I’m thinking no.
Hate to be a pessimist but I’d have to be on the “no” side.
You win.
I filed a report with the sheriff’s office on Monday. The deputy said he will finalize the report on Thursday (today) and present it to the prosecutor (hopefully also today).
I’ll let ya know what happens.
Sorry Crafter_Man. If it makes you feel better, though there’s no reason it should, that money was gone months ago. For all our “Why didn’t you do this?” questioning about your later communications with him, it’s extremely unlikely he ever would have delivered like he was supposed to, regardless of what you did.
I know this doesn’t help crafter man (sorry) but maybe it will be something for others following this thread to consider.
Any time we hire out work, we source and purchase the materials ourselves. Not only to avoid this problem, but a lot of contractors will buy too much material and keep the extra for themselves. A friend of ours says he knows a guy who built an entire 5000 sf house for himself from such extras. Most places will give you a “contractor’s discount” if you ask. I think the more control you have over your project, the better (which is why we do practically everything ourselves, but some things it’s better to hire out*.
*drywall. Always hire out the drywall.
Good luck.
Yeah, good luck and sorry to hear it turned out this way–I’ll be curious how it all turns out. My hunch is still that the guy is just an idiot, because as a deliberate fraud he’s done everything wrong. But he could just be a really dumb con man, I guess. I think he just kept assuming money from other jobs would come through and he’d have your money ready to buy materials for your job when the time came. I suspect your money immediately went to fund materials for another job he was doing.
This is still obviously criminal behavior, and extremely poor business practice besides.
I was boned like this twice before I wised up. Once for a fence job and once for a large amount of yard work. It was well over a thousand bucks down the toilet total. My lesson was >>NEVER EVER PAY IN ADVANCE FOR small scale service work unless you are in complete control of the materials<<. If you’ve done any level of handyman style transactions in life you’re going to get scammed at some point.
You’re not the first and you won’t be the last. It’s an occupational hazard when dealing with small contractors and handymen who lose control of their businesses. People who get a good and dependable worker will often not tell others (even friends) about them for just this reason.
Aw man, that really stinks. Good luck getting your money back.
P.S. I’m sure you have, but take screen captures of all text messages, and ask your bank for a copy of the cancelled check.
Aw, I’m sorry, too. I was hoping there’d be a happy ending, that the contractor was just (as they sometimes are) too busy to keep in touch. Well, live and learn, and thanks for sharing. The contractors I hire are through my job, so I don’t really have much to lose except … well, my job … if I really get screwed.
Any updates in this situation? As a former contractor who struggled to keep everyone happy, I have been following this thread with great interest.
At this point, you don’t care if he bought the materials.
You gave him $2300 to buy the materials, he owes you either those materials or the $2300.
Honestly, you’d probably be happier getting the $2300 than the materials. I mean, it’s probably not like he was getting super deal on them. And there is every possibility he was getting cheap materials and planning to pocket the difference. So you’d probably prefer to have the next contractor buy the materials.
But if he says he’s already bought the materials, then
- that’s what he was supposed to do, so accept them and call it even.
- demanding cash instead just opens up endless rounds of “But I don’t have the cash, I spent it on the materials. I am trying to sell the materials to get you the money, but I can’t find a buyer.” You don’t want that, you want this over with.
Whether or not you’ve been scammed depends on whether or not he ever intended to do the work. At this point, you don’t care. You want your money back and you want someone else to do the work. Someone who will actually show up when they are supposed to.
And yeah, getting your money back may involve a trip to Small Claims Court.
Update:
I provided all the paper work to a sheriff’s deputy a few weeks ago. He presented it to the county prosecutor. The prosecutor said he wanted more/better evidence that Jeff is refusing to return my money.
So on October 25th I met with a the deputy at the county sheriff’s office. I called Jeff’s cell phone while the deputy recorded the conversation. Jeff answered and I told him, II know you never ordered the materials, Jeff. I demand the return of the $2500 I paid you. You must repay me by 5 PM on October 31." Jeff sounded rather “out of it” over the phone, and mumbled something along the lines, “I can’t do that. I can’t do that. I need more time…”
Well October 31 came and went. I emailed the deputy and told him I wasn’t paid. The deputy said he would present the evidence to the county prosecutor later in the week.
I am hoping to hear back from the deputy today.
Here’s something else that’s interesting. On October 26th I received this message from Jeff via FB:
And then a few days later Jeff deleted his FB account.
With no information about a new address? Uh huh…
Have you driven by the house to see if his vehicle is there?
Now this is interesting. I’m not sure if you bothered to look, but did his previous Facebook account look “normal”? i.e., did he have lots of friends and “normal” posts, or is it possible it was a fake account? Also, how did he identify himself to you? Just a business card? I had assumed he was operating with his real Facebook account which is why I always doubted he was running a deliberate fraud scheme (versus just being an idiot who doesn’t understand how to manage his business finances), because all the fraudulent contracting scams I’ve ran into they would never intentionally give up their real identity. But if he was running a sham Facebook account and gave you a business card printed with his sham name, then it’s obviously the case he’s someone who is just running scams deliberately. Hopefully not, and you can track him via his name or phone number.
I don’t think this is a deliberate fraud scheme. His FB page looked real, and I believe the name he gave me is his real name. The owner of Conover Lumber knows him, and the sheriff’s deputy told me he was able to do a criminal background check on Jeff. (He said Jeff has never been convicted of a serious crime.)
I just hope the prosecutor decided to press charges… 
You don’t really need the prosecutor. You can file a small claim against him all on your own. $2500 is small potatoes for a prosecutor.
Wouldn’t a letter from the prosecutor saying “hey! accepting money for a job and then not doing it is a crime! Pay up or face jail!” do just as well?