This was the worst home experience we have had to deal with in 15 years of homeownership (including a flooded basement).
We retained Aspen Exteriors for the replacement of our roof, once they were able to get an insurance submittal request approval. The initial customer service experience was extremely positive when Matt coordinated everything with insurance.
Once our contract was signed, however, the experience was a complete 180, with lack of professionalism, courtesy & communication from that point forward. In early June, Aspen cashed our deposit check within 24 hrs of receipt, then proceeded over the next 6 weeks to not provide any updates relative to progress & timing on scheduling the roof replacement. Aspen never provided a proactive update even though they cashed a $5,000 check. This differs from Aspen's marketing collateral where they seem to indicate a concierge-type approach to the roof replacement process-which turned out to be lip service and marketing only.
The work started 7 weeks after our check was cashed, with a phone call from Aspen one week prior to job start after I called to leave messages weekly. Aspen would not guarantee or confirm the timing of the day of work since they do not have control over the crew-as we learned. The 3rd-party crew showed up one day that week to start the work and the roof was a 2-day job based on roof size.
What we learned is that Aspen does not directly employ the crew, or have any direct/indirect oversight since the 3rd party crew that completed the work had no foreman on site that spoke English and could explain what was going on since we also had gutter replacements occurring that same week, following roof installation.
When the separately-contracted gutter crew came out, there were some issues that the gutter crew caused that the roofing crew came back out to fix, which was appreciated. However, it was apparent that the roof was laid in an inconsistent manner, with the shingle overhangs different at different locations of the roof.
What transpired from mid-July to early September included 30+ emails between myself & the Aspen-employed project lead, the owners of Aspen and our initial point of contact Matt. Over and over again, we communicated that the job should have a direct foreman, in order to have quality assurances not made by a Facetime call between the 3rd-party crew to the 3rd party foreman located in Texas while we are in Iowa.
Only through hours of painstaking documentation on my part, being my own supervisor (not relying on the company we paid over $14K to do the job), dozens of photos and emails questioning the integrity and professionalism of Aspen Exteriors were we able to get the job completed to our satisfaction.
Finally, after a month of back and forth, our project manager at Aspen (Brad) and I negotiated a final scope, which was apparently not communicated to the crew or there was nefarious intent between the scope Brad & I agreed to versus what was communicated from Brad to the crew (bait & switch).
When the crew came back out on a Saturday am in mid-August, again after no heads up on timing, the crew did part of the remediation we agreed to & attempted to leave. I was required to sit outside to supervise the 3rd party crew (still no foreman or Aspen rep to inspect/supervise given the on-going issues) to confirm and validate the roof work being completed was what we agreed to. The crew attempted to leave 3 total times that day, then finally claiming they ran out of shingles and would come back the next day to finish (they did not return the next day or again). I then had to individually point out to Brad each component that was deficient, inclusive of the continued lack of integrity and professionalism that Aspen clearly touts on its website (https://aspenexteriors.com/about/credentials/). I then had to wait another 3 weeks for the off-site foreman to visit Iowa from Texas and complete the work himself.
In total, the job is complete, however, this was the most painful home project we have had to deal with. read more
