I'm sorry to hear that you had the same terrible experience! It sounds exactly like my experience. We had a detailed contract, he made me feel comfortable, I gave him my money, and then the nightmare began. He used every excuse in the book: 1) his son got sick and was in the hospital, 2) his truck got stolen with all his tools in it, 3) jury duty, 4) he went on vacation to Las Vegas (seriously!) and 5) he was delivering a coop and it fell on him and he got injured (and said he was going to send his sons to finish mine, who are teenagers or younger)! Even after all that I gave him one last shot to show up and finish, and he stood me up. After that it was clear he had no intention of completing my coop. It's hard to believe there are scammers like this out there. You are correct that he is a crook. Beyond that, he was was moody and confrontational. He had the nerve to tell me he had other people's coops to take care of when mine was paid for and past the contract due date. I encourage you to file small claims. I wanted to, but I decided it wasn't worth the emotional angst; I had been through enough. I filed a complaint with BBB to try to get some of my money back, so his company is now in their system. I encourage you to share your experience with BBB! My complaint is pending (he hasn't responded of course), but hopefully soon it'll show an unresolved complaint, which will be a warning to consumers. I'm unable to give him a rating because I've already filed a complaint, but it would be accurate if he was rated 'F'.
RE: the feed company (Wardle Feed on Wadsworth, right?), he told me he was going to start building all of their coops for them. Do you think that was another lie or maybe he was working on those coops while NOT working on ours? I considered calling the owner to see if it was true and if he had any problems with him. Might not be a bad idea.
Also, he told me that they were closing 5280 Coops and not going to do business anymore. I suspect that he'll just pick another business name and keep dodging bad references and continue building coops and scamming people. I should have known that he was not legit after nothing popped up in a web search and he didn't have a website. Plus his Craigslist add didn't mention his business name. I did call two references who both said he was good. They were probably his friends and not real references.
Good luck in small claims!
i am taking pictures so may post them for added incentive to BEWARE. We are in the process of filing a s m all claims in hopes to spare others the terrible experience we have had. BBB reporting may spare a few consumers as well.
