If you wish to install Gutter Helmets and live in ...

If you wish to install Gutter Helmets and live in Michigan, you'll have to deal with Infinity Home Improvement -- and I recommend against it. Good product, bad franchisee with questionable sales policies.

First, if you have a spouse, their rep won't deal with you unless the spouse is present. Doesn't matter if you're the sole owner of the property. Doesn't matter if you alone will be paying for the work. Doesn't appear to matter if your spouse is indifferent, incarcerated, incapacitated, involved in other business, on on safari. This company has a hard and fast rule.

I met with salesperson Nick on Aug. 9. My request: Remove and reinstall 13-year-old Gutter Helmets on second floor in connection with re-roofing, and quote the addition of Gutter Helmets on first floor. Nick got me interested in other options, such as Infinity doing the entire roofing job and gee, what about a metal roof instead? My interest was genuine. I explained that I would be traveling almost continuously through mid-October but was reachable by phone and email and would be present, of course, when the work is done. Aug. 13: I emailed Nick to express interest in receiving the quote. Aug. 17: Nick replied that he would "forward your pricing as requested." He copied someone named Boyd Levitt.

Alas, nothing happened. Sept. 1 and Sept. 19: Followup email inquiries from me. In between, a few calls from Infinity staff members appeared to offer a glimmer of hope. Some asked when I could meet, and I explained that I could not because I was traveling. Some asked about my dear husband, who was fully supportive of the project but not the boring details. "Every couple is different," I kept trying to explain, to no avail.

Several days ago, salesman Nick called to tell me his boss had forbidden him to email the quotes. Along the way, Infinity probably had checked my credit, which is great. So, I'm left with no reason why the people at Infinity Home Improvement wasted weeks of my time only to reaffirm devotion to their insulting and customer-unfriendly sales polices.