contractorsfromhell.com

The State of Florida is known for warm winters, constant sunshine and beautiful beaches.  That is all true.  That is what brought my husband and I here to retire.  However, before deciding to relocate here, you must be informed of a very dark side of the sunshine state, the construction industry.

We invested our life savings in the construction of a new home in Panama City, Florida.  We thought that we were careful when hiring a contractor.  We verified that his contracting license was up to date and that there were no complaints with the Better Business Bureau.  We thought that was enough. We were wrong!

We had a horrible experience with a building contractor and later discovered that he is an ex-convict with felony convictions for grand theft and violence.  How could he have a contractor’s license?  Neither the State of Florida nor the Bay County Contractor Licensing Dept. makes any connection between past criminal behavior and the risk that poses to unsuspecting homeowners. We didn’t do a background check as we believed that he must have already cleared background checks prior to licensing.

What is the gist of our story?  His past offenses of theft and violence are now used as the dirty tricks of his trade.  Our horrible experiences with this contractor comes under the catagories of Theft and Violence!  The regulatory agencies who licensed him without considering that his past offenses could easily be repeated in his contracting business have refused take any responsibility and he has their blessing to repeat his actions on other unsuspecting homeowners. The Better Business Bureau of Northwest Florida refuses to inform consumers that a complaint was even filed!

IF YOU HIRE A BUILDER IN PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA, do atleast a free background check at the Bay County courthouse.  www.baycoclerk.com (case search) check both civil and criminal, I sure wish that I had!

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1. It’s a professional relationship for them, though it feels deeply personal for you since it’s in your home – keep a professional distance
2. No physical contact, no hugs
3. No long personal conversations
4. Try not to get caught in your underwear, or leave personal clothing lying around
5. Go to a hotel if you can and if you don’t feel the need to supervise
6. Don’t sleep with the contractor or crew
7. Realize that they’re being professional and polite to the client so any compliments or opinions are influenced in that manner
8. Don’t loan them any money or hire their relatives
9. Visit your own friends and have them over when the contractor isn’t around. Keep a life of your own.
10. When the contractor leaves, let go. Don’t try to make the relationship personal no matter what was said at the end of the project. Realize that their livelihood came from you so any personal relationship was influenced by money. You may or may not be friends, just like you have to be friendly to coworkers you don’t like.

…More Suggestions for Single Women Handling Contractors

  1. Don’t hang out at their office or next job, even if they invite you.
2. Don’t mistake professional courtesy for a deep caring for your personal problems.
3. Don’t use the crew as girlfriends or psychologists
4. Don’t gossip with the crew about your lovelife
5. Don’t attend their family functions, even if they politely invite you; Don’t assume you’re a member of the family
6. Don’t date the crew’s relatives if they are a family-oriented business
7. Don’t start working for the contractor, i.e., doing gratis computer work while the contractor is working for you; Don’t create a project to remain part of the company when they leave
8. Don’t put up with sexual harassment and mistake it for flirting
9. Don’t sexually harass the crew
10. Don’t schedule your day around the crew’s work schedule. Observe, relay your wants and opinions to the lead contractor and get out of the house if possible.
11. Don’t introduce the crew to your 19 year old daughter as if they’re good friends or family
12. Don’t assume you can trust anyone the crew says they are related to without checking out that individual yourself – it could be cousin Joe fresh out of jail
13. Don’t try to become one of their culture – hang on to your own individualism, set your own boundaries
14. Don’t let them bully you into buying more than you want to – such as another extension of a fence that would cost you 3000, but they say would make it “perfect”
15. Hang on to your house; don’t let them take over and call it their house because they’ve done so much work there
16. Don’t go to their parties – unless you want their women to confront you because they’ve talked about you so much
17. Get professional counseling for your psychological problems such as loneliness from empty nest syndrome; don’t use them as your surrogate family from 20 years ago
18. Don’t tell them how much you spend on the things you own, they may think you’re rich and they’re entitled to part of it, even if you worked 35 years to get where you are
19. Listen to your male friends and family’s advice about protecting yourself – they are the ones who love you and will be there long after the contractors have moved on to their next projects (and they understand men better than you do!)
20. Talk to at least one independent male friend about conversations that occur and things they say that you don’t understand; Don’t keep secrets “to protect the contractors” and don’t tell the contractors about that independent male friend – if they are unethical they will reveal themselves because they’re not afraid of you and they think they are the number one males in your life (but you have that ally who will tell you what’s going on and help you when and if you need it)
21. ENJOY THE PEACE AND QUIET!!! THE CONTRACTORS ARE GONE! YOU HAVE YOUR PRIVACY BACK…have a small dinner party for supportive neighbors or friends.

