Total Home Exteriors Inc – Mistreat Clients, Lawsuits & More
A roofing company that lies about its billing, mistreats its clients, and avoids compensating its workers. These are all the qualities of Total Home Exteriors Inc, a South Carolina based firm.
Their address is 104 Peninsula Dr, Anderson, SC 29626, US.
Tim Marchbanks: Mind Behind Total Home Exteriors, Inc
Tim Marchbanks is the owner of Total Home Exteriors Inc. There isn’t much information available on him online which seems odd, considering he’s been running this firm for 20 years.
Why would a company owner need to hide their information when transparency is vital for building trust in customers?
Tim started this roofing company in the 90s and has been running it ever since. Apart from that, I couldn’t find anything else on the guy.
What is mistreating customers?
Customer mistreatment is the term for the “low-quality” interpersonal treatment that employees experience from their clients during service interactions. This can include verbal insults, unreasonable demands, and disrespectful behaviors (Wang et al., 2013). This type of treatment frequently results in employees feeling extremely negative emotions or experiencing work stress.
I don’t know how good of a business owner he is, but I’m certain he is not someone who respects ethics. There are a ton of Total Home Exteriors complaints that suggest Tim is not that competent of a roofing contractor. The next section of my Total Home Exteriors Inc review will elaborate on this further:
Swindling & Rudely Treating Customers
Tim Marchbanks had told this reviewer that he will do their vinyl siding job for $9000. The quoted price also included the replacement of any rotten wood they found during the process. However, Tim reneged and requested an additional payment of $300 after completing the project.
He told the reviewer that he found additional rot and had to perform additional work outside of the original agreement in replacing the rotten wood. The reviewer says that no one from Total Home Exteriors Inc informed them of any issues like this during the process. And no one told them about any additional costs they would have to incur.
The reviewer told Tim that he should have told them about the additional costs and work before. And they didn’t want him to spring it on them after completing the project to modify the original price.
Tim agreed that someone should have informed them of any required chances. But he got mad at the reviewer because they didn’t automatically agree to the new price. He told the reviewer that if they can live with it, he can live without it. And he started implying that the reviewer was cheating them by not automatically agreeing to the additional costs of the project.
The reviewer invited Tim to the jobsite to show them what additional work he had done outside of the initial agreement. He still repeated the same phrase “if you can live with it then I can live without it” and said that he didn’t know they were “that” kind of people.
Tim Marchbanks also questioned the character of the reviewer’s father and that they were cheating him out of $300. Then, he started claiming that the reviewer was a liar and that he had informed them before adding $300 to the agreement.
Now, that’s not how any business treats its customers. Particularly when the business made the mistake. The reviewer paid Tim the $300 he demanded but was very disappointed with how he treated them and their father.
Certainly, it’s highly unprofessional and disgusting behaviour. Not only did Tim insult the reviewer, he also disrespected their father. I’m surprised the reviewer didn’t give him a 1-star rating.
Total Home Exteriors Inc BBB: Devil Is In The Details
You might think Total Home Exteriors is a trustworthy business because it has a stellar rating on BBB. But you’re mistaken.
BBB accreditation is a paid membership of the reviewer platform where companies pay up to $10,000 annual fee to have a positive rating there.
Being BBB accredited allows companies to remove customer complaints from their BBB page and ensure that they will have a positive rating regardless of their business practices.
CNN Money had launched an investigation into this twisted business model. They found that BBB would give A or A+ ratings to scams and illegal companies simply because they were BBB accredited.
So, you shouldn’t trust the A+ rating Total Home Exteriors has on BBB. They are paying the review platform for keeping that stellar rating.
Scamming Insurance Companies For More Money
This Total Home Exteriors review points out that this firm lies about the bills they send to your insurance company. They try to convince the insurance company to pay them more than they deserve. The reviewer alerts the readers that they should check every detail carefully while working with this firm.
Total Home Exteriors might even harass you for highlighting their dishonesty and poor workmanship.
Reported As Unprofessional By Customers On Yelp
This person had set an appointment to meet with someone from Total Home Exteriors. However, the company made them wait for 30 minutes after the designated time. And they only invited them to tell the reviewer that Total Home can’t provide them with the siding they wanted.
The reviewer highlights that the company didn’t even listen to what other projects they were interested in. They simply informed them that they were incapable of offering the required services and ended the meeting.
The reviewer also wanted gutter work and some additional services. But no one listened to them.
Poor customer service is a huge red flag. No customer deserves to be treated like this. That’s why you should conduct proper research on a business before hiring it. Otherwise, you might receive such horrible treatment for no reason.
Total Home Exteriors Inc Lawsuit: Bret Vs Higgs
Apart from mistreating clients, Tim Marchbanks also mistreats his employees. In the 2000s, a lawsuit was filed by a worker who suffered an accident while working on a project. He wanted to get compensated through insurance but Total Home Exteriors Inc didn’t want to spend a penny.
Hence, they requested the court to transfer the liability to the Uninsured Employers’ Fund. At first, the court ruled in favor of Total Home Exteriors. But then the court of appeals’ decision was reversed and it was held that Total Home may not transfer the liability to the fund.
This lawsuit is a clear example of how little Tim Marchbanks cares about his own employees. After reading the numerous client reviews and then reading this lawsuit, it’s obvious that Tim only cares about his wallet and nothing else.
Total Home Exteriors Inc: Verdict
This roofing company has too many red flags to count. They don’t respect their clients, they avoid compensating their injured workers, and they use unethical business practices to mislead consumers.
All of this indicates that it would be best to avoid working with Total Home Exteriors. You should find some other service provider.
These claims are not true.
They had a dispute with a customer over some rotten wood, but it was in their contract that they would be responsible for rotten wood found. They only charged them the cost as per the contract.
They don’t pay for reviews, only a membership and honestly companies don’t even have to pay to receive a rating.
They are unsure where this review had come from and have never been accused of “scamming the insurance company” or putting a roof on that was done improperly.
This was a person who wanted a quote. The person in the office that took the appointment did it by mistake because they did not offer the service that he wanted. When the estimator called to let him know he was on the way, he discussed what he wanted and let the man know that they don’t offer what he wanted. Had he mentioned that he wanted other projects done they would have been glad to provide a quote.
There was a worker that got hurt on a jobsite. He worked for an insured subcontractor, who paid a local insurance agent at the time for his policy and it was never found. This had to go through the system and ultimately, because they were insured, their insurance paid the bill and the homeowner was protected. This happened almost 20 years ago.