‘They took advantage of me’: Homeowner turns to Action 9 for help with big-box roof job

A Lake County man is now getting the help he needs after he contacted Action 9 about a problem with his roof.

Myron Waye was frustrated after he hired Lowe’s Home Improvement to put a new roof on his Fruitland Park home. Waye considered himself a loyal Lowe’s customer and at one point even bought stock in the company. He turned to his favorite big box store when he needed his roof replaced in 2022.

Waye told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal why he chose Lowe’s over another roofer, “The other company was actually about $1,800 less, but he sold me on the fact that Lowe’s would not go out of business if I ever had any issues with my warranty on my roof, or anything. All I had to do is call them up and they’ll take care of it.”

He signed a contract with the Lowe’s store in Leesburg in May of 2022. Lowe’s farmed it out to an outside roofing contractor.

After one day of work, the crew hired by Lowe’s finished most of the roof, but Myron Waye pointed out they left one small section untouched. The crew told him Lowe’s didn’t provide the correct materials to finish the job. So, he reached back out to his original Lowe’s salesman for help.

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Waye said, “He told me he would find out what was going on and he’d get back to me. Last I spoke with him. He started ghosting my calls after that.”

That was two years ago. In the meantime, his incomplete roof failed the county’s inspection and in recent months even started leaking.

Waye showed the Action 9 team damage from where the water was coming in. He pointed to the ceiling of his back porch and said, “It streams down from up here.”

He also provided paperwork from Lowe’s that seems to indicate materials for the smaller, flatter section of his roof were supposed to be included with the original order. The permit application in Lake County didn’t show any exclusions.

This isn’t the first time Action 9 has investigated roofing and other contracting complaints from consumers who hired Lowe’s. In 2018, Nick Saccocci had so many problems with one roof, Lowe’s even agreed to have another contractor replace it. The second roof then failed inspection twice.

“I don’t have words for it. That’s how absurd it is,” Saccocci told Action 9 back then. In that case, the contractors Lowe’s hired were blamed for the problems.

But in Myron Waye’s case, he believes Lowe’s itself was the problem. He told Action 9 the company blew him of until he recently copied the Lowe’s corporate office on an email to Action 9.

“The very next day I got a phone call from a nice lady from corporate,” Waye said.

Still, Lowe’s has not finished the work to make sure his roof passes inspection.

Waye said, “They took advantage of me. I paid them to do a job, and they didn’t do it.”

A Lowe’s spokeswoman said they believe there was a discrepancy with the order back then and they are now using a different provider. Just this week, Lowe’s sent another roofing contractor to Waye’s home to look at the roof. He said Lowe’s apologized and promised to have the new contractor fix the problem and get the roof to pass inspection. The Lowe’s spokeswoman also told Action 9 they are working to get it resolved in a way that will be satisfactory for Myron Waye.