Friday, October 24, 2008

Gutter Protection, Spend Time, Before You Spend Money

It Pays To Do Your Homework
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Picture this if you will
You hire a company to put gutter protection on your house, they talked a good game and you think you have made a wise purchase. The company claims that you are saving some ridiculous amount of money.
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The company pulls up to your house in a car, there is a ladder strapped to the top, the workers are dropped off and the boss then leaves. The boss returns late at night well after the job has been completed, you have been housing the workers in your garage for several hours, feeding them and feeling sorry for them. When you are asked to pay, the boss would like you to put the check in a workers name.
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Later you find out that the company bends trim coil around a piece of wood in the basement, the gutter protection does not have a fastener and neither the company or the workers had any insurance coverage.
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Be careful and do your homework, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
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Your Gutter Protection Connection
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Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Overhead And Cost, Is there a Difference?

Overhead
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In business, overhead, overhead cost or overhead expense refers to an ongoing expense of operating a business. The term overhead is usually used to group expenses that are necessary to the continued functioning of the business but that do not directly generate income .
Overhead expenses are all costs on the income statement except for direct labor and direct materials. Overhead expenses include accounting fees, advertising, depreciation, indirect labor, insurance, interest, legal fees, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, telephone bills, travel and utilities costs.profits.
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Cost
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Here is where things get tricky and you will quickly see where this could be easily manipulated in order to advertise a at cost sale and actually make a profit. There are basically two kinds of cost, indirect cost which would fall into the category of overhead cost, and direct cost which is the cost that is directly involved in a project or job that a company may be doing, labor, and material.
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When a company advertises that you are going to get something at cost, both categories could be used to determine their idea of cost. While the advertisement could merely be a hook in order to sell you other products and/or services, make no mistake, the at cost deal can be manipulated to make a profit.
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The best way to determine if you are being misled and overcharged is to obtain other estimates by companies specializing in the area of the work you wish to have performed.
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Your Gutter Protection Connection
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Coptright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Salesmanship, Hooks, Gimmicks, And Outright Fraud

Why do some businesses try to entice you with sweepstakes, hooks, unbelievably high percentage off or at cost deals, cash able rebate and other offers that ultimately end up insulting your intelligence, you ask.


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High Overhead and the pressure that comes with it. The pressure to sell, sell, sell, that is.


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High overhead is the high cost of doing business, unusually high and out of control overhead is largely self inflicted and will more times than not accompany poor and/or questionable management.

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Now that we have clarified exactly what we are dealing with

lets examine some of those fantastic offers, think about them logically, and then ask ourselves some common sense questions.

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Could these offers be to good to be true, what are these companies really up to ?

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Why would company X, do the work at cost and not make any money ?

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Will I really get all of my money back ?

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How is it possible to stay in business and constantly be running some kind of little or no money making deal ?

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Is there a set pricing structure or is there a see what you can get pricing structure ?

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Alright, enough on the questions, I am quite confident that you do have a brain and I am eager to further dissect this consumer belittlement.
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Lets get started with the sweepstakes, this one is easy and probably the most transparent of the bunch. This is simply a gain access and lay on the pressure technique. You will receive a credit if you win, etc, etc, etc. Even if the sweepstakes is legitimate and supervised by a non bias outside third party company, this is a technique that is designed to sell you something.
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Next lets take A look at the high percentage off and at cost deals, here is where things start getting allot fuzzy. There is no way of knowing whether you are really getting that price break or high percentage off, if there has been a recent markup to cover the sale, etc. These are usually the same companies that hide true cost and pricing structure like it is a sacred scroll of some sort. I have a hunch that cost changes once they start advertising that the job will get done at cost, think about everything that could be considered when we are dealing with cost. I am very confident that your idea of cost and their idea of cost will be no where in the same ball park.
This is a play on words gain access technique designed to sell you something For Profit.
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At last we have come to the fantastic cash able rebate, where you are led to believe that over a period of time you will get all of your money back, I immediately think of bonds, markets and financial instruments that are completely out of any ones control. This hit Toledo and other areas back in the 2003 to 2005 time frame and many consumers were victimized by cash able rebates. I have not heard of one success story from this scam.
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I would like us all to ask ourselves one more question.
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Why would I invite this into my home ?
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Your Gutter Protection Connection
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© copyright 1998-2008 All Rights Reserved

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Gutter Connection Reviews

Testimonials
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Thanks!! Wonderful Work!!‎ - creativeimageslc‎ - Oct 7, 2008
I am very satisfied with the professionalism and quality of work Gutter Connection provided me at my place of business. Being a business owner myself, i know it's hard to sell a job these days. This company lives up to what it says it's going to do and the finished job shows. Thanks Again Gutter Connection

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I would like everyone to know about...‎‎
the exceptional service and quality work that this company has provided for my home. I highly recommend contacting this company if you like honesty, quality work, reasonable
pricing and complete professionalism. ...
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Great Customer Service‎ - Kelly Hufford‎ - Sep 9, 2008
I was very impressed with this company. When I phoned the gentleman who answered the phone was very polite and answered all my questions.

