PINE NEEDLES CLOG THE FILTER and GUTTER!

Job #*******

VERY, VERY UNHAPPY WITH LEAF FILTER.

We live in the country with 80 ft pine trees on the windward side of the house. The sales person claimed no issue with the needles after we asked specifically about them. He also said full money back if the system didn't work. Pine needles were the main topic at our meeting. This was July 27/23 therefore at that time there were minimal needles falling. After install the VERY NEXT DAY needles appeared sticking out of the filter. A week later more needles of course starting to clog the filter.

This fall the needles started to fall leaving a carpet of needles on the roof, ground and the filters completely clogged. At this time leaves had not started falling. Once the leaves started to fall they would jam up in the needles and further the clogging. I asked leaf filter to send an inspector out to see the problem. They sent a technician to clean gutters, not inspect. I know now they did this to delay the process to push everything back till after the fall season. At that time pictures were taken before and after plus I specifically pointed out to the technician the needles collecting at the down spout in the gutter also.

The very next day after cleaning the filter was clogged again with needles. I again asked them to send an inspector. A week later an inspector did show up and pictures were taken.

A week later the gutter itself started to clog inside at the downspout. I tried to reach leaf filter and after many ignored calls, and very slow response finally the regional manager called.

He did not want to honour the full money back warranty. He wanted to send yet another crew out to totally remove the filters, clean and reinstall. Then he offered 75% of my money back. They are required to provide full money back!

So now next week, mid Nov they will come, remove all filters, reinstall so they can prove their system works to me? Of course we will not know for another year when the needles fall again!. I did clearly explain their system does not work for pine needles. I have proof of that.

Doing this now is very timely for them. Needles have now stopped falling, leaves are off the trees. This will push any type warranty claim till next fall.

THEY WILL GET TO KEEP OUR MONEY FOR ANOTHER YEAR!

Simply put, pine needles clog the filter and work their way through the filter into the gutter. FULL STOP!. Leaf filter claim of no issue with pine needles is simply FALSE.

I talked with other gutter technicians since the install and all said there is not a gutter protection on the market that will stop pine needles. Also, that leaf filter will do everything they can NOT to honour their warranty.

Unfortunately I see the only resolution on this matter is through the courts.

I gave them lots of chances to make this right and they refuse.

So, how to make this right.

Honour your warranty.
Stop claiming your filter has no issues with pine needles.
Don't sell to homes with lots of pine trees around it.

UPDATE - THEY RESPONDED TO THIS REVIEW EXACTLY LIKE THEY DO EVERYONE ELSE EVEN WHEN I TOLD THEM NOT TO DO THAT. WASTE OF TIME. DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM LEAFFILTER. I'LL TAKE THEM OFF MYSELF AND PUT THEM BACK ON RATHER THAN GIVE THESE CROOKS $1,500.

This company wanted to charge me thousands of dollars for my system. I declined, but they came back with a price of $1,300 for the product. Fine. Cut to a few years later, and I need a new roof put on. Roofers will take the gutters off and replace them but want the LeafFilters taken off first. I called in April 2023 for a price for removal and putting them back on when roof is done. Guy in Brevard office said he would do it for $150 or so. I said great, and he said to call back when I knew who my roofer was going to be. Few months go by, and I call back to get the service set up. Now, the service is $1,504 which is more than I paid for my system. I talked to a local service rep who was very rude and told me that the sales cost was "below cost" and that the job should have been cancelled before it was completed. I called back asking for someone from the Brevard office to call me instead of St. Lucie, and the same guy calls me back, rude again. I sent a message on the website asking for a supervisor, and the supervisor called me and said the same lines that the service guy said. Judging from the reviews on here regarding service, I doubt they will do anything. And, LeafFilter, if you really want to take care of this, don't write some BS telling me to call or email. I've already done that. Give me an executive customer service email to get this taken care of. Otherwise, I'll take them off myself. Doesn't seem like your warranty is worth anything anyways according to the reviews.

I called the 800# off of promotion #289 and on March 6,2023, they sent a man out to give me a quote.
He gave me the price above. When I shared that the price was 1/2 the cost of a new roof (put on the year prior) he dropped it to $4k and when I showed him the google search with the per foot price, he dropped the price to $2k. I asked him to provide me with a written quote using those same numbers and he refused to do that.

While the promotion #289 stated that a written quote would be given to me at the appointment, that did not happen. When I asked him for the quote in writing, he said the company 'always emails it to you' but no one had requested my email address. So, I showed him the flier (promotion 289) he said they were mistaken. So, I asked him to confirm my email address, and at this point, he got in his car and left like the weasel he and this company are. I include the company in that statement, because when I complained about his unprofessional and unethical behavior, they connected me with the supposed supervisor Ron Roberts, and he could have cared less.

