Contractor took our $ and won't return calls.

[april37]

Has anyone delt with a contractor who won't finish the job? He was a no call/ no show and now he will not answer his phone or return our calls.

What are some sources to leave bad feedback?
-Yelp
-Angie's List

Who can I contact for help?
-BBB (it's a long story but this won't do me any good)
-I think my state has a consumer protection site.

I left a FB message (sticking to the facts - nothing mean, threatening, etc) and the owner deleted my comment and blocked me from posting on his page.

Any other ideas?

[Susie]

What I'd do probably depends on how far into the job he was when he stopped returning calls. Does he acknowledge that it's not done, or does he feel he's done what you paid him for? How many times have you tried to call? Does the individual you've been working with have a supervisor? Is the owner involved?

I have been lucky in that I've only dealt with contractors who stopped returning calls after giving estimates (probably lower estimates than they were hoping for), and no money changed hands.

I wouldn't post a negative review on Yelp, Angie's List, or anywhere else until you've resolved this. Once you've posted it you can't take it back, and that leaves him with little motivation to work with you. If he's already been blasted online, might as well deserve it, right? Keep the leverage of the possibility of a negative review if they don't make an effort to make you happy.

[kaylie]

Small claims court? Also, local news outlets sometimes cover stuff like this. When I was a kid we had the "Shame on You" report.

[april37]

Dec 28, 2012 13:00:53 GMT -5 Susie said:

What I'd do probably depends on how far into the job he was when he stopped returning calls. Does he acknowledge that it's not done, or does he feel he's done what you paid him for? How many times have you tried to call? Does the individual you've been working with have a supervisor? Is the owner involved?

I have been lucky in that I've only dealt with contractors who stopped returning calls after giving estimates (probably lower estimates than they were hoping for), and no money changed hands.

I wouldn't post a negative review on Yelp, Angie's List, or anywhere else until you've resolved this. Once you've posted it you can't take it back, and that leaves him with little motivation to work with you. If he's already been blasted online, might as well deserve it, right? Keep the leverage of the possibility of a negative review if they don't make an effort to make you happy.

It's the owner we're dealing with. He fully acknowledges that there is work to be done. We had an appointment scheduled to complete the work. We even gave him more money to pay for the part he needs to finish the job. He was a no call/ no show. We tried calling him and he wouldn't answer his phone. We tried the office and were told someone would call us and they never did. That's when I posted on the FB page saying "you were a no call/no show, calls to cell go to voicemail but your mailbox is full. Called office with no return call." He left an 'apology' saying he'd call us on a specific date. Never called and since deleted the FB message and blocked me. He won't answer his phone. We left messages at his business. We stopped at his business and no one was there.

The last message we left asked him to call us by noon today (no call). We believe he has no intention of finishing our job.

[housegeek]

Take him to small claims court.

[jhawks482]

Dec 28, 2012 13:19:12 GMT -5 housegeek said:

Take him to small claims court.

Ditto, and like today.
We dealt with a situation like this last year (a fence company) but our problem was that we paid cash and didn't get a receipt. So we didn't even have the leverage to go to a small claims court. it was a sucky situation, and I hate hearing about others who have to go through what we did.
If you can, document your phone call attempts/messages left, gather receipts and any other important info, and as soon as you possibly can. It sounds like you've given him enough time to respond and do the job. Also, I agree with the poster who says to wait on all negative reviews until your case is settled or the job is done. Good luck!

[Susie]

I would probably give it until next week, just because the week between Christmas & New Years can be kind of crazy.

If he still doesn't respond, then yeah, small claims court time.

[thatgirl2478]

small claims court is probably your only option honestly.

Even if you take him to court & win, you might have problems getting restitution. There are a lot of ways around the law in this case (closing the business, reopening in another name, etc). You might just be SOL.

[tarheels]

We had this happen and were SOL. We did get her put on the state consumer whatever list, but that's only for 3 years and she changed her business name and opened up again within weeks.