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My contractor and I aren’t speaking anymore.  A month ago I was invited to a wedding for that family.  My contractor had been talking romantically to me for about 2 weeks before that.  He didn’t expect to see me at the wedding and came strolling in, hand and hand, with his girlfriend.  When he saw me he dropped her hand and ran across the room.  Apparently I walked by him 5X without seeing him, and then I left with a cousin.  The following Monday, when I saw him, he immediately said “She’s not my girlfriend!”  The next day another cousin told me that the contractor had been falling in love with me, but that I had blown it by leaving with the other cousin.

I’m exhausted just writing this.  That was 5 weeks ago.  The past month the contractor has promised to come by 3 times and never shown up. I was compulsively emailing and leaving messages on his phone.  Last week he stopped responding entirely.  I was lucky.  I know how to go cold turkey.

That’s given me some perspective - I don’t want them to show up, and I’ve started doing a lot of things myself again.  I had fallen into a helpless mode where I’d look for help!  So I built a little fence around my hill, replaced a solonoid and rewired some of the valves on my sprinkler system. 

I didn’t sleep with the contractors, that’s about the only thing I did right, I certainly got to close to them due to loneliness and empty nest syndrome.  I loaned them some money, but I have a promissary note and I’ve contacted an attorney who says we can recover the funds.  I’ve given them a deadline and told them not to come to my house.  I’ve told them that their office assistant can deliver the check or they can mail it.  This is a large Mexican family and the last delivery was made by the youngest sister who acted like she wanted to kick my butt.

I was very embarrassed to admit that I’d loaned them some money.  I’m a middle aged lady who was flattered by the attention of young men more than 20 years younger than herself.  I was fat and didn’t date for 10 years.  I lost 50 pounds, my kids just left, and suddenly I had 10 men in my back yard to wait on me.  The attention went to my head.  Hopefully I’ll be able to recover that loan by my deadline.  If not I’ll submit a case to civil court with my attorney, contact the BBB and the CSLB.  Apparently they only attach construction related cases to the contractor’s license but since part of this loan was made as payments on a credit card to their company it can be construed to be construction related.

They never finished all the work, but the things that are left (hanging mirrors, vent in the fireplace) are minor, so I’ll finish them myself.  By the end of the contract they were telling me what to do and running my house, so nobody wanted to help me with my little inside jobs.  I made lists, showed the contractor 3X what I wanted done, but they considered it “girl work” and none of them wanted to come in and help me finish.

As I write this its hard to believe I was so foolish.  I never wanted to be one of those mid-life crisis women who get flattered by a younger man, but I did.  I started writing this as therapy for myself, and with the hope that some other woman would see it and it might help her.

The entire time they were at my house I was sharing all of this with a coworker.  The contractors didn’t know about him, so I was receiving an objective opinion as I became steadily more isolated.  I had a party that my contractor was supposed to come to, but the wedding was a week before and he didn’t show up.  His girlfriend, who had confronted me at the wedding, told me they couldn’t come.  For weeks he had promised to come to my party and he didn’t show.  My coworker was there, though.  I’ve since thanked him for helping me out. 

They gave me a week off from work to straighten my life out as they knew something was wrong.  I was flaking out.  But I work with a group of men who care about me and are very supportive - when I tell them what was going on.  I was ashamed of being so stupid, though, but I knew the only way out was to talk.

I’m not going to have any further physical contact with that contractor and in the stages of grief I’m into the anger phase.  The loan was for over 10000 so it will be a civil court case if it comes to that.  I’ve used credit cards to live on for two months - at the contractor’s suggestion, of course.  We envisioned it as me being the one who finances the beginnings of a great company - like millionaires in the making.  I was going to create a web site for them, too and I’ve given them some free computer service. I ended up working for them!

