A few days ago, 'there was news of contractor fraud.
Have you ever been a contractor's victim? Where you the customer or the subcontractor? What happened? How much did they get you for? Where you able to get your money back? (Worst contractor)
Have you had luck with good contractors? Would you like to share their name with the less fortunate that have not had the same luck? (Best contractor)
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
13 comments:
I was hit hard by a contractor. He was installing kitchen cabinets and putting up tile as a back splash. He also was hired to put on a metal roof AFTER he got the kitchen completed. Well, it's been a year and there's still a cabinet that needs to go raised an inch and the tile is up but the grout isn't. He also ordered the roof (I think). There's $8,000.00 worth of work he's been paid for thats been left untouched. Won't return phone calls and brags about what he's done to me.
He took my trust with him along with the money. I learned an expensive lesson.
Joe, your more than welcome to come take pictures of the mess he left me to live in!
I want to know who the Contractor is and blast him.
Bill Knight
FWIW, I work as a controller for a local construction company as my day job. (Tax season I work every night and weekend)
Let me tell you this......
You get what you pay for. When you go with a small company, or "back of the pick up truck" type contractor, you bear the risk of getting walked out upon. Once the money has run out on a job, little guys will tend to abandon the job because they don't have the resources to eat the losses. This is usually because a carpenter who can do the work is not a numbers guy, and has trouble estimating. Now I don't mean to insult anyone here, because there are tons of great 1 man shows on the eastern shore who are reliable. I'm just trying to explain what happens with the unstable ones.
So, whether you want a 1 man show or a larger company who might be more expensive, remember to do your homework. If you are in Maryland you can check their court history at http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/inquiry/inquiry-index.jsp, or check their MHIC history at http://www.dllr.state.md.us/license/occprof/homeim.html
Best yet is word of mouth. Good honest contractors will stay busy when they make customers happy. Word of mouth goes a long long way in construction.
for the past three or four years there has been an illegal hvacr company operating in the salisbury and surrounding areas. this company went by the name mid-eastern hvac and plumbing. this company at one point had four vehicles on the road. the company was run by one, joe smith, he had no maryland state hvacr license to provide these services. he rented his license from john williams of the polliard company. for years local hvacr licensed companies wrote complaint letters to the maryland hvacr board with no results. several people from larger hvacr companies actually went to baltimore to complain, but still to no-avail. finally a home-owner sued him, and within the last few months his apprentice license was revoked.(remember an apprentice license can be had on line for $10.00 with no work history, it does not allow you to contract hvacr work), its basically there for the helpers to be licensed. this guy advertised and represented his company to customers as if these state licenses were his. the systems that this guys company installed were for the most part shit. i have personally been back on many of these jobs to repair fix or rip out to re-do the right way by maryland hvacr codes. my company probably lost over a three year period about $60,000-$70,000 to this illegal company. god knows how much work he stole from some of the locally owned larger companies. the irony to this i guess, is this guy is back out there again trading under the name joe smith heating and air, snubbing it in everyones face again as if the maryland board meant nothing. as far as i am concerned to represent yourself as being licensed by the state to provide these hvacr service and not actually have the license is fraud. these poor home-owners spent alot of hard earned money to buy these systems, just to get crap because this guy did not have the knowledge or work experience to be doing this work. it shouldnt of taken the hvacr board all these years to try to stop this guy, but it did. we all know how slow state departments seem to function, if at all. if the board had stopped this guy back when all the initial complaints were filed alot of home-owners would of been spared alot of head-ache and wasted money. so word for the wise,"joe smith is back out there working illegally so beware. i have a thick file folder of all the pertainant info, from all the years gone by. if you fell victim to this mid-eastern hvac and plumbing company i would love to hear about it.
When I was in property management, we had a couple move into one of our apartments in 2002 and sign a 6 month lease because they were building a house and expecting to move in in that time. After they'd gone into settlement and began paying the mortgage, there was massive flooding inside their home. They spent literally 5 more years in the apartment, paying both their mortgage and rent, waiting for the contractors to be forced through arbitration to fix the damages and reimburse them for the 5 years of rent they had to pay until their house was in a livable condition. I was amazed at this couple's self-restraint through the whole process! Wish I got the contractor's name. For some reason I don't remember ever asking.
Work was done on my part as part of a grant for improvement. The original molding in my house was drilled through with drywall screws, the drywall work was recoated by myself since the stoners they had couldn't tell a crack from a pencil line. The washed their brushes out in my sink and painted my coffee pot. L&G did substandard work except when it came to the window installation. If your going to hire kids you better babysit them. The HVAC guys and electrician were great and didn't feed me bull when I asked a question. I threw my hands up and signed the papers to get them gone, I won't go through it aqain.
I feel the best contactor I have ever dealt with is Donald Koester. He is an awesome cabinet maker. He also does all sorts of home reapirs. You name it he can give you an estimate. His estimates are also free. I had another person do an estimate for the same work and their price was almost doubled. I also just found out he was the head contractor for rebuilding Hoopers after the fire. And Georgette & Pete {the owner of hoopers} have also had him work on their house and continue to call him when they need or want more work. His wife is also really great at landscaping and wallpapering. They are great!!
Since 2002 when I retired the wife and I decided to remodel our residence. We used contractors that had good reputations in their fields. A total of six. Out of the six after we paid the final settlrment cost we never got final respnses from four of them. the roofing contractor and driveway replacement came back over three times and corrected the flaws.The others got our money any did not return any calls.If anyone ask me for a reference they get a negative for these.I will never pay another contract off until 30 days after completion of the work. They can take that or go to hell from now on.
If ever I were to build another home it would be built by Jerry Moser. He built our current home and not once in all these years have we had to call him back for anything. The custom wood work he does is beyond compare. You will not get any better work or craftsmanship anywhere. He took no shortcuts. His work speaks for itself as does his work ethic.
Jerry Moser is right up there with Buddy Wilkins. Both are old school carpenters that take extreme pride in their work. Either one is worth every penny spent.
i believe jerry moser and his wife are missionaries, have been for awhile. helping people in starving countries build shelters and schools and such. he had a higher calling.
Anon 3:48 you are correct they are missionaries and have been to areas of the world that needed their skills. They are back now and still in the construction business doing the same high quality work as always.
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