Sorry to have taken so long to write to you about my experience with a contractor from hell.
Now that Mr. Jones has been fined by the state contractor’s board and I have recouped damages from him in a small claims court and finished my remodel contract using licensed contractors, I can share my story with your readers.
I can assure you that the situation was much worse than I describe here. And I have shortened it for brevity’s sake. It was one of the most agonizing situations I have ever dealt with.
Here’s the recap:
Re: Jonathan Blake vs. Michael Jones, A.K.A. Carpentry Concepts of Upland, California.
Here’s the story for your web site contractorsfromhell.com. I only wish I had known about you before dealing with Mr. Jones because he is truly a classic example of a contractor from hell.
Allow me to describe the events that took place . . .
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I was referred to Michael Jones by a business associate who Mr. Jones had done work for so I naturally “assumed” that Mr. Jones was a licensed contractor.
I met with Mr. Jones at my house on or about May 10th of this year to discuss the remodeling job I had in mind. I wanted to remove the carpeting from my den and family rooms and install hardware flooring. I wanted to remove the tile counters and marble flooring in my kitchen and replace it with wood flooring and a granite counter top, then restain the kitchen cabinets and tile a portion of two walls in the kitchen.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Mr. Jones arranged for me to visit a Granite slab distributor and a tile store to pick out the granite and tile that I wanted to use. These were vendors he regularly worked with. Mr. Jones also provided me with a sample of the hardware flooring he recommended. After I selected the granite slab and tile, Mr. Jones provided me with a written proposal for him to do the remodeling project at a cost of $10,210.00.
Mr. Jones asked for a 50% deposit ($5,105.00 ).
I was reluctant to give him that much upfront, but finally gave in and wrote him a check for that amount.
Work was scheduled to start on Tuesday, May 27th, the day after Memorial Day.
So over the 3 day Memorial Day weekend I dutifully packed up everything in the kitchen, family room and den and moved all furniture (tables, couches, lamps, home theatre system, food, pots and pans and dishes) into my Living/Dining room. That’s 5 rooms of furniture piled into one large room.
I can tell you that preparing for a home remodel project is just like moving but without changing your address!!
On Tuesday morning Mr. Jones and his crew of two workers showed up about 8:30a.m. to start the demolition of the kitchen tile and removal of the carpeting in the family room and the den.
I asked Mr. Jones when he expected the job to be completed as I had four separate vendors waiting to deliver new furniture and a new home theatre system.
Mr. Jones said 3 or 4 days at the most. He said they would be finished by Friday and if necessary would work on the weekend to finish the job.
I said fine, I’ll arrange for my vendors to deliver the furnishings on Tuesday giving us a cushion day in case of a delay. I then left to go to work.
When I came home that night about 7:00p.m. I couldn’t believe what I saw! To my horror, everything I owned on the first floor of my house, all my furnishings from 5 rooms, even my packaged groceries was covered in tile and cement dust!
Mr. Jones and his crew failed to put up a plastic sheet barrier on the doorway and hallway to the kitchen to keep the dust of the demolition from covering everything I owned!
The dust cloud was so thick that it had set off the smoke alarm which Mr. Jones’s crew had broken to stop the siren from blaring! They had also broken one of the motion sensors of my home security system and removed part of the alarm connection on the glass sliding doors to the patio off the family room.
I was so upset and angry I could hardly sleep that night.
The next morning, Wednesday, when Mr. Jones and his crew showed up I took Mr. Jones aside, out of ear shot of his workers, and showed him what they had done.
I said to him, “What the heck were you thinking? Why didn’t you put up a barrier to keep the tile and cement dust from getting all over everything I own?”
Mr. Jones mumbled sheepishly that he just forgot, that he usually would put up a barrier.
I said to him, “you mean over the course of the entire day that it never occurred to you or your two workers that “Hey! we’re getting tile and cement dust over everything this guy owns!”
Mr. Jones said he was sorry and would pay to have maids come in and clean it up.
I left to go to work, but later that afternoon, Mr. Jones called me at my office and said, “I’m afraid I have bad news” the granite stone cutter that had been out the day before to take measurements of the kitchen counters for the granite counter top has lost the measurement templates!
I said to Mr. Jones, “how could he lose them in only one day”?? Mr. Jones replied that the stone cutter would have to come back out and measure all over again and that would delay the job.
I reminded Mr. Jones that he had promised to finish the job in 3 or 4 days . . . that I had four vendors coming the following week to deliver furniture and that he had to have the job completed.
After a few minutes I took the initiative to call the granite company myself to find out what was what.
I spoke to an employee who told me that a really big job had just come in and that everybody had been pulled off all the other small jobs to work on this big project.
So Mr. Jones was lying to me and covering up for his vendor the stone cutter.
