92-year-old woman gets $23,200 refunded for deck repair work

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- A 92-year-old Oakland woman spent nearly her entire savings to repair a rotted deck. Two years later, Ida McEntire says the porch was worse than before -- and her $23,000 was gone.

"The old wood is rotting and falling apart,'' says McEntire's daughter, Georgette Pratt, showing the deteriorated deck.

She said the contractor had torn down the old decaying wood, but put it right back up. The panels appeared rotted, and that wasn't the only problem.

"The tile is falling off,'' Pratt said. "The grout started cracking, the boards were cracking. "

McEntire paid $23,000 to repair the deck more than two years ago and trusted the company she hired, Orkin Pest Control, her longtime exterminator.

However, Orkin hired a subcontractor to do the construction work. That company kept delaying the work.

"What was there, it depressed me to see it,'' McEntire said.

She was afraid to walk out her back door because the deck was rotted. She and her daughter said they kept pleading with Orkin and the subcontractor to finish the work.

Now, McEntire says she has nearly given up ever having it fixed -- or using her back door.

Instead, Pratt brought her mom to a 7 On Your Side event in Alameda, where they asked for help and advice. 7 On Your Side contacted Orkin's company headquarters, and it took action.

Orkin initially kept working with the original subcontractor, but when nothing was completed, hired a new contractor to build the deck.

Three months later, McEntire had a gleaming new deck with fresh tiles and wood. Not only that, Orkin gave McEntire her money back -- all $23,200.

"Never did we expect we'd get the whole payment as well as a beautiful porch,''' Pratt said.

Orkin tells us: "We wanted to make sure Ms. McEntire received the quality and results promised to her when she initially became a customer. When we became aware of her concerns we worked as quickly as we could to address her issues ... We are taking steps to make sure something like this doesn't happen to other customers, and we will not use the original contractor in the future."

"What can we say?'' Pratt says. "Thank you! It's good to see a smile back on my mom's face."

Written and produced by Renee Koury