On November 20 (Saturday), I employed Home Improvement Alliance Corporation HIAC) to do three jobs on my home:
Replace Roof
Tex-Cote Exterior
Replace Windows
At that time a 10% deposit was required, this totaled $2,746.00, which I paid with a credit card. Chris Bowen gave me the estimates and told me I would be contacted by their office to schedule appointments for installation.
On November 22, I received a call from Willie who said he was from HIAC, in my neighborhood, and wanted to stop by my home and pick up a check. I explained I was not home and had not been contacted regarding an appointment, an amount of money, and work to be done.
On November 29, a week later, I called the HIAC office to ask when they would be beginning work on my home and attempted to set up a schedule. Rita told me that no one would be available until the following week. I reminded Rita that I had already made a deposit and expected work to begin as soon as possible. That afternoon, Willie became available and said he needed to go to my house to verify measurements taken during the estimate on November 20. I do not know if he performed this task at this time.
On December 1, I again contacted Rita. She said that Chris and Willie had planned to visit my house that afternoon for some re-measuring. I asked both Rita and Willie to have Chris call me. I had some questions regarding a fan to be installed in my roof, a supplemental quote, and schedule, neither Rita nor Willie were able to answer these questions. On this date I agreed to mail an additional 40% deposit-$10,985.00.
On December 3, I called Rita and asked if she had received my check for $10,985.00. She confirmed the check was received. I explained I hadn't heard from Chris. She said Chris had the day off, but would be back on Monday. I asked that Chris contact me first thing Monday (Dec. 6) morning.
On December 6, I called the office at 11:30 A.M. And spoke with Justin. I explained that I had left several messages for Chris, but had not heard from him. Justin said they just had a staff meeting and he would have Chris call me right away.
At 2:00 P.M., when I still hadn't heard from Chris, I called the office for the last time. I spoke with Justin and told him I was canceling the jobs and to please refund the $13,731.00 in deposits I paid so far.
At 2:11 P.M., I received a voice mail from Chris. He said he got the message that I was threatening to cancel.
I spoke with Chris later that afternoon and explained that we had made an agreement two weeks earlier, his company was holding $13,731.00 of my money, no work had been performed, I couldn't get a schedule and he was unable to call me back for five days. I made it clear that I could not trust such an unreliable company with my home.
Chris claimed he and Willie were at my house on December 1 (I have no evidence of this) and that he would withhold $1,000.00 per our contract to pay for administrative costs. He did verify that there were no orders for material placed. I pointed out that I had also spent my time toward this job, would have to start over again and that was worth something, not to mention the interest on nearly $14,000.00.
HIAC did not perform their duties according to the contract. Not returning phone calls, failure to schedule appointments, and failure to order materials for two weeks while holding a large deposit is not only unprofessional, it is unethical.
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