Seniors targeted | When No Problem means problems

Seniors who were seduced by the quality of the unsolicited submission left in their mailbox by the company Toiture No Problem bitterly regret it today. They ended up with a bill five to ten times higher than the initial quote.

At the beginning of September, I told you about these submissions filled with drone photos that had startled La Prairie residents. Even if some found the document very professional, others did not at all appreciate the presence of a flying device on their private land^⁠1.

But this incursion into private life is nothing compared to the unpleasant surprises that awaited a woman of almost 80 years old whom I will call Gisèle because she fears reprisals. Months after entrusting the repair of her roof to No Problem, she is still shaken. She felt, to use her words, like having a knife put to her throat.

After removing the shingle from the roof of her small house, No Problem workers told her the wood in the decking was too cracked to put it back on again, she says.

“They called someone. It didn’t take five minutes before a truckload of presswood arrived. It was so fast that he had to wait around the corner. » It was then that she learned that the insulation also needed to be redone. The urethane truck arrived ten minutes later, she estimates. Another client, Barbara Prosper, related an almost identical scenario to my colleague Hugo Joncas².

Everything was happening much too quickly for Gisèle to think and check the prices. “I was taken. I no longer had a roof over my head, it was raining and the guys were waiting outside. What did you want me to do? » The work then dragged on. Different workers showed up every day, which is confirmed by her neighbor who followed the work with amazement. The project lasted two weeks.

Toiture No Problem asked for almost $50,000 while the original quote was less than $10,000. The customer managed to negotiate a little, but she had to pick up the majority of the waste left in her yard herself and says she is dissatisfied with the end result. The construction site was so chaotic that construction workers who were working at a neighbor’s house gave the woman the telephone number of the Régie du logement du Québec (RBQ) so she could file a complaint, Gisèle and I told me. his neighbor.

A client in his eighties told me he had a similar story. He claims he was pressured to sign No Problem’s submission. The work would have started without any prior inspection. Errors and delays would then have multiplied.

“It was jobbers who came back… who didn’t come back. They had no supervision, no one could give us information,” says the elder who believes he suffered abuse because of his age. “I was shaking so much… everything was done on the tablet. […] We couldn’t see anything […] We never knew how much it was going to cost. » He ended up getting a quote, but only two days before the end of the twelve-day work, according to what he claims.

The elder was left with a bill for more than $70,000. The estimate was more like $8,000.

Complaints to the OPC and dubious glowing reviews

The Consumer Protection Office (OPC) heard other testimonies like this. It has received ten complaints over the past two years, including seven for unfair and deceptive practices.

“According to what the complainants report, the company would substantially increase the amount of the contract agreed in the bid during the work,” OPC spokesperson Charles Tanguay wrote to me. Customers have also complained about mold problems.

According to information obtained from various sources, the final price of the work would regularly be five to ten times higher than that indicated on the quote thanks to the multiplication of work, such as changing the wood, redoing the roof trusses, reinsulating or changing the gutters. Most of the customers who feel wronged are elderly people.

“An entrepreneur who arrives with an extra is classic. But of this magnitude, it is exceptional,” relates Marc-André Harnois, CEO of the Association of Consumers for Quality in Construction (ACQC).

According to two roofing companies recommended by CAA-Quebec that I contacted, it is extremely rare that a house’s decking needs to be completely changed. If it is too thin, this is easily detected by walking on the roof, which will be soft. The solution is then to double it. As for insulation, inspection sometimes reveals that it is lacking. But once again, with some exceptions, we don’t change everything, we add more.

The number of complaints to the OPC seems low, but it is not necessarily a very developed reflex to call the organization for construction issues. Moreover, the elderly people I spoke to did not do it, judging that it was too complicated or that it would do nothing for them.

The No Problem web page also suggests that all its customers are very satisfied. They all give the company five stars. However, reverse searches on Google Images reveal that the photos of the alleged customers come from quite surprising sources.

The glowing comment from a certain Yang Cowart is accompanied by a photo from the DVD of the series Royal Pains. Roger Nguyen’s photo can be found on a handful of sites, including that of the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec. That of James Collins is sold on Shutterstock, that of Jay Holland is obtained on the site Needpix.com.

The owner of Toiture No Problem, Francisco Soto Dominguez, did not respond to my question on the subject.

For its part, the RBQ only reported one complaint regarding Toiture No Problem. The OPC sends it the information it receives about licensed companies. She uses it, she says, to “document her files”. Hopefully the information will also be used to provoke more concrete actions for the protection of the public, a key role of the organization.

The company defends itself

When I called No Problem to get their side of the story, I was put in contact with Marc-André Robitaille, a representative. He said he was surprised that complaints had been forwarded to the OPC and also assured me that the company “protects itself during significant price increases by documenting everything before, during and after the work to ensure ensure that everything is in compliance.

Clients, he assured me, “all receive an inspection report during the work,” a “personalized and truly detailed report of up to 25 pages” after an “inspection of related components.” The document is called an “annex”. Gisèle, who dealt directly with Mr. Robitaille for her work, swears to have never received this annex.

No Problem ensures that its customers always have the choice whether or not to move forward with the additional work. “The success we have is flamboyant,” said Marc-André Robitaille, a young man who made headlines in 2021 after committing assault on a Laval elder to force him to sell him his house. He is also serving a sentence for fraud in another case involving an elderly person, discovered my colleague Hugo Joncas.

A few days after our conversation, Marc-André Robitaille would have been fired for “reputational risk”, according to what he himself indicated by text message to The Press. With or without him, those who were wary of No Problem’s drones in their backyards should have other reasons to be on guard.

With the collaboration of Hugo Joncas, The Press

1. Read the column “A submission tinged with intrusion”

2. Read the article “A roofing fraudster”