Subcontractor ghosted after taking $4k deposit on our buildout

Happened 2 weeks ago over on East 6th. Hired a guy for our office remodel, seemed solid, great portfolio. Paid half upfront like he asked. Next day his phone goes straight to voicemail. Emails bounce back. Found out from another landlord he pulled the same move on two other spaces. We lost 3 weeks of timeline and had to scramble with a new crew. Cost us another $2k in rush fees. Anyone else get burned by a bad contractor in this town? How do you vet these guys now?

2 comments

2 Comments

lee8471mo ago

Read a city council report saying 14 contractors got busted for this last year.

robin6281mo ago

Starts me thinking about how this whole city runs on handshake deals and word of mouth, and that's exactly where the cracks show. Same thing happened to my cousin with a plumber over in Oak Hill, took his deposit and split, we found out later his license was fake the whole time. @lee847 is right about the numbers, but I bet the real count is way higher than 14, most folks just eat the loss and don't report it. Now I won't hand over a dime until I've seen three recent job sites in person and called the last two clients they worked for, not just the ones they list on their site. Even then it feels like a gamble, which is messed up. This town's too small for that kind of behavior, word gets around eventually.