American Family Seamless Gutters

I got a pitch from this company about their product being so good that their business exploded out of Fayetteville, it was just so successful. They said they charge a little more than the average gutter business because their gutters and process are a cut above everyone else, they have a lifetime warrantee on everything they do, etc. They came for an estimate and showed me pictures of a guy doing pull-ups on their gutters. I agreed to the following: Aluminum K style gutters front and back with downspouts, steel hangers, a rain deflector for a small portion of overhang, and replacement of approximately 60’ of fascia and soffits, and repairing of a couple of rafters and insulation. Should have been a red flag when they asked me to pay in cash… They were supposed to be at my place on Sept 19, which was a classic no call no show. When I called to see what was up, I got the “Oh, yeah. We were just talking about you” bit. Sept 30 when he said his crew would be there for sure, no call no show again. His excuse this time was that he was stretched so thin he couldn’t text me. He gave me “sincere apology” number 1, and I gave him another chance to make it happen. Oct 11, his guy finally showed up and had no idea that the job included a significant amount of woodwork. He said that he was told THAT MORNING to hurry up to Jacksonville to do my job. Sincere apology no. 2. Oct 14, everything was finally ready to go. I stopped the work because I noticed that the hangers were aluminum and not steel. After I convinced Howard that they were aluminum, he joked by saying “Man, this guy’s being really anal about the metal” referring to me. Personally, not how I would talk to a customer. He suggested I just go with aluminum to save him a three-hour trip to Wilmington. I told him he could just finish later, but he said he needed to finish the job that day so he could get paid, because he had borrowed money from his Dad to do my job, again, not how I would speak to a customer. His guy also tried to cut my soffits by hand with a circular saw, and I told him to do it right and use my table saw. Once I spelled everything out for them, I left for the night. When I got back, I found soffits that have gaps that I can fit my fingers through. My gutters were installed over the drip edge, so I have water running down my fascia every time it rains. He did this thing where, the last four feet by the downspout, he bent the gutters down about 2 inches. I guess he thought water needs help down before it drains, and it looks completely terrible. I had the same aluminum hangers he said he would replace in the back of my house, and some new ones, still not magnetic, ergo not galvanized steel, in the front. The rain deflector we discussed is not present. I'm almost certain we discussed .032" aluminum, but I’m pretty sure that the gutters are .027”. As a bonus, I found paint all over my porch and a bunch of insulation, metal scraps, and cigarette butts in my front yard. The only thing he got right was the color. Trying to get him to fix these discrepancies was no less painful. He told me that he had 40 to 50 jobs lined up, about 4-5 every day, so I gave a list of all the discrepancies and we agreed on a date. Had to reschedule twice for weather and personal issues, but he managed, once again, to not show up and not call me on 4 December. I demanded my money back for an utterly unsatisfactory job, and he says he’s had no work all of November and December, big difference from 4-5 jobs daily, so he doesn’t have the money. He said out of the blue this morning and told me that his guy is on the way and that he would join him at my place at noon to make all the repairs. It’s now 6:21 PM and I haven’t seen either of them. I've never put up a negative review before and I'm an extremely patient person, but my opinion based on experience is that you’ll pay Howard and get nothing but embarrassingly shoddy work and a bunch of very polite apologies. I was stood up 4 separate times by these people and now I have to go fix their work.