The whole story is long, so I will endeavor to be concise in hopes that everyone will read it entirely and be saved a lot of time, money, and frustration.
I invited the lead manager of Paramount Builders in Fredericksburg, VA, one Mr. Josh Zabec, into my own on 18 January 2017. His sales pitch began at 530 PM, and ended around 815PM. During the sales pitch, after a little measuring, Josh said that the price would be around $35,000--my roof is 1600 sq. ft., by the way--which he admitted was costly, and, for a limited time, he could do it for less. After some negotiation, and a "call to his boss to confirm", Josh informed me that he could do the job for the very reasonable, "national average" of $19,800--that is approx. $12.40 per sq. ft. or $123.75 per square, if you prefer. The culmination of three hours of back-and-forth with this guy, desiring to get my two-year-daughter into bed, and the assumption that I was getting a fair deal led me to signing a contract. I did some research the next day, feeling very tentative about my previous decision. Here is what I discovered: 1) the national average for replacing a roof varies depending on numerous details-obviously-but isn't even remotely close to $19,800 (more like half of that). 2) Besides what they claim, Paramount does not offer materials or services above that of most contractors in the Fredericksburg area. For example, Lowes offers the same materials from the same manufacturer with the same exact warranty for, in my experience, less than half the cost ($8,900). -They even included replacing my gutters. So, this is what I hope you take away: first and foremost, the top guy (so the problem is endemic) at the Fredericksburg location of Paramount Builders uses deceitful, misleading, and high-pressure sales practices to get you to sign a contract; secondly, do your research vice trusting seemingly reputable companies (I found paying anything above $7.5 per sq. ft. for an asphalt shingle roof is ridiculous); third, if you forego everything I have said up to this point and do talk to a rep from Paramount Builders, keep a bookmark of the Federal Trade Commission's itemized list of unlawful sales practices handy, as you may require it presently. Finally, to add insult to injury, when I went into the office to cancel the contract, the sales associate present decided that was the proper time to imply I was either and idiot, liar, or had a very small house because I told him that my roof was 1600 sq. ft.--his clarifying statement was that that was probably inaccurate and he was "only trying to help me out". read more