![]() ![]() "This man quickly disclosed the problem, charged a reasonable service fee ($69.50) and was on his way." "No taking advantage of the helpless woman here," reported Thompson in the broadcast. Plano Garage Door's technician was the first repairman presented in the program, responding to a call from a passive female homeowner. In the second, he changed the transmitter codes so that the door could not be operated by remote control.Įarly in the broadcast, Brackett explained, "The way we set it up was so simplistic, it would be corrected immediately without any other parts." In the first case, he simply cocked the photo-eyes out of alignment. Dateline wanted to discover if repairmen were more likely to take advantage of females, and if aggressive homeowner behavior affected the technicians' ethics.īrackett created two separate problems with the garage door systems. Two of the homeowners were female, one passive and one aggressive, and two were male, one passive and one aggressive. In each home, Dateline placed four trained homeowners to receive the repairmen. Sometimes we saw some outrageous cheating." ![]() "And to record it all," reported Dateline's Lea Thompson on the program, "we placed hidden cameras all over each of their homes. The problems involved basic household items such as a dishwasher, a stove, an attic heater, an air conditioner, a pool, a toilet, and the garage door system. To do so, they asked Brackett to create minor, easily repaired problems in four different homes in the Plano area. In the broadcast, Dateline said their investigation sought to test the honesty and fairness of home repairmen. (Sidebar for this segment: What's The Worst?) The largest problem," he said, "came from garage door dealers." Brackett told us that he provided his services to Dateline without pay so that his role would be "totally objective."īrackett said he soon became aware that, "The Better Business Bureau (of Metropolitan Dallas) was having an abnormal amount of complaints from different industries where repairmen were fleecing the customers. They found Ron Brackett of suburban Dallas, a 60-year-old veteran home inspector and instructor at the American Inspectors Institute in Dallas. Even though the area is an upscale area, that did not affect their location selection, she said.Īfter securing the homes, Dateline then sought a home inspection expert who could help them set up their investigation. Why, then, did Dateline conduct the hidden camera investigation in Dallas? Schwartz said they selected the Plano, Texas, area because one of their interns had access to a home there. "Actually, my boss' wife had a repair done in her home (in New York), and she suspected she was discriminated against because she was female," Schwartz told us. Our goal is to bring to center stage a serious problem facing our industry and hopefully initiate an industry dialogue that seeks ways to protect and improve our reputation as a professional trade.ĭid Dateline NBC target garage door dealers? Lindsey Schwartz, the producer for the Jan. In this exclusive special report, we will identify the specific allegations against the garage door technicians in Dateline's report, and present the other side of the story from the perspective of the three other door dealers involved. When we asked, "You don't even want to talk to us?" they actually hung up on us. One of the dealers, however, AA Able Overhead Door, which appears to operate under as many as six different names, refused to offer any comment. ![]() Three of the dealers welcomed our offer to present their side of the story. We also talked to Dateline's producer and contacted all four of the Dallas area door dealers who were taped by Dateline's hidden cameras. Since then, we acquired a complete transcript and a videotape of the program. I hope your organization provides a swift retort to the depiction of our professional trade." He wrote, "As an independent operator in the door business, I found this broadcast … biased towards the industry. But four hours later, at 1:30 in the morning, I received an anonymous e-mail from a concerned door dealer. The hidden camera investigation, which began two summers ago, attempted to reveal if home repairmen were more likely to take advantage of females than males. ![]() 4, 2002, Dateline NBC devoted its hour-long newsmagazine show to exposing unethical practices of home repairmen, including garage door technicians. Dateline NBC Investigates Garage Door Repairmenįor the door and access systems industry, the new year started with a bang … a bang that delivered a black eye to the entire industry. ![]()
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