Luckily, the contractor quit talking to me because I had started to ask him point blank questions about what was going on.  He had said we were “Best Friends” and best friends talk, don’t they? I guess this means we’re not going on that cruise he talked about (I’m being sarcastic now.)

I’ve begun to move forward on my own.  I’m reading about empty nest syndrome, addressing the 10 pounds I’ve gained, and thinking about school again.  In other words, I’m looking at what I want to do with this great piece of time I have now.  I didn’t know how bad it was until I wrote it out.  When the contractor quit responding I started writing letters to him, but not sending them, as therapy.  When you put it all on paper it’s hard to hide from.  Plus I had a friend that I was confiding in that was totally removed from the situation.  And most of the work in the house is beautiful. 

The first two months were as they should have been.  Then my brother came down to check them out .  He said they seemed like good guys and left.  After that I told the contractor how lonely it was when they left on Fridays and he said “It doesn’t have to end there.  You can come over to my house for dinner and we’ll go on a cruise in October.”  He never mentioned visiting his house again, and the following Tuesday when I called him he said he was at his girlfriend’s parents drinking beer.  That’s the only time he slipped and called her his girlfriend.  When I asked him if she was any other time he either didn’t answer or said “supposedly”.   The entire time they were at my house I have never had a cup of coffee, a meal or ridden in the truck of that contractor.  It’s always been business - though we talked many times of going to a casino, going out to eat, etc.  Anyway, when he started suggesting personal time together that’s when I got a crush on him and the relationship changed, though we never did anything.   I was going to work and they kept business hours. They would disappear at 5 and over the weekends - just like married men.

 The first two months he was on 24 hour call for any of my problems, then he assigned one of the cousins, and now - well, it’s over and time to Let Go and live my own life. I’ll get my money, pay off the credit cards and hopefully be a little wiser.  

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My problems are relatively small compared to many here. But they’re still causing me tremendous frustration.

I hired these guys to replace my roof. I think they may have actually done a decent job but I realize now I have no way of being sure. I didn’t have any doubts until I hired them to also paint the outside of my house. That’s where the trouble began.

At first they started out by setting up scaffolding, removing my storms and screens, and beginning a “power wash” of the outside. Then one day, halfway through this process, they simply stopped. It’s going on six weeks now and I haven’t heard a word from any of them. All of their stuff is still here - ladders, scaffolding, etc. but they haven’t responded to any of my numerous phone calls. My life has been in a holding pattern since I’m reluctant to have people over or take a trip somewhere while all of this is still in limbo. To make matters worse, I’ve already paid for all of the paint. Not to mention that I have no storm windows or screens since they’re all still lying out in the yard.

So what more can I do? There is no written contract for this (there was for the roof). But it’s obvious that they’re supposed to be doing work since all of their stuff is here. Can I confiscate their equipment? For that matter, how would I even go about dismantling it? I’m still hoping to resolve this somehow but it’s hard to excuse someone vanishing and not returning a single one of your phone calls while leaving your house looking like real crap.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Jason

