Asphalt Scam

It happens more and more often, even in small town Nebraska.

Better Business Bureau President Jim Hegarty said there are, "multitudes of scams every single day."

It happens so often that when Hegarty hears the phrase asphalt scam, he can tell you almost exactly what happened without having ever spoken with the victim.

"They will often show up at your door unannounced, make an unsolicited call," Hegarty said.

That's exactly what happened to Andy Peterson.

"They tell you that they've got some product left over from a state job," Hegarty said.

"They said they didn't want to waste it and said he'd give me a good deal," Peterson said.

That's when Peterson paid the workers $2,800 for what he thought would be a quality paving job.

"I began to look more closely at it and realized I'd been taken," he said.

It's something that Hegarty said is becoming common.

"We begin to see this every spring, early summer," he said. "That's when these gypsies start rolling into our area from other parts of the country and take advantage of people who aren't aware of what these guys are up to."

The selling point for Peterson was when the pavers said they'd already had other customers in town. They dropped familiar names, those of neighbors and friends.

"You don't feel good," Peterson said. "The first apology I had to make was to my wife."

Then, he made a call to find out what it would cost to repair the damage.

"It was not in the budget, but we'll work around it and hope for a good crop so maybe we can repair it this fall," he said.

That's something both Hegarty and local accredited pavers said can be avoided.

Their recommendation is to make a call to BBB or a local, established company before cutting a deal with those on your doorstep.

It's something Peterson didn't do.

"That's what you're taking advantage of in this state: people who like to trust people," he said.

I really don't understand how people could feel secure in such a big expense. Such a home improvement should not be an impulse buy. But I guess people want to keep up with the Joneses and these people know how to work that to their advantage to execute the scam.

I don't get it either. Guess some people want to believe they're getting a "deal". But before anyone would do that kind of job I'd have to check their background first.

Here's what I'd like to know, WHO would buy asphalt from a door to door salesman?

Supernova wrote:Here's what I'd like to know, WHO would buy asphalt from a door to door salesman?

The scam is usually that they did a job for someone in the neighborhood & had materials left over. Sometimes asphalt, concrete, shingles...things like that. So they offer to do your repair at a "discount". But the materials are substandard or the work is shoddy. Either way by the time they realize they've been had the scammers are long gone money in hand.