‘I was overcharged': Burlington consumer warns of shady garage repair work

A Burlington woman was overcharged for a garage door repair.

When her garage door wouldn’t open, she searched online for help.

“I went to Google, and I found the first business that popped up at the very top that said Farmington location,” said Lori Chadwick, who said she then called “ASAP Garage Door Repair.”

“I thought it was a little odd that they didn’t have a website or an address,” Chadwick said.

But she says hundreds of 5-star reviews and the company’s “Google Guarantee” made her feel pretty good about it.

A repairman responded swiftly and said her door needed two new springs that are expensive and in short supply.

“He showed me a screenshot that indicated that each spring was over $700, so I was in a bind,” Chadwick said.

She said he told her that these springs weren’t easy to come by, but would check his truck.

Sure enough, he found two.

“So now I’m like, ‘Oh yes, do whatever you need to do. I’m lucky that you have them now,’” she said.

This was the first of many high-pressure tactics Chadwick said she endured, and described to NBC CT Responds.

“After he repaired these, then he told me I needed a new garage door opener,” Chadwick said.

In the end, she paid more than $3,700 for the repairs, which the worker said had to be paid by a check made out to cash.

“So, I said, ‘Hold up,’ I called the company,” and she said someone with the company said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s our policy, that’s fine.”

With her car out of her garage’s grip, Chadwick was able to get a grip on the situation and called around for other estimates.

“I was overcharged well over $2,000,” she said.

A local garage expert NBC CT Responds spoke to agrees.

“The fact that I didn’t know how much it would be and the fact that it was Google Guaranteed with all those reviews made me put those red flags away,” Chadwick said.

NBC CT Responds tracked down phone numbers associated with ASAP Garage Door Repair to ask about the exorbitant pricing. We even received a returned call from an out-of-state number.

We kept getting the run-around, and received no straight answers about anything or where the company is located.

The International Door Association said it’s hearing more and more about swindling schemes like this.

“They set up these call centers, they’ll have local numbers now… but you’re calling to a call center in who knows where,” said Wesley Perry, the president of the International Door Association, which represents garage door dealers and manufacturers.

“There’s a lot of different setups with these groups,” Perry said.

“You’ll normally have a parent company that is buying up a lot of Google ads, a lot of internet pages,” he continued.

Perry said someone at the call center would then call on a local contact to do the service.

He suggests consumers vet companies by asking a lot of questions, like where is its office location.

“You usually be able to tell by the way they respond because they’ll sort of defer the question because they don’t have a physical location to come to,” Perry said.

Consumers can also use IDA’s website for guidance.

Google tells NBC CT Responds it permanently suspended ASAP Garage Door Repair from advertising in its local services section, and that it has tools to detect fake reviews and it is “constantly reviewing them.”

In a statement the company said, "We are sorry to hear about Lori Chadwick's experience. To use the Google Guarantee badge, advertisers are required to complete appropriate background checks and have appropriate licenses and insurance."

Google told NBC CT Responds it couldn’t give out the business license that the company provided, but it did give Chadwick some money back.

Consumers who aren’t satisfied with the quality of work backed by a Google Guarantee badge can get a refund of up to $2,000.

As NBC CT Responds was packing up to leave Chadwick’s home after the interview, she got an email.

“I just heard from Google they are going to give me a refund of $2,000 for the overcharged scam that I endured. So, I’m happy. Thank you, Caitlin, thank you NBC,” she said.