On 9/17/01 we contracted an employee of Plano Concrete named "Courtney" (male) to build a short length of fence for us on the side of our house in order to accomodate our dog whose only other backyard area is a tiny covered courtyard in the back of the house.
The amount of $224 was given as a deposit the day the job was done (9/17/01), but he was expecting full payment. Day laborers were used and Courtney was upset that he was not able to pay them. So we rushed a check with the remaining amount of $551 the next day. The check was cashed immidiately.
Fence posts were set in concrete and a string guide line was set down to determine the position of the rest of the fence slats, and the fence post slats themselves were deposited in our driveway.
We were told that the concrete would have to set for a couple of days, and that he would be back to finish the job at that time.
We waited a week. Nothing. We called to see what the problem was. Courtney was nowhere to be found. He was not at work and the business owners (who turned out to be his parents) had no idea where he was.
We learned later that he had been in jail.
So ok. We can forgive that. Everyone makes mistakes. He said he would come finish the job within the week... He never shows up. Dallas experienced a bout of bad weather immidiataely after that time. Managed to get a hold of him again (he never EVER called us, we always had to call him) and he said that when the weather cleared up, he would finish the job. Never showed up even after several days of warm sunny weather.
After several weeks of more run arounds and postponements with no delivery, we started to threaten legal action. Contacted a District Attorney, but decided that the expense of using such services would not be worth the initial price of the job.
Started calling the number he gave us as a contact (Plano concrete's number) several times a day in order to reach Courtney. He is never there. Apparantly his own parents don't know where he lives, he doesn't have a phone and doesn't work anywhere. So he is a vagrant??? (although his official address and phone number is listed as the business address of Plano Concrete)
This is how it has continued until the present day. His brother Wayne (who also works for Plano Concrete) says he is "afraid" to come and finish the job because he is afraid of what will happen when he comes face to face with us. We have no desire to cause ill to this man. We only want our fence finished so that our dog can have a backyard to run around in. A doggie door has already been installed, and he can't use it.
His parents say that he doesn't work for them, but he gave us their number as a business contact, so I would assume that he worked for them at the time he agreed to do the job.
This has been a continual thorn in our side for almost 4 months now. He had plenty of opportunity to finish the fence, with my husband always reachable through his cell phone. There is just no excuse for this.
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