Reviews for Menalco Garage Door & Gate Repair

Review from Brian R.

Let me start with the recommendation. Was I satisfied with the repair itself? No...Would I ever use this company again? Resounding No... I was having trouble opening my garage door the other day and unfortunately needed access to my car due to a trip the family was making for Easter weekend. I called up a few places and Menalco seemed to be the only place picking up. I spoke with the receptionist and she mentioned that due to the holiday weekend it would be tough to send someone out, but that she would have someone call me back. After 30 minutes someone did call back and asked to send him some pictures of the issue. I did and he said it was going to be $295. Although a bit high, I thought that the garage door came off the rails, so it sounded like that might be in the right ballpark for the 3+ hours of work I thought it was going to take to fix. So I agreed and about two hours later an older gentleman, who was smoking up a storm, arrived at the house. Along with my help and to my surprise, we were able to lift the garage door. The issue seemed to have been one of the tension springs snapped, due to old age, and was preventing the lifting of the garage door. We found the old spring that had fallen under my car and the man proceeded to reattach the old spring to the garage. About 45 minutes later and a few more cigarette butts thrown into my garage, he asked how much the quote was for. I said it was $295, and he said okay. I mentioned that this seemed fairly high for the work he just accomplished, but he said he didn't set the rates as he was just a contractor. He then went to mention that I would need to replace the springs as what he was doing was only a temporary fix. A temporary fix? For $300? I was beginning to smell something fishy... I paid the gentleman and noticed that he actually worked for a different garage door company, so this was most likely a referral service and not done by Menalco. After he had left I decided to request a few quotes and research the cost of repair for the springs. Turns out the springs themselves cost $20 from Home Depot, and most places charge $150 for labor costs. I paid twice that amount for a guy to reuse an old spring, which would need to be replaced anyway. For $200 I could have replaced both springs with brand new ones. So overall I was happy the issue was not more serious, but not happy with the guy leaving a number of cigarette butts in my garage and not saying anything about being severely overcharged for a repair and not a replacement job. In life you hope that people charge reasonable fees for service, although as they say caveat emptor. I do have a few other jobs for this garage now (e.g. installation of garage door opener, replacement of springs), but I would never use this company for those services. The exorbitant price for the repair does not warrant repeat business from me, but that's the price you pay when you don't provide reasonable fees for service. This place doesn't seem to understand the difference between premium pricing and flat out price gouging. The quality value of a happy customer and word of mouth advertisement always trumps making a quick buck. Even after this review there was no mention of coming back to do the work properly or partially refunding the money. My suggestion next time is to do a bit of homework, get some more quotes (a lot are free and on site) before settling on a service company. I had the unfortunate luck of needing access to my car quickly not knowing what the true cost of repair should have been. This company was able to take advantage of a timely situation. If I had known how much I was being ripped off I would have refused the service.