Here I pit myself for being such an idiot and being too fucking nice to people.
A little background if you will. I have been wanting to get a flagstone patio and walkway in the backyard, along with some stone flowerbed borders in the front. I mentioned this to the husband to get his feelings on it. He told a friend at work and behold, we get a guy that does landscaping for a living. His brother works for the guy, has been a close friend for 15 years yadda yadda.
So, Stephen comes out to the house to get some measurements, and I hand over a drawing of my idea so they will understand what the final product is. He gives me a quote which sounds reasonable, a little lower than most bids. So I give them half up front as a down payment so they can order materials. That was back in April. Now the brother of my husband’s co-worker, we shall call Roger, has been out to the house, almost every day. He has been removing dirt, cutting the patio/walkways out and cleaning out the flower beds. Stephen said the materials and labor were a little more than he had planned, could I see my way to give them a bit more money. Here is where I screw up.
I cut them a check for half of the remaining amount, trying to help them out. Stephen starts making excuses not to show up on the job site. He claims his radiator split a seam, he had to go to court in a custody battle for his little girl, he dislocated his shoulder. Roger in the meantime was getting pretty pissed off at having to do all the manual labor on the job when it was suppose to be both of them. So now Roger and Stephen are at war with each other, and I have a muddy pit in the backyard where there was suppose to be a flagstone patio.
At this point I think Stephen has abandoned the project, I am out 2,100 bucks and Roger has only been paid 230 dollars for his work.
I KNEW I should never have hired the friend of a friend, because of this type of crap happening. So here I pit myself for being a total fucking idiot.
Tell Stephan that you want your money back (minus Roger’s share) or you’ll be forced to call the police. Personal problems or not, he’s stealing from you.
I hate shitty servicemen. I went through a very similar problem with an electrician. We paid, he did the work that ended up being incomplete, and what was done would not pass inspection. He was also a “friend of a friend”. Fucker.
I called him on Monday for a refund and also threatened to turn him in. He has since disconnected his phone. :mad:
Roger is in the process of tracking him down. Hopefully they will either a) finish the damn job or b) I take the little bastard to court. I talked to Roger last night and he said his brother had recommended Stephen to another friend to get a fence built. Guess what.
The guy gave Stephen 500 dollars cash and hasn’t been called since. So at least there are 3 of us being screwed. Misery loves company.
That truly sucks, Tiggr. I hope you can reach some kind of accommodation without going all the way to small claims court. We are going to be hiring some people for work around our place some day. Is there any way to avoid this kind of bullshit?
Probably too late to help out in this situation, but before you hire anyone to do work on your house, make sure they are bonded and licensed. Ask to see proof. If they are bonded, they must post a security bond with the state to cover situations like this one.
Better put something in that mud. And good to see someone handling something like this in such a reasonable manner. Accepting part of the responsibility in the matter and all.
Ask friends who have had similar work done about which companies they were happy with. Hire professionals based on their qualifications and past work, not “as a favour”. Not even if it will save you money. You get what you pay for.
That would be my advice, feel free to ignore and call me names (this is the Pit, after all).
That freaking bites it. My close friend is a fully licensed and bonded home remodeler, and is often more expensive then unlicensed fly by night money stealers. Still, his bids often get turned down (after he goes through a lot of work researching materials, etc ) so that the homeowners friend can do the work. 9 times out of 10, the homeowner is out the money they gave the friend and is calling him back to do the work and actually show up.
It’s a huge problem here in NC- Whenever he promises a new client that he’ll be there on Monday morning to work, they’re shocked when he actually shows, then completes the work (and does it correctly and not slipshod)
Sorry you went through this- I hope you sue him or he gets brought up on crimminal charges- you cant’ just steal money from people and not complete work. I’d suggest calling one of your local TV stations that does a “Whistleblower” or similar series. They often get money out of these people because they’re so embarassed at having TV crews show up at their house and interview them about being scammers.
Monday morning I plan on contacting the District Attorney, the IRS and the Children’s advocacy. (yeah I know the last one is a low blow but he has custody of his 9 year old daughter and he might be facing jail time and he hasn’t remarried)
I also plan on placing a sign in my front yard warning my neighbors of the problem. If he swindled anyone else out of money perhaps we can jointly file a class action suit against this guy and make it a felony charge. I hate to be mean like this but I really HATE people that fuck nice people over.
Thanks for all the feedback. This was my first Pit thread and I really appreciate not having my nose rubbed raw on my mistake.
