These days you can get a refund on just about anything that doesn't work - whether it's a dress that's too big or a product that doesn't do what it's supposed to. But if you pay for a house repair that doesn't fix the problem - do you get your money back?
Denise Kenny's garage door just wouldn't close. A tech from Precision Door told her the fix.
"He did a little look around and gave us an assessment, saying that he felt it was the springs were wearing down and the springs weren't able to handle the door," says Denise.
Replacing those parts cost $1450. But that didn't fix the problem. Denise called the company again. This time, the technician had a different theory.
"The sun was not allowing the sensors to connect and so the garage door would not close," says Denise.
To keep the sun from interfering with the sensor, the technician came up with a solution that was a bit of a surprise to Denise.
"He took a piece of cardboard and he wrapped black electrical tape around it and since that fix, about a month ago, we've never had another problem," says Denise.
That's right. After spending $1,400 on new garage door springs, it was cardboard and tape that actually fixed the problem. Denise wanted a refund.
"I was furious, because I felt that we had been had," says Denise.
She became even more frustrated when, she says, no one from Precision Door would return her calls or emails. That's when she reached out to sister Call for Action station in Phoenix.
They contacted Precision Door. And the very next day, the company called Denise. And in less than a week, she had a refund of $1400 - exactly what she paid, minus the $50 service charge.
The company said, "There was an unintentional miscommunication between the customer and the company. We believe in customer service totally and we're glad Denise is 100% happy."
Denise says her garage door is working just like it should now.
Most of these situations can be tough to get your money back from. It's not often you can prove outright the repair person ripped you off. And if the tech took reasonable steps to diagnose and fix the problem, you may not get a refund.
How can you know if the repair was real or a ripoff? There's a couple of different routes you can go.
- Research the repair yourself and compare it to what they did.
- Or you might need to get another company to come out and look at the repair.
- Then call the company. If it's clearly fraud, that's an easy case to make.
- If the repair "seemed" like it would work, maybe you ask the company to give you the parts at wholesale or a break on labor costs.
If that doesn't work, contact our Call for Action team.