Garden State Gutter Cleaning review: Terrible experince! 19

This company is a very reliable company who has been servicing my gutters for years. Last year I had them install new gutters on my entire house. I have not had any problems with them.

I hired Garden State Gutters to install new gutters after having my roof done... they asked for a deposit... the job was $525.00... so I gave them $200 upfront... when the salesman came out, my neighbor next door wanted an estimate as well... so she took him to my house while I was at work, showed him what I wanted, which was no different than hers... we spoke over the phone... all was clear... my neighbor did not hire them, feeling they were overpriced...

Suddenly I get the final bill in the mail... saying the bill was over due... so I called them and said " the job is not even done"... he insisted it was... so I went outside and looked, came back to the phone and told Mike they looked like my old ones... and the leaders are used... Mike replied "you got what you asked for, when can we expect our money?", I told him I was challenging the bill... did he ever get as nasty as could be... and was threatening... at the time, I had a sick family member and no energy to fight them, so I paid the bill... in addition I wrote as letter that I would tell anybody and every body about their service... which I do... this is another perfect opportunity...

Currently on this night, its pouring out, and the new gutter they said they installed is not holding the water... which means I will need to call them because I do have a warranty according to the paperwork (odds they will not show up)... I am leaning towards simply calling another company, pay more money and get it replaced... I will let you know.

Thank for allowing me to vent about this terrible company.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY

This company is a bunch of ###. Mike is a real [censored]. They're still conducting the same telemarketing scam, the same fraud that the state took them to court for, extorting seniors by sending bills for work never performed. I hope they all rot in hell. Mike, some of the people you're trying to extort have loved ones who'll kick the piss out of you - I can't wait for that day to come. Sleep with one eye open, bud.

We are also having a horrible experience with this company. We hired them to clean our gutters in November 2006. The week that they said they would come, they never showed up. Subsequently, we kept receiving automated phone calls saying that they would be coming "the following day". This happened 4 or 5 times without them ever showing up. Finally we called and told them, " If you do not come tomorrow, do not come at all." Tomorrow came and, once again, Garden State Gutter did not clean our gutters.

We called and told them that their guys had not shown up and that we no longer want them to do the gutters. They insisted that their guys had in fact been there, but did not leave a bill because their printer was broken. The following day, when I got out of the shower, I heard footsteps on the roof and when I went to look, there was Garden State Gutter packing up their truck. They finally did the gutters the day after we told them not to! Since we told them not to come, we did not pay them.

After months and months of receiving bills and threats to send us to collection, my wife had enough and decided to just pay them the $95. She sent a check for $85 along with a $10 coupon. End of story? No. Garden State kept the coupon and RETURNED THE $85 CHECK, along with the invoice with the $95 total circled!

Finally, the coup de grace: Today we received a notice that Garden State Gutter is suing us in small claims court. I am absolutely flabbergasted. This is by far the worst, most unprofessional, most dishonest company I have ever dealt with.

I wish I had found these comments before we ever used them. The first time they came to clean the gutters was fine - job done, billed and paid. The next time we saw their crew we had not called for an cleaning and when I told the crew that, they looked mystified and showed me a work order. We repeated that we had not called and requested a cleaning. They left. Another time we were left a voice mail that they had scheduled us (unrequested by us) for cleaning on a certain day, to which we did not respond and they did not show up.

We called them again for a cleaning last year, 2006. The crew came, cleaned and presented us with an invoice. We gave them a check. Apparently, that check went missing and we received an "overdue invoice." This was paid and a note sent with the check advising about the previous check and that should it turn up we expect them to return it to us.

This year we thought we'd try them again, that last year was perhaps an aberration. The crew rang the bell to let us know they were here BUT left without again ringing the bell OR leaving an invoice. So, we assumed they had changed their procedure (considering the "lost" check) to retroactive billing by mail. Wrong, however. We just got their apparently favorite letter - the overdue invoice letter. Concerned, I called to let them know we had received no previous invoice, thinking I was doing them a favor pointing out a blip (or two) in their system. I was treated to a session of telephone customer abuse. I was left on hold while our "record" (3 visits) was accessed. I was told, "We always leave an invoice at the job." [Well, this crew didn't and the last one was given a check that got lost. (I am wondering if this young young man is the one who lost the check.)]; "We left an invoice." (How do you know? You weren't here!); "Maybe it was left in the door and blew away." (The front door opens to an enclosed porch.) We know you, you are nothing but trouble; we have a whole file on you; you never pay your bills!" (A whole file? Two previous visits?)"You asked us to come."(This was repeated often - why?) "You knew we came, you should have called to ask for a bill" (When did the contractor's accounting or billing procedures become the customer's responsibility?) Obviously, PR is not their strong suit and employees are trained in nasty collection agency tactics.

So, needless to say they are not nice people to deal with and best avoided - as we will be doing from now on. They are probably very nice to the municipalities and large corporations they claim to service.
I wish I had found these comments before we ever used them. The first time they came to clean the gutters was fine - job done, billed and paid. The next time we saw their crew we had not called for an cleaning and when I told the crew that, they looked mystified and showed me a work order. We repeated that we had not called and requested a cleaning. They left. Another time we were left a voice mail that they had scheduled us (unrequested by us) for cleaning on a certain day, to which we did not respond and they did not show up.

We called them again for a cleaning last year, 2006. The crew came, cleaned and presented us with an invoice. We gave them a check. Apparently, that check went missing and we received an "overdue invoice." This was paid and a note sent with the check advising about the previous check and that should it turn up we expect them to return it to us.

