Last summer, our roof was damaged by a hail storm. A friend had a neighbor that worked for a roofing company - Kurt Todd in Thornton, CO. Kurt was a bit of a salesman, but we thought, hey - he is a friend of a friend. He stated the company he worked for, Direct Exteriors, would give us a $1,000 "coupon" for putting up their sign, and agreed to replace the roof for whatever amount the insurance company would pay. We thought, okay - no money out of our pocket, we get a new roof done by a "reputable" A+ BBB rated, national company, listed a "Platinum Preferred" contractor by Owens Corning, listed as the #1 Fastest Growing Construction Company by INC. 500 Magazine, Sept, 2010 - blah blah blah -- all of which means absolutely nothing, I now realize. So we made the HUGE mistake of trusting in this company when Kurt said they wanted the money paid up front in order to schedule construction... After all, our friends had already had their roof replaced and were very happy with the work.
We paid over 12 thousand dollars to Direct Exteriors in October, 2010. We were scheduled for construction on November 11 - the same day as "Chad" below - what a coincidence!!! Especially considering the Claims Manager - Casey Urai - advised me their was only one construction crew working on this side of town at a time..... hmmm.. A few days before, Kurt calls and says he no longer works for the company, and many people now have construction liens on their homes - and we were "lucky" that our roof was not done yet so we don;t have a lien! "Lucky" that we were out over $12 thousand dollars - and still need a new roof! I called Casey - who reassured me that the delay was because the construction crew up and went south due to the snow - and they would find a new crew and fix our roof in a couple of weeks. Then she stopped answering the phone. They all stopped answering the phones - Ben Lambert, Casey Urai, Nick so and so - all of the employee voice mail boxes were too full for new messages. When I had asked Casey for our money back, she said she could "put in that request."
Since then, we have had to file bankruptcy ourselves due to the unbelievable amount of debt we put ourselves in over the past few years - salaries decreased drastically with this economy, and we had to use credit cards for things like groceries - in order to keep our home. We are finally coming out of the hole, and have been able to keep our home - barely. We absolutely have no idea where we are going to get the money to repair our roof. Every time it snows, we pray that the roof does not leak today. Saving 12 thousand dollars is an impossible task for us. I contacted lawyers - they want thousands of dollars to help - and the prospect of actually getting our money back is slim to none. I contacted the Colorado Attorney General - Consumer Fraud Department. Apparently, I am not worth their time. They will only help if many Colorado residents are affected, not just little old me. Minnesota's Attorney General cannot help because I am not a MN resident. Basically, I have been told that we are screwed.
This did not sit well with me, and so I started to do a little digging myself. I left messages for Mike McAlpin on his line that was listed for another company - Recycling and Waste Disposal Pro - 763-315-0070; I found that he also owns Arbor Lakes Mortgages, Direct 2 You LLC, Direct Properties, LLC, Moi Appraisals, a rental property at 5527 Humboldt Ave, lives with his wife Ellen Miller McAlpin and their children at 6802 Cottonwood Lane, his parents - Bill and Judy McAlpin live at 8819 N Brook Circle, Brooklyn Park MN, 763-533-3619, His father just had a hip replacement, as per his church bulletin at St. Alphonsus in Brooklyn Park, they were named "Family of the Year" by their local Knights of Columbus organization - and his father belongs to a Classic Chevy Car club - isn't that nice?
I can go on and on and on.. many more company names, business partners like Scott Volker, Richard Tischner, etc, etc...and how Mike McAlpin had his real estate appraiser license taken away for fraud, but his dad still operates an appraisal company, or how Mike McAlpin has previous bankruptcies in 2009 - 2 other construction companies that he used to defraud who knows how man people..and how all of the larger companies that made Direct Exteriors appear like a legitimate business were all a part of his elaborate scam - like how it says "INC 500" on my "Owens Corning" folder that holds all of my useless contracts, receipts, paperwork - etc - that details how they stole my insurance money....
I could not help but wonder how these people can live with themselves... so I called his father, Bill McAlpin - and asked him that very question. He stuttered and stammered a bit - said things like "I just worked for the company" and "I did not know what they were doing" and "It's not my fault"....blah blah blah... I asked how he and his wife live with the fact that they raised a thief.... he eventually hung up.
So now I wait, still hopeful that something will work out somewhere - because we still need a new roof, and we still don't have the money for it, and we still cannot afford an attorney to help us with all this... and once in awhile I post something on some website - various reviews of his fake companies, more BBB complaints that don't get answered - I look at the Direct Exteriors sing still sitting in my garage and think that burning it may make me feel better - and I keep some Duct tape handy, for when the roof starts to leak.
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