Ron felt that this was not a bad or horrible thing! Several more calls to Leaf Filter to have this addressed, and zero reply/ response. I am left believing that the man who came out to my home was doing his job the way he was trained to do his job. Wow, this is how I learned that his supervisors have zero problem with how he behaved and how he did not deliver the quote as promised.

I prefer dealing with companies who hold themselves and their team members to a high level of integrity which starts with honesty, and ethical behavior. LeafFilter is none of those things!

If you want thugs or criminal behavior demonstrated at your home, taking advantage of you, telling lies, trying to sell you a $4/ per foot product at a $55/ per foot price - call LeafFilter! Otherwise -- stay away from this horrible company.

I have reported them to the PA Attorney General's office who is there to protect PA homeowners from companies like this one! If you have a bad experience like this, please report the vendor to the PA Attorney General's office immediately! The AG was more interested in the behavior of the supervisor...

BE AWARE & STAY AWAY!

Update after LeafFilter corporate reply: I beg to differ with your statement that you care. I made three follow-up calls to your 800 number requesting that someone contact me about the horrible interaction with your company. No one other than Ron has returned my call and the people answering your phones told me that they don't know who else to tell other than Ron.

Please don't insult the general public by pretending that you care how your hired contractors treat those interested in your product because according to Ron, my experience 'wasn't that bad'. If you really care - do something about this so it stops and never happens again. You can start by delivering the written quote as mentioned in your advertisements. You have my address...what's the problem?

This company SPAMS relentlessly ANY EMAIL ADDRESS they get their hands on.

Stay away from filth like that.

I have given this company ample amount of time to get back to me and follow up but now I'm forced to publish my dissatisfaction with their service. Below is a comprehensive summary of what went on:

My experience with LeafFilter Gutter Protection is that primarily the product works! I have a pine tree near my house that sheds its needles all over my roof and before LeafFilter was installed I had a lot of issues with gutter blockage and water overflowing on the house facia over my windows.

However, from the sale pitch to contract negotiations that I was very pleased with my positive experience but my satisfaction was starting to dwindle.

In our contract I had covered off all the bases with the sales representative.
We agreed that since I was having installed on my house the aluminum covered facia & soffits along with the installation of LeafFilter gutter protection system there would be no unexpected expenses going to surface once the work is initiated when the gutters & facia are off.

I was reassured by the sales rep that LeafFilter is not that kind of company and he guaranteed me no surprises or additional costs are going to surface. I generally trusted that statement from the sales representative.

We agreed that it's going to be a single day installation even though my installation is a bigger job than usual that would also requires scaffolding to be erected to access the home's rear gutters.

On November 6th 2020 after I signed the contract for work to commence I was sent an email scheduling my install for November 25th 2020.

That's where things took a left turn. I was trying to adjust the date for a time where my wife or myself would be present since we both work essential service jobs and can't take any time off during COVID.

On the 13th of November after multiple attempts to reach the installations manager to reschedule the installation by one day I gave up and had my wife book off the day of the 25th only to get a call the day before advising us of a cancellation due to bad weather in the forecast. I was not pleased with that but we were also apprised that the install is going to be spread over two days now because it is deemed a big job by the installations team.

So on Thursday December 10 we received a call advising us that Friday December 11th the installer is going to show up to start the work.

With so little notice and after multiple attempts to contact the installation manager to no avail, we had to cancel our plans to accommodate the last minute installation date that was decided by the installation department. My wife and I have only few days every three months that our days off coincide so we can actually do something together. Thus, we bit the bullet on the 11th and decided to stay put for the installation to commence. I am a veteran and was supposed to show my support to my fallen soldiers on that day with my spouse and I was not able to because of this nonsense.

On November 11th since the installation department deemed the job to be too big to complete in just one day I was perplexed to see only one installer show up for work...
He was discourteous and defensive from the get go! He seemed to have no knowledge of the job requirements and always using words like "we don't do this, that's not covered by the contract and that's going to cost extra!"
So I was really upset on how the installation team was handling this job.

Also, the installer seemed to be missing key information about the job from the installation department. After few agonizing minutes and a couple of escalations to the service manager & sales rep. We managed to get back on track but now the installer informed us he doesn't work weekends and that he'd be back Monday 14th to complete the job.

On Monday we hit yet another obstacle where the scaffolding needed for the backyard work still wasn't delivered on time and now for the backyard scaffolding setup to occur the installer needed another day totalling three days.
So now a one day job turned into three days of construction and debris!

Here is what happened through out the installation process:

1- The installer destroyed the gutters as he removed them from my roof so they couldn't be reinstalled again.
2- He tried to push the cost up to have new gutters put on and I was again at the phone with sales reminding the sales representative of our contractual agreements! Glad I was smart enough to do so up front in contract language writing...