I was able to set the apppointment up that day and the work was quite well. I have had problems in the past with other companies but I feel very confident and satisfied with the job they did. I like the fact that the owner of this company is very involved with the work done by his company and he lives locally also.

I would reccomend this company to anyone who is in need of gutters or have their gutters cleaned. I just rehired this company to clean my gutters. Very nice people to deal with and very professional.
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Friday, September 19, 2008

Toledo Gutters


Gutter Protection 101

This page was designed to answer some of the more common questions associated with gutter protection and to review some of the products that are available. As with anything, there are pro's and con's. If I do not happen to touch on your particular concern or topic, please feel free to contact the Gutter Protection-Hotline with your questions or concerns.

Always ask alot of questions and remember, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

I will start by saying that any high level gutter protection is useless without a solid foundation, ( the gutter system ). To often I find gutter protection with less than realistic warranties being placed on gutters that will not last a couple of years at best. This is often due to: (1) companies with little or no experience in the gutter business jumping into the gutter protection arena, or (2) commissioned sales representatives lacking basic fundamental knowledge and having no installation experience. The importance of your gutter system being inspected or replaced by a qualified proffessional specializing in the field should be placed very high.
This page was not designed to bash our competittion and no names will be mentioned. This page is an honest attemp to educate the consumer on the various types of products available and to help you understand why we do not carry certain types of gutter protection.

Next we will go over a little gutter protection 101, explaining the theory and principle relied on to make the reverse curve or rounded lip gutter cover work. The primary principle relied upon is a principle called surface tension or water adhesion.
To quickly understand this concept take a full glass of water and slowly tip it until water runs out and down the side of the glass. The water clinging to the side of the glass is surface tension or water adhesion at work, and is responsible for how this style of gutter cover works. Below you will find a few pictures of the many different variations of this style of gutter protection.




The Reversre Curve rounded lip style of gutter cover. Undoubtedly the most saturated style of gutter cover. This style of solid gutter cover was the first warranteed product introduced, and as I am sure you know, many would follow.

This style of gutter protection is easy to copy and many companies have and will continue to do so. Along with the big price associated with this gutter cover comes the big claim, never clean your gutters again. Close examination of this phrase will lead you to the conclusion that this could be said while nothing was placed on your gutter system.This style of gutter cover will not keep everything out of your gutter system and as the pictures below illustrate could lead to roof problems that were caused by the installation of this product.



This product in most cases installs under the second bank of roofing shingles and even with a perfect installation on standard 3 and 1 roofing shingles, water will be trapped where it should not be. This type of cover installation may give cause for your roofing contractor to void your roofing warranty. Ask the company you are considering if they have had complaints of this nature or if they have had claims brought against them involving the roof.



This gutter cover was a popular knock-off . This product installs under the first row of roof shingles and I am sure was intended to address the installation problems associated with the introductory rounded lip style of gutter cover. While accomplishing there installation objectives a new problem arose. Inorder for this style of gutter cover to handle the water run off properly it had to be backed off of the gutter lip a 1/4 inch leaving a gap that will allow small debri to enter the gutter system. According to the mfg. of this gutter cover this small debri will be washed away with normal rain fall.
Even if the mfg. could make it rain every time debri entered the gutter system, and the largest downspouts available were installed, this gutter cover would fail in a highly congested area. This style off gutter cover will not make it through 2 years in a highly congested area. The mfg. puts a 5 year product satisfaction warranty on this product and you will need it. This gutter cover may also magnify any iceing problems you may be experiencing, contrary to mfg claims.



Here we have a product that is offered by a window company that suddenly decided they wanted to be in the gutter business. This company puts a 30 year warranty on this product. This product has multi functions, if it does not work out in your gutters you can use it in the garden for erosion control ( its intended purpose ) HA! HA!. I am quessing that you will not find this all that funny after you have spent big money on this product. If I thought for a second that this product was worth bringing to your door step , it would be priced at about 2 dollars per foot, not 20.

Watch Out For These Companies
They will be targeting the older generation and there presentation will be pressure packed with a must sign now theme.
When it comes to gutter protection, there is not a product out there that is going to keep you 100% happy, 100% of the time, and no,not even the gutter protection that we carry . You must know this going into the process and you must also know that alll gutter protection is not created equal.
Many companies simply see an opportunity for making money and that is all, they do not know the gutter business or the gutter protection business. Over the years we have gained valuble knowledge about when and where different types of gutter protection will be effective and if gutter protection will be of benefit at all.

We have recommended no gutter protection many times, how many companies can make that claim. Yes, the cat is out of the bag, in my opinion there are many houses that should not have gutter protection installed at all (for various reasons).
Manufacturers of the gutter protection products are simply trying to sell there gutter protection, most often leaving the products short comings to be figured out by the company carrying the product and the customers at a later date.

We routinely toss gutter protection samples sent to us by various manufacturers in the garbage, we can tell you that fast, where it will and won"t work, where it will have trouble and why, it's installation hang ups, and how long, if at all, it will really be effective for you.
Thanks for your time, and sleep well, we do !!!!

Find More Info Here

Your Gutter Protection Connection

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© copyright 1998-2008 All Rights Reserved