I think the sign on the front lawn is a GREAT idea - especially if the front lawn is a mess. A sign that says “This landscaping job courtesy of …” would be very appropriate.
These are all good ideas, but the THREAT of them is far more powerful than the actual APPLICATION of them. Get in touch with him, and tell him you are getting ready to make these calls, and will if he doesn’t get you your money back within 48 hours.
If instead you actually make the calls, he’ll feel a bunch of pain, but you won’t get nada out of it. You’ll still have to go to small claims court like all the other suckers and stand in line. And even after you win the claim, you’ll have to collect, which you never will.
There is really nothing like knowing a good contractor for home repair jobs and referrals. Sometimes it takes some trial-and-error to learn this.
I used “The Sign Method” on a friend-of-a-friend referral for some body work on my car once. My sign said “Body Work by Tony Leo”. Mr Leo was a very unhappy man and agreed to work on my car for some number of hours ( I forgot exactly)and then we would be even. Even then, he did some really crappy work.
I offer you my sympathies as well, as this is the same type of work Mr2U does. However, even though he gets work via word of mouth (friend to friend), he continues to GET work because of the job he does. He has never screwed anyone over: in fact, we’ve had, twice in the last few years, put liens on the homeowner’s place because the HOMEOWNER’S were screwing US over. Yeah, we got paid. It was a GOOD thing. They contracted (always have a contract!) for extras and decided they didn’t want to pay once the work was done - the courts saw it OUR way. ALWAYS GET IT IN WRITING! But a day late and a dollar short advice won’t help, I know. Sorry.
I’d suggest you call the police - Mr2U is having a shitfit right now that I’m not spending time with him downstairs (he has to have control of the TV - and I don’t wanna watch what he’s watching) so he won’t weigh in (he can be such a tool at times ;)) but he would suggest the same thing. And the sign in the yard? Go for it. Don’t let other homeowners have to go through this kind of crap too.
Oh, and Tiggrkitty, you didn’t make the mistake. HE did. You just were trusting. Which all of us have done. It’s a painful lesson learned, but YOU DIDN’T cause it - your contractor lower than pond scum who gives every contractor a bad name idiot caused it. Don’t feel like an idiot - my husband fixes a lot of debacles just like this.
Again, it ISN’T YOUR FAULT! Where do you live? Maybe we can help. We’ll try, anyway. No charge. And I’m serious.
I feel like I am trapped in one of those Twilight Zone episodes. When I got home from work today there was a note attached to my door.
----------------------------------- Note: his spelling not mine.
Mrs T,
I have been unable to locate Roger. The ground still is really mushy but I can still cut and arrange. I have several different ideals for placement of the stone. By no means is this the final layout. I hope your feeling better and I look forward to making the patio and walkways beautiful. I want you to be happy with the job and smile when you look at it, not mad at me. Sorry for any delays. Please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. My phone is acting screwy but I will eventually get the message.
Stephen
The phone number is the one that was disconnected last week. Now does he really think I am that stupid after all the lies over the past month. Is this his way of delaying me filing a lawsuit against him? Inquiring minds want to know. My gut feeling is to go ahead and contact the DA and file the suit, I can always drop it later if he actually does complete the job. I swear this guy is going to give me an ucler. Now I did some checking on the Texas Penal code over the weekend. I could get him on deceptive business practices or theft which can carry a fine of 4,000 and a year jail time. (Class A)
Missy2U, I live in North Dallas. Surrounded by Carrollton/Addison but I am in Denton county.
Don’t buy a word of what that bugger says. He’s trying to get out of trouble my making it sound like the whole thig was a big misunderstanding. Take him down.
I do plan on taking him down at this point. It has been over a month since he started this job and it was only suppose to take a week. Since my last post I also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in hopes that someone else won’t get scammed.
Like I said…I can always withdraw a complaint after it has been filed and he makes good, however if I wait too long, then the statue of limitations runs out and I am left with nothing.
See I do wise up fast. Well sort of anyway. I feel sorry for Cardsfan1975 (hubby), he has been having to put up with the “stark raving mad banshee from hell” that I have turned into because of this moron.
Personally, I think coming to your house in person and apologizing to be the act of someone who knows he’s flakey but really wants to do better. I would give him a second chance. I’d also be very clear that he’s hanging by a thin thread, and the pain of disappointing you will be severe.
But maybe I’m just a softie. First time for everything.
