Paul Arguelles stole thousands of dollars from us. Do not trust this man with your money or to work on your house. The internet is rife with stories of contractors taking large sums of money and then leaving the job unfinished. I'm leaving this report here in the hopes of preventing someone else from being ripped off by this unscrupulous individual.
I originally hired Paul Arguelles to do some drywall patching. He did the work, and said he would do the texturing later, after it had dried.in the process, I asked him if he could give me an estimate on painting inside the house and installing hardwood, as we were hoping to get the inside of the house in order before starting a family. I also asked whether he could do any fencing and drywall as we wanted to extend the fence and whether he could do some attic insulation/finishing.
Paul Arguelles said I should do all the work at once and he would give me a great package deal. He said he would do pavers outside, extend the fence, and paint the inside and outside of the house plus hardwood for one price.
He started on a bunch of projects at once. They looked good. The pavers were 80% done, the outside of the house was mostly painted, and the fence was mostly completed. We have dogs, so we told him the fence was important to finish soon.
Paul Arguelles offered to block off the part of the yard connecting to the fence in December.
I should have trusted my gut when Paul Arguelles started to ask for more money. It was clear that he had already spent a lot of the money from earlier, and now didn't have enough money to pay for needed supplies. I was OK spending more money, as long as he was willing to finish the work that he had already been paid for.
Each time, I would say "we are getting towards the end of the money, this really needs to get done" and he would assure me"of course, of course it will get done". There would then be a little forward movement on the house, at which point he would typically take off or ask for more money. He then said some of the things he originally agreed to weren't part of the initial offer! I wrote him a check for $1000 and he assured me there nothingadditional he would charge us for.
This ended up being true as Paul Arguelles skipped out on the job!
Paul Arguelles stopped coming by and asked for some more time. He told me he had to do some other projects because he wasn't getting money at this project. Of course he wasn't... He already took our money! The nerve!!!
Paul Arguelles would leave me a message assuring me he was going to finish the work and not to worry... But that never happened.
Finally, Paul Arguelles left me a message saying he would be in on the next Monday. Wednesday rolled around, and no Paul Arguelles. His phone was disconnected and he had left his house without any communication. I've e-mailed him with no response.
Not one piece of work that was started was ever finished by Paul Arguelles!!! Plus, he never started on the only work that we actually needed done (painting and hardwood). Now we are stuck paying to have the following finished: fix ripped holes to attic, finish fence, finish pavers, finish painting the outside of the house, haul away junk, finish landscaping that was ripped up to do pavers... And even the texturing started six months earlier still needs to be finished! All this, and the only thing we actually needed done wasn't even started, and now we won't have money to finish it before starting our family! The house has been unlivable since this started, and we don't have the option of not finishing the projects that Paul Arguelles started.
If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Paul Arguelles, or his contact information, please let us know, as it will save us money on private investigators. He has twin sons. He tends to advertise with a yellow sign on the back of his truck for pavers/drywall.
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