.
  
  
  When any tarps that had blown off, torn, come loose, etc, the person who does still work for the company stated they were made aware and immediately dispatched a crew to put on a new one.  It is worth noting, tarps are a temporary fix and are meant to last for a few weeks only.  Blaming us for damage that occurred as a result of a CAT 5 hurricane, especially knowing that you thought our services were charity, is unfair and unreasonable.
  
  
  You mention the owner "threatening" you repeatedly.  If sending an invoice for work completed is a threat, then I suppose that is your interpretation.  The owner did recently send you an email as ANY business owner would do, asking you to respond to avoid collections.  Instead of doing so, you chose to attempt to disparage our company.
  

  Customer response

  10/25/2023

  I am rejecting this response because:   I was here living through hurricane *** and there were many induvial, churches, and companies that were tarping roofs for free. What you claim was that every company was lying and were going to charge for the tarping is false. Some I am sure would, you say that your company would not practice that. However, what you accuse others of doing, you did yourself. Except you told us it was free and then tried to collect later on what you said was a free tarping.

  Your company knew that several houses and the church had no insurance and your company insisted it was not an issue and you would tarp for free. 

  As far as estimates, it is not just the one person you say that is no longer with the company, but three different people said they would get me the estimates right away and never did. The only property they were interested in is our personal house that had insurance on it. After months of getting the runaround my wife once again called your ******* Office and they finally sent estimates but it was too little too late.

  As I stated before, you called us and asked us to recommend you to people, telling us that you would tarp for free and hopefully get roof jobs. Your company was horrible in getting estimate to people and your ******* Office even admitted it. My next-door neighbor was a cash job and was well off and ready to have an estimate and start right away. Your company kept giving her the runaround and after many weeks she started to call other companies and got three estimates in a day. She picked one and then your company finally gives her an estimate. Your estimate was a lot more than her highest estimate, so she said no and then was harassed repeatedly by your company. What is sad, is that she would have paid your high estimate if you would have just given her the estimate right away and she would not have called anyone else. There were also several insurance claims from church people that would have gone with you, but never got estimates and then went with another company. Your group, not just one, at least three different people representing your company gave many people that I recommended the runaround and never got estimates. Every job that I recommend you for, that you did not get was due to your company's poor service and it is sad because you could have made millions with my recommendation. 

  Three of your Swordsmen people tried to convince me to get the highest payout on my house which has a metal roof. Then put a cheap shingle roof on and use the extra money to help cover the roofs on my uninsured houses. I told them no repeatedly as I wanted a metal roof to put back on my house. You may not know this put what your 3 Swordsmen people tried to convince me to do is called insurance fraud and is illegal.

  Also, it should be noted that many people at ******* *************** (near Swordsmen ******* Office) were told that Swordmen was coming to help in our area and the Church and Community collected traps and many other items to send down with Swordsmen. However, it appears you are taking credit for everything that was brought down and trying to charge us for it. 

  The guys you had trap some houses and also houses they promised to trap and did not. Leaked at the first rain and the traps did not have time to blow off and be sun damaged. They did not do a good job of trapping. 

  I could go on answering other stuff, but it is clear that Swordsmen contacted me and wanted me to help them get in this area, but then failed by their poor customer service. 

  The Bible is very clear that you will know them by their fruits. Your company claims to be ********* and yet it lies, deceive people, and causes heartache to people who are suffering.

   

  

  Business response

  10/27/2023

  Pastor,
  
  
  I will respond to your complaint, addressing your concerns in the order in which you delivered them.  
  
  You brought up the many companies with signage offering "free" tarps.  I would certainly not expect you or many consumers to know this, but that is simply a marketing ploy.  The word "free" is used loosely and upon reading the fine print, you would see that what they were really promoting was, with the assumption the potential client has coverage, that their insurance company would be covering the cost of the tarp or temporary repair fees.  Many contractors use this technique, but we find it misleading, so we opt to be up front about how that process works.
  
  
  Because of the catastrophic damage caused by a storm of that magnitude, many from our company rushed to *********** ******, Harbor Freight, and even Amazon to purchase anything we could find to be able to cover people's homes to prevent further damage.  We then secured teams of laborers and paid them to perform these temporary repairs as efficiently as possible so that while each homeowner waited for the insurance company to do their part, damage would be limited inside their homes.  We also provided, at no cost, air humidifiers, air movers, and even some specific equipment you requested for your church.  Our company is not a 501 C3 and we do not receive donations from anyone to cover our expenses.  In a perfect world, yes we would love to be able to give away our services to those in need and still know that our families would be provided for.
  
  
  I do not know who you had a conversation with regarding estimates or "collecting names" from you.  We have no record of these interactions whatsoever.  If I were to speculate, it would be an individual who for some time now, has not worked for our company.  If it were this individual that you had asked for an estimate from OR gave referrals to, the rest of us at Swordsmen have absolutely no knowledge of this and is, in large part, why this individual is no longer working for us.  Had anyone other than this individual been asked for an estimate, you would have received it immediately.  I believe that when you use the word "Swordsman" throughout your review, you are referring to this individual.  What we do have record of is dozens of attempts on our part to communicate with you in a variety of ways without any response from you.
  
  
  As a ****** follower, I personally take exception to your claim that my company "claims to be a ****************** which they are not".  Even as a minister, I do not believe you are qualified to determine the validity of anyone's faith other than your own.
  
  
  As far as our company owing you money for something, I am not aware of any invoices you have sent us for anything.  This concept is rather interesting since we have spent tens of thousands of dollars on temporary repairs for your properties and never received as much as a ***** from you to this point.
  