This year we thought we'd try them again, that last year was perhaps an aberration. The crew rang the bell to let us know they were here BUT left without again ringing the bell OR leaving an invoice. So, we assumed they had changed their procedure (considering the "lost" check) to retroactive billing by mail. Wrong, however. We just got their apparently favorite letter - the overdue invoice letter. Concerned, I called to let them know we had received no previous invoice, thinking I was doing them a favor pointing out a blip (or two) in their system. I was treated to a session of telephone customer abuse. I was left on hold while our "record" (3 visits) was accessed. I was told, "We always leave an invoice at the job." [Well, this crew didn't and the last one was given a check that got lost. (I am wondering if this young young man is the one who lost the check.)]; "We left an invoice." (How do you know? You weren't here!); "Maybe it was left in the door and blew away." (The front door opens to an enclosed porch.) We know you, you are nothing but trouble; we have a whole file on you; you never pay your bills!" (A whole file? Two previous visits?)"You asked us to come."(This was repeated often - why?) "You knew we came, you should have called to ask for a bill" (When did the contractor's accounting or billing procedures become the customer's responsibility?) Obviously, PR is not their strong suit and employees are trained in nasty collection agency tactics.

So, needless to say they are not nice people to deal with and best avoided - as we will be doing from now on. They are probably very nice to the municipalities and large corporations they claim to service.

We made the mistake of hiring Pittaro's company. They actually did come and do the work. (At least they said they did.) We gave them a credit card number. Months went by they never charged our card. Then, they send us a bill for the entire amount plus significant penalities and interest. At the time of the cleaning, we asked for an estimate on adding a downspout. We entered into a contract and gave them a $100 deposit. (I know bad move.) They never showed. We went past the original date for finishing they didn't show. We told them cancel the job and return our money. That's when they did the "but you didn't pay us..."
We took it to the State of NJ consumer unit. Pittaro said how the weather was bad and couldn't do the work. We sent the state the weather for every day of the contract period, which showed how they lied. He then blamed it on truck problems, etc.
We got our money back. Thankfully we learned our lesson to just blindly go with the best ad when it comes to this stuff. The man was sued by the NJ State AG for fraud -that should be more than enough reason to NEVER call them.

I reiterate: NEVER USE THE COMPANY. To make a long story short, they came to do the job, never completed it, and sued me when I refused to pay them. If you want misery in your life, use this company.

Reading all these comments, I'm glad it's not just me. We make the mistake of doing business with this company. Never showed up, threatened to sue us for breach of contract, then did the job the day after we cancelled. Why would you continue to telemarket to customers you've threatened with legal action? You can tell from the comments above that they certainly give their lawyers a steady stream of business.

they do a great job. definitely no complaints coming from me. also i just signed a contract with them and it states CLEARLY that deposits are nonrefundable after 4 weeks. my and my neighbors experience has been so different from a lot of people posting here that I think these people are posting from competing companies.

jerseyguy2000 definitely works for this company. Look at all his posts for this company on all the sites bashing this company.

I was going to use them but will not. Thanks!

I too gave them 100.00 deposit for a job. I asked for a refund when the job wasn't completed. I was told NO cause they already bought the materials. I filed a complaint with the better business bureau. I was told when I came up with the balance he would complete the job. Never heard from them again. Only telemarketing calls. Takes a lot of chutzpa to steal money from someone and call for repeat business they never did in the first place.

use them before but terrible experience.use fast gutter cleaning, best company I've ever came across and they do roof shampoo which left my roof looking brand new. if you want something done right it is them. [protected]

Absolutely terrible! I wish I had seen these comments before I had hired them. I have waited for three days for them to come and clean my gutters and they still have not showed up! When I called to see if they were indeed going to come today I was greeted with an EXTREMELY rude man who said he "could not tell me" if they were going to come today and proceeded to hang up on me. This will be the last time I EVER hire this company. They do not know how to run a business and can not even manage to be polite over the phone. Garden State Gutter will surely run their business into the ground based on customer dissatisfaction.

These people are horrible. I had originally scheduled an appt for the summer- when they called to confirm I said no I will wait until the fall and get the gutters cleaned after all the leaves have fallen- otherwise I will have to do it twice. I told the representative to call me back at the end of October to discuss. Well Nov 1st I come home to an invoice in my mailbox for a gutter cleaning that I did not schedule and did not confirm either. I called and spoke to Mike who is very arrogant. He insisted he had phone conversations of me making this appt. etc. He took my e-mail and big surprise I never got anything from him. Possibly because they do not exist? I told him I am not paying for something that I did not order or confirm. I reported to BBB and of course he never responded to them and now I have also reported him to Consumer Fraud Division. I have now received a letter threatening me that if I do not pay in 7 days he is going to take me to court as well as report it to the credit bureaus. My response to him is that if he is acting as a debt collector then I am entitled to proof that I have indeed ordered his companies services. If he does not provide that to me he is violation the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If he reports me to the credit bureaus and he knows I did not order this gutter cleaning, he is reporting inaccurate information knowingly to the bureaus and that is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. And if I have to obtain a lawyer, my lawyer will ask for proof of this debt.
I am sending his threatening letter on to the Consumer Fraud Division as well. This man needs to be stopped.

I posted my bad experience with this company back in 2007...I do not work for their competition...my dealing with them was very real...and was terrible. This company is unprofessional and Mike is a low life. I work for a property management company and I alway have the opportunity to recommend companies such as roofing, gutters, driveways, etc... It gives me such great pleasure to alert people about Garden State...and the business they lose because they did not want to do the right thing. I did not ask for my money back...I asked that they do what was asked of them. There are so many hard working people out there that will be glad to do your gutters...PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY...EVER !

This company is a very unprofessional business. They never showed up and charged us for the work. When trying to acquire a refund they refused. Now we will take it up with consumer affairs.

This company did a great job and cleaned up like they were never there

ITA and supervisor Robert Rios could care less about poor quality of work.