Rebecca

We are using the PODS service to store some belongings while we spruce up our house to list it. So far, we are very pleased with the service. There was one hiccup when a more expensive lock we paid for was not provided (hence 9/10 not 10/10) but when I called customer service, they were great and initiated a refund for the lock. They weren't sure why we weren't given the correct lock but they managed the issue very professionally and without trying to blame us somehow. Will update the review after we get the POD back in a few months to report on how they do on the back end.

Upon realizing that we definitely had squirrels in our attic and not running around on the roof, we contacted Gates. They had someone at our house to check things out within a few hours. Tony went up on the roof and found the problem - a gap left when the soffit was pushed up when we had the roof replaced last month; the roofers forgot to pull it back down leaving a huge doorway for the lucky squirrels to enter our attic. Tony took some pictures for me so I could see the problem myself and then he prepared an estimate for the work and e-mailed it to me to review. He explained that he included some recommended services in the estimate but he was not at all pushy about those. He then left the estimate with me and gave me his cell number so I could call when my husband and I made a decision. I contacted him about half an hour later (after the roofer refused to step up and cover the cost of the squirrel removal) and he didn't think he could come back that day but he arranged for someone else to come by later that afternoon. Tony's colleague arrived about an hour later and In less than an hour, everything was done (one-way gate) and after hearing some scurrying and scratching for a few more hours as the squirrels realized their easy access was gone, the attic was quiet and we have heard nothing since. :):) Very impressed with Gates and will definitely recommend to friends/neighbours if they have a need.

Follow up to company response: Intact: We did five houses on the street this house being a semi detached house who's neighbour previously had issues with squirrels. >>This is completely irrelevant – yes, there were/are squirrels in the area and the fact that our neighbour had issues many years ago does not in any way change the fact that despite never having issues with squirrels in OUR attic, 1 week after we had our roof done, we had squirrels enter our attic through the gaping space left when the soffit was not properly put back. Intact: After removing their shingles we noticed signs of animal damage and notified the homeowner who disregard this. >>This is not true. They never spoke to us about anything of the sort (in fact, we weren’t even home when they did most of the work) – had they informed us that there were signs of animals entering our attic or signs of animal damage, we most certainly would not have disregarded such information - we would have called Gates immediately as we did once we started hearing the noises from the attic. I can assure the HomeStars community that we had no squirrels in our attic prior to this. I work from home regularly and I heard the scratching start about a week after the new roof was installed. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there was a connection between the 2 things. Intact: We did offer to put up protective screening at no cost which they declined. >>They offered to come and “seal the gaps” but refused to cover the actual cost of the mistake. Had we accepted their offer, their actions would have trapped the squirrels in our attic which would have led to them causing more damage as they tried to escape…. Intact: After meeting animal removal service on site they had determined that a squirrel ,not an infestation ,had made a hole in The soffit board in the eavestrough which had nothing to do with the roof work. >>?? There were actually 4 squirrels. Gates removal services went up and closely inspected the issue and it was Gates that took the pictures and told us that it appeared that the roofers had failed to pull the soffit back down after they installed the shingles in that section. There was never any suggestion that this was done maliciously – we understood that mistakes happen but unfortunately, this mistake was expensive for us. We would have even been happy if Intact had offered to pay even half the cost of the removal and fix but instead, they chose to act as if they did nothing wrong. I now find out that they followed up many months later on this review (I only saw the follow up recently) to post untruths about the situation to make themselves look better. The picture posted with this review is the one provided to us by Gates – there is no “hole” in the soffit just a gaping space underneath the metal where the squirrels could easily access the attic. Intact: unfortunately the homeowner left out these details and also the picture of the hole in the facia board. >>I left out no details and I have no idea what "picture of the hole in the fascia board" he is talking about. As I said in my first post - Shawn informed my husband that he would take no responsibility for covering the cost of getting rid of the squirrels and he said he wasn't interested in seeing any pictures when we offered to provide them and there was definitely no picture of a board with a hole in it. Intact: There was no lawsuit just threats which we at Intact roofing do not take lightly nor should anybody. >>We explored the legal option and determined that it would cost us more to fight this than we paid for the fix and so we didn’t pursue it any further. Original Review Shortly after having our roof replaced by Intact (approximately a month ago), we started hearing scratching coming from the attic. It wasn't constant but it seemed to be getting worse so we decided to call a wildlife elimination company to come and check things out. The guy went up and found the problem immediately (see attached photo - if you look carefully, you can even see a bit of the pink insulation). He came down and said that it looked as though roofers had pushed up the soffit to install shingles and forgot to pull it back down. Given that we had the roof replaced a month ago and that's when the noise started, this seems like an almost certainty. The wildlife elimination company knows that we are going to pay to get the problem sorted out no matter what so they had no reason to blame roofers without cause. My husband called our contact with Intact (Shawn) to explain the problem and offered to send the pictures so he could see the situation because it seemed quite clear to the pest control company, myself and my husband that this was negligence on the part of the roofer but Shawn informed my husband that he would take no responsibility for covering the cost of getting rid of the squirrels and he said he wasn't interested in seeing any pictures. He then claimed (without seeing any pictures) that gaps were NORMAL but he said he would be happy to come out and “seal the gaps” but again, he wouldn't pay for the animal removal. The problem is (and anyone in his business should know this), patching it without removing the animals that entered because of his crew's negligence will result in the animals getting TRAPPED and either burrowing their way into our house or causing dangerous damage such as chewed wires that can short and cause a house fire! I told the pest control rep what Shawn had said and his response was an incredulous "is your roofer for real"? So, while we had no issues up to this point and Shawn seemed quite pleasant and came recommended by a neighbour, the unwillingness to even consider that this might be the fault of his crew and that this might be his responsibility to fix is a deal breaker and deserves a warning to anyone thinking about hiring this company to do their roof. I highly recommend finding a company with more than 2 reviews on HomeStars and a real online presence. I went against my instincts out of respect for a neighbour and I learned my lesson the hard way. The squirrel removal and hole fixes cost $500. We will most likely be speaking with our lawyer to see if it is worth our while to sue Intact to get our $500 back since this isn't exactly a cost we expected to incur one month after having our roof replaced given that in the 11 years we have lived in this house, we have NEVER had any critters in our attic. I understand that mistakes happen - we are all human but to refuse to accept responsibility and make amends when you make a mistake is pretty despicable. Rebecca Whiteside, P. Eng.

