Warning-Don't Use Garden State Gutters archived
Feb 12, 2007 at 3:55pm
First, I have a yearly contract with Ned Stevens that I entered into in June after the horrible experience with Garden State. I pay $750 a year for their service so why the heck would I call the jerks at Garden State, especially after my horrible experience. In fact, Ned Stevens had just been out in late November after all the leaves had fallen so there would have been nothing to clean. Also I had shut off my outside faucet to prevent the pipe from freezing, so there would have been no water for them to clean. I can also see the stream of frozen water still in my front gutter, which has been there for 2 weeks b/c of the cold weather.
It doesn’t even matter even if they cleaned b/c we never requested the service. After we get the bill we call them and say we never requested the service. Same jerk from the first experience is on the call. Again he calls my husband a liar and claims that we must have called them, they wouldn’t have pulled our names from the air. We explain what happened the first time, it doesn’t phase him. Husband also tell him that I have a yearly contract with Ned Stevens for $800 so why would we call him. Still continues to claim we are lying, we tell him we’ll fax the Stevens contract. He won’t budge or even acknowledge the possibility that a mistake has been made.
I think that the automated messages we received are telling of their deceptive practices. The automated message that we received yesterday had no identifying info in the message. If I didn’t have caller ID, I wouldn’t have known who to call. There was no call back number and no company was named. There was another message on our answering machine today. Seriously this is all it said. “If you are happy with the service please press 1, if you were unhappy with the service, please press 2.
It doesn’t even matter even if they cleaned b/c we never requested the service. After we get the bill we call them and say we never requested the service. Same jerk from the first experience is on the call. Again he calls my husband a liar and claims that we must have called them, they wouldn’t have pulled our names from the air. We explain what happened the first time, it doesn’t phase him. Husband also tell him that I have a yearly contract with Ned Stevens for $800 so why would we call him. Still continues to claim we are lying, we tell him we’ll fax the Stevens contract. He won’t budge or even acknowledge the possibility that a mistake has been made.
I think that the automated messages we received are telling of their deceptive practices. The automated message that we received yesterday had no identifying info in the message. If I didn’t have caller ID, I wouldn’t have known who to call. There was no call back number and no company was named. There was another message on our answering machine today. Seriously this is all it said. “If you are happy with the service please press 1, if you were unhappy with the service, please press 2.
If you need proof of their fraudulent practices, see the following links. The NJ Attorney General sued Garden State Gutters on October 27, 2005 for the exact same tactics they have tried to pull on us twice: billing for work that was never performed; not showing up when they claim they will, claiming work was authorized when it never was and threatening to send the bills to collections.
http://www.nj.gov/lps/ca/press/pdf/gutter102705.pdf.
http://www.nj.gov/lps/ca/press/harveycomp.htm
Please do not even attempt to call this company. I would hate for anyone else to get caught in these tactics. Its obvious that once they get a hold of your number I guess they can continue to claim that you have a contract with them. My husband and I are both attorneys so we aren’t intimated by these strong arm tactics. But still I must say it is very upsetting for someone you don’t know to call you a liar. Please stay away from this company. At this point, we are so upset that we are seriously considering suing them in court. I don’t know how they continue in business, even after they have been sued by the Attorney General. It wasn’t even that long ago and it appears in our case that they have not changed their business practices.
Thank you for letting me vent and I hope this post saves at least one person having to deal with this company.
http://www.nj.gov/lps/ca/press/pdf/gutter102705.pdf.
http://www.nj.gov/lps/ca/press/harveycomp.htm
Please do not even attempt to call this company. I would hate for anyone else to get caught in these tactics. Its obvious that once they get a hold of your number I guess they can continue to claim that you have a contract with them. My husband and I are both attorneys so we aren’t intimated by these strong arm tactics. But still I must say it is very upsetting for someone you don’t know to call you a liar. Please stay away from this company. At this point, we are so upset that we are seriously considering suing them in court. I don’t know how they continue in business, even after they have been sued by the Attorney General. It wasn’t even that long ago and it appears in our case that they have not changed their business practices.
Thank you for letting me vent and I hope this post saves at least one person having to deal with this company.
We had horrible service from Ned Stevens too, so you may be in for future problems.
Ned Stevens calls each year as though we are a long established customer, and says that they are scheduling our gutter cleaning... we have never used them, never will as their prices are ridiculous, and I tell them every time that they call that we will never use them and why and that they are annoying and please remove our details/number from their database...
It is now a twice yearly dance as we get the same call twice a year and say the same thing twice a year.
