Great article in Remodeling Magazine about consumer complaints in the remodeling industry. If you go with the lowest bidder with very little credibility or online reviews you could be signing up for a nightmare! Second only to automobiles – ouch! It is time for consumers to take the power back by making smarter decisions when remodeling their home otherwise you will most certainly “get what you pay for.” Or as Sean writes below, you may not even get what you pay for, you might have to pay for it twice. I ask you, how much would you pay to avoid having to battle with a dishonest contractor, file complaints, meet with lawyers and spend sleepless nights thinking about your experience? Probably more than the difference between the highest bidder and lowest bidder…
Remodelers Ranked No. 2 in Consumer Complaints in 2017, CFA Finds
Shoddy, incomplete work cited in new consumer survey.
The home improvement industry garnered the second-most consumer complaints in the country last year, second only to complaints about automobiles, according to a new survey from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA).
The annual survey, released July 30, polled 38 agencies across the country for a total of 908,595 complaints in 2017.
The CFA also asked agencies about the worst complaints they received last year based on the “number of complaints about a particular topic or company, the dollar amount involved, the impact on vulnerable consumers, or the sheer outrageousness of the situation.” Home improvement was the top-ranked complaint for this category.
The organization says common complaints were “shoddy work and failure to start or complete the job,” and the worst complaints occurred when the work “is shoddy, incomplete, or never performed” which “may make it untenable for consumers to continue to live in their homes.”
In the CFA’s press release, it cites a case of a Massachusetts couple who paid a contractor $68,000 for a home renovation, but “all they had to show for it was a hole in the ground.”
Another fast growing complaint comes from the solar roofing industry. The CFA says sales of solar energy “continue to generate complaints about misleading claims, lack of disclosures and faulty installations. These complaints now include sales of community solar power as well as individual solar systems.”
The Consumer Federation of America is an association of more than 250 nonprofit consumer organizations established to advance consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education.
