I'm posting this for my father as he isn't super techy, though he is good at finding golf courses…read moreon the ol computer. He had an awful experience here andI reached out to Dave Murguia, Cal-Rox Roofing, Inc., based on a referral from my tree trimmer who was excellent and who I trusted. Dave advised he charged a non-refundable fee of $500 for the initial inspection. I already had a free inspection report from another roofer indicating a substantial amount of work was needed, but the guy was way out of town and transportation costs were high, and Dave said there would be a credit of the $500 towards the work to be performed. Based on the strength of the referral, I set up the inspection.
The inspection on January 31, 2024 lasted about 2 hours (the last 30 minutes of which was Dave going on and on about what a great roofer he was and his rock band, and then telling me the tree trimmer was his father-in-law). Dave did pull some tiles off the backyard patio porch roof and blew out some accumulated debris back there. He gave me a handwritten list of 9 items to be addressed without any costs set forth. I advised I was leaving town for an extended vacation on February 14 and wanted the quote as soon as possible for the items that were not just cosmetic so I could make a decision before leaving and get the job on the calendar (as he said he was booking out several months).
When I followed up on February 5, 2024, Dave said he did not have a copy of the list he gave me so I emailed it to him advising we would only be in town until February 13, 2024. On February 7, I responded to his email to limit the bid to exclude cosmetic items. On February 8, Dave sent an email stating $4800 for items 1,4 and 8 on the list. I requested a call to discuss two items on the list not covered by his quote that did not appear to be cosmetic. On February 12, Dave and I spoke about the two non-cosmetic items not included in his quote, agreeing they also needed to be done and he agreed to update the quote accordingly, and I sent a confirming email. On February 29 he sent me an email stating $7800 was the new total. Of course, I was out of the country at this point for my extended trip. Unfortunately, on the trip I left my laptop on a plane and I was unable to have it returned by the airline until late March.
On April 1, after seeing the February 29 quote on my computer, I reached out to Dave by email advising I could not read some of the entries on the handwritten original notes when reviewing the options with my wife highlighting the handful of words in question, so I could get my wife on board with what option to pursue and also to confirm the quotes were before the $500 deposit credit.
Over the next few weeks I tried calling and sending multiple texts requesting a reply to the April 1 email inquiry. I sent an email on April 30 confirming when we spoke the prior week Dave said he was too busy to respond and I should call him on the 30th, I tried calling several times with the phone ringing 5 times and just going dead, finally I was able to leave a voice mail and requesting he call me or take the time by email to respond to my April 1 email inquiries.
Finally I was so frustrated by the lack of response (which would have taken only a few minutes to confirm the handful of words I could not read), that my wife and I made the decision Dave was too flaky and unprofessional to deal with for the project and I sent an email and text on May 6 to terminate any future services and based on his failure to communicate I requested a refund of $400 from the initial deposit. His reply that same day by text was that the refund was non-refundable and then he typed up a proper estimate (clarifying the language) with the updated price quote that he forwarded to me on May 7, back dating the document to January 31, 2024.
I gave him a two week deadline for the refund (lowering my request to $300) or I would post reviews and consider filing a complaint with the Contractor's State License Board (CSLB), Better Business Bureau (BBB) and a small claims court action.
In reply, Dave blamed his malfeasance on the death of his mother. However, during several of our communications over the month long delay from my April 1 email, he confirmed he was busy working a number of jobs (due to staffing issues, he was on site to cover for his missing workers) and he was still playing gigs with his band. I have been conflicted, and based thereon I have not yet pursued formal complaints with the CSLB, BBB and /or a small claims court action. But I am out $500 based on Dave's unprofessional conduct (compounded by his not having in-house clerical staff). And in finding a new roofer to perform the work, I discovered that the standard fee for the initial inspection with the five roofers I contacted was $89 or less, so I really feel like Dave ripped me off. In fact, the roofer I used did not charge at all for the initial inspection and did a great job.