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While our experience pales in comparison with others who have posted their home improvement debacles, we thought we should let fellow consumers know that one can experience problems wherever they go for home improvements. We contracted with the Matthews North Carolina Home Depot [HD] store [No. 3602] to remodel our master bathroom on February 23, 2008. We thought that HD was reputable and that we would not encounter any hassles or have to do very much to get our remodel completed. While we didn’t know it at the time, we were lied to from the beginning by one of the associates and did not receive adequate information from another. Our project included a new: vanity, countertop, mirrors, tile floor and a tiled shower. The project totaled in the $12,000 range — we did some of the tear out and had other companies perform work that HD contractors would not. When our tile was delivered, there were three different die lot numbers for the tile, the bull nose and the border. Obviously, the colors of the tile varied and would not look proper if used. The associate told us that we would get the die lot number that we had seen in the store — obviously a fabrication. After considerable complaining and a visit to the store, we received consistent die lot numbers. There were many other problems [far too many to discuss here] that we encountered during the entire project the major issue is discussed below. When the tile installation started our problems began. [as we understand, all HD stores in/around Charlotte NC use the same tile company] — don’t know if this is the case elsewhere. It is our understanding that this tile company then contracts with self-employed installers. The installer that was sent to us was supposed to be the best this company had to offer. Oh boy, was that an illusion on the part of the owner. After complaining to the Customer Care Line, a manager from the company came to look at the job, along with the HD Area Services Manager Some of the problems we encountered were: the tile on the shower walls was not level — the company manager said our tile was level but we had to show him that he was evaluating plumb and not level. Surprisingly, the HD Area Services Manager who was also on-site did not know the difference either. the tile was not tall enough to allow for the shower head to be within the tile the front riser was not level the tile pan was not level the grout lines did not match from wall to wall – the installer built one wall and then built the other. He should have built both walls simultaneously and used spacers to assure all grout lines were equal there were also problems with other parts of the tile work around the garden tub. After the tile company manager and the HD Area Services Manager visited, the owner and another manager came to our house. The owner could readily see that our concerns were valid. Ironically, while they were in our bathroom walking around, floor tiles began to come up. What a day it was for us — he could not weasel out of the situation even if he wanted to at this point. Ultimately, the owner realized the job was so bad that all of the tile was removed and other installers redid the job. Before and during the tile installation, we were not given adequate information by one associate concerning plumbing products. We had Moen plumbing trim that was installed by the builder. We purchased Kohler trim which is incompatible with Moen rough-ins. Had we received adequate advice from the HD associate when we purchased the trim, we would have purchased the proper Kohler rough-ins, hence saving much time and frustration. In summary, I advise you not to place your faith in Home Depot just because it is a huge company. After talking to folk from Texas, Canada, and even within the company itself, Home Depot has major problems with its home improvement departments. If you want to get the run around, sub-standard service, being called a liar, ignored: just contract with Home Depot. A word of advice if you encounter major problems, don’t settle for their standard $500 gift card —hold out for real dollars as we did. We finally settled with Home Depot on July 8, 2008, but only then after threatening a
lawsuit.

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We recently hired a contractor in Dallas to replaster and paint our entire house…approx. 6500 sq. ft.  He said he would only do it on time and materials basis and it would take about 3 weeks.  Our mistake to accept those terms.  His entire crew were Mexicans..only one spoke English.  they took 3 1/2 months…at $41,000 until we kicked them out for Christmas.  We found numerous empty liquor bottles amongst our Christmas decoration boxes, under sinks, and in cabinets, closets etc.  He said they’d be back to finish the work.  After the holidays we tried to schedule him to finish.  He no showed repeatedly.  Then to our amazement, when we went to relocate an oil painting to another room, we discovered they painted around the pictures without removing them from the walls.  They took all the paint, and sealers and we have no idea where they got it or what code to use to get touch-up and finish those areas they didn’t complete.  He provided a fake tax ID, a phony address.  Upon doing a background check for $40 after the fact, I discovered the guy has a history of ripping people off and has done jail time for such offenses.  So, not only do we feel stupid for allowing this to happen we feel foolish for not following our instincts when we suspected something wasn’t right the first week. 

In Dallas, it is virtually impossible to get English speaking Americans to do this kind of work.  Even if you hire an American contractor, the workers show up and none speak English.  They grew up in a third world that have no standards of contruction and craftsmanship as we do in the U.S.  I fear everything they’re building in the border states will collapse from shoddy workmanship. 

In addtion they stole my 6 foot ladder, used my step stools and got paint all over them, tracked paint all over the patterned concrete driveway.

I’m tempted to place a sign in my yard that reads, “willing to hire Americans.” 

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I had roof damage from ice and heavy snow. It broke 11 rafters. My insurance company hired this company. (pemco). The entire roof had to removed to replace the broken rafters. During this process several bad things happened. First of all they were continually stepping through my ceiling. Not once, not twice, not 4 or 4 times, but 5 times all over the house. One hole in the ceiling was so bad that the guy actually fell through in the kitchen!!! So I had insulaton all over the place under these holes. Under the area where they fell through in the garage was alot of clothing on a table. It was covered in dirty, black insulation!! Yhe biggie… They have the tarp tied down but not good enough. The wind came up, it started pouring down rain….. well the tarp came loose and it was literally raining in my house!! The ceilings were filling with water and making them sag all over the place. They did fix most of it, but it wasnt a very good fix job. Kinda half assed. There is a large crack about the sliding glass door where someone broke a large support. Brown water stains are still on the ceiling in the spare bedroom. Only repaired part of the ceiling in the bathroom so now it doesnt look the same. Small holes in many areas of the ceiling. I never knew when I came home from work what was going to be wrong. It was not a happy experience.

