My frustrating experience with this roofing company...

Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. is not my favorite company. We purchased a home in Saint Peters, MO in October of 2007, and the roof had been completely replaced by Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. in 2005. There is a 5 year warranty on the roof which they have acknowledged.

We first noticed a leak in our garage around late December of 2007 / Early January of 2008. We contacted Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. and they sent a representative out (Michael Hatfield) to take a look at what was wrong so they knew who to send out. Everything seemed like it was moving in the right direction.

The day the roofing guy was supposed to come out he was a bit late, but Michael Hatfield had called to inform us he would be late and even came over with some supplies to re-tape and paint the dry wall in the ceiling that got wet from the leak. When the roofer (Brian) finally showed up in an unmarked mini-van he seemed a bit tipsy. It concerned me that his first suggestion was to extend the down spout from the top roof down to the front porch... I understood this would put less water where the apparent leak was, but he seemed to realize there would still be a leak in the roof. So his next suggestion was to caulk the heck out of the area (which I later found out from professional roofers you never want to fix a leak with caulk).

Needless to say, the leak was not fixed. We called them back and eventually got the same roofer to come out again (even though I requested a different roofer)... this time he said he noticed some areas that looked suspect that he didn't notice the first time and was going to caulk some more. (BTW - this roofer left his own business card which says "BMR Contracting - roofing specialist" on it... so I would recommend not using them either!)

Well, this second layer of caulking again did not fix the leak. So we called them up again, and this time Michael Hatfield was in agreement that the roof needed to be pulled up and a new ice and water shield needed to be laid down and the shingles replaced.

Well, they did not show up on the scheduled date to repair the roof. I attempted to call them for about a month... their phone number, (636) 397-7797 always goes directly to voice mail... I've
never had anyone directly answer that number which is frustrating in and of itself. For about a month and a half of me leaving messages I never heard back from them. I finally gave up when their message inbox was full. I filled a BBB complaint near the end of March (yes I had extreme patients to wait that long).

About 2 weeks after filling the complaint I received a phone call from Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC... but this time it was from someone different... a guy named Josh. Josh had no records of the previous visits or conclusions that Michale and Brian had come up with. We were basically starting over from scratch with Josh. Josh told us he was working at a Bar and so he wouldn't be able to fit in much time for roof repair, but that he could come out and take a look at it. Josh came by at a time different than he said he was going to, (a time when we weren't at home) and he left a business card in the door which said this on the back...

"Stopped by fixed your Leak if you have any further Problems please feel free to contact me at 636-397-7797."

Well, I called him up and he said he caulked the roof again... oh, and he used different color caulk so I could see where he had done the caulking. (so yes, now there are three layers of caulk on the roof) and yes the leak is still there, in the same spot, leaking just as much as it did from the begging. All I want is my leak fixed... and I wanted it fixed for free since it was under warranty, but it is appearing like that is not going to happen.

Well, Josh had a different idea after I called and left a message saying the roof was still leaking... he thought it was the siding. Well, I played along... for all I knew it could of been the siding. Josh had a Siding guy come look at... again at a different time than we had scheduled so I was not able to be there when he came. Josh was honest and let us know the siding guy said there was not a problem with the siding. Josh had now come to the same conclusion that Brian and Michael had come to. We needed new ice and water shielding installed.

After Josh had told me this, I then played the game of not being able to get any responses to my messages left on the Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. voice mail. I finally got a response to one of my messages, but this time it was from someone else completely different. They knew nothing of Michael or Josh's finding with my roof and wanted to start from scratch. I said he really didn't need to look at it as we've had two different roofers come to the same conclusion, but he insisted on starting from scratch. Well, I never saw him come out and never heard from him or any other roofer. What happened? Well, I'm not sure...

The other day, sometime late in May, we received a call from Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC., but just a courtesy call from a non roofer telling us they have had some communication problems. Well, that wasn't really news to us, but we just wanted to know when our roof would be fixed. He said he could not tell us that as he is just calling to tell us they have communication problems.

I left about 3 or 4 more messages trying to get a hold of them with no luck. Again about a week ago in early June we received a call from them saying we got your messages. That was it...that they got our messages. They would not talk to us about our roof or what they were going to do to fix it. I don't understand what is going on. We asked for Russ Kasper's direct phone number, and the guy said, "I'm sorry, I can't give you that number. I was just hired to call people to tell them we got their messages."

Here is the link to my BBB complaint. As of today the complaint is still open, but it doesn't appear to be visible on the main website. The status appears like BBB is having trouble getting a hold of Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. I'm not sure how long BBB will play this phone tag game with Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC., but I want to get my roof fixed ASAP.

BBB CASE#: 1345815
http://70.135.31.30/complaint/view/1345815/c/haghsk?bbbid=0734#

There website is located here: http://www.russkasperroofing.com/ Please don't visit it unless you are making sure they are not the roof company for you. I have also attached the business cards I have accumulated through the process so far. I will update this post once I know more. Thanks for your time, and I hope this saves at least one person from using the wrong roofing company. Thanks! -Matt

UPDATE 06/30/2008:
Just wanted to add that the BBB has closed my ticket due to "NO RESPONSE". This is somewhat frustrating, but it appears BBB has given a new rating of 'Unsatisfactory' to Kasper Russ Roof Replacement company. I also noticed there are some additional complaints besides mine since last I looked at the BBB. Kasper Russ Roof Replacement BBB page is located here: http://stlouis.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=142&bbb=0734&firm=310013407.

UPDATE 07/15/2008:
Well, I guess Russ Kasper Roofing got what they wanted... I broke down and went to a more reputable roofing company and had them fix the leak using my own $300... even though it should of been covered by the warranty. So far it hasn't rained since they fixed it, but based on what they told me it will be fixed and they have promised to come out and repair it if for some reason it was not fixed. I highly recommend this new roofing company which is GCC Roofing and they can be reached at 636-262-0349. They are very professional and easy to work with. My neighbors recommended them to me based on the great work they did on their roof.

UPDATE 08/19/2008:
I thought this story was over, but I got a message about a week ago from someone from Russ Kasper Roofing... I was skeptical, but decided to call them back and see what they had to say. To my surprise, the guy picked up my call immediately (it didn't go straight to voice mail!). This new employee told me he was hired basically to resolve all outstanding BBB issues and mine was one of them and he wanted to see where we stood. I told him the condensed version of the above story and that we ended up fixing the roof with a different company for $300.00. He then asked if we would like to be reimbursed for that, to which I of course said yes as our roof was under warranty. He then proceeded to offer to reimburse us for the drywall ceiling repair in our garage. I was somewhat in shock and disbelief after all that I've been through. He did indeed show up the very next day with $300.00 in cash. Persistence pays off and Russ Kasper Roofing eventually did the right thing, but I can't say I would use them again for my roof.

FINAL UPDATE:
The same employee came out to our house and reimbursed me for the drywall fixes which ended up costing $100. I am impressed with the responsiveness of the new employee and the way Russ Kasper Roofing ended up handling this situation. I just wish it hadn't taken this long and this much effort.