My husband and I were convinced by one of Weed Man's representatives earlier this year to order their Spring-Fall service for managing our lawn. We were told "if you see 1 dandelion, give us a call and we'll send someone out immediately to take care of it". I know the old saying that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is but we decided to give Weed Man a try. One month ago, Weed Man came by to fertilize our lawn. The timing was right for this but the grass had just started to grow so very few weeds had appeared at that point. A week later, the lawn was covered in dandelions and other weeds (the fertilizer doing a great job of helping them to grow) but we were confident that they would have someone here to take care of them within a week or 2 so we didn't call immediately. 2 weeks later, no one had come and so my husband phoned to find out what was going on and to communicate that we had a problem with weeds on our lawn. We were told that someone would be here "this week". No one came. A week and a half later, my husband called again and was told that no one had been by because of the weather but that someone would come by "next week". given that we had been staring at an ugly lawn full of weeds and dandelions for a MONTH at this point, that answer was not acceptable to me and so I sent an e-mail expressing disappointment and telling them they needed to have someone here the next day to take care of it. The next day, we had a voice mail from Weed Man saying someone would be here the next day which was a Saturday (they even said the date 3 times to make sure we knew they were "committed" to having someone here on the Saturday) to take care of our weeds. No one came and by the time we had given up hope of someone actually coming (~4pm), their office was already closed for the day when I called. In past years, we have not had nearly as many weeds and we have taken care of them ourselves with a little hard work but this year, we wanted to focus on other aspects of our garden and because we had paid so much for Weed Man, on principle, we waited for them to step up. There have been PLENTY of nice days during the past month when they could have come to take care of it. Saying that the weather is the reason no one has been here was ridiculous and frankly, insulting. The only small bit of satisfaction we have gotten is from making sure that the Weed Man sign that was proudly left there last month when they came by with the fertilizer treatment has remained front and centre on our weed filled lawn ever since. All of our neighbours have stopped by to comment on how "impressed" they are with our Weed Man lawn. So, in summary, DO NOT order Weed Man - it's a HUGE waste of money.