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I, too, had a journey with SEVERAL bad contractors who caused unthinkable damage to my home; were argumentative and irrational in their skewed brains; overcharged for shoddy workmanship; ignored their own contracts; denied liability; fought “tooth and nail” to avoid responsibility and to not pay for damages…. and the list goes on and on! Let us not forget the PSYCHOLOGICAL element that these bad guys play on your brain. They use every unethical tactic that they can muster to “trick” your logical thinking into somehow believing that it was your fault that they could not honor their agreements and just do their job correctly.All that any homeowner asks is that the work be done professionally and that the contractor simply behave in an ethical manner.Is this too much to ask? Apparently so, especially when the VAST MAJORITY of contractors are criminals, or were the “bad kid” in school who had to be shipped off to vocational school to learn to be a painter because the school system did not want to deal with his emotional outbursts, classroom disruption, and bullying..That same “bad kid” is now in your home.Thus, the problem with these bad guys is that they learned how to be manipulative, liars, and “street smart” THUGS who do not care about the very meaning of the word “ethical” because in their warped minds this is only for the “sissy white collar” people.NONE of the societal boundaries apply to them as far as they are concerned. They can ignore their promises, cause dangerous structural conditions to someone’s HOME and they can rob you blind of your savings… and they know that the legal system does not have the gumption to chase after all of these bad guys.And a reminder: MOST are bad. So, they know that they have the wave of big numbers of complaints working FOR them.My story:Phase I: the first contractor, Carl of “Morgan Clark” contracting located in Connecticut, was a smooth-talking, soft spoken, Con Man who came off as a “nice guy.”He lied his way into our lives after he put together a slick ad campaign in local newspapers depicting himself as a craftsman who truly cared about the quality of work he produced. He told us, in so many words, to ignore the fact that he did not have a lot of RESIDENTIAL experience because he was looking to change careers from being a “Commercial builder” to a “Residential builder.”HMMMM. That should have been a big red flag. But guess what? The homeowner is ALWAYS conned into believing the cunning words of such monsters and when they finally wake up from the trance that they have been put into…. it is often too late with time, money, and damages already a big factor.This is what happened to us. This horrible con man brought unqualified workers into our highly specialized and unique addition to our home where there was very little room for “rookie” carpenters. This was an expensive and highly skilled project and we needed good people to build to the architectural specifications.He then started to commit Larceny by overcharging us for projects that were not complete or not even started but he would sneak them into a complicated “flow chart” hoping that we would not notice or even know if something was not yet complete.To add to our expenses, we moved out of the home at his request so that he could get the project completed “faster.” No, this only gave him an excuse to go slower and without any oversight to the project [he apparently was NEVER at the job site.]The structural problems were so big, and the timeline he gave us to be complete in “16 weeks” was totally ignored. No framing was complete, and the roof was not installed– so we now had water damage over the course of the winter. After 8 months on the job, and being “led along” for way too long, I finally brought an architect in town to look at the mess that he was passing off as acceptable. The architect was appalled and I then fired this horrible, HORRIBLE con man in person [who refused to remove his dark glasses when I confronted him].We had paid this con man nearly $300,000 for work that was faulty, and most of it needed to be ripped down and re-done completely!To add insult to injury, after his much needed termination, he then puts a lien on our home for another $295,000!!!!!!!!This lien far exceeded the total cost of the job when added with the wasted $300,000 we had already paid him.He owed US a refund for overcharging us illegally for work not even done yet, and for certainly the bad work that needed replacement…. and now he wanted to really ‘twist the knife’ and shoot us the finger by putting a fraudulent lien on our home!We were stunned at the audacity. This was a retaliation in the worst order. Unthinkable abuse of a system that this web site has proved to be outrageously broken and causing harm to the economy but our legislatures are ‘bought off’ by a corrupt building system that pays no attention to ethics.Two of the four attorneys we approached to help us remove this fraudulent lien were so unconcerned and lazy regarding this matter that we were astonished once again. We were told to ignore the issue because the lien “goes away” after one year, and then we had one attorney drag his feet in filing the paper work to get the hearing in court to drop the lien…. the abuse by the very legal help you are seeking is frustrating beyond belief and is yet another insult to the homeowner/victim.After we fired the attorney we hired to help us, we then searched to find a young, aggressive attorney who would at least be motivated to help us. We did not know that we could appeal to the Title company [as one other writer told in his story.]We finally found a decent attorney who came to our home and did a walk through and was so angry at what he saw that he called the attorney who put the fraudulent lien on our home and demanded that his client drop the lien. This new attorney was forceful and convinced that this was outright fraud and told the other attorney that he would