The problem with small claims court is that there are so many places it can fail. We had her home address, but she refused to come to the door to be served by the sheriff. We then hired 2 different private investigators to serve her and neither could successfully trick her to get her served. So we couldn't even get into court. Even if we could have, she had no assets for us to get at (the PI checked on all that - her house was her mom's house). We would have had to repossess her ancient work van and it sell it and that'd only bring $700 or whatever.

[treedimensional]

Small claims court.
What does your contract say about not finishing the work on time?

[april37]

Dec 29, 2012 10:56:28 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

Small claims court.
What does your contract say about not finishing the work on time?

Contract does not have a "to be completed by" date and no verbage besides specs of the project and price. The last piece we're waiting on is listed in the contract though so at least we can prove it's part of the contract.

I do have an update: Hubby went to his workshop again yesterday and he was there. He had the part but it wasn't made correctly so he has to send it back to be fixed. He had no excuse as to why he didn't return our calls. We're still skeptical because he won't answer his phone or return our calls but we're giving him two more weeks.

[jhawks482]

Dec 29, 2012 12:39:21 GMT -5 april37 said:

Dec 29, 2012 10:56:28 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

Small claims court.
What does your contract say about not finishing the work on time?

Contract does not have a "to be completed by" date and no verbage besides specs of the project and price. The last piece we're waiting on is listed in the contract though so at least we can prove it's part of the contract.

I do have an update: Hubby went to his workshop again yesterday and he was there. He had the part but it wasn't made correctly so he has to send it back to be fixed. He had no excuse as to why he didn't return our calls. We're still skeptical because he won't answer his phone or return our calls but we're giving him two more weeks.

I just feel for you- in part because our fence fiasco is still pretty recent- enough for me to still be bitter. So, I know what you'r going through.
Something else: this part you guys are waiting on- is it out of your contractors control? Does it have to be specially made or ordered? If so, you could give him a little benefit of the doubt. Not that it's any excuse, but if he doesn't have the correct part for you in his hands, he may be avoiding you and not returning calls because there is no news and nothing he can do for you at the moment.
Your situation sounds so similar to ours earlier this year- and when I asked for advice (small claims court was out of the question), people told me to keep calling the guy- like every day (and leave a message if you don't reach him) and make sure that he is on track and knows you mean business. Don't feel like a nag to call every day- this is your money.
When I would call our fence guy (he was the owner) he would tell me something like "your fence is going through the powder coating on Wednesday", so I'd tell him I'd call Wednesday afternoon to make sure that it actually did. And even though we were dealing with the owner the whole time, I asked to talk with another employee/manager- who helped with getting the message across and the job done. Is there someone else you can start talking to?
In the end, our job was completed. I don't feel he wanted to leave us hanging, but it was more of him being a sh#% business owner. There are a lot of them out there! I'm not sure if any of this is helpful, but I thought I'd provide my experience. I'm glad you were able to finally get ahold of him. I think at the very least, it's a sign that his intentions are to finish the job. Hang in there and be sure to update!

[thatgirl]

Have your attorney write him a clear letter explaining your expectations and outlining the consequences for non-compliance. From here on out I would not talk to the contractor, let him go through your attorney.

[april37]

jhawks482 - Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm glad you eventually got your fence.

When the first part of the job was installed (on Nov 24) we were told that the other part was ready and that he just needed to go pick it up. He said he should be able to get it and have it installed the next weekend (Dec 1) and that he would call us to schedule an appt. He never called and we gave about a week before we started calling him. DH had to call a numerous times before he finally got ahold of him. At that time he made the Dec 22nd appt with us. That was when he was a no call/ no show. We had paid him additional $$ after the first install and the remaining part costs more than what we still owe so we were worried he was leaving us high and dry (especially considering that he was being unresponsive). I now have a feeling he either didn't pick up the part yet or he had it and realized it was messed up and couldn't use it. Either way, there's no excuse for not calling / answering his phone / returning our calls.

Now that the part needs to be re-done, he tells us that the other company is closed until after the new year. We're giving him two weeks (until Jan 15) to give us an update.

The guy we're dealing with is the owner and there's no one else higher up. It seems like showing up in person might be the most effective way to get answers going forward. He can't ignore us if we're standing in front of him, right?