Article Courtesy of FloridaToday.Com

By SARAH OKESON

Published 11-21-2006

COCOA BEACH - Gloria Mangino's husband of 59 years is a stubborn man.

Vincent Mangino, 84, a machine gunner during World War II, received a Silver Star for his part in the invasion of Normandy and saw bodies stacked in ditches when he helped liberate Buchenwald. Gloria couldn't even get him to leave their sixth-floor beachfront condo during the 2004 hurricanes when wind rammed the windows and water blew in around the sliding glass balcony door.

"He has this idea that we're well-protected in the condo," Gloria Mangino, 81, said in exasperation.

But even stubborn Vincent Mangino, a retired attorney, hasn't been able to prevail in the couple's recent battle with a Melbourne company, Roll-Tek Industries, with which they signed a contract 14 months ago to install hurricane shutters. The couple paid more than $1,500 as a deposit and received nothing. Now, the Cocoa Beach Police Department is investigating the couple's complaint for a possible theft charge, according to a police report.

At least one employee of a shutter company faces criminal charges in Brevard County.

Chris Hilderbrand, 41, of Titusville, was arrested last month on charges of grand theft and contracting without a license after he allegedly took a deposit for $1,590 from a Merritt Island woman in June but never installed the shutters, according to records. Hilderbrand worked for Florida Overhead Garage Door & Shutter, Inc., which is no longer installing hurricane shutters.

Meanwhile, a common excuse for delays no longer applies.

Last summer's backlog of orders for shutters has eased, and new orders for shutters should be shipped within about two weeks, said Stephen Buzzella, president of MetalTech Inc. in Hialeah which sells about $9.5 million a year in hurricane shutters and other products.

"I hated it when people thought our industry was like tin men," Buzzella said, harkening to the hustlers who sold metal home siding. "When people think of shutter companies, I would want them to think of good things, not people getting robbed."

Deposit disputes

Hurricane shutters work by preventing hurricane-force winds from getting inside the house where they can increase the internal air pressure and rip the house apart.

The Manginos decided to get hurricane shutters after hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne in 2004. They paid a deposit of $1,520 to Roll-Tek on Sept. 12, 2005, for shutters they were told would cost $5,067 and would be installed within 12 weeks. The couple's daughter, Nancy Lasher of Montclair, N.J., intervened as the wait dragged on.

Under Florida law, a state-licensed contractor must apply for permits within 30 days if a customer puts down a deposit of more than 10 percent. The work must start within 90 days of the permits being issued unless the customer gives written approval for the work to take longer. This only applies to work where the shutters would substantially change the building.

"I kept getting the runaround that 'They're back-ordered,' " Lasher said. "After six or seven months of getting the runaround, we started asking for the money back."

The Manginos haven't received their deposit. Michael Adkins, president of Roll-Tek, did not return repeated phone calls from FLORIDA TODAY.

In March, Roll-Tek sales manager Michael O'Connor wrote Vincent Mangino that the company wouldn't refund their money.

"This is not something we do," O'Connor wrote. "Hundreds of people just like yourself have been waiting for shutter installations. Throughout the state of Florida, it is a more lengthy wait than most people like, but industry-wide demands have created this problem, not one shutter company. If we were to refund deposits based on a longer-than-anticipated waiting period, I'm afraid we wouldn't be in business long."

In August, the board of the Better Business Bureau of Central Florida voted to revoke Roll-Tek's membership in the Better Business Bureau because of unanswered and unresolved consumer complaints.

Company cited

Long waits aren't the only problems residents have reported with contractors.

In rural Titusville, homeowner Richard Scaltsas, 60, a retired manager, decided earlier this year to get hurricane shutters. Scaltsas said he has terminal brain cancer and has endured stays in the hospital and nursing home.

"I decided if I'm going to go, I want to make sure my wife and daughter are safe," Scaltsas said.

He opted for Dry Duck Exterior Coating of Melbourne, owned by Steve Nichols, which advertised its hurricane shutters and was billed in a FLORIDA TODAY promotional section as "top-of-the-line with their coating and professionalism." Left unsaid: the company wasn't licensed.

Scaltsas said he was in a wheelchair when the shutters were installed in May, and he wasn't able to inspect the work.

"I could have crawled out there on my hands and my knees, I guess," Scaltsas said.

He said he paid the company $4,759 but found out later that the shutters were improperly installed. Some of the panels are too close to the windows, the bolts aren't properly spaced and some of the panels have scratches on them.

"I just want my money back," Scaltsas said. "I have catastrophic bills and things to pay."

On Wednesday, company owner Nichols was found guilty by a Brevard County special magistrate on 26 citations for advertising without being registered or certified, doing business without being registered or certified, and falsely representing the licensing status of his business. He was fined $9,150.

Nichols used the license numbers of three other men, assistant county attorney Barbara Amman said, and "the county repeatedly told them that they could not operate in this manner."

But Nichols, whose business was licensed by the state in July, said he was relying on bad legal advice. He plans to appeal the special magistrate's ruling.

"We're the victim here," he said.

What warranties?

Other homeowners have been frustrated by problems with warranties or companies that have folded.

Frank and Donna Flandreau of Casselberry didn't have problems getting shutters installed in 1999 in the condo they owned in Cape Canaveral, but Frank Flandreau said the shutters, which had a 10-year-warranty, didn't work well.

They made dozens of calls to Shutter Outlet in Melbourne to try to get the shutters repaired. The couple said workers from the company came to their condo in July 2005, told them the shutters were defective, took them off and threw them onto the beach four stories below.

Frank Flandreau said he couldn't get the company to replace the shutters so he filed a lawsuit against Shutter Outlet in Brevard County Circuit Court. He said it cost him $5,000 in legal fees and months in court before he could get the shutters replaced.

"It's not a product that from what I can see is easy to get installed or done in a timely manner or that when you have a problem they'll do anything to correct it," Flandreau said. "It left a bad taste in my mouth."

The Better Business Bureau said Shutter Outlet had an unsatisfactory record with it.

But Shutter Outlet owner Kevin Morelli said he wasn't aware of what the Better Business Bureau was saying about hiscompany. He said the business wouldn't replace the Flandreaus' shutters for free because they were installed by the business before he took over.

"They wanted them done for free, and they weren't even my shutters," Morelli said.

Shutters needed

This year's hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30, has been a quiet one, with no major storms making landfall in Florida.

The state has tried to entice homeowners to install shutters with the Florida Comprehensive Hurricane Damage Mitigation Program, passed last spring, which can match up to $5,000 of work that a homeowner does to protect his or her home from hurricane damage. The program is under way in 11 Florida counties, but not Brevard.

The Manginos still aren't sure what they're going to do about hurricane shutters, but Gloria Mangino said she's not riding out another hurricane with her husband in their condominium.

"I won't go through it again," she said. "Even if I have to leave by myself."