arrive in court with an ‘army of professionals’ to give detailed explanations of the damages to the Judge and that the bad contractor would most certainly be cited for fraud.The lien was dropped that day. After our waiting on a stupid attorney for FOUR months to drag his feet in simply filing paperwork [rather than bothering to look at the damages and become educated enough to make a forceful phone call].Thank God for the young, aggressive attorney we finally hired. We had a construction loan, and so we were really backed into a corner with the fraudulent lien because the loan payments were stopped until we got the lien dropped or ‘bonded out.’The homeowner suffers immeasurably with fraudulent liens. They get screwed on every side of the coin. The day that that good attorney got the lien dropped was a day that I will always remember. I slept well for the first time in several months. The stress that a bad home contractor can cause a person and a family cannot be emphasized enough.The local governments need to wake up and realize that this is costing the economy way too much in lost revenue. The money wasted on bad contractors [who don't bother to pay taxes] could be spent shopping in town, or properly contributing to the economy rather than being wasted.We took the bad contractor to court, and were given a judgement of $100,000. Guess what? The bad contractor then filed Bankruptcy and it turned out that the two spec houses he was building [by stealing money from us] also went into foreclosure. His own personal home is now in foreclosure. We were notified because the judgement was against him personally for fraud and we were able to put a lien on his personal home and his spec homes.We have never been able to collect. He has no assets as the homes in foreclosure have no equity in them.I was an Insurance Adjuster for a few years out of College, so I knew that I had to make a claim against his GL policy right away after we fired him.Thank God I did take the time to insist on filing a claim. However, a GL policy does not pay for shoddy workmanship or any mistakes whatsoever. It only pays for the ENSUING LOSSES [or secondary losses] that arise from the shoddy workmanship, such as water damage from water infiltration due to a roof being put on incorrectly, etc. The GL policy won’t pay for the shoddy roof job, but it will pay for all of the damages that result from that such as water damage, etc. Lesson learned: DEMAND “Errors and Omissions” Insurance coverage from EVERY contractor who wants to do work on your property. Also, demand that the contractor obtain a Performance Bond to protect you should he not give you good workmanship or skip out on the project all together. This is one sure way of ‘weeding out’ the bad guys because there is no way that they will be able to obtain such insurance.Now onto the horror we faced with REPLACING, REPAIRING, and FIXING every problem this horrible con man left for us to discover.To be brief, I will give you a small snapshot of the problems to be completely repaired:Illegal and dangerous electrical wiring… Illegal and dangerous plumbing work…. Illegal and violation to building code framing… Multiple areas of water infiltration…. Ignored the architectural plans and built things that were in violation of both the plans and of the building code…. Illegal and violation of code masonry…. Unfinished work that languished for months…. Every existing bathroom ripped out and destroyed without homeowner consent…. NO progress in the new addition, yet demolished the existing structure of  existing home rendering it unlivable and ‘condemned’ by building officials until completely repaired…. No roof put on over new addition causing unspeakable water damage over several months….. Then the bad contractor rips off sections of existing roof for no apparent reason [and without homeowner knowledge] which causes even more water damage to now the existing home…. Un-grounding of the home electrical system which is both illegal and dangerous… Working illegally with power tools plugged into the existing home outlets that are not designed to have power tool loads…. Steals electricity from home existing electrical panel to heat a giant trailer on the property without the consent of the homeowner….. Wrong materials [cheaper substitutes] used without the consent of the homeowner….. Overcharging the homeowner in order to ‘float’ cash to his pockets before the homeowner realizes that the framing was not complete yet paid for in full; the chimneys not even near complete but charged in full…. and the list goes on and on and ON. Be forewarned! This can happen to any good citizen.We thought we had the right Engineer watching out for us, and we thought that we had hired all of the right people to protect us…. but it turned out that EVERYONE, and I do mean everyone from the Engineer, the new architect, and ALL of the new builders brought to our home to REPAIR the obvious damages left behind by the bad builder, were OUT FOR THEMSELVES AND TO MAKE AS MUCH MONEY FROM THIS TERRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCE AS POSSIBLE.I was at my wits end. And to add to this, please make note of the fact that ALL of the subsequent carpenters, painters, builders, etc., who were hired to HELP us would turn around and USE this terrible incident AGAINST us whenever we questioned any work that they did!Be careful here. The seemingly “nice” guy can turn caustic, nasty, and manipulating when he sees it to be in his best interest.We had many of these new people hired to help us use this horrible scene as a means to making money off of our train wreck.This was the most horrifying thing of all.We had a couple of people in particular who were terrible: the garage door maker had a signed contract to make and install the doors within six weeks. But he took six months! Six months!The same old sly manipulation was used: Give a big deposit, then another “installment” prior to the doors being delivered with a fake delivery