Have you had any experiences with dishonest contractors? What happened?
By sbeauty
@sbeauty (5865)
United States
October 19, 2006 7:57am CST
We are currently dealing with this situtation in the new home we're building. The general contractor pulled some shady deals, subcontractors never turned in bills but were supposedly paid, the banker, who said he was looking out for our interests, didn't catch any of the problems. We were living 14 hours away when the house was being built. When we arrived here we asked many questions and kept getting a runaround. We've now had to hire a lawyer to try and sort the whole mess out.
3 responses
@srhelmer (7029)
• Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
10 Nov 06
Years ago, when I was still working for a newspaper, I covered a story about a contractor that bilked about 30 people out of close to a million dollars. He would get them to pay up front and then never did any work.
@srhelmer (7029)
• Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
10 Nov 06
The story put the guy out of business and he resurfaced a couple months later at a telemarketing company, where his job duties included getting people's credit information.
This is why you should never do business with a company that outsources its customer service or sales.
@sbeauty (5865)
• United States
10 Nov 06
I've seen those stories on tv, too. It's so sad that some people feel they have a right to trick people out of their hard-earned money. It's worse when they prey on the elderly. They lived in a world where they could trust people, and they don't realize that everything has changed now, so they trust the wrong people. Thanks for your response.
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
10 Nov 06
Wow.. I have been hearing this a lot lately when it comes to getting a New house built. Makes me wonder if I ever had the $$ to do so, etc. if I should not make sure and be in control and contact with them daily. It is a Scary thing when you pay out a lot of $$ for something, and may not be getting what you're paying for.
@rmuxagirl (7548)
• United States
10 Nov 06
We had contractors build a deck around our pool. They left halfway through it, and didn't come back to finish, yet expect to be paid. My father ended up finishing the deck, and looking at the deck now we can see small problems, we wou;dn't recommend this company to friends.
So sry that you have to deal with this too. Hopefully with the lawyer you can work things out and hopefully get your money back.