That night, when I came home I found that Mr. Jones crew had begun laying down hardwood flooring in the family room, but to my dismay I could see they had not left enough room around the fireplace hearth to run wires and cabling for my new home theatre system.
I had given Mr. Jones specific instructions that morning to leave at least a half inch of space around the hearth area for the cabling for my new home theatre system.
On Thursday morning, I left him a note before I went to work reminding him of my instructions.
Mr. Jones called me at my office that morning (Thursday) and said he was sorry, he forgot to tell his worker to leave the extra space and that he would try to cut it out.
Then Mr. Jones said he had some more bad news.
It seems that one of his workers, John, has a son with diabetes, the son had a diabetic episode and they took him to the hospital and that John would not be able to work that day.
I told Mr. Jones that while I sympathize with his worker’s situation, it wasn’t my problem! I told Mr. Jones he should bring in another worker if necessary, and reminded him he needed to finish the job on time as promised!
I told Mr. Jones that I would try putting off my vendors for another day or so but that if he didn’t finish the job by Tuesday, a full four days after he promised to finish the job, that I would begin applying a penalty of $500 per day for every day he was late.
When I got home Thursday night I could see that very little work had been done. There was a message on my answering machine from Mr. Jones, that was time stamped at 2:17p.m.
The message from Mr. Jones was that his worker John was not going to becoming back to work any time soon and that he did not know when they would be able to complete the job. And because I was going to apply a penalty of $500 a day if he didn’t finish the job on time that he was walking off the job and keeping my 50% deposit.
I did see that Mr. Jones and his one remaining helper had begun stripping the varnish off my cabinets and sanding the doors. Apparently, Mr. Jones does not know the difference between real wood and laminate sheeting because some of the cabinet sides had laminate sheeting and Mr. Jones or his helper had torn pieces of the laminate off the cabinet sides when they tries to sand it.
The cabinets were ruined and unrepairable. My only alternative was to have them replaced at a cost of several thousand dollars or to have them painted.
I was now faced with no kitchen, no family room and no den and five rooms of furniture covered in tile and cement dust. And four vendors ready to deliver furniture, a home theatre system and a satellite dish installer wanting to deliver and install a new dish.
I had the furniture and the home theatre system delivered and put it in my garage until I could get my house put back together. The home theatre system and satellite vendors said they would come back out (at an additional charge) to install and hook up my satellite and home theatre systems.
A week later, I received an outrageous statement from Mr. Jones with trumped up details of expenses for materials and salaries for the hours he and his crew had supposedly worked. Mr. Jones actually had the audacity to say I owed him an additional $693.00!
Due to the negligence of Mr. Jones and his crew I incurred the following damages.
I paid Molly Maid to clean up the tile and cement dust Mr. Jones and his crew sprayed over 5 rooms of furniture and personal belongings.
I paid a “licensed” plumber to repair the damages Mr. Jones and his crew did to my kitchen sink (drain pipe) plumbing during their demolition.
I had to pay a licensed electrician to repair the 2 electrical sockets that did not work after Mr. Jones exchanged them out.
I had to purchase a new garbage disposal because Mr. Jones and his crew discarded the parts necessary to put the old one back together with the new sink.
I had to purchase a new water filter system because Mr. Jones and his crew discarded the parts necessary to put it back together with the new sink when they removed it during their demolition.
I had to pay a Painter to repair and paint over the damages to my cabinets caused by Mr. Jones and his crew when they were supposedly stripping the varnish off the cabinet doors and the sides of the cabinets themselves where they tore the paper laminent off the sides of the cabinets.
I also had to order a new home security system because Mr. Jones and his Crew broke one of the motion sensors and removed and discarded the magnetic connections that provided security for the glass sliding door leading to my back yard patio.
I contacted the California State License Board and found that Mr. Jones or his dba, Carpentry Concepts, were not licensed in the state of California.
I filed a complaint with the Board. They were prompt in response and after an investigation fined Mr. Jones on several counts of operating without a license.
I also sued Mr. Jones in Small Claims Court for a refund of the unused portion of my deposit and reimbursement of expenses for damages to my property by Mr. Jones and his crew.
Fortunately, Mr. Jones caught himself up in a couple lies in court and the judge awarded nearly all of my claim to be paid.
Ironically, Mr. Jones paid my claim by a check drawn on his company dba checking account, Carpentry Concepts!
So this guy is still operating out there! Beware.
Tell everyone to check every contractor out with the state licensing board and (your city) building permit department. In most cities, contractors are required to have a license to perform work in the city.
Also ask for copies of their contractor’s license and for insurance covering damages to personal property and worker’s compensation insurance for employees!
I hope this helps save someone from all the agony I had to go through.
Tags: Admin Comments by burned23
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