FRANKEL EXTERIOR MAINTANENCE

Since they finished the job, we have had a bad leak and water damage around one of the skylights they installed. We called them to come out and repair the leak, which by warranty they are obliged to do. They said they'd be "right out." I never saw them. They never showed. I tried calling again, and the phone was disconnected. I e-mailed using the e-mail address they gave me, and the e-mail bounced. We sent a registered letter to their address, and it was returned unopened. Roofers we've called for pricing on a repair job have uniformly told us the same thing and showed us photos: the roof is blistered, cracked and uncoated. We're told we need a whole new roof.

Neil and Scott came on Oct. 16, 2007 to perform the work. We had previously used Frankel (Jan. 2007) to repair a leak in the roof over our bay window. Pat did the work that time, came out very promptly, fixed the leak, and charged us $300, and it hasn't leaked again. I wish I could say the same about this gutter repair job. The first time it rained after they "fixed" the seam in the corner gutter piece (on Oct. 24), we realized that the leak had been made much bigger than the original drip we had called them about, causing us moisture problems in our basement, which we attempted to deal with by placing a garbage can under the new leak until we could get them back out. Getting someone back out to fix it was a nightmare, and in the end we never did succeed. I made close to 40 calls to them over a two month period. I got no response to my phone calls until I sent a formal letter on Nov. 2, which prompted a call from Frank himself. He promised he'd be out personally to fix the problem, but we never saw him. Instead, he sent Neil and Scott again on Nov. 9. This time they changed the pitch of the gutter so that the water flowed away from the corner and also away from the downspout. When we pointed this out to him, he said "it's just an optical illusion," but when it next rained, we had a very large new leak at the seam four feet in from the corner. (Though since the water was now flowing away from the corner and away from the downspout, the original leak did go away as a result, but the new larger leak they created meant that it wasn't our idea of a good solution to our original problem.) Again, I made calls for a couple of weeks, but got no response until I sent a second formal letter on Nov. 28, this time with copies of "before" and "after" photographs that showed how dramatically Neil had changed the pitch of the gutter to flow away from the downspout. After far too many calls, Frank finally sent someone out on Dec. 21 who decided the whole miter piece needed to be replaced and promised he'd be back the following week to replace it. We never saw him again, nor did we see anyone else. Finally, in February, a roofer who was working on a house nearby took a look at it and offered to fix it on the spot for $30. It was a ten-minute job. He fixed the leak by putting in a new corner piece (removing in the process a huge amount of caulk that seemed to be holding the old piece in place) and resloped the gutter to its original pitch, and we've not had any problems with it since then. Dealing with Frankel was such a hassle that we finally gave up, despite having already paid them the full $750 they asked for. It was such a small job, but it ended up being a real headache for us. If they couldn't in the end fix it, we would have still felt like giving them a positive review if they had only been upfront with us and said so and returned at least part of what we paid them, but instead we ended up feeling taken and given the run around.

I guess the work was done okay. I just had issues with them calling back whenever I would call them. I also had a problem with getting a receipt for the work they did. It was just recently done and it has not rained much so I really don't know if the roof is secure.

I found Frankel's to be technically aware of the work involved, businesslike and responsive. They solved my problem completely.

At the time everything was great. Now, less than a year later, my roof is leaking in multiple places. I've called them 3 times and they have not called me back. No matter who I talk to, I keep getting the run around. I initially put them on Angie's List and I was very happy at the time, but now less than a year later I'm having all of these problems. My roof is leaking in 3 different places. I can't imagine the quality of work is good at all. I'm very disappointed and am very close to suing them.

The work went very well. Frankel was responsive, on time, and did a good job. Since the roof was coated, we have had several storms and no signs of leakage.

I CONTACTED FRANKEL ROOFING TO REPAIR A LEAKING SKYLIGHT IN MY BATHROOM. THEIR WORKER PAT WAS VERY FRIENDLY AND CAME TO THE HOUSE SEVERAL TIMES AND TRIED VARIOUS METHODS TO SEAL THE SKYLIGHT, BUT IT CONTINUED TO LEAK WHEN IT RAINED. FINALLY I DECIDED TO TRY ANOTHER COMPANY WHO SUGGESTED I REPLACE THE SKYLIGHT. I CALLED MR. SCHULTZ SEVERAL TIMES TO REQUEST AT LEAST A PARTIAL REFUND SINCE THE WORK PERFORMED DID NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM. HE DID NOT RETURN ANY OF MY CALLS. ULTIMATELY I SENT A CERTIFIED LETTER REQUESTING HE CONTACT ME AND I PLAN TO CONTACT THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU NEXT. I DON'T MIND PAYING A SERVICE CHARGE, BUT THEY CHARGED ME THE FULL AMOUNT AND FAILED TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM.

We had the roof installed about nine months ago, and when we had heavy rains, there was a small leak. They came out and found it to be the gutter and cleared the gutter of the debris that was causing the problem. They came right away and did not charge for clearing the gutter.

I know Frankel is big in the Northern Liberties, Fishtown, Port-Richmond, etc. areas of the city, but I think they are located in the Northeast. He by far gave me the cheapest quote. I called him that morning and within 4 hours he was on my roof giving me a quote. He would have come the next day but it rained, so he came the day after and did additional work at an amazing price. I couldn't be more pleased with the service and the clean-up, and especially, the price!!! I called two other roofers from this list, and both took their good old time as far as getting back to me with a quote, and with the upcoming rain, I didn't have time on my side to sit and wait. I'd recommend Frankel to anyone.