Consumer Justice: Company Named "Worst In The Nation" By Industry
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CARROLLTON (CBS11) - Hundreds of complaints about overcharging have been filed with the BBB against a Dallas area business.
Garage Door Services, or GDS, has just been named the 'Worst Garage Door Company in the Nation' by an industry trade magazine.
Customers and a company insider told Consumer Justice Investigator Cristin Severance GDS is set up to charge you as much as they can.
"You will be overcharged"
GDS has locations in 34 states and hundreds of website domains, so many customers don't know they've reached GDS when they hire the company.
The company's national call center is in Carrollton.
"You get the most money out of the customer that you can," said a GDS employee we agreed to call Kate.
Kate still works for the company so we agreed to hide her identity.
"As an employee, is this the worst garage door company in the nation," asked CBS 11 Consumer Justice Investigator Cristin Severance.
"As far as fleecing, overcharging, price hiking--yes," said Kate.
Kate said the company is set up to overcharge.
"From day one you are taught to find the money in the ticket. If someone is calling in about a broken spring, tell them that other one is going to go pretty soon and they better replace both of them at once," said Kate.
She said she first realized something was wrong when she learned customers can't cancel an existing appointment.
She explained if a customer tries to cancel service, the techs are instructed to make a note on the ticket and show up in person to "get the sale."
"It's not ethical," said Kate.
Panicked caller
Dhanajay Darke of Flower Mound called GDS last year when his garage door stopped working.
He said it was getting late, he was starting to panic.
"Luckily, Garage Door Services said a tech was in the neighborhood and he could stop by," said Darke.
Darke said he asked the technician to check the motor
"He said, no, the motor looks good and we'll have to fix few things here and there," said Darke.
Darke said the tech replaced the bearing and a new rod but after hours of repairs the garage still didn't work.
"It still wouldn't go up and down," said Darke.
It was the motor after all.
Darke was charged for the new repairs and a new motor-- close to $1,000 for everything.
"I think I was taken for a ride," said Darke.
Complaints
Darke filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of Dallas.
The company has more than 350 similar complaints from across the country.
"They misdiagnose problems. They try to upsell them by telling them they need something else," said BBB director Phylissia Landix.
The high number of complaints is just one reason industry magazine, Door + Access Systems, just named them the "Worst Garage Door Company in the Nation" in an article by editor Tom Wadsworth.
Unscientific Test
Consumer Justice did an unscientific test of how GDS charges. We had an independent garage door engineer inspect a garage door at a home in Dallas and take a cable off the spool.
We then called a GDS technician to see how much it would cost to fix.
The technician identified the problem and said it would be $340 to fix it--that's double the amount of the other two Dallas area companies we called for an estimate.
"Wow, that's a lot of money for a track off. I'm not surprised," said Kate.
The GDS employee said he'd give us a coupon to make the job $300 before coming down to $240.
"The techs can charge whatever they want," said Kate.
Kate said the technicians start as high as they can in price and come down--but not too low.
"If they have to give a price under $150, they have to call the takeover team or the T.O. The T.O. rep will get on the phone and basically give the person the runaround," said Kate.
GDS response
Consumer Justice went to the Carrollton call center to talk to a manager.
An employee who did not give us his name said they take care of their customers.
"Then why do so many customers say you overcharge them," said Consumer Justice Investigator Cristin Severance.
"It's hard to say," he said before kicking us off the property.
GDS Chief Operating Officer, Lance Willard, said through email:
We appreciate you contacting our company, I apologize that you were disconnected during your transfer to our customer service department. At this time we are not interested in holding an interview with CBS 11. However, I can provide you with facts, the consumer complaints that are received through the BBB yearly, account for .05% of the consumers we serve. We have more satisfied customers than dissatisfied and value each and every opportunity to serve homeowners nationwide.
The Other GDS
Through this investigation we learned there is another company--Garage Door Services of Houston, Inc. or GDS of USA.
"We are a family owned business who services mostly home builders from our locations in Houston, Arlington, Austin, San Antonio, Lockhart, Oklahoma City, Nashville, and Denver," said GDS of USA VP of Sales, Hans Wright.
Wright said they've taken legal action against GDS over the name of the company.
"This has had a big impact on our company. We field daily calls from their upset customers," said Wright.
Wright said they just sent out 1,000 emails to customers making sure they know their company is not at the center of these complaints.
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