Avoiding the Scams

 

 

While most seal-coating companies are legitimate businesses there are those that are out rip you off, some things to watch out for are:

(Sealer needs to be properly mixed with additives and sand to give you a finished product. While it is theoretically possible it is unlikely that you can mix in these containers and get a quality product.)


Always check to see if they have liability insurance, things happen and a couple hundred gallons of sealer can leave a big mess that you could be left holding.

Always check by following this link to the NPCA Consumer Information Site especially the top 3 articles--before hiring a contractor. Most legitimate companies are also NPCA members.

 

This "tough" economy has made the "travelling" scam artists a worse menace than ever at the same time technology lets them use "disposable" cell phones so they can appear to be from the local area and either computer printers or stores with "quick print" for business like OfficeMax, Kinko's and similar stores make it easy to get a few hundred business cards for whatever area they are in to match the phone numbers; so nowadays it's easyfor them to appear to be "legit" if you don't really check.

 

Also this down economy has created a new phenomenon only seen in the last couple of years. The decent contractor turned "traveler". The economy of the late mid 2000's let many people get into the pavement business and make a fairly easy profit. Now for the first time, many of these fairly new contractors only 1-3 years in business are moving about larger & larger areas--- some even going from northern states "headed south" looking for work anywhere they can find it or going to areas where they have friends or relatives because they couldn't put away enough money to last the winter for the first time.
Often while these contractors may not normally do sub-par work like the scam artists they often don't know good material suppliers where they are and may buy materials that sit in their tanks or trucks for long periods between jobs ...or resort to "watering down" what they have left if it's not quite enough to complete the job they are on and they don't know a supplier where they are.

 

Times are tough and the pavement business seems to bring out the worst in people.

 

That's why it's important to deal with an established company like Stars-n-Stripes that has been serving our area with a great reputation you can count on for 7 years now!