Carl Pileggi claims to have been in the construction business for 33 years. Unless he's on some miracle anti aging cream, he must've started when he was 10 years old. His actions spoke louder than his so-called 33 years experience - from his unprofessionalism of client relationship to his "I'm a man of my word" promises that never happened.
To not bore you with details, the main problem I had with this man was that he never showed up to do the job. The 2 week patio project turned out to be over a month (plus showing up only 10 days of the 25 work day) - and this was just removing the existing concrete that he never completed! Yes, the existing concrete was 10" thicker than he expected. Yes, he had some employee issues. Yes, he had to rent a bobcat to finish the demo. But to not show up and keep addressing all these issues to me by making countless excuses, I just had enough of his sorry excuse for a contractor. Pretty much, Carl Pileggi was on time to pick up his hefty downpayment but was playing "Casper the not-so-friendly ghost" the rest of the month. So for my sanity, I dismissed him.
Well, I wish I knew then what I know now. Never fire someone who has not completed the job that you've already given a downpayment to - even if that downpayment was for materials only.
That's where I am now. I stupidly paid him OVER 50% of the total project price and now he's pretty much getting away with murder. I 've agreed that he take off whatever I "owed" him - labor and bobcat rental cost - and he told me he would tally everything up and get back to me with the final refund - that was back in June. I have not heard from him nor has he returned any of my emails nor phone calls.
I have reported him to the Attorney General, Better Business Bureau, and even went as far as Channel 9 news -he's completely ignored all of them. They have been updating me on the status and he's pretty much "vanished"!
My only regret is paying him the downpayment. To all of you out there, learn from my stupidity:
A). Do not ever give a contractor more than half of the project cost. If they say it's for materials only, that's BS! I found out that a good contractor has credit at Lowe's or Home Depot and they have over 30 days to pay their balance. If they say "I can't do this job without material downpayment", then say bye-bye and find someone else. I promise you, there are good contractors out there, you just need to do your homework. The contractor that cleaned up Mr. Pileggi's mess didn't ask for a downpayment, he felt so sorry for me that he hauled off the rest of the concrete for FREE and only charged me for the materials and labor - and I actually paid him at the END of the project; and
B). ALWAYS read your contract and make sure that your time frame is in there and that there's a disclaimer that says if there are obstacles in the project, 1-either the project be stopped until you are explained extra cost and/or extra time; and 2-unless notified, that extra cost will not be charged to you.
0 comments