Home Depot At-Home Services (Roofing)

[liquidfly]

Has anyone had a POSITIVE experience with HD's At-Home Services? My neighbor just had his roof done and he's completely satisfied. Just want some more opinions before I decide to go that route. Rick

[Edwin Pawlowski]

One of my co-workers tell me what a great deal they got on siding from HD. Then she mentions all the things that she does not like about it.

I'm sure they do lots of things good, but I hear of too many BAD stories to take a chance. Ed

[garryd]

Home Depot will hire just about anybody. If you get lucky you get a top notch pro, but given what HD pays you won't get that lucky often. It's a crap shoot when you go through HD or Sears, etc. Better to hire your own guy.

[Greg O]

Sure people have had good experiances with Home Depot, but Home Depot does not actually do the work, they hire a subcontractor. Maybe the same company you could hire directly to do the job! Why have Home Depot as a middle man?? Greg

[xrongor]

even if they dont directly contract out, there's still clearly gonna be extra markup for home depot. that nascar is expensive...

randy

[Richard J Kinch]

In principle, an uneconomic way to sell. Going the same route as all those Sears "services", just applying general brand goodwill (such as it is) to random stuff. It's like the phone company started pizza delivery.

[fatman985]

HD is just a middleman that gets between you and the installer. I've used them for installation of an appliance, a dishwasher, and it went fine. A number of years ago I remodeled my kitchen and bought the counter from HD. I used their installer. He didn't communicate well with the guy who installed the cabinets and instead of a built-in stove I ended up with a standalone. I ended up getting half my money back on the counter but I'd rather have had the job done properly. I wouldn't use them on a large project like a roof. Better to work with a company that does only roofing than an HD low-bidder that may be a jack of all trades.

[Chuckles]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

HD does not hire or pay people for this function. They use independent contractors, who pay a fee for the referral and use of the brand name. So the quality and value depend on the individual contractor.

I got a roofing quote from them last year, and it was 2.5 times the lowest quote. Would they have been 2.5 times better? I doubt it.

[garryd]

Not true. Contractors sell spare hours to HD at a reduced rate so HD prices are competitive. Some contracting firms make no money at all on the deal but it allows them to keep their crews busy without having to lay anyone off. Generally they send their least experienced workers on the lower paying HD jobs.

[liquidfly]

Using Home Depot as the middle man, I'm assuming, will mean good financing options and a warranty that someone will actually stand behind. The company that Home Depot hires may not be around in 20 years but I'm pretty sure HD will be...

[books]

I had a hot water tank installed. The installer came out the very next day. He did break a part off the humidifier and when they never came back to fix it, I went back to HD and they were on it. What I like is that you can use a credit card and that they were fast. You can go after HD if something does go wrong. But it does cost more.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

OK, a know nothing klutz damaged your equipment and did nothing. You are happy with HD because you had to go back to the store, complained, and they fixed it and you even paid more that at other places. Damn, it does not take much to make you happy.

[books]

Yes in this case I was. I wanted the tank installed asap since it had leaked all over . My time is worth something. But that all depends on what you make. You may be the type that will drive 20 miles to save a dollar. At the time, I paid 425 for a tank plus they took the old one away. Our trash pickup would charge us $15 to haul away.I went in at noon one day and it was installed the next day at 9:00am. Where I live , that would NOT have happened trying to locate someone through the yellow pages or in the local newspaper. We were not interested in waiting a week to take a shower in the middle of summer. Perhaps you don't mind smelling. We do though. So I paid around 50 dollars more to HD than sitting there for a week , taking time off from work, waiting for someone to show up and give me prices(and who knows if they would have shown up) It is a tight squeeze to try to get by the humidifier to get the tank in. Who is to say that someone else would not also break it off and do nothing? Many contractors do not accept credit cards which can protect you in case something goes wrong. This entire transaction took less than an hour of my time by going to HD and was headache free. Going elsewhere would have cost me considerably more time. If time is on your hands, and it is a more costly job such as a roof, I would definitely get several quotes. But if I have a serious leak in the roof and all the roofers can't get there for 2 months, then I would consider HD. You need to use common sense in these situations.

[CBhVAC:)]

What is so funny, and sad about this, is that Home Depot uses the same people that you could have used for less...the same ones in the yellow pages, OR, some newbie that isnt experenced that is looking to try to stay alive...

I love it when I hear people say, "But they let me use my Visa/Mastercard/Home Depot card to pay for it", and then I say, "We take all major cards, and can finance you for a lower rate, and of course, could have saved you $2000." And the guys at the local Trane dealer just laugh when Home Depot calls them....its amazing what some people will foolishly pay for a 3rd party to intervene for the same thing that they can do for free..

[montana]

We must have two roofs replaced (both total tear-offs) and we've gotten a lot of bids because we were getting really varied information from different companies. HD quoted us 3X the cost of the highest bidder: a company well known as the Cadillac of roofers in our area, (who has been in business for over 20 years and whose kids are now beginning to take over). As has been mentioned, other roofers would take credit cards or finance us.

Get some bids and talk with more neighbors or friends. Also do a little research at the BBB.

HD makes a big deal about liability insurance, etc. but any good roofer will offer the same.

One other route is Angie's List.

[liquidfly]

How do you know that these kids that are taking over won't run the company into the ground in a year or two. Who is going to back their warranty on the two roofs you just bought if it's raining cats n dogs in your master a couple years from now?? Home Depot would be there for sure, I'm just not sure if the boys taking over their dad's company would..

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

Leave HD out of the picture and you can cut the cost by 20% and just call a roofing contractor yourself for HD just gets the CHEAPEST roofing contractor they can get and add 20% to it for their cut on the deal. If you want the cheapest material and the cheapest workmanship. Go HD.

TURTLE

[Tekkie]

Edwin Pawlowski posted for all of us....

Are trying to say he could have gotten it done correctly the first time and cheaper to boot? Tell me ain't so....

[Brad]

With HD you take a greater risk that something will go wrong because you get lower quality work. The problem is almost guaranteed to be fixed, but it's going to be a huge headache in the meantime. If you have a guy with a good reputation, use him. If you don't know what you're doing, use HD.

[p_j]

Just used HD to buy a Trane furnace and AC. Got two other estimates and both came in over a thousand higher. Additionally, one tried to sell crap like relocating vents.

Got counters at HD below market as well. What did you say was wrong with using them?

Another consideration is when things go wrong. Using Joe's HVAC can turn into PIA.