It is now a twice yearly dance as we get the same call twice a year and say the same thing twice a year.
re: garden state gutters ... a week or so ago we also received that voice message informing us that the company would be coming out the next day, weather permitting, to clean the gutters. although the company name was not mentioned, the message did indicate a phone number to call to cancel, which we only recognized because we do use them for periodic cleaning services. we didn't call because we thought it was a mistake, since we just had the gutters cleaned back end of november. needless to say, when we returned home the next day a bill was in the door.
it was obvious that the work wasn't done because the water to the outside had been turned off a couple weeks before. we called to complain, and the charge was deleted with only a minor hassle.
it was obvious that the work wasn't done because the water to the outside had been turned off a couple weeks before. we called to complain, and the charge was deleted with only a minor hassle.
Sorry to hear about other people's bad experience with Ned Stevens. Although I think they are overpriced their customer service has been good for us. They never claimed to have done work when they didn't.
Soparents, at least they didn't try to bill you for work they never did.
I will probably use a different company next year, only b/c I think Ned Stevens is overcharging us. But nothing compares to our horrible treatment from Garden State. Is there a gutter company that doesn't try to rip you off and actually gives good customer service?
Just to follow-up my husband actually went to the Garden State office in West Orange in person today. The guy there claimed he wasn't the one that talked to us, but his name was also Mike. Actually all the people that I've ever dealt w/ at Garden State are named Mike but they never claim to be the person you talked to. The guy said he would look at our materials and call us back later today as he was off to court. The guy must get sued a lot.
We'll see, I told my husband to go back to the office in person and request written confirmation that we have no contract with them and that they will never contact us again.
Lianbarrow, I'm surprised they were so accommodating in your case. I do have a tendency to be a hothead and I knew that I couldn't stay very level headed dealing with this company for the second time, so that's why I had my husband call. He's much calmer. But even with him, their response was to call him a liar. Even he got upset when they called him a liar.
I realize that with all businesses mistakes can sometimes happen and you are going to have a certain percentage of your customer base that won't be satisfied. But when you have a company who's first response is to call its customers liars and won't resolve problems in the face of clear evidence in your favor then you've got a problem. In the case of Garden State, they have clearly crossed legal boundaries before and it appears that the Attorney General suit has done nothing to change their aggressive sales tactics
Soparents, at least they didn't try to bill you for work they never did.
I will probably use a different company next year, only b/c I think Ned Stevens is overcharging us. But nothing compares to our horrible treatment from Garden State. Is there a gutter company that doesn't try to rip you off and actually gives good customer service?
Just to follow-up my husband actually went to the Garden State office in West Orange in person today. The guy there claimed he wasn't the one that talked to us, but his name was also Mike. Actually all the people that I've ever dealt w/ at Garden State are named Mike but they never claim to be the person you talked to. The guy said he would look at our materials and call us back later today as he was off to court. The guy must get sued a lot.
We'll see, I told my husband to go back to the office in person and request written confirmation that we have no contract with them and that they will never contact us again.
Lianbarrow, I'm surprised they were so accommodating in your case. I do have a tendency to be a hothead and I knew that I couldn't stay very level headed dealing with this company for the second time, so that's why I had my husband call. He's much calmer. But even with him, their response was to call him a liar. Even he got upset when they called him a liar.
I realize that with all businesses mistakes can sometimes happen and you are going to have a certain percentage of your customer base that won't be satisfied. But when you have a company who's first response is to call its customers liars and won't resolve problems in the face of clear evidence in your favor then you've got a problem. In the case of Garden State, they have clearly crossed legal boundaries before and it appears that the Attorney General suit has done nothing to change their aggressive sales tactics
I know the price is a little shocking. Our gutters are not vast. We have a 5 BR standard SO Dutch Colonial. I thought it was a little high. That's why I previously posted about other people's gutter cleaning fee experiences. I didn't know any better and at the time the customer service I got from Ned Stevens and continued to get from them was night and day compared to Garden State. I think I was very traumatized by the experience and willing to pay the bucks to have someone come out regularly and actually respond appropriately to our requests.
Again, I welcome all new recommendations for gutter cleaning company. Someone had previously recommended Jersey Glass and Gutter. I will probably give them a call after my Ned Stevens contract runs out. Any comments good or bad about Jersey Glass and Gutter?
Again, I welcome all new recommendations for gutter cleaning company. Someone had previously recommended Jersey Glass and Gutter. I will probably give them a call after my Ned Stevens contract runs out. Any comments good or bad about Jersey Glass and Gutter?
