Watch Your .NET !

Like many who run a business I Googled myself.  While that phrase sounds odd, it is actually a very healthy thing for a business to do. With one of the older domains around pages of results turned up. First search result was our website BertRoofing.com followed by Pinterest, Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, and most of the listings you would expect to find. As I went back a a few pages on the results I found less known listings. On about page six of the results I came across "BertRoofing.net " .

I assumed that the ".net" version of my website was someone named Bert in a different part of the country. Naturally I clicked on the link to visit the website. It was a very plain site titled "Bert Roofing" with a simple contact form and to my shock a local Dallas 214 telephone number!  I used Google once again to search the telephone number and it quickly pointed to one of my local competitors with a very different name.

Bert Roofing has been around for 25 years and we have worked hard doing things the right way to build our name and reputation and this guy was stealing it. After I shared this discovery at work, our Office Manager did some investigation and found that this same guy had done the same ".net" scam on Scott Roofing, Arrinington Roofing, and several other well established businesses that all show up well in the search engines.

With all these websites having the same phone number, how did this phone get answered? So we called. The phone was answered with mumbled words and "Roofing", the perfect generic answer.  We asked "Who is this?" and the reply was "Who did you call?"  The person answering the phone was deliberately evasive.

We immediately sent out "Cease and Desist" letters and emails as well as inform several other owners of the websites that were being scammed. We also informed Karen Fox, Executive Director of the North Texas Roofing Contractors Association, who then passed word of this to the entire associations membership.

We spoke with Christine Scott of Scott Roofing after she had spoken to the owner or the fake websites. She informed us that the explanation was that he was a victim of an unscrupulous SEO / Internet Marketer and had no knowledge of the fake websites. Our earlier phone call makes us think that explanation unlikely.

Within a few hours the fake Bert Roofing website was down as well as all the others. The problem was stopped but who knows how much business was lost before we found out about this. Every small business needs to look out for this and protect themselves.

NTRCA Lunch & Learn April 10 2012 - Adjsuting

What Contractors can and can not do is the topic of the upcoming educational meeting.

Contractors are not allowed to be Adjusters which is how it should be, but these line sometimes become blurry and this educational lunch sponsored by the NTRCA.  Two attorneys who specialize in this area will be the guest speakers.

Time: 11:30 to 1:30

Location: International Bowling Museum, 621 Six Flags Drive, Arlington TX 76011

 Preregistration via the NTRCA website 

Updated Website Bert Roofing

Just a quick note that BertRoofing .com has had a major update for the first time in a while.

I hope you will stop by and check us out.

Roofing Prices Rising Fast in 2013

Southern Shingles, our close neighbor, and most every building wholesaler have sent us letters announcing 10-12% price increases in most products that should take effect later this month. The wholesalers are simply passing  along the information previously given to them by the manufacturers.

Petroleum is to blame for this. It is the major cost component of shingles two fold. First asphalt is the main ingredient of a typical shingle.  Second, transportation cost greatly impact roofing as the materials are very heavy.

Hurricane Sandy has also had an impact on building materials as the price of OSB decking has increased about 30% since the storm hit. OSB and most lumber products are commodities which can have very sudden and large price swings. Unlike the shingles, I expect these products to fall later in the year. Shingle on the other hand only seem to go up.