Power Home Remodiling review: Preying on the elderly

This company targeted, preyed on and then took advantage of my 83 year old mother who is in the early stages of dementia and swindled her out of close to 30,000 dollars. They came to the house to offer her a free estimate. She told them that her son, (me) lived with her but was at work during the day. They made sure to set the return appointment for a weekday morning when she would be alone. They came into her house, went up into her attic and then sat and socialized with her for a number of hours before putting a contract in front of her to sign for a new 21,000 dollar roof. My mother had just spent 5,000 dollars three months before to fix part of the roof but they told her she needed this done. My mother was confused and worried about the safety of the house, but informed the sales rep that her son Tony had power of attorney and that she would need to speak with him. They convinced her somehow that she could sign it without consulting him. They then had her sign a contract to take out a loan to install a 21,000 dollar roof on her home. They focused on how much the payment would be each month as opposed to the total cost and length of the financing and my mother, in her dimished state, did not even realize what she was agreeing to pay. On top of that, they signed her up for a financing plan and line of credit that she will be paying for until she is 93 years old, assuming she lives that long. My mother is very easily confused and had no idea she was signing to take out a 10 year loan and enter into a financing plan that added another 7 thousand dollars to the price bringing the total to just under $29,000.

I witnessed the predatory and aggressive and deceptive sales tactics this company applies to the elderly first hand. Two days after the Power Home Remodeling performed the work on the house, I was visiting my mother and she told me that someone had worked on the roof earlier in the week and the company was sending a "Quality Assurance" manager to come and inspect the work to ensure that everything was satisfactory. I was there when the guy arrived and I let him in and he went upstairs to speak with my mother. I had a friend there as well and realized after a while that the man had been upstairs for well over two hours. When I went up he was showing my mother pictures of his kids and drinking coffee and laughing with my mom, ingratiating himself to her. It was at that moment that I saw the invoice for 21,000 for the work they had performed earlier in the week. I also saw that he had a new contract drawn up with pricing on it for an additional 17,000 dollars of work that he was explaining would only add a small amount to the monthly premium she now had to pay on the loan they initially got her to take out.

When I realized what was happening I told the Power Home Remodeling rep that we were not going to sign anything else today and were all set. He then went through a series of stalling tactics saying things like, "Ok, but let me just ask you why, explain it to me." or, "Ok, I just need to ask you these questions before I leave." He had already been there for over 3 and a half hours at that point and he only left after I bluntly told him that he needed to get out of the house. I have no doubt if I was not there my mother's diminished mental state combined with his relentlessness and the emotional manipulation tactics he used such as sharing pictures of his young children with her and laughing etc., he would have signed her up for another 17,000 dollars worth of work. This company is predatory and targets seniors and someone like my mother who is in early stages of dementia was the perfect target.