Church turns to ABC-13 after waiting months for sign installment

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- When a local church saw its sign knocked down in an accident, they bought a new one. That was months ago, but the sign is still not up, so they called ABC-13 for help.

The sign was ordered and paid for back in October, 5 months later it's not installed and the pastor is not happy.

The sign calling people to Saints Chapel Church of God in Christ did not did not fare well after an accident last Summer.

"The truck hits her into our sign and it messes it up," Pastor Ronald Morris said.

The replacement sign was built by a company in Florida and paid for back in November. The sign was then shipped to an independent sign installer in Houston in December.

"All he has to do is get the permit for the sign and the engineer to come and make sure it's OK; so we gave him a check for $1,000," Morris said.

But months later that new sign is still not on church grounds. So Reverend Morris called the company that made the sign.

"He tells me, 'Well there isn't much we can do because we already closed out the transaction, but if you can sell the sign to another church.' I said, 'Greg I am not in the sign-selling business, I am in the soul-saving business,'" he said.

Morris says communication with the installer broke down so he called us. So we called the installer and he agreed to refund the church's money.

After our conversation, the installer called the church saying he received all the needed paper work and could get the sign installed within a week.

"Put the sign up, that's all we want you to do," Morris said.

One thing we learned during this story, getting a sign put up in the city of Houston is a huge undertaking; so if you have a business or a church or anything else, be sure the installer knows the process and be sure to get several estimates before paying anyone.