Champion Roofing Services

Champion Roofing is the most dishonest contractor I ever met and should not be in business.
I contacted Champion Roofing to replace a missing shingle when I was selling my home. I would also take the opportunity to have other areas of the roof checked to see if stuff like flashing could be re-​caulked, check for any other loose shingles, and avoid surprises in the home inspection. I told them I couldn’t be there in person but to call me when they were there. Champion indicated they would have someone there that afternoon or first thing the next morning.
Realizing that not being present put me at risk to being taken advantage of by a dishonest contractor, I contacted both my neighbor and realtor to verify that the work that was agreed to was done before they were paid. Of course the only thing that really could be easily verified was the missing shingle as there was nothing else visible, but I was OK with that.
Well Champion didn’t show up. I called many times looking for the guy that I scheduled with and he was either, out to lunch, on another call, or having a smoke. In every instance I was told he would call right back. He never did. At the same time, my neighbor is calling me to tell me that he checked the roof as I asked and the shingle is still missing.
After two days, I realized I was being screwed with. The reason my calls weren’t being returned was because the repair guy didn’t show up yet as was agreed. With my realtor at the house, I called them up again, insisted to talk to a «manager» and cancelled.
Champion Roofing called me the follwing week to tell me that they went to the house, replaced the shingle and expected to get paid. The owner of Champion Roofing himself told me that he had a «verbal agreement» and if I didn’t send him a check for $ 250 immediatley, he was going to put a lien on my house, the next day, and I would not be able to sell my home until his lien was removed.
Sufficed to say I filed complaints with Angie’s List, the TN Dept of Consumer of Affairs, the BBB, and the TN State Contractors board. I can think of no better way than to take quotes from Champion’s Roofing response to my complaints to show how much of a crook he is:
«By the time Mr. Gatton called to cancel the contract, the work we had contracted to do was already done. In fact, it had been done just moments before he called to cancel. (A cynical person would suggest that he waited UNTIL it was done to call to cancel.)»
— «Moments before he called to cancel» was, in fact, two days AFTER they said they would show up. I cancelled only after trying for two days to get Champion Roofing to return my calls. My realtor was also at the house the entire morning for an open house the day I cancelled, and at the end of the open house, while she was still there, I cancelled.
«Mr. Gatton was not in town, he relied on someone else to inform him whether the shingle had been replaced or not. The individual who went to look at his roof to see if the shingle had been replaced reported to Mr. Gatton that it had not been replaced. This incorrect observation could have only been made from the ground, because, had the individual whom he sent over climbed on the roof, he or she would’ve clearly seen that the shingle had been replaced.»
— So if I call and say I can see a missing shingle, from the ground, that is the basis for a «verbal agreement». If the customer then tries to impose any form of accountability on Champion Roofing, deny it because they didn’t climb on the roof to see it. Its unfortunate that I can’t post pictures on Unilocal.The reason I had the shingle replaced was because it was so obviously visible by anyone (especially a home buyer) looking at the roof, from the ground.
«The most significant finding from our inspection of Mr. Gatton’s roof is that the roof is damaged by hail and needs to be replaced, most likely before Mr. Gatton will be able to sell his house, which he apparently intends to do in the near future.»
— Astonishing that only after I file a complaint, Champion Roofing states that the roof is damaged by hail and needs to be replaced. So let me get this right, Champion Roofing went to my home to do minor repairs, saw that roof was damaged by hail and needed to be entirely replaced, and decided to replace one lousy shingle, ignore everything else, and charge me $ 250.
— There were also two separate home inspections done, both of which included a roof Inspection and both stated that the roof was fine.
So which version of the story demonstrates Champion Roofing’s integrity and devotion to customer service?
1. My version — I cancelled, Champion Roofing went to the house anyway without my knowledge because he knew the house was vacant and threaten to put a lien on my house if he wasn’t paid.
2. Champion’s Version — «A verbal agreement» without seeing the home. Saw the roof was damaged by hail, but without informing the owner, replaced one shingle and left.

It is amazing this company is still in business in Knoxville. While Champion Roofing (now renamed to Champion Construction Services) initially presented themselves as honest and professional, they soon proved to be otherwise. Their work was sloppy (a new roof caused leaks into to the interior of the home, which they poorly repaired after a delay), they did not honor their warranty after they have been paid (requests to repair problematic shingles were denied without a reasonable explanation), and their billing was highly questionable (confusing and inaccurate invoices, with an apparent business strategy of seeing how much they can milk an insurance company for). The problems are endemic of the entire company, right up to owner Chris Wiedenhoeft.
Our experience was the complete opposite of the «good honest work» mantra that they have on their website.

In all honesty I don’t know this company is still open. I have never seen such sloppy and negligent work. It took months to get our roof done and during the process they dropped roofing nails all over our property. Two flat tires and a vet Bill later they came back and half assed three clean up. They also forgot to put a boot on the roof causing it to leak into the house and ruin thousands of dollars worth of art and clothes. A year later they are trying to take money from a separate claim that they had zero to do with. I would rather burn my house down than let this company near it again. I would highly recommend avoiding this place.

Please find someone else if you need a roof. 9 months after the job was started it is still not finished! Champion roofing sent a huge supplemental bill to our insurance company that was completely made up! None of the things they were trying to charge my insurance company for where even damaged in the storm!!! People like this should not be allowed to continue to be in business!!!