3- He then told me that a siding panel couldn't be patched on the second roof and he had to get a quote to have a new panel put in that is necessary to connect to the newly installed facia corner!
It felt like the installer is trying to find any reason to stretch the work and stretch our budget along with it like any fly by the seat of your pants contract job that I hoped to avoid by going with a big name company!

After yet again going to the service manager on this I came out to see that he had indeed patched that corner up by cutting the 30 foot siding panel and was able to connect the facia to the new patch board.
However, now he was recommending that I change the 30 foot siding panel entirely instead of forcing the issue after he did the cut?!

Since he was already present at the job site and can do it now rather than leaving it to rot for few more years also since the siding panel had already been cut by the installer I had no choice but to go along and was quoted $600+ tax for a 32 foot new aluminium covered siding more over the price I already had agreed to in the contract signed on November 6th 2020.

4- Throughout the job I was not happy with the installer's overall work acumen! He seemed not to care about his customers satisfaction at all!

5- He left tons of nails on the first day of installation in my driveway that I had to pickup and when I confronted him about it he boldly replied that he was using screws and that those nails are not from his install. Obviously he had demonstrated to me a shady workmanship since he demolished the old facia that had contained these nails in it that I feel were purposely left on my driveway.

6- Later on he picked up after himself. Yet consequently, I still picked up two large screws from my driveway after he left on the last day when he completed the installation.

7- In my backyard I discovered a hoodie laying around still and couple gutter joints left on the ground. It seems also that he didn't want any help moving my patio shed that he disconnected and did not reconstruct. He also bent my heavy marble top patio table's foot by relocating it on his own and by refusing help to move it! Also, he had my minor daughter sign his work order instead of waiting for me to close things off properly!

Luckily in the end of all this we have had few days of heavy rain that tested the gutter system before a heavy snow fall and I'm happy to report that LeafFilter works!

But my satisfaction with the product overall was overshadowed by the lousy experience I had with this contractor LeafFilter associated themselves with to do the work on my house.

We decided last summer (2019) to replace the rain gutters on our house. The old ones were about 20-25 years old and dripped in two spots -- the front porch and the driveway. We looked around and decided to go with the LeafFilter gutter protection system, and when the salesman came to show us the product I showed him where the old gutters dripped. He assured us that the new gutters would not drip, and we went ahead with the purchase. The gutters and protection system are quite pricey -- more than $4,500 for the straight gutters across the front and back of our house. When the gutters were installed I thought they didn't look right -- the angle was a straight line with the slope of the roof. When it snowed around Thanksgiving the snow slid down the roof and onto the gutters, and then it dripped a solid line all the way from end to end, front and back. I contacted the company, and after three calls and a week and a half wait they sent somebody to look at our gutters. He told me the gutters should have wedges behind them to make them stand out more and catch the water and snow better, and he said they weren't busy at that time so they should be able to get somebody out really soon to fix the problem. After three more calls and another week and a half two people came to fix the gutters, and after more than three hours the back gutter looked the same and the front gutter was twisted and bent. I sent the company pictures and called to get somebody to come back and fix the latest mess, and after another two weeks and three more calls somebody finally came. He said the previous workmanship was really shoddy, and he put a new gutter on the front. He also put in the wedges (front only) to change the angle so the gutter would catch the moisture. I was hopeful that the problem was fixed. Then it snowed again, and we had another drip all the way across the front of the house. I didn't check the back because I figured it was the same. I texted the service manager and asked him to get in touch with me to let me know when somebody would be coming to fix the gutters so they would actually drain the water away from the front of the house. I didn't hear anything for a few days, so I contacted the corporate office to ask for their help. I finally got a call from a gentleman (I later found out he is the installation manager), and he told me the gutters are working the way they are designed to. The snow melts and drips onto the gutter filters, but then it freezes again overnight, and when it melts it drips. He advised me to install heat tape along the front and back roof to keep the snow from refreezing, and that would alleviate the problem. We have lived in our house for 42 years and have never had any problems except for one drip in front and one in back, and now the really expensive new gutters drip from end to end on both sides. And that's the way they're designed to work, according to the installation manager. The salesman assured us the new gutters wouldn't drip, but apparently he didn't understand how they were designed to work. I have spoken with the corporate customer service people, and they will not refund our money because they say it is a warranty issue. I asked them to come to our house and adjust the angle of the rear gutter, which they haven't done on their previous visits, and remove the filters from both gutters. At least that way the rain gutters will drain the water away from the front porch and sidewalk instead of dripping on them. We paid a LOT of money to buy dripping rain gutters. Before they would do that they sent me a settlement contract to sign, and one item in the contract said I agreed not to disparage LeafFilter in any way. I told them I refused to sign it, so I will be hiring somebody locally to come and remove the filters. That will nullify the warranty, but that's worthless anyway. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! I would give negative stars if I could.

Great system