This company very convincingly sold a moderate-priced bathroom remodel in a dire situation (damage done by previous contractor who had already ripped off customer), customer was working and going to graduate school full time, little money. The day job started, customer unable to negotiate a change order that doubled the price of the job. A 'go-ahead' was reluctantly given, but details were requested - these were never delivered. Assurances for full remodel made, promise of a vent fan installation - never done. Job was stopped - no shower curtain rod, no painting, door off hinges, looked very unfinished, but when customer raised questions and concerns, the company president sent threatening emails. He said that customer needed to cease defamatory remarks or he would file a lawsuit. He also said that payment must be made within five days or a lawsuit would be filed. The bill was impossible to decipher, materials list looked like a data dump from a system (Home Depot) and could not be interpreted. Project Manager was next fired, and never came to speak with customer about grievances. Finally a General Manager came and he offered to go through and to settle this. He said he would paint, go through a full punch list, and fix the billing (customer was clearly to his admission, being charged for items that should not have been in the bill). He reduced a very small amount from the total bill, and next demanded payment the same day, or it would go to court.
Customer attempted to make a slightly lower and what felt like a more fair counter-offer, but General Manager refused this - saying it could not be done. He essentially used the same tactics that the previous Project Manager and bully president of the company had used as a 'bait and switch.' He took absolutely no responsibility for the very poor contract - which he admitted was not the way he would have done the contract - yet there it was, and then he insisted that I pay almost the full amount (he knocked it down about 10% from $9200 to $6700 - but some of the charges taken off were things that the company did NOT do, or that should not have been billed in the first place (materials returned for example).
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