date set in place… and now he has most of your money and “Voila!” he turned into the bastard that he truly is.Suddenly, it was my fault, the homeowner, that I was ungrateful for his efforts to make doors to certain specifications and that he had other ‘builders’ putting pressure on him to do big projects, etc. The excuses were inexcusable.But what did he do when I reminded him of his own contract and that he had violated it by not delivering within 6 weeks? He turned on me and accused ME, the homeowner, of ‘violating’ the contract for obscure, nonsensical reasons.He then demanded to be paid by “bank check” at the final delivery [which he kept moving up in order to play his con game]. His demand was for some idiotic reasoning that the homeowner might cancel the final check [which was a small amount and far less than what we had already paid.]This garage door maker, Gary of the Garage Door Company, AKA, The Automatic Door Company, was abusive, controlling, and in violation of any fair business law written.He knew it. But he used his knowledge of our having to fire the bad contractor a few months earlier as an EXCUSE that we must be the terrible homeowners because we had to fire a bad contractor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This insane, outrageous, illogical ‘mind twisting’ is what happens when you come across yet ANOTHER bad contractor who will use anything he can [even when it makes no sense] to use against an unsuspecting homeowner.Outrageous is too soft a word for this horrible abuse of the homeowner’s trust.To boot, he delivered a faulty product that we had to have repaired by a different door installer on an emergency basis. The doors were at least 400 pounds each, and were dangerously installed by the bad door maker. He knew he had installed something incorrectly that could have KILLED someone.He still, to this day, is a nasty bully who reduces himself to calling me derogatory names as a defense and is STILL using the bad contractor dismissal as a skewed way of distorting the character of the homeowner!Unthinkable.Be forewarned. The problems left behind AFTER you fire one bad contractor should only make you more cautious in who you hire to repair your precious home.This long story could be longer with ALL OF THE STORIES I could tell you about the bad guys who came to prey on us AFTER the firing of the bad General Contractor. But be aware that I am writing this to help ANY homeowner out there who cannot imagine how prevalent the problem is with dishonest contractors.Here is a list of the bad guys we had to battle to get our home done after the first bad guy was terminated, and to please be aware: 1.) Garage Door Maker: Overdue on delivery and installed incorrectly causing great physical danger to people on the property.2.) Bad Roofer: Did not properly supervise roof installation after promising homeowner he had ‘many good’ supervisors to send to make sure roof installed properly. The roof had several leaks and continues to have a big, slow leak that the roofer has refused to acknowledge or properly repair. Remember, if I had insisted on Errors and Omissions Insurance, I could collect for such negligence.3.) Bad painters: We fired two painters who wasted our expensive, imported paints and caused huge delays in the final closing of our home. Improper painting and lack of skilled labor.4.) Bad carpentry to repair the damages: We fired a contractor who made big promises to us to properly repair the framing but in the end was compounding some of the original problems.5.) Over charged and “raped” by large General Contractor: This big contractor called me one weekend as we were looking for someone to fix our home after we had just fired the bad contractor. Big mistake to listen to the siren song of this big contractor. He was only looking to charge ‘by the hour’ or what is called ‘time and material’ for his services and rape us even more with HUGE bills.6.) Unethical Engineer: This engineer was on board from the beginning and should have come to the homeowner with and urgent message that something was wrong with the bad builder’s lack of skill in building our home. Never looked out for us but sent us big hourly bills for his supposed services.7.) Unethical Architect: Tried to make the sexual moves on me during the most stressful period of my life, then would bang on the door of our rental unit at 8am on a Saturday to collect for the few hours he had worked that week. He demanded to be paid every week and would track me down to be paid in cash or with a check made to his name only in order for the ‘check to clear faster.’A cast of characters who were ALL out for themselves.I could not have imagined this terrifying ordeal if I had tried prior to living through it.Please be careful, all homeowners out there. You are on your own if you start out with the wrong team.Get a strong attorney and and Independent Project Manager to protect you from day one, prior to starting any project. DO NOT appear to be a push over or a “nice” person to anyone. Put your Poker Face on and be ready to play the role of BOSS over unruly children who could not assimilate through the regular school system.I hope my story helps everyone who reads it.Local Governments, WAKE UP. TAKE ACTION. Stop ignoring this huge issue within our society.-The End.- P.S. We did, finally, after 1.5 years, finish our home. We ‘hobbled’ across the finish line with an “okay” but not an “A+” carpenter to help us. I ended up painting much of my own home, and we ended up staining our own floors due to the stupidity of so many idiots we had to terminate.The cost of such dishonesty was enormous. And we still have a good carpenter we found who has to re-install some exterior doors that were incorrectly installed, and to help us insulate an exterior wall that was uninsulated! How did any of this pass inspection? You need to always be vigilant and get the proper people to watch for your best interests.God Bless the innocent homeowner.   

