I contacted Martin Lafferty, owner of Abacus Home Repair, through Craigslist and being leary of Craigslist had looked him up on the web and saw a good review of his work so I took a chance. He called, was polite and respectful and arrived at my home to give an estimate - he said that he had just moved from Smyrna to Claymont - near Wilmington, Delaware - and that he was very busy. He gave me a good estimate to install a downstairs toilet for my 89 yr. Old mother who can no longer use the stairs. He seemed nice and knowledgable.
The estimate was $1500 for the job - I knew the toilet was $800 so he asked for $1100 up front to buy the materials - the unit and pipes. The other $400 he would collect upon completion. My mother wrote him a check for $1100. Our contract was verbal plus the written check. He then answered my phone calls saying he was doing research for the best unit (it was expensive as it is an "upflushing toilet" and new technology - I knew it was around $800 for the unit) and he had ordered it. Then my mother fell and went into the hospital. I notified him - he answered my call - and was sympathetic.
Upon our return from the hospital about two weeks later (now it had been about a month since he cashed her check) he wouldn't return phone calls for over a week. He finally called after calling every day and he apologized with several excuses for not calling. At this point, my mother and I wanted to cancel the whole thing because he was proving himself unreliable and untrustworthy. I told him we would like to cancel and get a refund. He said that was fine. It has been another two weeks and we can't get him to return phone calls again. So far, I have filed with Better Business and this site.
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