I initially contacted Michael via an ad on Craigslist. He advertised for landscaping services at a slight discount and his prices were reasonably low, but not quite low enough to warrant skepticism at the time. We connected and I asked him to swing by to take a look at the things I would like done. He claimed that he would be by that afternoon to give me a quote. He never showed up, but had a decent excuse for same. The following day, he came by and walked around my house and gave my wife a quote for a list of jobs i.E. Sprinkler repair, weed kill in a couple flower beds, spot treating my yard for weeds, installation of mulch, etc.
He and a crew (appeared to be friends or family members) came by the following day and installed mulch in my front flower beds. They took quite a while and as the daylight slipped away Michael approached me saying he would have to come back the next day to finish up the work (all of the aforementioned tasks minus the mulch). He claimed he and his wife had some engagement photos scheduled, but he would be able to come back that afternoon. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary up that point so in good faith, I wrote him a check for the work completed and yet to be completed. It did strike me as odd when he asked me to make the check out to his wife because he was having some problems with the bank account. I didn't hear from him at all the following day.
I attempted to reach out to him 3-5 days later and left a voicemail on his "business line" - (972) 838-5108 - I use quotes b/c I'm not sure much of anything is legitimate with this guy. I received a call back a day or so later from someone that claimed to work for him. She explained that Michael and his wife just recently had a baby and he was tied up with that, but he would be able to come out the following week. It was pretty obvious at this point, that I had fallen into a scam. I e-mailed him and spoke to him and he said he had been in the hospital due to complications with the baby and as such, had been away from his phone. I am pursuing various avenues to lodge a complaint with the BBB and possibly seek legal assistance to a) teach him a lesson and b) receive a refund for services that were not rendered.
Lastly, the address on his business card is a house located at 601 Quail Run in Allen, TX. The house is in the name of someone named Elsharief Said and the property is located in Murphy instead.
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