We use Jersey Glass and Gutter based on a recommendation from someone here. They came out promptly and did what they were supposed to do. They also came out pretty quickly to do some minor gutter repair for us. I don't remember exactly what we paid, but it was pretty reasonable. They did automatically schedule our cleaning this fall, but we wanted them to, so no problem here (and there was a return phone number on the mailing we got telling us about the cleaning in case we wanted to cancel).
We used Nick Kosh for gutter cleaning for the first time this year. His guys came when they said they would and even knocked $10 off the quoted price because there wasn't a whole lot to clean out of our gutters.
We don't require service year round because we don't have a lot of trees around us that are higher than our roof, but the one-time visit for a 3-bedroom dutch colonial was $75 (but they charged ud $65).
He can be reached at 973-226-3322. Good Luck.
We don't require service year round because we don't have a lot of trees around us that are higher than our roof, but the one-time visit for a 3-bedroom dutch colonial was $75 (but they charged ud $65).
He can be reached at 973-226-3322. Good Luck.
We used Ned Stevens, too. They came and cleaned, then told us we needed all of our gutters replaced and estimated the cost at about $2000. We declined, since we had work done on our house a month or so earlier and the contractor said our gutters were in good shape. Oddly enough, a few days later a piece of our gutter blew off. When my husband climbed onto the roof to screw it back on, he found the missing screws sitting in a neat pile...almost, he claims, as if someone unscrewed the gutter and left them there. Although we found this VERY unlikely, we still laugh about it. Anyway, for a week or so afterwards, Ned Stevens would call our house several times a day and hang up on the machine (I saw them on caller ID). Finally, I called them back and asked them to stop calling, noting that they had called at least four times in one day without leaving a message. Thankfully, we didn't hear from them again.
Newtomaplewood,
I wouldn't be surprised if they unscrewed your gutters. They usually just don't blow off a house. Come off because of snow and ice buildup, yes.
If someone wants a good gutter guy (who I'd use on my home) for cleaning, repair or install just whisper to me. He'd be outside the scope of our MasterShield dealer network. Of course I'd prefer if you put MasterShield on your home but none the less if you need a reliable guy I have one.
I wouldn't be surprised if they unscrewed your gutters. They usually just don't blow off a house. Come off because of snow and ice buildup, yes.
If someone wants a good gutter guy (who I'd use on my home) for cleaning, repair or install just whisper to me. He'd be outside the scope of our MasterShield dealer network. Of course I'd prefer if you put MasterShield on your home but none the less if you need a reliable guy I have one.
I also had a problem with Ned Stevens, They did not replace my gutter screen/covers properly and never came back to fix them after several calls but kept insiting I promptly pay the bill.
BTW Aurora Gutter Cleaning supports or did recently support the local recreation baseball teams. You might want to try them I will next time since thay support our kids.
BTW Aurora Gutter Cleaning supports or did recently support the local recreation baseball teams. You might want to try them I will next time since thay support our kids.
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First let me say that I had previously posted about a bad experience I had with them. But what happened yesterday pales in comparison.
Last night there was an automated message on my answering machine that work had been scheduled and that depending on the weather that they would be out tomorrow to perform the work. The message did not identify the company or provide a call back number. Well I have caller ID and realized it was Garden State Gutters calling. Well I was confused b/c I had such a horrible experience with them the last time I didn’t understand why they thought I had requested service.
The first experience that I posted about occurred in early June when we moved into our SO house. Garden State had been recommended by our agent and we called them. They told me several times that they would come but then they never showed up. After the third no show I got fed up and left a voicemail saying that I was canceling. Well a couple days later they call and say they were following up on the gutter cleaning. I was surprised b/c no one ever came. When I tell them that no one came and that it was quite obvious no one had come to clean, the service rep, who I know think is the owner, claims I’m lying and that they never received my cancellation call. Lucky for me that since the gutters had been so dirty that when the manager came it was obvious nothing had been done. Also, I had other contractors working on the house on the day they claimed to have cleaned and my contractors said no one had shown up that day. The manager that I talked to apologized for the other rep calling me a liar and claimed he had been fired. Needless to say I told him I was very upset by the reps behavior and that I would not be using them in the future. This took two days to resolve and I had to deal with 2 very rude calls from the owner calling me a liar. I thought my nightmare with them was done, but oh no.
Last night I called the number on the caller ID and no one answers. I asked my husband to call them today b/c I don’t want to deal with them again. He tries several time today to call the number he found on the internet. No one answers the phone. We get home and lo and behold there is a bill from Garden State Gutters for $90, claiming that they cleaned.