Bill Kammerich was pretty pleased when he got $6,000 from his insurance company for roof damage in early summer.
What came next he still can’t quite believe.
A Blue Springs resident, Kammerich was eager to get roof repairs done after hail damaged his roof in late spring. Insurance adjusters came out to look at it. Some said there wasn’t any damage. Others said there was damage. Finally a decision was reached, and he received a check for $6,000.
Then came the salesman from American Shingle.
“I should’ve known,” Kammerich said Wednesday, a little over two months after it happened. “I feel stupid because I’ve laughed at other people who’ve done this.”
At the time, Kammerich didn’t feel stupid. The woman was professional and well-dressed, he said. She was courteous. She was interested. She visited with him for some time. She finished the meeting by drawing up paperwork and asking for half the money – $3,000 – up front before work began.
“You should have seen the folder she gave me, the numbers, all the information,” he said. “It looked legitimate. Anyone would have thought it was legitimate.”
Then as she prepared to leave, she said something that Kammerich said haunts his checkbook.
“She said there was an eight-week backup on orders,” he said. “I heard it and … it just didn’t register with me, but had she sat in the driveway a second longer, I would’ve been out there demanding my check back.”
But he didn’t. She left. Kammerich let it go – the feeling and the money.
On Aug. 23, after calling several numbers he was provided and getting no answers, Kammerich received a letter from the company informing him that the company was being forced to close down. Money collected would be used to pay creditors.
No refunds.
When Kammerich learned on Tuesday that two other Blue Springs home owners had been approached by an American Shingle representative in June, he called police.
Combined, those two men lost more than $9,700.
Last week, Kammerich purchased roof supplies himself. He plans to have someone he knows well perform the work.
“I don’t want to go get a lawyer and push this,” he said. “That would cost twice as much as what this cost me.”
Kammerich provided several phone numbers included in the initial packet to The Examiner. Two of the numbers were busy and one was answered by an answering machine – a woman named Cheryl.