  
  When any tarps that had blown off, torn, come loose, etc, the person who does still work for the company stated they were made aware and immediately dispatched a crew to put on a new one.  It is worth noting, tarps are a temporary fix and are meant to last for a few weeks only.  Blaming us for damage that occurred as a result of a CAT 5 hurricane, especially knowing that you thought our services were charity, is unfair and unreasonable.
  
  
  You mention the owner "threatening" you repeatedly.  If sending an invoice for work completed is a threat, then I suppose that is your interpretation.  The owner did recently send you an email as ANY business owner would do, asking you to respond to avoid collections.  Instead of doing so, you chose to attempt to disparage our company.

  Customer response

  10/27/2023

  I am rejecting this response because:   you copy and pasted the exact same thing you wrote on 10/25/2023, word for word. 

  I will update my respond and send it and not simply copy and paste word for word like you did.

  I was here living through hurricane *** and there were many induvial, churches, and companies that were tarping roofs for free. This also happened in ************************ 13, ****. I know because I lived through both Hurricanes and in ******** I helped tarp hundreds of roofs through our churches. What you claim was that every company was lying and were going to charge for the tarping is false. Some I am sure would, you say that your company would not practice that. However, what you accuse others of doing, you (Swordsmen) did yourself. Except you told us it was free and then tried to collect later on what you said was a free tarping.
  Swordsmen knew that several houses and the church had no insurance and still insisted it was not an issue and that they would tarp for free. 

  
  As far as estimates, it is not just the one person you say that is no longer with the company, but three different people said they would get me the estimates right away and never did. The only property they were interested in is our personal house that had insurance on it. After months of getting the runaround my wife once again called your ******* Office and they finally sent estimates, but it was too little too late.

  
  As I stated before, you called us and asked us to recommend you to people, telling us that you would tarp for free and hopefully get roof jobs. Your company was horrible in getting estimate to people and your ******* Office even admitted it. My next-door neighbor was a cash job and was well off and ready to have an estimate and start right away. Your company kept giving her the runaround and after many weeks she started to call other companies and got three estimates in a day. She picked one and then your company finally gives her an estimate. Your estimate was a lot more than her highest estimate, so she said no and then was harassed repeatedly by your company. What is sad, is that she would have paid your high estimate if you would have just given her the estimate right away and she would not have called anyone else. There were also several insurance claims from church people that would have gone with you, but never got estimates and then went with another company. 

  Swordsmen, not just one person that is no longer with your company, but at least three different people representing your company gave many people that I recommended the runaround and never got estimates. Every job that I recommend you for, that you did not get was due to your company's poor service and it is sad because you could have made millions with my recommendation. 

  
  Three of your Swordsmen people tried to convince me to get the highest payout on my house which has a metal roof. Then put a cheap shingle roof on and use the extra money to help cover the roofs on my uninsured houses. I told them no repeatedly as I wanted a metal roof to put back on my house. You may not know this put what your 3 Swordsmen people tried to convince me to do is called insurance fraud and is illegal.

  
  Also, it should be noted that many people at ******* *************** (near Swordsmen ******* Office) were told that Swordmen was coming to help in our area and the Church and Community collected traps and many other items to send down with Swordsmen. However, it appears you are taking credit for everything that was brought down and trying to charge us for it. 
  The guys you had trap some houses and also houses they promised to trap and did not. Leaked at the first rain and the traps did not have time to blow off or be sun damaged. They did not do a good job of trapping. When Swordsmen was called, they lied and said they went right over and fixed things.
  I could go on answering other stuff, but it is clear that Swordsmen contacted me and wanted me to help them get in this area, but then failed by their poor customer service. 
  The Bible is very clear that you will know them by their fruits. Your company claims to be ********* and yet it lies, deceive people, and causes heartache to people who are suffering.

  Customer response

  10/31/2023

  I am rejecting this response because:   the response is nothing but lies. Just because you copy and paste the exact response 3 times does not make it all of a sudden truth. Swordsmen would not know truth if it hit them in the face. The owner is a Lier and crooked! His company promotes illegal practices and tries to commit insurance fraud.

  Instead of dealing with your problems, you decide to attack me, I am the innocence party.

  If you had any credibility and remorse for all your lies and fraud, then you would ask for forgiveness and then stop your bad behavior.

  Instead, you continue to spread lies and continue to hurt the public.

  You did a lot of hurt and damage to me and the people of Charlotte County ******* after Hurricane *******

  I was willing to walk away, but Swordsmen decided to continue their evil deeds and forced me to finally report them to the BBB to warn people about this evil company that claims to be a Christian ************************************* tried to convince me to do insurance fraud and then took complete credit for tarps and supplies that were collected by ******* *************** and the community to bring to us. Then Swordsmen is trying to charge us for those supplies. Stay away from Swordsmen as they lie and say they are here to help and will tarp your roofs for free.

  Customer response

  11/14/2023

  The company never addressed the fact that they lied and offered free trapping of roofs and then later tried to intimidate people into paying for a service that they offered for free. For you to say that the company answered all questions is not true. For you to tell me they answered everything is a lie and you are defending these crooks. The reason so much other stuff was brought up is because the ***** company kept bring up more lies, which I have all the documentation that they are wrong. The simple fact is they are crooks and offered a free service, then tried to collect on it later. They never addressed this fact and kept bringing up other lies to try to cover themselves.

  Why would you lie and tell me that they answered the question when they never did?

  All they needed to do was admit they were wrong and stop harassing me and other people in the community. Instead, they continue to harass people.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