Don't fixate on certain state business credentials when hiring a company: DCP

Last month, NBC CT Responds shared a Burlington consumer’s cautionary tale.

A quick online search got Lori Chadwick of Burlington a garage door repairman, but it came with a cost.

She was overcharged for the work.

While NBC CT Responds helped her get some cash back, her story is a good reminder to question businesses with certain state credentials, too.

The company Chadwick called was “ASAP Garage Door Repair.”

“They had 5-star reviews and a Google Guarantee, so I felt pretty good about it,” Chadwick said when we interviewed her in September.

What she ended up experiencing was an all-too-common swindling scheme that the International Door Association has heard complaints about.

“They’ll have local numbers now, but you’re calling to a call center in who knows where,” Wesley Perry, the president of the association, said.

Looking back, Chadwick said, “There were many red flags. The fact that it was Google Guaranteed with all those reviews made me sort of put those red flags away.”

After NBC CT Responds reached out, Google suspended ASAP Garage Door Repair from advertising in its local services section and gave Chadwick her money back.

But here’s the kicker: Google said to get a Google Guarantee Badge, companies are required to fill certain requirements, including a state business license.

According to our State of Connecticut license lookup, ASAP Garage Door Repair has an active “Home Improvement Contractor” registration authorized by the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP).

The address listed on that registration for ASAP Garage Door Repair took us to an orthodontist and an urgent care, both with no connection to the company.

A spokesperson for DCP tells us it doesn’t verify a business’ address. Rather, applicants are responsible for providing and updating accurate contact information.

And they said the state wouldn’t do a facility inspection for a home improvement contractor registration either.

NBC Connecticut has reached out to ASAP Garage Door Repair multiple times for comment but hasn’t heard back.

Employees we spoke to won’t provide us with an address of where it’s located, something Perry and another garage repair expert we spoke to said is typical of shady business.

Despite ASAP Garage Door Repair appearing in the state’s license database, DCP said it’s simply a registration and not an endorsement of the contract holder’s skills.

DCP said the registration does not require any professional training, unlike a professional license for electricians and plumbers, for example, which requires training and the passage of an exam.

While Chadwick relied on web reviews and the Google Guarantee Badge to make her decision to choose the company, another route consumers go to verify a business is to check the state’s licensing website.

But make sure you know what each license or registration entails.

DCP said verifying home improvement contractor registration should not be the only information a consumer uses to decide whether to hire someone.

Hiring someone with a home improvement contractor registration does provide some consumer protections, like access to the state’s home improvement guaranty fund if something goes wrong, DCP said.

ASAP Garage Door Repair’s registration is still active on the state’s website despite us reaching out about its misleading address.