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I found this company that designed and made custom iron doors for exterior and interior.  I wanted these iron doors in my formal foyer to keep children and dogs out of the formal areas of my home.  The contractor came to my home in New Orleans on his way to install doors in Florida.  I got to see the quality of the work and he took measurements and I gave him a piece of my wallpaper to incorporate into the door design.  In October 2007, I sent him the signed contract along with $2300 for the deposit.  My doors were going to be ready the first of the year.  Well, that came and went, along with many excuses.  Now we were going into February, but the doors were going to be made, AND I was going to get a discount because of the delay.  So, now February comes and goes, and at the end of March I was told the problems with the manufacturer were resolved and the doors were going to be made.  Okay, so now April, and May have come and gone and I finally filed a complaint with the BBB of San Antonio against Patrick Wethington of the company American Custom Doors.  In previous emails and cell phone conversations he had told me he does not give refunds.  I guess he also figured he would not make the doors and keep my money.  I searched online for any information and  I found him on Reunion.com and emailed him there and finally got a response.  I was emailed and told he was going to refund my money but have not heard anything in a week.  Considering it has been since October that my money has been in his account, I am ready to press forward to the next step.  Can’t figure out what the problem was, but other industry companies have told me the doors should have been ready in 6 weeks.  Additionally he has listed on his website (since shut down) that he was an authorized dealer for 2 companies that have never heard of him.  He listed their pictures and names illegally.  They have contacted him and he has removed their images and his website is inactive.
Do yourself a favor and don’t make the same mistake I have made.  If you have had any problems with the same company you can contact the BBB of San Antonio.  Tammy Lindner is the dispute resolution agent I am dealing with.

UPDATE:  Patrick Wethington contacted the BBB on the last day he had to resolve the complaint and said that he didn’t own the company American Custom Doors and it went out of business, BUT that he now owns American Custom Doors, INC and he would make the doors. Now, I know his name was on the contract, he cashed the check, he faxed me the contract, BUT, he didn’t own the company and now  he owns the same company that has been incorporated.   This was after he emailed me and said he would refund my $$. So, now he is chickening out on the refund.  One of the companies that he listed on his now defunct shut down website - Glass Craft Doors, said they had never heard of him and that he had copied and put their images on his website.  He took them down since and his website is  “under construction”.  I will let you know if I get my money back, but I would not do business with him at all.

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