Jim Irizarry of Terrace Homes aka TerraceHomes.net ordered hardwood flooring material for his home in Woodside, Ca. When the material he started complaining immediately about things that were not even substantial. I knew I had made a mistake dealing with him at that point right there.
The unfinished select long length hickory was beautiful. The product was 3/4" thick and some boards were 15 feet long. Most of the material was 8' in length. The material was 7" wide and just perfect, exactly what was ordered. However, Jim decided that it was not thick enough because a sample piece he had seen was 1/32" thicker, unnoticeable unless side by side. He then called the material inferior because of this thickness difference but he was invoiced for 3/4" which is industry standard. He also started to point out that some grease had gotten on about 5 boards during shipping and they were unusable. No, they were perfectly usable and everyone knows it, even him. Well he should, he is a licensed contractor that wears slacks and Italian leather shoes, so maybe he doesn't know it.
His next complaint was that there was some small knots and they were unacceptable. Well, a good contractor knows that lumber grading for building and lumber grading for flooring are different. He claimed knots would compromise the integrity of the floor and these boards were inferior also. I obliged to order more material on the condition that he gave me the unused boards that had too large of knots. I ordered approximately 150 sf of extra material.
Jim took about 2 months before installing the product and then when I asked him where unused portion that I expected to be swapped was, he said. "We used it all." So I invoiced him for the 150 sf of extra material that was provided. The invoice with shipping was just over $1400.
It has been over 6 months. I tried a collections agency and they failed. I am going to go to small claims and the California Contractors License Board for Contractor Lic # 705068 to at least try and get some retribution.
What makes me mad is not so much the $1400 but this guy is worth over $20,000, 000 in assets. This is nothing for him. Also his ignorance as a contractor is unheard of, I can't believe he has a license. Something that was bought not earned in his case.
He has some major problems with another client that will most likely be reporting here as well. Jim comes off as a stand up, great guy, but he is a low life that is only in it for profit, and will screw over anyone to get more profit or pay less.
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